Fun Facts About Hockey

Some sports are synonymous with certain times of year, and that certainly goes for hockey and wintertime. Perhaps because it’s played on ice, hockey seems the perfect sport for cold winter days.

With hockey season in full swing, now is the perfect time to consider some fun facts about this beloved sport.

•Wayne Gretzky, dubbed “the Great One” during his playing days, is the all-time leading scorer in National Hockey League history with 2,857 career points. There’s no shortage of testaments to Gretzky’s greatness, but one might be especially notable. Gretzky would be the all-time leading scorer in NHL history even if he had never scored a goal. Gretzky’s 1,963 career assists are the most all-time, and enough to give him more points than the NHL’s secondleading scorer, Jaromir Jagr, who amassed 1,921 career points over 1,733 games played.

•Though he won’t catch Gretzky in career points, current Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is on the Great One’s heels in regard to goals scored. Gretzky’s 894 career goals are the most in NHL history, but Ovechkin, who at press time had 868 goals to his credit, could surpass that total sometime in 2025 or 2026.

•The NHL notes that the modern game is nothing like the game that was played on December 19, 1917, when the league took the ice for the first time. Among the many different rules governing the game in 1917 was one prohibiting the forward pass. Another peculiar rule that separated the 1917 game from its modern incarnation was that goaltenders served their own penalties in the early days of the NHL. When a goaltender committed a penalty, teams had to utilize a defenseman or a forward to mind the net.

•Hockey is wildly popular in Canada, but the United States has produced its fair share of rabid fans and talented players as well. Brett Hull has scored more goals than any American player in NHL history. Hull, who retired in 2005 and was actually born in Ontario, Canada, is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States and played for Team USA in international competitions from 1986 onward. Hull also spent his early life in Illinois, where his legendary father, Bobby, played for the Chicago Blackhawks. When the younger Hull called it a career in 2005, he did so with 741 goals to his name.

•NHL playoff games are known for being especially tense affairs, but one game might have the rest of them beat in terms of tension. The longest playoff game in NHL history was a low-scoring affair. The game was a matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Maroons on March 24, 1936. When Red Wings right wing Mud Bruneteau scored 16:30 into the sixth overtime, he gave his team a 1-0 victory and put an end to a game that lasted 176 minutes and 30 seconds.

•Pucks have an interesting, and some might even say gross, history. Theories abound regarding the first hockey puck and the materials it may or may not have been made from, but the Kingston, Ontariobased Original Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum notes that the first organized hockey game in Kingston featured a puck fashioned out of a rubber lacrosse ball. Additional sources suggest the first hockey puck might have been made from materials that included frozen cow dung.

Hockey has a rich and interesting history. Winter marks the perfect time to get acquainted with some of the more notable events and developments in this popular sport.