1.
Ice hockey
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Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponents net to score points. Ice hockey teams usually consist of six each, one goaltender. A fast-paced, physical sport, ice hockey is most popular in areas of North America, Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada, where the game enjoys immense popularity. In North America, the National Hockey League is the highest level for mens hockey, the Kontinental Hockey League is the highest league in Russia and much of Eastern Europe. The International Ice Hockey Federation is the governing body for international ice hockey. The IIHF manages international tournaments and maintains the IIHF World Ranking, worldwide, there are ice hockey federations in 74 countries. Ice hockey is believed to have evolved from simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th century United Kingdom and these games were brought to North America and several similar winter games using informal rules were developed, such as shinny and ice polo. The contemporary sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada, most notably in Montreal, some characteristics of that game, such as the length of the ice rink and the use of a puck, have been retained to this day. Amateur ice hockey began in the 1880s, and professional ice hockey originated around 1900. The Stanley Cup, emblematic of ice hockey club supremacy, was first awarded in 1893 to recognize the Canadian amateur champion, in international competitions, the national teams of six countries predominate, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Of the 69 medals awarded all-time in mens competition at the Olympics, in the annual Ice Hockey World Championships,177 of 201 medals have been awarded to the six nations. In Russia and the Ukraine, where hockey can also refer to bandy, the name hockey has no clear origin. The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word hockey when he translated the proclamation in 1720, the 1573 Statute of Galway banned a sport called hokie—the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves. A form of this word was thus being used in the 16th century, though much removed from its current usage. According to the Austin Hockey Association, the word derives from the Scots Gaelic puc or the Irish poc. The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his caman or hurley is always called a puck. Stick-and-ball games date back to pre-Christian times, in Europe, these games included the Irish game of hurling, the closely related Scottish game of shinty and versions of field hockey. IJscolf, a game resembling colf on a surface, was popular in the Low Countries between the Middle Ages and the Dutch Golden Age. It was played with a curved bat, a wooden or leather ball
2.
Western Pennsylvania Hockey League
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The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, was a semi-professional ice hockey league founded in 1896 and existing through the 1910s. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the league was the pre-eminent ice hockey league at the time in the United States and it was the first league to openly hire and trade players. In 1895, Pittsburgh officials, constructed the Schenley Park Casino which featured the first artificial ice-making plant in North America, the 1895-96 winter season also saw the first introduction of hockey in the city. On December 30,1895, the Pittsburgh Press made mention of an international hockey. The paper noted that 2,500 to 3,000 fans showed up to watch the game, no score or records were reportedly kept but the paper did note that the team from Queens University outplayed the Pittsburghers, who had never played the game before. The city quickly realized that in order to make money they would need to have more events than just speed skating, family skates and they decided that since hockey was a relatively new game, it could catch on in Pittsburgh. The PAC was managed by Charles S. Miller, who became the leagues president, the league played at the Casino twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday nights. The first big league game was November 17,1896 between Duquesne and PAC, won by Duquesne 2–1. Play continued until December 16, when the Casino rink was destroyed by fire, the league dissolved without a championship. The league would remain dormant until 1899 and the erection of a rink at the Duquesne Gardens. The league was revived with three teams, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, Pittsburgh Duquesne and Western University, the PAC won the leagues first championship. The following season the Pittsburgh Bankers, which was composed entirely of bankers, were admitted to the league, despite the fact that the league could be traced back to 1895, the WPHL wasnt officially started until the 1901-02 season. In 1901, Arthur Sixsmith, a member of the Ottawa Senators, traveled to Pittsburgh. The two men, along with the manager of the Duquesne Gardens, James Wallace Conant, then established the WPHL. By 1902, Sixsmith convinced several Canadian players, including his brother Garnet Sixsmith, to come to Pittsburgh, also in 1901, the Keystone Bicycle Club was admitted to the league, replacing Western University. The Keystones were instrumental in changing the league from amateur to professional, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club repeated as champions, although the Keystones were instantly competitive. In one memorable game occurred during this era, the WPHLs Garnet Sixsmith scored 11 goals in a game at the Duqesne Gardens. The 1901–02 season is considered the first season whereby the league was recognized as professional, the league had three teams in 1901-02, Pittsburgh Bankers, Pittsburgh Athletic Club and the Pittsburgh Keystones
3.
