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The National Hockey League (NHL) (French: Ligue nationale de hockey (LNH)) is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 teams in North America. It is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the North American major professional sports leagues. The NHL is divided into two fifteen-team conferences, each of which consists of three five-team divisions.
The league was founded in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with four teams, and through a series of expansions, contractions and relocations, the league is now composed of 30 teams, 24 of which are based in the United States and six in Canada. After a labour dispute that led to the cancellation of the complete 2004-05 season, the league has staged a successful comeback, including revenue and profit growth.
Because the sport originated in Canada, Canadians have historically constituted a large majority of the players in the NHL. Over the past 25 years, the percentages of American and European players have increased because of the NHL's continued expansion into the United States, its high standard of play compared to other leagues, and the availability of highly skilled European players. Nevertheless, more than half of the league's players on the 2005-06 roster were born in Canada.
After a series of disputes in the Canadian National Hockey Association (NHA) between Eddie Livingstone, owner of the Toronto Blue Shirts and the owners of other teams, the owners of the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, and Quebec Bulldogs met at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal to talk about the NHA's future. Their discussions eventually led to the creation of the National Hockey League in 1917; the founding teams were the Canadiens, Wanderers and Senators. A Toronto franchise, because of the dispute, was given temporarily to the Toronto Arena Corp to operate, and is often referred to as the Arenas, though they operated without a nickname.
Even though the league struggled to stay in business during its first decade, the NHL's teams were very successful on the ice; only once, in 1925, did a team from any other league win the Stanley Cup, and by 1926 the NHL was the only league competing for the Cup. The NHL then started a process of expansion: the Boston Bruins (the first U.S.-based NHL franchise) and Montreal Maroons entered the league in 1924-25; the New York Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates entered in the 1925–26 season; and the New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks (now spelled Blackhawks), and Detroit Cougars (now known as the Red Wings) entered in the 1926-27 season, raising the number of teams in the NHL to ten. The Great Depression and the onset of World War II, took a toll on the league, and by 1942 the NHL was reduced to six teams. These six teams (the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers) are collectively known as the Original Six, and for the next quarter-century were the only teams in the National Hockey League.
By the mid 1960s, the desire for a network television contract in the U.S., and concerns that the Western Hockey League was planning to declare itself a major league and challenge for the Stanley Cup, spurred the NHL to undertake its first expansion since the 1920s. Six new teams were added to the NHL roster in 1967, and placed in their own newly-created division. The teams were the Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Oakland Seals, and Pittsburgh Penguins. Three years later, the NHL added the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres.
In 1972, the World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed, and though it never challenged for the Stanley Cup, its status as a potential rival to the NHL did not go unnoticed. In response, the NHL decided to rush its own expansion plans by adding the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames (which soon became the Calgary Flames) in 1972 to forestall WHA franchises in newly constructed arenas in those markets, followed by the addition of the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals two years later. The two leagues fought for the rights of players and fans until the WHA folded in 1979 as part of an agreement whereby four of the remaining six WHA teams would enter the NHL as expansion teams: the Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes, 1997-present), Québec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche, 1996-present), Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets (now the Phoenix Coyotes, 1996-present).
After a period of stability in the 1980s, the NHL further expanded with nine new franchises in ten years. The San Jose Sharks entered in 1991; a season later the Ottawa Senators would return to the NHL along with the addition of the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 1993, the league added two additional teams, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Florida Panthers. Next came the Nashville Predators in 1998, the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999, and then the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2000, bringing the total to 30 teams.
Each National Hockey League regulation game is an ice hockey game played between two teams and is 60 minutes long. The game is composed of three 20-minute periods with an intermission of either 15 or 17 minutes (if nationally televised) between periods. Television timeouts are taken at the first stoppage of play after 6, 10, and 14 minutes of elapsed time unless there is a power play or the first stoppage is the result of a goal. In these cases the timeout will occur at the first stoppage after the penalty expires or the second stoppage after the goal. At the end of the 60 minute regulation time, the team with the most goals wins the game. If a game is tied after regulation time, overtime ensues. During the regular season, overtime is a five-minute, four-player on four-player sudden-death period, in which the first team to score a goal wins the game. Until the 2005–06 season, if no team was able to score in the 5 minute overtime, the game ended in a tie.
Beginning in 2005-06, if the game is still tied at the end of overtime, the game enters a shootout. Three players for each team in turn take a penalty shot. The team with the most goals during the three round shootout wins the game. If the game is still tied after the three shootout rounds, the shootout continues, but becomes sudden death. Whichever team ultimately wins the shootout is awarded a goal in the game score and thus awarded two points in the standings. The losing team in overtime or shootout is awarded only one. Shootout goals and saves are not tracked in hockey statistics; shootout statistics are tracked separately.
Shootouts do not occur during the playoffs. In the playoffs, sudden-death 20-minute five-on-five periods are played until one team scores. While a game could theoretically continue forever, only four games have reached five overtime periods, two have reached six, and none have gone beyond six
The National Hockey League originated in 1917 with four teams, and through a sequence of team expansions, reductions, and relocations currently consists of 30 teams, 24 of which are based in the United States and six in Canada. The Montreal Canadiens are the most successful franchise with 24 Stanley Cup championships; in the four major North American professional sports leagues the Montreal Canadiens are only surpassed in the number of championships by the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, who have two more. The next most successful franchise is the Toronto Maple Leafs with 13 Stanley Cups, but they have not won a championship since 1967. The Detroit Red Wings, with ten Stanley Cups, is the most successful American franchise. The longest streak of winning the Stanley Cup in consecutive years is five, held by the Montreal Canadiens from 1955-56 to 1959-60; the New York Islanders (1980-1983) and the Montreal Canadiens (1976-1979) have four-year championship streaks. The 1977 edition of the Montreal Canadiens, the second of four straight Stanley Cup champions, was named by ESPN as the second greatest sports team of all-time.
Of all the major leagues in North America, the NHL is the only league to field teams that play in two countries' capital cities, Ottawa and Washington, D.C.
The current league organization divides the teams into two conferences. Each conference has three divisions, and each division has five teams. The current organization has roots in the 1998-99 season where a league realignment added two divisions to bring the total number of divisions to six; the current team alignment began with the 2000-2001 season when the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets joined the league as expansion teams.
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