Skate Through This Quiz on the History of Hockey

Wayne Gretzky is known as the “Great One,” holding 61 different NHL records, including most goals, assists, points, and the longest scoring streak. But the best rookie scoring season belongs to Teemu Selänne. In the 1992-93 season, this Finnish superstar scored 76 goals for the Winnipeg Jets, crushing the previous record of 53 goals set by Mike Bossy in 1977. Today, many consider the record unbreakable.

In hockey, a team is only as good as its goalie. So if Martin Brodeur happened to be between the pipes, you were a playoff contender. Throughout his 22 seasons in the league (1991 to 2015), Brodeur won 691 games — 140 more than the second-place contender. Most of those games were with the New Jersey Devils, including three Stanley Cup championships.

The NHL’s early years from 1917 to 1942 are known as the Original Six era. While various teams formed and folded during these years, the six that stuck were the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, and Montreal Canadiens. The teams remained constant for 25 years until six expansion teams were added in 1967. The NHL now has 32 teams after adding the Seattle Kraken in 2021.

Legend has it that the first hockey pucks batted around on icy lakes in Canada were made from frozen cow dung, though there’s no evidence of a recorded game using this kind of yuck puck. Luckily, the idea didn’t stick. With modern slapshots reaching upwards of 110 mph, it’s unlikely frozen poop (or goalies) could hold up to such abuse.

The Jersey Devil is a spooky folktale that dates back to U.S. colonial times, about a mysterious creature that terrorizes the Pine Barrens of South Jersey . Most versions of the tale describe a fearsome devil with a horse’s head, long hooved legs, and bat wings. After moving from Colorado to New Jersey for the 1982-83 seasons, the New Jersey Devils adopted the legend as their namesake.

Established in 1909 — eight years before the NHL’s first season — the Montreal Canadiens are the oldest still-active NHL franchise. The team’s accolades don’t stop there, though. The Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cup championships — the most of any team by a long shot. The Toronto Maple Leafs, in second place, have won just 13.

“Quack, quack, QUACK!” In Disney’s “The Mighty Ducks,” a down-on-their-luck youth hockey team devises an unstoppable play that cuts through the opposing team’s defense with ease. In reality, the play wouldn’t work, as a professional team’s forechecking would demolish such a setup. However, hockey scholars believe that an inverted Flying V could be an effective strategy.

At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, the Soviet Union was the heavy favorite to win the ice hockey gold — until the U.S. came along. While the Soviet bench had several professional players, the U.S. team was made up of mostly amateurs. The Americans stunned the world by beating the USSR 4-3 — a victory made more poignant by the tensions of the Cold War. The U.S. team went on to beat Finland to win gold.

Between each period of every professional hockey game, a hulking machine resurfaces the ice, smoothing out all the nicks and cuts after 20 minutes of frantic play. "Zamboni" has become the ubiquitous name for ice-resurfacing machines, but it’s actually a company named for the machine’s inventor, Frank Zamboni.

The highest NHL honor is named for Lord Stanley of Preston, Canada’s sixth governor general (1888 to 1893) and an avid hockey fan. Deciding there needed to be an award honoring Canada’s best team, he bought a silver cup in London as a trophy. Lord Stanley wanted to name the accolade the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, but instead it was named after him.