Stanley Cup
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The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoff winner. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to Montreal HC, and subsequent winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games, Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. After a series of mergers and folds, it was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. There are actually three Stanley Cups, the bowl of the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the authenticated Presentation Cup. The NHL has maintained control over both the trophy itself and its associated trademarks. Nevertheless, the NHL does not actually own the trophy, the original bowl was made of silver and is 18.5 centimetres in height and 29 centimetres in diameter. The current Stanley Cup, topped with a copy of the bowl, is made of a silver and nickel alloy, it has a height of 89.54 centimetres. Unlike the trophies awarded by the major professional sports leagues of North America. Originally, the winners kept it until a new champion was crowned, currently, winning teams get the Stanley Cup during the summer and a limited number of days during the season. It is unusual among trophies to include winning members names, every year since 1924, a select portion of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff names are engraved on its bands. However, there is not enough room to include all the players and non-players, initially a new band added each year, though this caused the trophy to grow in size, earning the nickname Stovepipe Cup. In 1958 the modern one-piece Cup was designed with a barrel which could contain 13 winning teams per band. To prevent the Stanley Cup from growing, when the band is full, the oldest band is removed and preserved in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanleys Cup, The Holy Grail, the Stanley Cup is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions, the oldest of which is the celebratory drinking of champagne out of the cup by the winning team. Since the 1914–15 season, the Cup has been won a combined 100 times by 18 active NHL teams, prior to that, the challenge cup was held by nine different teams. The Montreal Canadiens have won the Cup a record 24 times and are the most recent Canadian-based team to win the cup, the Stanley Cup was not awarded in 1919 because of a Spanish flu epidemic, and in 2005, as a consequence of the 2004–05 NHL lockout. After the Lord Stanley of Preston was appointed by Queen Victoria as Governor General of Canada on June 11,1888, he, Stanley was first exposed to the game at Montreals 1889 Winter Carnival, where he saw the Montreal Victorias play the Montreal Hockey Club. The Montreal Gazette reported that he expressed his delight with the game of hockey
4.
Ottawa Senators (original)
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The Ottawa Senators were a professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a member of the National Hockey League. The club, which was officially the Ottawa Hockey Club, was known by nicknames, including the Generals in the 1890s, the Silver Seven from 1903 to 1907. Generally acknowledged by historians as one of the greatest teams of the early days of the sport. Ottawa HC played in the first season during which the Stanley Cup was challenged in 1893, the club repeated its success in the 1920s, winning the Stanley Cup in 1920,1921,1923 and 1927. In total, the won the Stanley Cup eleven times. In 1950, Canadian sports editors selected the Ottawa HC/Senators as Canadas greatest team in the first half of the 20th century. The club competed in the NHL until the 1933–34 season, when it relocated the NHL franchise to St. Louis, Missouri, the organization continued the Senators as an amateur, and later semi-professional, team in Quebec senior mens leagues until 1954. The Ottawa Hockey Club was founded by a group of like-minded hockey enthusiasts. A month after witnessing games of hockey at the 1883 Montreal Winter Carnival, Halder Kirby, Jack Kerr and Frank Jenkins met, being the first organized ice hockey club in Ottawa, and also the first in Ontario, the club had no other clubs to play that season. The only activities that winter were practices at the Royal Rink starting on March 5,1883, the club first participated competitively at the 1884 Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournament wearing red and black uniforms. Future Ottawa mayor Nelson Porter is recorded as the scorer of the clubs first-ever goal, Frank Jenkins was the first captain of the team, he later became the president of the Hockey Club in 1891 and of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in 1892. For the 1885 season, the club adopted gold and blue as its colours, Ottawa earned its first-ever victory at the tournament over the Montreal Victorias, but lost its final match to the Montreal Hockey Club to place second in the tournament. The 1886 Montreal tournament was cancelled due to an outbreak of smallpox, on December 8,1886, the first championship league, the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was founded in Montreal. It was composed of clubs from Montreal plus a Quebec City club. Ottawas Thomas D. Green was named the first president of the league, under the format, Ottawa lost the one challenge it played in that first 1887 season to the Montreal Victorias. After that season, Ottawa HC became inactive, the Royal Rink, which had been their primary facility, had been converted to a roller skating rink, and ice rink facilities were at a shortage. This changed with the opening of the Rideau Skating Rink in February 1889, One of the principal organizers in the restarting of the team was Ottawa Journal publisher P. D. Ross, who also played on the team
5.
