Hockey is an exciting sport that is known all over the world. The popular game has a huge number of fans, followers and professionals who regularly perform and take part in world-class competitions and tournaments. Hockey has also been able to generate a large number of athletes, coaches, commentators, who are distinguished by their skill and level of professionalism. Hockey is a treasure that has a huge and varied history, which is difficult to describe in one article. We want to mention the most interesting fun facts about hockey and recall the funny moments associated with this game.
1. Hockey is one of the most popular sports in the world,
Along with football, basketball and cricket. Hockey is actively played in Europe, North America and Western Asia.
2. For obvious reasons, hockey is most popular in the northern countries with a cold climate, whose teams are among the strongest in the world. Teams from Canada, the USA and Russia often act as the main leaders of the hockey arena.
3. Hockey is one of the most favorite sports among the audience. For all its brutality, the game has managed to capture the hearts of a huge number of fans and become one of the most spectacular sports in the world.
4. Perhaps there are no boys who did not play hockey at least in childhood, and many watched it from the side. Hockey battles are always interesting to watch. Any confrontation on the ice is absolutely unpredictable, and accurate and technical goals cause ecstasy in thousands of spectators.
5. The first professional hockey team was formed in Canada in 1904. At the same time, hockey players switched to a new game system – “six by six”. The standard size of the site was established – 56 x 26 meters, which has changed little since then.
6. Hockey is considered one of the oldest sports. For more than 100 years people have been playing this wonderful game, for more than 100 years people have been rooting for their favorite teams.
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7. The first hockey match took place on March 3, 1875 in Montreal at the Victoria rink, as reported in the local newspaper Montreal Gazette. This event almost immediately attracted a huge amount of attention.
8. Despite the fact that the founders of hockey are Canadians,
the World Championship was not held in Canada until 2008. This fact confirms the unpredictability of hockey – anyone can win, everyone has a chance.
9. The founding date of the National Hockey League (NHL) is 1917. Now the National League is considered the most prestigious and rich in hockey.
10. The net on the gate appeared thanks to the fisherman and hockey enthusiast Francis Nel Non. He did this so that there would be no disputes: did the puck hit the goal or not? The design of the hockey goal also has its own interesting history.
11. The hockey puck is made of vulcanized rubber and weighs 200 grams. Interestingly, before the start of the game, it is frozen so that it does not spring.
12. In the early years of the existence of modern hockey, pucks were made of wood, or rather, for the first 4 years (1875-1879), a wooden puck was used to play hockey.
13. It is also striking that the first hockey pucks were square. Hockey players did not immediately come to a more familiar form.
14. A puck sent with a strong hand can accelerate to 193 km / h. It was the incredible Bobby Hull who was able to break absolutely all the records of big sport, dispersing a hockey puck to 193 km / h with his powerful click. Also, experts say that the athlete could make a throw with a maximum puck speed of 169 km / h, using hand technique.
15. According to data provided by the Detroit Free Press, 68% of professional players have lost at least one tooth on the hockey field.
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16. The first hockey mask was used by the goalkeeper from Japan,
Tanaka Hoima. This happened in 1936 in Berlin. The invention was not immediately accepted by the masses, many goalkeepers believed that wearing a mask is a sign of fear and a lack of professionalism in a goalkeeper.
17. To react to a puck released from a distance of 18.3 meters from the goalkeeper, he has no more than 0.45 seconds, given the speed at which the pucks fly. That is why the mask soon became a mandatory element of goalkeeper protection, and the number of injuries decreased significantly. You can learn about the evolution of the hockey goalie mask on our website .
18. Only in 1904, the number of players in the hockey team was six people, before that each team had nine players at first, and then seven.
19. In 1886, a code of hockey laws was drawn up, each team consisted of 7 field players. Substitutions were only allowed for the injured. The teams consisted of a goalkeeper, front and back defenders, a central and two wingers, as well as a rover (“robber”), who played ahead of the attackers along the entire front at the opponent’s goal.
20. According to records, Boston’s George Owen donned a safety helmet for the first time in 1928, and Craig McTavish played hockey without one for the final time in 1997. These days, it is impossible to skate without a helmet; in our article, you can read more about the development of this safety device and the key information related to it.
21. The great football goalkeeper Lev Yashin also played hockey. The uniqueness of the athlete is also in the fact that he became the owner of cups in both of these sports. He played hockey excellently – as a hockey goalkeeper, he won the USSR Cup and a number of other prestigious awards. Yashin was invited to the Soviet hockey team, but he refused, deciding to devote himself to football.
22. The use of the sports term “hat-trick” (from the English “hat” – hat) came from the custom in the game of cricket. The bottom line was that if a player successfully dropped the ball three times, then he was awarded a brand new hat.
23. In ice hockey, the concept of a “natural hat-trick” is used – this is when a player scored three goals in one match in a row (that is, no one else scored between his goals).
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24. After a player performs a hat-trick (especially revered in the National Hockey League), fans throw hats on the ice – most often these are caps, although hat lovers can also part with their wardrobe items, especially since it will fly further.
