1 : National Hockey League
2 : History
2.1 : NHL seasons
3 : Trophies and awards
4 : Organisation
4.1 : NHL teams (in their current incarnation)
4.1.1 : Eastern Conference
4.1.2 : Western Conference
4.2 : Structure
4.3 : Presidents/Commissioners of the NHL
5 : See also
6 : External Links
: 'NHL can also denote Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma''
The National Hockey League''' is a professional sports organization composed of ice hockey teams in Canada and the United States.
History
The National Hockey League, as it exists today, was formed on November 26, 1917 after a meeting between representatives of the National Hockey Association in Montreal's Windsor Hotel. The owners of the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas decided to form a new league in order to exclude Edward J. Livingston, owner of the NHA Toronto Blueshirts franchise from being involved in their future hockey operations.
From then until the 1930s the league was successful, expanding to the United States and getting as many as fourteen teams. The Great Depression killed off all but six teams. These six teams are now known as the Original Six and the time from then until 1967 is known as the Original Six era.
The league doubled in size in 1967 admitting six new teams, and has been steadily expanding since then. In the 1970s the league faced stiff competition form the World Hockey Association, but this league eventually folded and four of its teams joined the NHL.
The 1990s saw another period of expansion as the league spread to the American south in an attempt to attract nationwide attention.
NHL seasons
Trophies and awards
The National Hockey League also presents numerous trophies, in addition to the Stanley Cup for the overall playoff champion as well as the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl and the Prince of Wales Trophy for the conference playoff champions. They include:
The O'Brien Trophy was awarded in the NHL before it was retired following the 1949-50 NHL season.
The Lester Patrick Trophy has been presented by the National Hockey League since 1966 to honour a recipient's contribution to hockey in the United States.
Three years after retirement, players are eligible to be voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. If a player is deemed important enough, however, the waiting period can be waived. This has been done 10 times.
Organisation
NHL teams (in their current incarnation)
Eastern Conference
Western Conference
Structure
Each team in the NHL regular season plays 82 games, 41 home and 41 on the road. Teams play teams from the other conference usually once or twice, teams in the same conference, but a different division three or four times, and teams in the same division five or six times. Two points are awarded for wins, one point for ties, one point for losing in overtime, and zero points for a loss. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in their division is crowned the division champions, and the division champions, along with the five teams from each conference with the most points but did not win the division (wild-card teams), qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs is an elimination tournament, where two teams battle in a best-of-seven series (named as four wins are needed to advance, and thus at most seven games are needed to determine a series winner) in order to advance to the next round. Unlike the regular season, there are no ties, with another period of overtime played should an overtime fail to reach a decision. Overtimes are also full periods of twenty minutes (of five-on-five hockey), rather than the five minutes (of four-on-four hockey) of the regular season. The higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-ice advantage, and first, second, fifth, and seventh games of the series is played in that team's home venue.
In each conference, the division winners are seeded one through three and the wild-card teams are seeded four through eight based on their regular-season point totals. In the event of a tie in points in the standings, ties are broken first by amount of wins, then by record against the team that is tied, then goals for and goals againt that team. The first round of the playoffs consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth. At the conclusion first round, the teams in each conference are reseeded as before, with the top remaining seed playing against the fourth remaining seed, and the second remaining seed playing against the third remaining seed. In the next round, the Conference Finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the winners playing against in the Stanley Cup Finals for hockey's Holy Grail.
Presidents/Commissioners of the NHL
See also
External Links
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