History of the National Hockey League
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The history of the National Hockey League begins with the end of its predecessor league, the National Hockey Association, in 1917. The NHLs first quarter-century saw the league compete against two rival major leagues—the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and Western Canada Hockey League—for players and the Stanley Cup, the NHLs footprint spread across Canada as Foster Hewitts radio broadcasts were heard coast-to-coast starting in 1933. The Great Depression and World War II reduced the league to six teams, later known as the Original Six, by 1942. Maurice Richard became the first player to score 50 goals in a season in 1944–45, Gordie Howe made his debut in 1946, and retired 35 seasons later as the NHLs all-time leader in goals and points. China Clipper Larry Kwong becomes the first non-white player in the league, breaking the NHL colour barrier in 1948, Willie ORee broke the NHLs black colour barrier when he suited up for the Bruins in 1958. In 1959, Jacques Plante became the first goaltender to regularly use a mask for protection, the Original Six era ended in 1967 when the NHL doubled in size by adding six new expansion teams. The six existing teams were formed into the newly created East Division, the NHL continued to expand, adding another six teams, to total 18 by 1974. Bobby Hull was the most famous player to defect to the rival league, eventually, Soviet-Bloc players streamed into the NHL with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Since then, the league has grown from 22 teams in 1992 to 31 today as the NHL spread its footprint across the United States, Wayne Gretzky passed Gordie Howe as the NHLs all-time leading scorer in 1994 when he scored his 802nd career goal. Mario Lemieux overcame non-Hodgkin lymphoma to finish his NHL career with over 1,700 points, increased use of defence-focused systems helped cause scoring to fall in the late 1990s, leading some to argue that the NHLs talent pool had been diluted by 1990s expansion. The first attempts to regulate competitive ice hockey came in the late 1880s. Before then, teams competed in tournaments and infrequent challenge contests that prevailed in the Canadian sports world at the time, in 1887, four clubs from Montreal formed the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada and developed a structured schedule. In 1892, Lord Stanley donated the Stanley Cup to be symbolic of the Canadian championship and appointed Philip Dansken Ross and it was awarded to the AHAC champion Montreal Hockey Club and thereafter awarded to the league champions, or to any pre-approved team that won it in a challenge. In 1904, the International Hockey League, based around Lake Michigan, was created as the first fully professional league, in recruiting players, the IHL caused an Athletic War that drained amateur clubs of top players, most noticeably in the Ontario Hockey Association. In the 1905–06 season, the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association was formed, which mixed paid and amateur players in its rosters, bidding wars for players led many ECAHA teams to lose money, and it eventually folded on November 25,1909. As a result of the dissolution of the ECAHA, two leagues were formed—the Canadian Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association. Since the NHAs owners were notable, wealthy businessmen, the CHA did not complete a season, as the NHA easily recruited the top players, and interest in the CHA teams faded. By 1914, the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association league was launched, the National Hockey League came into existence with the suspension of the NHA in 1917
6.
Amateur Hockey Association of Canada
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The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was an amateur mens ice hockey league founded on 8 December 1886, in existence until 1898. It was the ice hockey league organized in Canada, after one in Kingston. It was organized to provide a season to determine the Canadian champion. Prior to its founding the Canadian championship was determined in a tournament in Montreal and it is the first championship ice hockey league. A meeting was called, for those in favor of the formation of a Dominion hockey association, for the evening of 8 December 1886. James Stewart, J. G. Monk, H. A. Budden, E. Sheppard, green of Ottawa had played on the 1883 McGill hockey team. In that age, ice hockey was a different game compared to today. These were defined as, left wing centre right wing rover point coverpoint The left wing, centre and right wing were the forwards, the rover would line up behind the centre, with the point and coverpoint following, in an I formation towards the goaltender. The face offs were at an angle to todays practice. The goaltenders used no special equipment, the goals were two posts, with no crossbar. An umpire would judge the legality of each score, there were no boards along the sides of the ice, and there were no standard dimensions for a rink, although dimensions were instituted for the positioning of the goal out from the ends of the rink. A match was two halves of thirty minutes, sudden-death overtime was also in place, and a match would continue until a goal was scored in the event of a tie after regulation. Players in all positions would normally play the entire 60 minutes, the captains of contesting teams shall agree upon two umpires and a referee. All questions as to games shall be settled by the umpires, all disputes on the ice shall be settled by the referee, and his decision shall be final. The game shall be commenced and renewed by a bully in the centre of the rink, goals, six feet wide and four feet high, which shall be changed after each game, unless otherwise agreed. A player must always be on his own side of the puck, the puck may be stopped, but not carried or knocked on, by any part of the body. No player shall raise his stick above his shoulder, when the puck gets off the ice behind the goals it shall be taken by the referee to five yards at right angles from the goal line and there faced. When the puck goes off the ice at the sides it shall be taken by the referee at five yards at right angles from the boundary line and there faced
7.
