Olympic Ice Hockey
Until the mid-1980s it was generally accepted that ice hockey derived from English field hockey and Indian lacrosse and was spread throughout Canada by British soldiers in the mid-1800s. Research then turned up mention of a hockey-like game, played in the early 1800s in Nova Scotia by the Micmac Indians, which appeared to have been heavily influenced by the Irish game of hurling; it included the use of a "hurley" (stick) and a square wooden block instead of a ball. It was probably fundamentally this game that spread throughout Canada via Scottish and Irish immigrants and the British army.
The players adopted elements of field hockey, such as the "bully" (later the face-off) and "shinning" (hitting one's opponent on the shins with the stick or playing with the stick on one "shin" or side); this evolved into an informal ice game later known as shinny or shinty. The name hockey--as the organized game came to be known--has been attributed to the French word hoquet (shepherd's stick).
The term rink, referring to the playing area, was originally used in the game of curling in 18th-century Scotland. Early hockey games allowed as many as 30 players a side on the ice, and the goals were two stones, each frozen into one end of the ice. The first use of a puck instead of a ball was recorded at Kingston Harbour, Ont., in 1860
Rules were set by students at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, in 1879, and several amateur clubs and leagues were established in Canada by the late 1880´s. The game is believed to have been first played in the United States in 1893. By the beginning of the 20th century the sport had spread to Great Britain and other parts of Europe. The modern game developed in Canada, and nowadays is very popular in North America and East Europe.
The NHL is the most important league in the world; this National Hockey League comprises teams from the United States and Canada, but for many years almost all NHL players were natives of Canada. The winner team of this competition is awarded the Stanley Cup trophy. Ice Hockey was added to the Olympic Games in 1920, being one of the most popular events at the Winter Olympics