The Origin Story Of Hockey After 1910
The first European Championship was held in 1910 though it was the team from the UK that won the game. The same year Montreal’s National Hockey Association was founded. The NHA is recognised as the association which refined the rules of the game, such as:
• Dividing the game into three twenty-minute times each.
• Eliminating the seventh man on the track, the rover.
• Creating the minor and major penalty.
In 1917, the association was re-organised and renamed to National Hockey League or NHL. It was seven years later that the game moved to the United States.
The milestone in ice hockey came in 1920 when the game was incorporated in Antwerp’s Summer Games. In 1924, during the first Winter Games to be ever held, ice hockey was included in the program and played at Chamonix.
Currently, there are many national championships:
• Switzerland, which was the first one.
• Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League
• Czech Republic’s Extraliga Czech Republic
• Finnish SM-liiga
• Swedish Elitserien
The NHL alone has added many franchises. They started with six founding teams in 1967, which later turned to 12. Today, there are 30 teams.

The Hockey Hall Of Fame And Women’s Ice Hockey Movement
It was created in Toronto in 1943. By 2010, it had over 350 members inducted. Besides players, referees, coaches and general managers also made the cut.
While women’s ice hockey has been played for some time, its growth became apparent only as the 20th Century came to an end. The first Women’s World Ice Hockey Championship happened in 1990. Eight years later, it was introduced during the Winter Olympic Games of Nagano.
Right now, ice hockey has reached a popularity that those shepherd of 17th Century would have never imagined even in 100 years!