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What is National Hockey League?
National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league composed of total 30 member clubs; 7 from Canada and 23 from the United States. It was founded on 26th November, 1917, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is headquartered in New York City, New York, United States. The teams play for the annual Stanley Cup, which is one of the oldest sporting trophies of America. The teams play in a playoff to win the trophy.
History of NHL – The early years
In the year 1909 the National Hockey Association was found in Canada and the Ice Hockey became professional with only 4 Canadian teams that were allowed to play in the tournament. Later in the year 1917 the structure was re-organized in Montreal and NHL took birth. The tournament remained ‘Canada alone’ until Boston Bruins became the first US team to participate in 1924. Since then more and more teams were included and now it is a strong league of 30 teams. Although NHL is being overwhelmingly dominated by Canadians and Americans, we have seen an increase in the number of European players since 1967.
Issues in NHL
It is not that everything in the NHL went smoothly all these years. The entire 2004-2005 had to be cancelled because of a labor dispute occurred. Then a new collective agreement happened in which a salary cap clause was also included and since 2009, NHL is on the rise in terms of attendance, television rights and sponsorship.
Media Partners
CBC, NHL Network, RDS, TSN are the Television Partners of Canada and NBC Sports, NHL Network are the partners for the US. Outside Canada and the United States, the NHL games are broadcast across Europe and Australia. The live telecast of game is also available on nhl.com for people outside Canada and the United States.
