Ice hockey first started in Canada, where people skated on frozen ponds and used pieces of wood as hockey sticks. Factual evidence from the United Hockey League’s website states, “In the 1850’s, the first logged games of ice hockey were played, and in the 1870’s, the first set of ice hockey rules were written by a group of students at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. These rules set up the use of a puck replacing a ball and decided the number of players to be nine per team.”

The next step to ice hockey becoming an official game, was organizing a league. The league started in Canada and quickly became popular. In 1839 the league debuted in the United States. A trophy was awarded to the top hockey team that season and presented by the Governor of Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston. From that point on the name of the trophy was decided to be called The Stanley Cup.

Equipment in hockey has evolved drastically since the game begun. There was once a time where players wore no face, leg, or arm protection. Even goalies did not wear a mask to protect their face from being hit with the puck from a shot on goal. Nowadays, a player’s body is protected from head to toe with helmets, shoulder pads, elbow pads, pants, shin guards and skates. Equipment is fitted to one’s body size and is designed for the player to be agile.

Clint Benedict was the first person to ever wear a leather mask. He shortly after stopped wearing it because it obstructed his vision. In the year 1959 the face mask was seen again, it being worn by a goalie named Jacques Plante. According to Skoda, a magazine about hockey and the stories behind it, “On November 1, 1959, the goaltender of the Montreal Canadians was hit by a powerful shot in the face, in a game against the New York Rangers, that wounded his cheek and nose. After being stitched up, Plante took out his self-designed fiberglass mask.” Plante was the reason why there is now the acceptance of masks in ice hockey.

The wooden stick quickly went out of fashion when aluminum sticks were made in the 1980s. According to Skoda magazine, “Players are using sticks made of high-tech composite materials such as titanium or kevlar and skates form-fit to their feet. Pucks are made of a mix of rubber and other chemicals, and are often shot at over 140 kilometers per hour.” The new sticks were not nearly as heavy to hold as the wooden sticks had been, which made shooting the pucks easier, resulting in a faster and harder shots.

The game of ice hockey has been around for a long time and has greatly developed from what it was to what it has become today.