History has sufficient evidence of good evolving out of evil. In more moderate terms, great things are achieved out of strife and struggle. The resultant is usually way beyond expectations. NHL or the National Hockey League is one such example. It is defined as a sports organization made up of professional ice hockey teams in North America.
With roots in the strife that enveloped NHA or the Canadian National Hockey Association and the other team owners, the National Hockey League was born in 1917. The founding teams were the Wanderers, Senators, Canadians, and the Toronto Arenas, now known as the Maple Leafs. In spite of the struggle that the league faced in the first decade of its existence to stay in business, the teams ripped apart other teams on the ice, mercilessly. Only once in 1925, another league got the chance to win the Stanley Cup. At other times, it was the NHL all the way.
Due to its Canadian origin, Canadians have historically formed the majority of players in the NHL. However, with the steady expansion of the NHL hockey games, the number of American and other European players in the NHL has steadily risen. This led to the improvement in quality of the NHL Hockey League.
Today, with expertise from America, Canada and Europe, the NHL is the world's premier ice hockey league in the professional arena. It has also been recognized as one of the major professional sports leagues in North America. When NHL began, it had only five teams. With time, NHL witnessed expansions, fall-outs and relocations and is finally composed of 30 teams, 24 of them are American and 6 Canadian. Nevertheless, many of the league's players on the 2005-06 rosters are Canada born.
The Depression in the 1930's and the World War II saw a drastic fall in the number of teams in the NHL league. By 1942, the number of teams reduced to six. They were - Montreal Canadians, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers. These teams are still referred to as the Original Six. For the next 25 years, these were the only teams in the NHL.
The National Hockey League is divided into two distinct seasons. The Regular season begins on the first Wednesday of October and continues through the beginning of April. The Playoffs season begins from April and continues till June. The latter is an elimination tournament where two teams pour heat on ice to win the best-of-seven series. The final team becomes the owner of the Stanley Cup.
Swati Banerjee is the owner of Writing Ink, a web content management firm based out of India. Please take a minute to visit http://www.writing-ink.com to experience how the bright young minds here make magic with words!
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