document_title: Money supply

question_text: what are the components of the m2 money supply

question_tokens: what are the components of the m2 money supply

text: Money supply

text: Empirical measures in the United States Federal Reserve System[edit]

text: Money is used as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and as a ready store of value. Its different functions are associated with different empirical measures of the money supply. There is no single "correct" measure of the money supply. Instead, there are several measures, classified along a spectrum or continuum between narrow and broad monetary aggregates. Narrow measures include only the most liquid assets, the ones most easily used to spend (currency, checkable deposits). Broader measures add less liquid types of assets (certificates of deposit, etc.).

text: This continuum corresponds to the way that different types of money are more or less controlled by monetary policy. Narrow measures include those more directly affected and controlled by monetary policy, whereas broader measures are less closely related to monetary-policy actions.[6] It is a matter of perennial debate as to whether narrower or broader versions of the money supply have a more predictable link to nominal GDP.

text: The different types of money are typically classified as "M"s. The "M"s usually range from M0 (narrowest) to M3 (broadest) but which "M"s are actually focused on in policy formulation depends on the country's central bank. The typical layout for each of the "M"s is as follows:

text:
Type of money
M0
MB
M1
M2
M3
MZM

Notes and coins in circulation (outside Federal Reserve Banks and the vaults of depository institutions) (currency)
✓[8]
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

Notes and coins in bank vaults (vault cash)

✓

Federal Reserve Bank credit (required reserves and excess reserves not physically present in banks)

✓

Traveler's checks of non-bank issuers

✓
✓
✓
✓

Demand deposits

✓
✓
✓
✓

Other checkable deposits (OCDs), which consist primarily of negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts at depository institutions and credit union share draft accounts.

✓[9]
✓
✓
✓

Savings deposits

✓
✓
✓

Time deposits less than $100,000 and money-market deposit accounts for individuals

✓
✓

Large time deposits, institutional money market funds, short-term repurchase and other larger liquid assets[10]

✓

All money market funds

✓

text:
M0: In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, M0 includes bank reserves, so M0 is referred to as the monetary base, or narrow money.[11]
MB: is referred to as the monetary base or total currency.[8] This is the base from which other forms of money (like checking deposits, listed below) are created and is traditionally the most liquid measure of the money supply.[12]
M1: Bank reserves are not included in M1.
M2: Represents M1 and "close substitutes" for M1.[13] M2 is a broader classification of money than M1. M2 is a key economic indicator used to forecast inflation.[14]
M3: M2 plus large and long-term deposits. Since 2006, M3 is no longer published by the US central bank.[15] However, there are still estimates produced by various private institutions.
MZM: Money with zero maturity. It measures the supply of financial assets redeemable at par on demand. Velocity of MZM is historically a relatively accurate predictor of inflation.[16][17][18]

text: The ratio of a pair of these measures, most often M2 / M0, is called an (actual, empirical) money multiplier.

text: Fractional-reserve banking[edit]

text: The different forms of money in government money supply statistics arise from the practice of fractional-reserve banking. Whenever a bank gives out a loan in a fractional-reserve banking system, a new sum of money is created. This new type of money is what makes up the non-M0 components in the M1-M3 statistics. In short, there are two types of money in a fractional-reserve banking system:[19][20]

text:
central bank money (obligations of a central bank, including currency and central bank depository accounts)
commercial bank money (obligations of commercial banks, including checking accounts and savings accounts)

text: In the money supply statistics, central bank money is MB while the commercial bank money is divided up into the M1-M3 components. Generally, the types of commercial bank money that tend to be valued at lower amounts are classified in the narrow category of M1 while the types of commercial bank money that tend to exist in larger amounts are categorized in M2 and M3, with M3 having the largest.

text: In the United States, a bank's reserves consist of U.S. currency held by the bank (also known as "vault cash"[21]) plus the bank's balances in Federal Reserve accounts.[22][23] For this purpose, paper currency on hand and balances in Fed accounts are interchangeable (both are obligations of the Fed). Reserves may come from any source, including the federal funds market, deposits by the public, and borrowing from the Fed itself.[24]

text: A reserve requirement is a ratio a bank must maintain between deposit liabilities and reserves.[25] Reserve requirements do not apply to the amount of money a bank may lend out. The ratio that applies to bank lending is its capital requirement.[26]

text: Example[edit]

text: Note: The examples apply when read in sequential order.

