National Hockey League

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

The National Hockey League or NHL, is the highest-level ice hockey league in the world. It has 30 teams in Canada and the United States. The winner of the league each year wins the Stanley Cup.

The NHL began in 1917. Some of the owners in the National Hockey Association had problems with owner Edward Livingstone, so they got rid of him by creating a new league. There were five teams in 1917:

• Montreal Canadiens
• Montreal Wanderers
• Ottawa Senators
• Quebec Bulldogs
• Toronto Arenas (later St. Patricks, then Maple Leafs)

They played 22 games a year. The Wanderers had to stop playing in the first year because their arena burned down. Over the years some teams died out, and others were created: the Boston Bruins, New York Americans, Montreal Maroons, Hamilton Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Cougars (later Falcons, then Red Wings), and Philadelphia/St. Louis Eagles.

Some teams folded during the Great Depression, so by 1942 there were only six teams:

• Boston Bruins
• Chicago Blackhawks
• Detroit Red Wings
• Montreal Canadiens
• New York Rangers
• Toronto Maple Leafs

There were only these six teams for 25 years, so they became known as the "original six."

By the 1940's, they were playing 50 games a year, but this increased slowly to 80 games by the 1970's. In 1967, the league increased to 12 teams. By 1979 it had 21 teams, and today it has 30. Some of the teams that no longer exist are the Oakland Seals, Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars), Winnipeg Jets (now the Phoenix Coyotes), Kansas City Scouts (which became the Colorado Rockies and are now the New Jersey Devils), Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes), and Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche).

Today they play 82 games a year, plus four rounds of playoffs. The players make a lot of money (many make over a million dollars a year). Because they could make so much money, many Europeans came over to North Amercia to play in the NHL. Today almost all the world's best hockey players are in the NHL.

[edit] Teams in the NHL