Rideau Skating Rink
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The Rideau Skating Rink was an indoor skating and curling facility located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Consisting of a rink and a skating rink, it was one of the first indoor rinks in Canada. The Rideau Rink was scheduled to open on January 10 but unseasonably mild weather postponed the opening to February 1. It opened in January 25,1889 for select V. I. Ps although this was a misunderstanding and it was located on Theodore Street, at Waller Street, at the present location of the Arts Hall of the University of Ottawa, near the Rideau Canal. While it was used for figure skating, skating championships and curling. It was the site of the first recorded organized ice hockey game on March 8,1889. It was also the site of the first Ontario mens ice hockey game on March 7,1891. Skating was popular in the 1880s in Ottawa, ottawans would skate on the Rideau and Ottawa rivers and the Rideau Canal, and at covered rinks such as the Royal and Deys Rink. As in Montreal, costume skating carnivals were highlights of the social scene, by 1887, the Royal Rink had been converted into a roller rink and the demand for ice time on the Deys Rink was greater than the rink could supply. Due to the lack of ice time available, the Ottawa Hockey Club became dormant, local investors, together with the Capital Skating Club decided to build a new rink, finer than Montreals Victoria Skating Rink. The new rink was also to be used for curling, so the enterprise known as the Rideau Skating and Curling Club. The project was sponsored by Lord Stanley, the Governor-General, who shares in the project. The rink had separate skating and curling surfaces, and was out in an L plan, with one entrance on Theodore. The entrance on Theodore had a cupola, the roof was supported by 42-foot high arches. The construction was not without incident and the building collapsed in a windstorm on November 16,1888. Lord Stanley participated in its formal opening festivities on February 1,1889, the Rideau Rink hosted a small version of a Winter Carnival on its opening night which was a huge success. The 43rd band under the direction of James Carter, band master, organized ice hockey activities began with a game on February 14,1889, played between members of the Ottawa and Rideau social clubs. James Creighton captained the Rideau team and P. D. Ross captained the Ottawa team, the next day Ross and Creighton would officiate at a match between civilian and military teams
8.
Montreal Shamrocks
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The Montreal Shamrocks were an amateur, later professional, and then amateur again mens ice hockey club in existence from 1886 to 1924. They were spun off from the Montreal Shamrocks lacrosse club, the club eventually went professional and played one season in the National Hockey Association, the predecessor of todays National Hockey League. Afterwards, with the cost of professionalism being too expensive, the team reverted to an amateur club and their greatest success came when they won back to back Stanley Cups at the turn of the century in 1899 and 1900. The Shamrocks were founded on December 15,1886 at a meeting of the Shamrock Lacrosse Club to organize an ice hockey club, the Shamrock Lacrosse Club of Montreal predated the hockey team by twenty years, founded in 1867 by J. B. L. Flynn. Both teams were under the name of the Shamrock Amateur Athletic Association of Montreal. After these challenges the club went into dormancy, but in 1895 the SAAA purchased the Montreal Crystals hockey club and merged them into the Shamrocks, the newly revived Montreal Shamrocks hockey club then replaced the Crystals midway through the AHACs 1895 season. After this, the club began competing in season based play. Following the retirement of its stars, including Hall of Famers Harry Trihey and Arthur Farrell and they were eventually done in as a professional entity around 1910 by the growth of professionalisation in hockey. In 1911/12, the club was reactivated and returned to their roots by joining the Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union. In 1912/13, they joined the Montreal City Hockey League and they played in that league until 1924 when the Shamrocks finally folded. Outside of the senior team, the Montreal Shamrocks had two lower tier teams. First was a team that played from 1896 through 1912. From 1896 to 1898 they played in the Intermediate Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, then, from 1899 to 1912, they played in the Intermediate Canadian Amateur Hockey league. There was also a team that played from 1902 through 1916. In 1902 they played in the Junior Montreal Hockey League, in 1903 they played in the Independent Junior League. From 1904 to 1908, they played in the Junior Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, the team became dormant in 1909 but returned in 1915. They would fold after the 1916 season, many of the players on the Stanley Cup–winning teams of 1899–1901 went on to study at McGill University, and entered into the citys bourgeois professional ranks as doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. Mr. Trihey also had problems recruiting in Quebec and Ireland following the GPO Rising in Dublin at Easter 1916, the Trail of the Stanley Cup
9.