text:
Laura has ten US $100 bills, representing $1000 in the M0 supply for the United States. (MB = $1000, M0 = $1000, M1 = $1000, M2 = $1000)
Laura burns one of her $100 bills. The US M0, and her personal net worth, just decreased by $100. (MB = $900, M0 = $900, M1 = $900, M2 = $900)

text:
Laura takes the remaining nine bills and deposits them in her transactional account (checking account or current account by country) at her bank. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $900, M2 = $900)
The bank then calculates its reserve using the minimum reserve percentage given by the Fed and loans the extra money. If the minimum reserve is 10%, this means $90 will remain in the bank's reserve. The remaining $810 can only be used by the bank as credit, by lending money, but until that happens it will be part of the bank's excess reserves.
The M1 money supply increases by $810 when the loan is made. M1 money is created. (MB = $900 M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
Laura writes a check for $400, check number 7771. The total M1 money supply didn't change, it includes the $400 check and the $500 left in her account. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
Laura's check number 7771 is accidentally destroyed in the laundry. M1 and her checking account do not change, because the check is never cashed. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
Laura writes check number 7772 for $100 to her friend Alice, and Alice deposits it into her checking account. MB does not change, it still has $900 in it, Alice's $100 and Laura's $800. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
The bank lends Mandy the $810 credit that it has created. Mandy deposits the money in a checking account at another bank. The other bank must keep $81 as a reserve and has $729 available for loans. This creates a promise-to-pay money from a previous promise-to-pay, thus the M1 money supply is now inflated by $729. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $2439, M2 = $2439)
Mandy's bank now lends the money to someone else who deposits it on a checking account on yet another bank, who again stores 10% as reserve and has 90% available for loans. This process repeats itself at the next bank and at the next bank and so on, until the money in the reserves backs up an M1 money supply of $9000, which is 10 times the MB money. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $9000, M2 = $9000)

text: Laura writes check number 7774 for $1000 and brings it to the bank to start a Money Market account (these do not have a credit-creating charter), M1 goes down by $1000, but M2 stays the same. This is because M2 includes the Money Market account in addition to all money counted in M1.

text: Foreign Exchange

text:
Laura writes check number 7776 for $200 and brings it downtown to a foreign exchange bank teller at Credit Suisse to convert it to British pounds. On this particular day, the exchange rate is exactly USD 2.00 = GBP 1.00. The bank Credit Suisse takes her $200 check, and gives her two £50 notes (and charges her a dollar for the service fee). Meanwhile, at the Credit Suisse branch office in Hong Kong, a customer named Huang has £100 and wants $200, and the bank does that trade (charging him an extra £.50 for the service fee). US M0 still has the $900, although Huang now has $200 of it. The £50 notes with which Laura walks off are part of Britain's M0 money supply that came from Huang.
The next day, Credit Suisse finds it has an excess of GB pounds and a shortage of US dollars, determined by adding up all the branch offices' supplies. It sells some of its GBP on the open FX market to Deutsche Bank, which has the opposite problem. The exchange rate stays the same.
The day after that, both Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank find they have too many GBP and not enough USD, along with other traders. Then, to move their inventories, they have to sell GBP at USD 1.999, that is, 1/10-cent less than $2 per pound, and the exchange rate shifts. None of these banks has the power to increase or decrease the British M0 or the American M0 (unless they burn bills); they are independent systems.

