Sports in Canada consist of a wide variety of games. The roots of organized sports in Canada date back to the 1770s, culminating in the development and popularization of the major professional games of ice hockey, lacrosse, basketball, baseball, soccer, football and cricket. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. Golf, baseball, tennis, skiing, ringette, badminton, cricket, volleyball, cycling, swimming, bowling, rugby union, canoeing, curling, squash, and the study of martial arts are widely enjoyed at the youth and amateur levels. Great achievements in Canadian sports are recognized by Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, while the Lou Marsh Trophy is awarded annually to Canada's top athlete by a panel of journalists. There are numerous other Sports Halls of Fame in Canada.
A game of pick-up hockey in progress at Esplande Park in Quebec City.
A lacrosse game between Canada and the United States at the 2008 U-19 World Lacrosse Championship.
The 2016 American League Wild Card Game at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Since 2005, the Toronto Blue Jays are the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball.
The Canadian men's national basketball team playing an exhibition game against the Chinese men's national basketball team.
Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a closed, vulcanized, rubber disc called a "puck" into the other team's goal. Each goal is worth one point. The team which scores the most goals is declared the winner. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, one of whom is the goaltender. Ice hockey is a full contact sport, and is considered to be one of the more physically demanding team sports. It is distinct from field hockey, in which players move a ball around a non-frozen pitch using field hockey sticks.
An ice hockey forward (Bryan Rust of the Pittsburgh Penguins) shoots toward a net defended by a goaltender (Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals).
VTB Arena is an example of an indoor ice hockey arena. The arena is used by HC Dynamo Moscow.
Players from the South Carolina Stingrays perform a line change. A line change is a substitution of an entire line at once.
Scoreboard for a hockey game during the fourth period. If a game is tied at the end of the third period, several leagues and tournaments have teams play additional sudden death overtime periods.
