The Evolution Of Hockey - The Early Years aka 1900's-1960's
During the early years of the NHL the pace was somewhat ponderous and slow. It was hard to keep anyone's attention due to the myriad of factors that slowed down play; slushy ice, pucks going over the boards, world wars and short daylight hours. The NHL survived these lean years due to the fanaticism of the fans who insisted that hockey was a great game and that the hockey arena was a place where men of all types could wear fedoras and scarves and not look like some douche bag hipster. Games were broadcast by radio across Canada so that people could have something to do on Saturday nights other than stare into their fireplaces and curse winter while eating ice cream. Hockey was a blue collar form of employment where the players endured horrible meals, horrible transportation and made less than minimum wage for the benefit of their wealthy owners. It was often considered the Golden Years of the NHL by the owners. There were very few trades during this time; most players played their whole careers for one of the six teams in the league; the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadians, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Boston Bruins. These teams are referred to as the Original Six and you can't go wrong stating any of these are your favourite teams. Except Toronto, then everybody else will just laugh at you when you go to the pisser. When not playing hockey back in the old days, men would return to their Prairie farms and ranches and tend to cattle and wheat and breed other hockey players. At one time, there were six Sutter brothers playing in the NHL; the seventh one had to stay home to run the family farm because that was the way it was back then. Eventually, the buzz of playing would wear off and players would find themselves still broke and sore while having the value of a used bag of pucks after retirement.