text: Money supplies around the world[edit]

text: United States [edit]

text: The Federal Reserve previously published data on three monetary aggregates, but on November 10, 2005 announced that as of March 23, 2006 it would cease publication of M3.[15] Since the spring of 2006 the Federal Reserve has only published data on two of these aggregates. The first, M1, is made up of types of money commonly used for payment, basically currency outside banks and checking account balances. The second, M2, includes M1 plus balances that generally are similar to transaction accounts and that, for the most part, can be converted fairly readily to M1 with little or no loss of principal. The M2 measure is thought to be held primarily by households. As mentioned, the third aggregate, M3 is no longer published. Prior to this discontinuation, M3 had included M2 plus certain accounts that are held by entities other than individuals and are issued by banks and thrift institutions to augment M2-type balances in meeting credit demands; it had also included balances in money market mutual funds held by institutional investors. The aggregates have had different roles in monetary policy as their reliability as guides has changed. The following details their principal components:[28]

text:
M0: The total of all physical currency including coinage. M0 = Federal Reserve Notes + US Notes + Coins. It is not relevant whether the currency is held inside or outside of the private banking system as reserves.
MB: The total of all physical currency plus Federal Reserve Deposits (special deposits that only banks can have at the Fed). MB = Coins + US Notes + Federal Reserve Notes + Federal Reserve Deposits
M1: The total amount of M0 (cash/coin) outside of the private banking system plus the amount of demand deposits, travelers checks and other checkable deposits
M2: M1 + most savings accounts, money market accounts, retail money market mutual funds, and small denomination time deposits (certificates of deposit of under $100,000).
MZM: 'Money Zero Maturity' is one of the most popular aggregates in use by the Fed because its velocity has historically been the most accurate predictor of inflation. It is M2 – time deposits + money market funds
M3: M2 + all other CDs (large time deposits, institutional money market mutual fund balances), deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements.
M4-: M3 + Commercial Paper
M4: M4- + T-Bills (or M3 + Commercial Paper + T-Bills)
L: The broadest measure of liquidity, that the Federal Reserve no longer tracks. L is very close to M4 + Bankers' Acceptance
Money Multiplier: M1 / MB. As of December 3, 2015 it was .756.[29] While a multiplier under one is historically an oddity, this is a reflection of the popularity of M2 over M1 and the massive amount of MB the government has created since 2008.

text: Although the Treasury can and does hold cash and a special deposit account at the Fed (fed funds), these assets do not count in any of the aggregates. So in essence, money paid in taxes paid to the Federal Government (Treasury) is excluded from the money supply. To counter this, the government created the Treasury Tax and Loan (TT&L) program in which any receipts above a certain threshold are redeposited in private banks. The idea is that tax receipts won't decrease the amount of reserves in the banking system. The TT&L accounts, while demand deposits, do not count toward M1 or any other aggregate either.

text: When the Federal Reserve announced in 2005 that they would cease publishing M3 statistics in March 2006, they explained that M3 did not convey any additional information about economic activity compared to M2, and thus, "has not played a role in the monetary policy process for many years." Therefore, the costs to collect M3 data outweighed the benefits the data provided.[15] Some politicians have spoken out against the Federal Reserve's decision to cease publishing M3 statistics and have urged the U.S. Congress to take steps requiring the Federal Reserve to do so. Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) claimed that "M3 is the best description of how quickly the Fed is creating new money and credit. Common sense tells us that a government central bank creating new money out of thin air depreciates the value of each dollar in circulation."[30] Modern Monetary Theory disagrees. It holds that money creation in a free-floating fiat currency regime such as the U.S. will not lead to significant inflation unless the economy is approaching full employment and full capacity. Some of the data used to calculate M3 are still collected and published on a regular basis.[15] Current alternate sources of M3 data are available from the private sector.[31]

text: As of April 2013, the monetary base was $3 trillion[32] and M2, the broadest measure of money supply, was $10.5 trillion.[33]

text: United Kingdom[edit]

text: There are just two official UK measures. M0 is referred to as the "wide monetary base" or "narrow money" and M4 is referred to as "broad money" or simply "the money supply".

text:
M0: Cash outside Bank of England + banks' operational deposits with Bank of England. (No longer published.)
M4: Cash outside banks (i.e. in circulation with the public and non-bank firms) + private-sector retail bank and building society deposits + private-sector wholesale bank and building society deposits and certificates of deposit.[34] In 2010 the total money supply (M4) measure in the UK was £2.2 trillion while the actual notes and coins in circulation totalled only £47 billion, 2.1% of the actual money supply.[35]

text: There are several different definitions of money supply to reflect the differing stores of money. Owing to the nature of bank deposits, especially time-restricted savings account deposits, M4 represents the most illiquid measure of money. M0, by contrast, is the most liquid measure of the money supply.