Montreal Hockey Club
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The Montreal Hockey Club of Montreal, Canada was a senior-level mens amateur ice hockey club, organized in 1884. They were affiliated with Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and used the MAAA winged wheel logo, the team was the first to win the Stanley Cup, in 1893, and subsequently refused the cup over a dispute with the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. The club is known as Montreals, Montreal AAA and Winged wheel in literature. The team played in several early ice hockey leagues, including the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada from 1886 until 1898, the team competed in purely amateur leagues until 1906. After two seasons of playing with professionals, the left its league, the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association to continue playing in amateur competition. It would go on to win the Allan Cup in 1930, in 1932, the club would leave the MAAA association and become the Montreal Royals, eventually becoming a semi-professional team in the Quebec Senior Hockey League. Prior to the Clubs formal organization, a group of enthusiasts from the Montreal Football Club would play as the Montreal Hockey Club. The group was captained by James Creighton before he moved to Ottawa, the Club was organized formally as an affiliate of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association on November 28,1884. The first president of the team was Thomas Fraser and the first team was composed of T. L. Paton in goal, Fred M. Larmonth, point, W. D. Aird, coverpoint, W. C. Hodgson, D. McIntyre, R. F. Smith and F. W Barlow, several of the players were members of the Montreal Lacrosse Club. The team played its first game on January 20,1885 against McGill University, the club would be a founding member of the Montreal-based Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in 1886. The team held the Amateur Hockey Association title from 1888 until 1894, after the AHAC disbanded in 1898, the club continued in the Canadian Amateur Hockey League, winning the league title in 1902. The Stanley Cup, as it would later be known, was to be presented to the Montreal Hockey Club on May 15,1893, at the time, the Montreal Hockey Club was in a dispute with its parent organization, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. The MAAA was split on whether to accept the trophy, the hockey club was adamant about refusing the trophy, while other arms of the MAAA accepted. Thus, the trophy was accepted by the MAAA, but with none of the officials of the hockey club present. After accepting the trophy, the club remained adamant about returning the trophy that was presented to them. In the end, the MAAA investigated into why its hockey club wanted to refuse and return the trophy, inexplicably, the hockey club reversed its position, and the next few months saw a gradual schism between the MAAA and the club. The inscription on the Cup when it was defended in 1894 only stated Montreal
10.
Canadian Amateur Hockey League
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The league existed for seven seasons, folding in 1905 and was itself replaced by the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. Formed because of a dispute between teams of the AHAC, it developed the sport in its transition to professional. The CAHL itself would fold over a dispute, leading to the new ECAHA league, the annual meeting of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was held in Montreal on December 10,1898, and was reported as a cataclysm in the hockey world. At the previous meeting, the application of the Ottawa Capitals to join was declined. In 1898, the Capitals had won the championship and applied again for AHAC membership. The AHAC executive then voted in favor of admitting the Capitals for league membership and this led to the representatives of the Quebec, Montreal Victorias and Ottawa clubs opting to withdraw from the association. The representative of the Montreal Hockey Club asked the group to reconsider but was declined, the withdrawing teams then met at the Windsor Hotel the same day. A representative of the McGill University also attended on the possibility that McGill would join, on December 14, the group met again and organized the CAHL, adding also the Montreal Shamrocks and not McGill. The new league adopted the constitution of the AHAC. Proposed by the Quebec team, a rope was used to connect the tops of the goal posts. Attached to the rope and the posts was netting in a pocket, nets had been in use for the goals in lacrosse and ice polo. The nets became a permanent part of the CAHL rinks after a series in 1899. The league would stay with the five teams until the 1904 season. During the season, Ottawa withdrew from the league in a dispute with the league, the league continued its schedule with the remaining four teams. The following season, the league admitted the Montreal Le National and Montreal Westmount clubs in place of Ottawa, which joined the Federal Amateur Hockey League. It would be the season of the league, as in the off-season the Montreal Wanderers and Ottawa would form the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. † Stanley Cup winner ‡ Ottawa resigned February 8,1904, Federal Amateur Hockey League List of Stanley Cup champions List of pre-NHL seasons List of ice hockey leagues
11.
