A trophy every winner takes home for a day
The Stanley Cup, the trophy of North America's professional league, is one of the oldest in sport. It was bought in 1892 by Lord Stanley, the Governor General of Canada, for about ten pounds. The names of the winning players are engraved on it, so it has grown taller over the years by adding bands, and old bands are removed and kept in a hall of fame when it gets too big.
Each player on the winning team is allowed to spend a day with the cup. It has been taken to hometowns, schools, hospitals and lakes, used as a bowl for cereal, and at least once left by the side of a road. Our North American countries page covers the countries where the sport is most popular.
Why the puck is frozen
A PUCK is a flat disc of hard rubber about 2.5 centimetres thick. Before a game, pucks are kept frozen, because a cold puck bounces less and slides more smoothly across the ice. Several are used in each game as they warm up.
The ice is kept smooth by a ZAMBONI, the resurfacing machine invented in 1949 by Frank Zamboni, who ran an ice rink in California. It shaves the surface, collects the snow, washes the ice and lays down a thin layer of warm water that freezes to glass. The name has become the word most fans use for any ice resurfacer.
A goalie who changed the mask
For decades, ice hockey goalkeepers played without face masks. In 1959 Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens was hit in the face by a shot that broke his nose. He went back on the ice only after putting on a mask he had been using in practice, and he kept wearing it. Within a few years masks were normal for every GOALIE, and today every player wears a HELMET.
The game is one of the fastest in team sport. A SLAPSHOT can travel at more than 160 kilometres an hour, and a WRIST SHOT is quicker to release. When a player scores three goals in one game — a HAT TRICK — fans traditionally throw their hats onto the ice.
Rules on the ice
The RINK has a BLUE LINE at each end marking each team's zone, and the OFFSIDE rule stops attackers entering before the puck. ICING is when a team shoots the puck the whole length of the rink from its own half without anyone touching it, and play is stopped. The CREASE is the area in front of the NET where the goalie stands.
Every restart begins with a FACEOFF, the referee dropping the puck between two players' STICK blades. A game has three PERIOD sections of twenty minutes each. A player who breaks the rules serves a PENALTY in the penalty box, giving the other team a POWER PLAY. Players may CHECK an opponent with the body, an ASSIST is the pass before a goal, and every player must SKATE forwards and backwards equally well. Good DEFENSE wins championships.