text: Eurozone[edit]

text: The European Central Bank's definition of euro area monetary aggregates:[36]

text:
M1: Currency in circulation + overnight deposits
M2: M1 + deposits with an agreed maturity up to 2 years + deposits redeemable at a period of notice up to 3 months.
M3: M2 + repurchase agreements + money market fund (MMF) shares/units + debt securities up to 2 years

text: Australia[edit]

text: The Reserve Bank of Australia defines the monetary aggregates as:[37]

text:
M1: currency plus bank current deposits from the private non-bank sector
M3: M1 + all other bank deposits from the private non-bank sector, plus bank certificate of deposits, less inter-bank deposits
Broad Money: M3 + borrowings from the private sector by NBFIs, less the latter's holdings of currency and bank deposits
Money Base: holdings of notes and coins by the private sector plus deposits of banks with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and other RBA liabilities to the private non-bank sector

text: New Zealand[edit]

text: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand defines the monetary aggregates as:[38]

text:
M1: notes and coins held by the public plus chequeable deposits, minus inter-institutional chequeable deposits, and minus central government deposits
M2: M1 + all non-M1 call funding (call funding includes overnight money and funding on terms that can of right be broken without break penalties) minus inter-institutional non-M1 call funding
M3: the broadest monetary aggregate. It represents all New Zealand dollar funding of M3 institutions and any Reserve Bank repos with non-M3 institutions. M3 consists of notes & coin held by the public plus NZ dollar funding minus inter-M3 institutional claims and minus central government deposits

text: India[edit]

text: The Reserve Bank of India defines the monetary aggregates as:[39]

text:
Reserve Money (M0): Currency in circulation + Bankers' deposits with the RBI + 'Other' deposits with the RBI = Net RBI credit to the Government + RBI credit to the commercial sector + RBI's claims on banks + RBI's net foreign assets + Government's currency liabilities to the public – RBI's net non-monetary liabilities. M0 outstanding was ₹14.75 trillion in August 2017.
M1: Currency with the public + Deposit money of the public (Demand deposits with the banking system + 'Other' deposits with the RBI). M1 was 184 per cent of M0 in August 2017.
M2: M1 + Savings deposits with Post office savings banks. M2 was 879 per cent of M0 in August 2017.
M3: (Broad concept of money supply)M1+ Time deposits with the banking system = Net bank credit to the Government + Bank credit to the commercial sector + Net foreign exchange assets of the banking sector + Government's currency liabilities to the public – Net non-monetary liabilities of the banking sector (Other than Time Deposits). M3 was 880 per cent of M0 in August 2017.
M4: M3 + All deposits with post office savings banks (excluding National Savings Certificates).

text: Hong Kong[edit]

text: In 1967, when sterling was devalued, the dollar's peg to the pound was increased from 1 shilling 3 pence to 1 shilling 4½ pence (14.5455 dollars = 1 pound) although this did not entirely offset the devaluation. In 1972 the Hong Kong dollar was pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 5.65 H.K. dollar = 1 U.S. dollar. This was revised to 5.085 H.K. dollar = 1 U.S. dollar in 1973. Between 1974 and 1983 the Hong Kong dollar floated. On 17 October 1983 the currency was pegged at a rate of 7.8 H.K. dollar = 1 U.S. dollar, through the currency board system.

text: As of 18 May 2005, in addition to the lower guaranteed limit, a new upper guaranteed limit was set for the Hong Kong dollar at 7.75 to the American dollar. The lower limit was lowered from 7.80 to 7.85 (by 100 pips per week from 23 May to 20 June 2005). The Hong Kong Monetary Authority indicated that this move was to narrow the gap between the interest rates in Hong Kong and those of the United States. A further aim of allowing the Hong Kong dollar to trade in a range is to avoid the HK dollar being used as a proxy for speculative bets on a renminbi revaluation.

text: The Hong Kong Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration provides that Hong Kong retains full autonomy with respect to currency issuance. Currency in Hong Kong is issued by the government and three local banks under the supervision of the territory's de facto central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Bank notes are printed by Hong Kong Note Printing.