National Hockey Association
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The National Hockey Association, officially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the predecessor to todays National Hockey League. Founded in 1909 by Ambrose OBrien, the NHA introduced six-man hockey by removing the rover position in 1911, during its lifetime, the league coped with competition for players with the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the enlistment of players for World War I and disagreements between owners. The disagreements between owners came to a head in 1917, when the NHA suspended operations in order to get rid of an unwanted owner. The remaining NHA team owners started the NHL in parallel as a measure, to continue play while negotiations went on with Livingstone. A year later, after no progress was reached with Livingstone, the NHAs rules, constitution and trophies were continued in the NHL. In November 1909, the Eastern Canada Hockey Association, holder of the Stanley Cup, the Montreal Wanderers team of the ECHA had been bought by P. J. Doran, owner of the Jubilee Rink in Montreal and he intended to move the teams games there. The Jubilee was smaller than the Wanderers current rink, the Montreal Arena which meant visiting teams would earn less on their trips to play the Wanderers. On November 25,1909, the teams in the league disbanded the ECHA and formed the new Canadian Hockey Association. The team had applied to the Stanley Cup trustees as champions of the Federal League, at the November 25 CHA founding meeting, held at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, OBrien applied to join the CHA but the application was rejected. Sitting in the lobby of the hotel after the CHA meeting, OBrien met Jimmy Gardner of the Wanderers, together, they decided to form their own league, the National Hockey Association. At the same time, to build a rivalry and capture francophone interest in Montreal, OBrien and Gardner conceived of creating a team consisting of francophone players, to be managed by francophones. In all, OBrien and his father, Michael John OBrien, were financing four teams in the league, the Renfrew Creamery Kings, Cobalt, Haileybury, the Cobalt and Haileybury clubs were from the Timiskaming Professional Hockey League and Renfrew from the Federal Hockey League. Along with the Wanderers, the league had five teams, the OBriens were determined to win the Stanley Cup and a bidding war for players immediately started. Frank Patrick and Lester Patrick were each signed by the Renfrew Millionaires for $3,000 apiece, Renfrew also signed star player Cyclone Taylor of the champion Ottawa Senators team, reputedly at $5,000 per season. Attendance at the CHA games was poor and a meeting of the NHA was held on January 15,1910 to discuss a merger of the two leagues. Instead, the NHA admitted Ottawa and the Montreal Shamrocks to the NHA, the owners of the Montreal Le National were offered the ownership of the Canadiens but turned it down. The Quebec Bulldogs and the teams of the CHA were not even considered for membership
12.
Crystal Palace (Montreal)
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It was used for temporary exhibitions, and in winter, housed an ice skating rink. The building was designed by Montreal architect John William Hopkins and it had an iron framework, a tinned barrel-vaulted nave and two galleries, each twenty feet wide, extending all the way around the interior. Its design was inspired by The Crystal Palace in London and its main facades were of iron and glass. Its side walls were of brick with rose-coloured contrast, with the iron. Its bays were subdivided by three arches, with only the centre arch glazed, constructed in 20-foot modules, the Crystal Palace was intended to be 180 x 200 feet, but was constructed with shorter transepts, reducing its dimensions to 180 x 120 feet. The Industrial Exhibition displayed agricultural and industrial products from the then British North America, as part of the exhibition the Art Association of Montreal, the future Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, organized a display of Canadian art. The Prince of Wales visited Montreal that year and officially opened the exhibition, the large open space of the exhibition hall was suitable for other uses. In later years, the hall would house an ice skating rink in the winter. The skating rink was used by McGill University students to ice hockey. In 1878 it was dismantled and moved to Fletchers Field, part of which is now known as Jeanne-Mance Park, in July 1896, the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire, as Londons original Crystal Palace would be. The site of the Crystal Palace, between Mont-Royal Avenue and Saint-Joseph Boulevard, was developed for housing a few years after the fire, the original downtown location later was home to the Palace Theatre, a movie house, and today contains an alley named Ruelle Palace. See photographs at the McCord Museum website, exterior 1881 ice hockey photograph
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