25. The fastest hat-trick in hockey dates back to 1952,
when on the last day of the NHL regular season, Bill Mosienko, forward of the Chicago Blackhawks, scored three goals in 21 seconds in the 3rd period of a game with the New York Rangers. In the end, this helped his team win with a score of 7:6, and Mosienko himself is still the author of the fastest hat-trick in the history of hockey.
26. The national team of the Soviet Union, which took part in the 1954 World Cup, inflicted its first opponent, represented by the Canadian team, with a match score of 7: 2. The confrontation between the USSR and Canada is also well tracked in the 1972 super series , which we have already written about in detail.
27. In 1893, the Governor General of Canada, Lord Frederick Arthur Stanley, bought in London for 10 guineas ($48.67) a cup that looked like an inverted pyramid of silver rings as a hockey prize.
28. The prize was originally awarded to the best amateur team in Canada. This is how the legendary trophy appeared – the Stanley Cup. At first, amateurs fought for it, and since 1910 – professionals. Since 1927, only teams in the National Hockey League have competed for the Stanley Cup.
29. Until 1917, goalkeepers were forbidden to fall on the ice, including in order to catch the puck. This action was punished with a small fine.
30. Most hockey players are pretty superstitious. A special feature of John Maddin is the change of laces at the end of each period and at the end of training. He is sure that this brings him success.
31. Many hockey players grow mustaches and beards, as they consider shaving a bad omen.
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32. There are several versions of the origin of the word “Hockey”.
The first says that the word came from the word “Hoki”, which meant a harvest festival, after which it was customary to play a team game with curved sticks.
33. Another version says that hockey “went” from the Indian word “Hogi”, since the Indians under this name meant a similar game.
34. The most common version says that the word “Hockey” comes from the French word “hoquet”, which translates as “shepherd’s staff.”
35. In 1993, Russia won the Ice Hockey World Championship for the first time. This was the first victory of the new team on the world hockey arena after the legendary exploits of Soviet athletes.
36. Later, Russia could not win the World Ice Hockey Championship for fifteen years, or rather, until May 18, 2008.
37. In 1971, the famous sports song “A coward does not play hockey” was written by Soviet poets Sergei Grebennikov and Nikolai Dobronravov to the music of Alexandra Pakhmutova. This song was first performed by Eduard Khil.
38. In ice hockey, there are only two goalkeeping schools – butterfly and stand-up. Styles often need to be changed depending on how the game is going. That is why the goalkeeper’s task is to learn not only to competently protect the goal of his team, but also to understand how to do it most effectively by choosing the necessary technique.
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39. Hockey club fans from Detroit throw frozen octopuses into the arena after each goal scored – a strange tradition that arose in those days when it was enough for a team to win the Stanley Cup to win 8 victories.
40. Each player on the Stanley Cup team can spend one day with the trophy. Some athletes take showers with awards, others eat popcorn from a cup, others sleep with it, and two hockey players even christened their children in a sports trophy.
41. At age 19, in the 1979-80 season, Wayne Gretzky
became the youngest player in NHL history to score 50 or more goals and 100 or more points in a season. And also the youngest player to be recognized as the “Most Valuable Player of the League”.
42. It is difficult to slide on thick ice. The thickness of the ice for playing hockey is from 7.6 centimeters. But the optimal ice thickness for hockey should not exceed 10 centimeters.
43. In addition to ordinary hockey, there are underwater and even under-ice varieties of this game. In underwater hockey, players have to throw a puck sinking into the water into the opponent’s goal, while underwater hockey players are not equipped with scuba gear – they just hold their breath.
44. In the under-ice version of hockey, the puck moves along the surface of the ice, but not from the outside, but from the inside of the reservoir.
45. Officially, the biggest score in ice hockey is 92:0. It happened in the match between South Korea and Thailand in 1987. South Korean team forward Dongwan Song scored 31 goals. It is noteworthy that the gates of the Thais were hit every 39 seconds on average.
46. The chief referee differs from the linemen by the presence of orange stripes on the sleeves.
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47. Previously, before the game, the puck was always carefully placed on the ice, but due to the frequent injuries of referees since 1914, it was decided to drop the puck on the ice.
48. The fastest goal in NHL history was scored in the 5th second by Canadian forward Brian Trottier of the New York Aidenders against Boston in 1984. Speed in hockey plays a key role. Moreover, we are talking about the speed of movement around the site, the speed of passes, the speed of repelling attacks and the speed of effective attacks.
49. Later, this record was duplicated by our hockey player Alexander Mogilny in 1991, when he played for Buffalo.
50. And the Russian championship record is 6 seconds. This puck belongs to Alexander Radulov, which he launched into the Yugra goal.
Conclusion
Hockey is an exciting game where you can see absolutely everything. An incredible score at the end of the match, an interesting team uniform, colorful hockey masks, tall and short athletes and many other interesting things. The history of big sport is regularly updated with new moments and facts, which are not only interesting to learn, but also very useful. You yourself can become a witness of a legendary event or a funny moment by watching professional sports live at matches or through TV broadcasts. Hockey is interesting, and interesting hockey is also important for the history of big sport.