text: A bank can issue a Hong Kong dollar only if it has the equivalent exchange in US dollars on deposit. The currency board system ensures that Hong Kong's entire monetary base is backed with US dollars at the linked exchange rate. The resources for the backing are kept in Hong Kong's exchange fund, which is among the largest official reserves in the world. Hong Kong also has huge deposits of US dollars, with official foreign currency reserves of 331.3 billion USD as of September 2014[update].[40]

text: Japan[edit]

text: The Bank of Japan defines the monetary aggregates as:[41]

text:
M1: cash currency in circulation + deposit money
M2 + CDs: M1 + quasi-money + CDs
M3 + CDs: (M2 + CDs) + deposits of post offices + other savings and deposits with financial institutions + money trusts
Broadly defined liquidity: (M3 + CDs) + money market + pecuniary trusts other than money trusts + investment trusts + bank debentures + commercial paper issued by financial institutions + repurchase agreements and securities lending with cash collateral + government bonds + foreign bonds

text: Link with inflation[edit]

text: Monetary exchange equation[edit]

text: The money supply is important because it is linked to inflation by the equation of exchange in an equation proposed by Irving Fisher in 1911:[42]

text: where

text:
M

{\displaystyle M}

 is the total dollars in the nation's money supply,

V

{\displaystyle V}

 is the number of times per year each dollar is spent (velocity of money),

P

{\displaystyle P}

 is the average price of all the goods and services sold during the year,

Q

{\displaystyle Q}

 is the quantity of assets, goods and services sold during the year.

text: In mathematical terms, this equation is an identity which is true by definition rather than describing economic behavior. That is, velocity is defined by the values of the other three variables. Unlike the other terms, the velocity of money has no independent measure and can only be estimated by dividing PQ by M. Some adherents of the quantity theory of money assume that the velocity of money is stable and predictable, being determined mostly by financial institutions. If that assumption is valid then changes in M can be used to predict changes in PQ. If not, then a model of V is required in order for the equation of exchange to be useful as a macroeconomics model or as a predictor of prices.

text: Most macroeconomists replace the equation of exchange with equations for the demand for money which describe more regular and predictable economic behavior. However, predictability (or the lack thereof) of the velocity of money is equivalent to predictability (or the lack thereof) of the demand for money (since in equilibrium real money demand is simply Q/V). Either way, this unpredictability made policy-makers at the Federal Reserve rely less on the money supply in steering the U.S.economy. Instead, the policy focus has shifted to interest rates such as the fed funds rate.

text: In practice, macroeconomists almost always use real GDP to define Q, omitting the role of all transactions except for those involving newly produced goods and services (i.e., consumption goods, investment goods, government-purchased goods, and exports). But the original quantity theory of money did not follow this practice: PQ was the monetary value of all new transactions, whether of real goods and services or of paper assets.

text: The monetary value of assets, goods, and services sold during the year could be grossly estimated using nominal GDP back in the 1960s. This is not the case anymore because of the dramatic rise of the number of financial transactions relative to that of real transactions up until 2008. That is, the total value of transactions (including purchases of paper assets) rose relative to nominal GDP (which excludes those purchases).

text: Ignoring the effects of monetary growth on real purchases and velocity, this suggests that the growth of the money supply may cause different kinds of inflation at different times. For example, rises in the U.S. money supplies between the 1970s and the present encouraged first a rise in the inflation rate for newly produced goods and services ("inflation" as usually defined) in the ‘70’s and then asset-price inflation in later decades: it may have encouraged a stock market boom in the '80s and '90s and then, after 2001, a rise in home prices, i.e., the famous housing bubble. This story, of course, assumes that the amounts of money were the causes of these different types of inflation rather than being endogenous results of the economy's dynamics.

text: When home prices went down, the Federal Reserve kept its loose monetary policy and lowered interest rates; the attempt to slow price declines in one asset class, e.g. real estate, may well have caused prices in other asset classes to rise, e.g. commodities.[citation needed]

text: Rates of growth[edit]

text: In terms of percentage changes (to a close approximation, under low growth rates),[43] the percentage change in a product, say XY, is equal to the sum of the percentage changes %ΔX + %ΔY). So, denoting all percentage changes as per unit of time,

text: This equation rearranged gives the basic inflation identity:

text: Inflation (%ΔP) is equal to the rate of money growth (%ΔM), plus the change in velocity (%ΔV), minus the rate of output growth (%ΔQ).[44] So if in the long run the growth rate of velocity and the growth rate of real GDP are exogenous constants (the former being dictated by changes in payment institutions and the latter dictated by the growth in the economy’s productive capacity), then the monetary growth rate and the inflation rate differ from each other by a fixed constant.

