NHL is ... NHL: decoding, players, history

Any hockey player born and raised in Russia would like to play in the NHL. Despite the fact that the NHL is a North American association of hockey players, why do players from all over the world go to its sites so much? What is the NHL? This is more than just the national championship of Canada.

After all, Canada - even more than the homeland of hockey. This is a country in which hockey is a national religion, and the NHL is a temple in this religion. Therefore, all professional players in ice hockey are so eager for the NHL to become part of this temple. Many people have been dreaming about it since childhood, but not everyone succeeds. So what is the NHL, which has more than a century of history and is the goal of pilgrimage for many hockey players?

What is NHL: history

If we talk about the history of the league, then its beginning was rather modest. In the first year of its existence (1917), only three teams appeared in the championship, and they represented Canadian cities. A little later, in the mid-twenties of the twentieth century, the American teams joined the championship. After that, it was possible to say with certainty that the NHL is the North American hockey league.

For a long time this championship was quite a non-profitable project, especially in the thirties, during the Great Depression. Some teams even ceased to exist. The revival of the league took place after the Second World War, when it once again expanded. And to date, the NHL - this is thirty teams taking part in the championship.

Organization of the NHL Championship

Scheme organization of the championship was proposed in the twenties of the last century. The NHL matches are held in a two-stage system. In the beginning, a regular championship is held, and then the Stanley Cup is played . This form has survived in the league from those ancient times to our days. Over a century of history, the NHL players played this cup in various matches and with different rivals. Of course, mostly it was teams from the NHL, but there were years when the rallies were going on with the teams of other hockey leagues. In today's North American hockey, the Stanley Cup is the final stage of the league championship and it's played only by the teams of this hockey league.

It is interesting that today all thirty teams playing NHL matches are divided into two conferences. Although it was not always so, but a few years ago it was this distribution of teams that was approved by the NHL and agreed with the hockey union, which plays a significant role in organizing the championship. These conferences divided teams in the championship on a territorial basis, as if having drawn a line of demarcation from north to south. One conference was called Western, and the second - Eastern.

The conferences themselves also have an internal division into divisions. There are currently two such divisions at each conference. So, the Western Conference is divided into Central and Pacific divisions. And the Eastern Conference has in its composition the Capital and Atlantic divisions. Although the teams, despite their belonging to a particular division, play each with each, but the points are taken into account separately for the conference and for the division.

In the future, the three best teams of each division fall into the final stage of the playoffs, and two more teams get from each conference on points scored. And these teams play the Stanley Cup.

Representatives of Russia in the National Hockey League

Hockey players representing the NHL (the deciphering of this abbreviation sounds like "National Hockey League"), gathered, we can say, from around the world. It was in the beginning of its history that it was only Canadian hockey players, gradually they were joined by US athletes, and after the famous 1972 series hockey players of the USSR and then Russia started to appear. Currently, quite a lot of Russian hockey players are in favor of the teams of this league. Even in the composition of the winner of the annual tournament of all stars, in the team of the Capital Division, there were three representatives of Russia.

The future of the National Hockey League

Lately, much has been said about the future of this hockey league. The NHL matches with pleasure are watched by hockey fans in different countries of the world. Starting next year, there will be an expansion of the league in favor of the team from Las Vegas. This expansion will happen already from the next season. In addition, on the waiting list there is another team that would like to participate in this championship.