text: As before, this equation is only useful if %ΔV follows regular behavior. It also loses usefulness if the central bank lacks control over %ΔM.

text: Bank reserves at central bank[edit]

text: The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (June 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: When a central bank is "easing", it triggers an increase in money supply by purchasing government securities on the open market thus increasing available funds for private banks to lend out through fractional-reserve banking (the issue of new money through loans) and thus the amount of bank reserves and the monetary base rise. By purchasing government bonds (e.g., U.S. Treasury bills), this bids up their prices, so that interest rates fall at the same time that the monetary base increases.

text: With "easy money," the central bank creates new bank reserves (in the US known as "federal funds"), which allow the banks to lend more. These loans get spent, and the proceeds get deposited at other banks. Whatever is not required to be held as reserves is then lent out again, and through the "multiplying" effect of the fractional-reserve system, loans and bank deposits go up by many times the initial injection of reserves.

text: In contrast, when the central bank is "tightening", it slows the process of private bank issue by selling securities on the open market and pulling money (that could be loaned) out of the private banking sector. By increasing the supply of bonds, this lowers their prices and raises interest rates at the same time that the money supply is reduced.

text: This kind of policy reduces or increases the supply of short term government debt in the hands of banks and the non-bank public, lowering or raising interest rates. In parallel, it increases or reduces the supply of loanable funds (money) and thereby the ability of private banks to issue new money through issuing debt.

text: The simple connection between monetary policy and monetary aggregates such as M1 and M2 changed in the 1970s as the reserve requirements on deposits started to fall with the emergence of money funds, which require no reserves. Then in the early 1990s, reserve requirements, for example in Canada, were dropped to zero[45] on savings deposits, CDs, and Eurodollar deposit. At present, reserve requirements apply only to "transactions deposits" – essentially checking accounts. The vast majority of funding sources used by private banks to create loans are not limited by bank reserves. Most commercial and industrial loans are financed by issuing large denomination CDs. Money market deposits are largely used to lend to corporations who issue commercial paper. Consumer loans are also made using savings deposits, which are not subject to reserve requirements. This means that instead of the value of loans supplied responding passively to monetary policy, we often see it rising and falling with the demand for funds and the willingness of banks to lend.

text: Some economists argue that the money multiplier is a meaningless concept, because its relevance would require that the money supply be exogenous, i.e. determined by the monetary authorities via open market operations. If central banks usually target the shortest-term interest rate (as their policy instrument) then this leads to the money supply being endogenous.[46]

text: This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2009)

text: Neither commercial nor consumer loans are any longer limited by bank reserves. Nor are they directly linked proportional to reserves. Between 1995 and 2008, the value of consumer loans has steadily increased out of proportion to bank reserves. Then, as part of the financial crisis, bank reserves rose dramatically as new loans shrank.

text: In recent years, some academic economists renowned for their work on the implications of rational expectations have argued that open market operations are irrelevant. These include Robert Lucas, Jr., Thomas Sargent, Neil Wallace, Finn E. Kydland, Edward C. Prescott and Scott Freeman. Keynesian economists point to the ineffectiveness of open market operations in 2008 in the United States, when short-term interest rates went as low as they could go in nominal terms, so that no more monetary stimulus could occur. This zero bound problem has been called the liquidity trap or "pushing on a string" (the pusher being the central bank and the string being the real economy).

text: Arguments[edit]

text: Historically, in Europe, the main function of the central bank is to maintain low inflation. In the USA the focus is on both inflation and unemployment.[citation needed] These goals are sometimes in conflict (according to Phillips curve). A central bank may attempt to do this by artificially influencing the demand for goods by increasing or decreasing the nation's money supply (relative to trend), which lowers or raises interest rates, which stimulates or restrains spending on goods and services.

text: An important debate among economists in the second half of the twentieth century concerned the central bank's ability to predict how much money should be in circulation, given current employment rates and inflation rates. Economists such as Milton Friedman believed that the central bank would always get it wrong, leading to wider swings in the economy than if it were just left alone.[47] This is why they advocated a non-interventionist approach—one of targeting a pre-specified path for the money supply independent of current economic conditions—even though in practice this might involve regular intervention with open market operations (or other monetary-policy tools) to keep the money supply on target.

text: The former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, suggested in 2004 that over the preceding 10 to 15 years, many modern central banks became relatively adept at manipulation of the money supply, leading to a smoother business cycle, with recessions tending to be smaller and less frequent than in earlier decades, a phenomenon termed "The Great Moderation"[48] This theory encountered criticism during the global financial crisis of 2008–2009.[citation needed] Furthermore, it may be that the functions of the central bank may need to encompass more than the shifting up or down of interest rates or bank reserves:[citation needed] these tools, although valuable, may not in fact moderate the volatility of money supply (or its velocity).[citation needed]

text: Impact of digital currencies and possible transition to a cashless society[edit]


document_title: Ice hockey

question_text: how many players on a hockey team nhl

question_tokens: how many players on a hockey team nhl

root

text: Ice hockey

text: History[edit]

text: Name[edit]

text: The name "hockey" has no clear origin. Its first known mention is from the 1773 book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education, by Richard Johnson (Pseud. Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey".[7] The belief that hockey was mentioned in a 1363 proclamation by King Edward III of England is based on modern translations of the proclamation, which was originally in Latin and explicitly forbade the games "Pilam Manualem, Pedivam, & Bacularem: & ad Canibucam & Gallorum Pugnam". The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word "hockey" when he translated the proclamation in 1720.

tag: p

text: The 1573 Statute of Galway banned a sport called "'hokie'—the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves". A form of this word was thus being used in the 16th century, though much removed from its current usage.[8]

text: According to the Austin Hockey Association, the word "puck" derives from the Scots Gaelic puc or the Irish poc (to poke, punch or deliver a blow). "...The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his caman or hurley is always called a puck."[9]

text: Precursors[edit]

text: Stick-and-ball games date back to pre-Christian times. In Europe, these games included the Irish game of hurling, the closely related Scottish game of shinty and versions of field hockey (including "bandy ball", played in England). IJscolf, a game resembling colf on an ice-covered surface, was popular in the Low Countries between the Middle Ages and the Dutch Golden Age. It was played with a wooden curved bat (called a colf or kolf), a wooden or leather ball and two poles (or nearby landmarks), with the objective to hit the chosen point using the least number of strokes. A similar game (knattleikr) had been played for a thousand years or more by the Norse, as documented in the Icelandic sagas. In England, evidence of games of "hockey on ice" (the name replaced "bandy ball"), played with a "bung" (a plug of cork or oak used as a stopper on a barrel) date back to the 1700s. William Pierre Le Cocq stated, in a 1799 letter written in Chesham, England:

text: I must now describe to you the game of Hockey; we have each a stick turning up at the end. We get a bung. There are two sides one of them knocks one way and the other side the other way. If any one of the sides makes the bung reach that end of the churchyard it is victorious.[10]

text: A 1797 engraving unearthed by Swedish sport historians Carl Gidén and Patrick Houda shows a person on skates with a stick and bung on the River Thames, probably in December 1796.[11]

text: British soldiers and immigrants to Canada and the United States brought their stick-and-ball games with them and played them on the ice and snow of winter. In 1825, John Franklin wrote "The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport" on Great Bear Lake during one of his Arctic expeditions. A mid-1830s watercolour portrays New Brunswick lieutenant governor Archibald Campbell and his family with British soldiers on skates playing a stick-on-ice sport. Captain R.G.A. Levinge, a British Army officer in New Brunswick during Campbell's time, wrote about "hockey on ice" on Chippewa Creek (a tributary of the Niagara River) in 1839. In 1843 another British Army officer in Kingston, Ontario wrote, "Began to skate this year, improved quickly and had great fun at hockey on the ice."[12] An 1859 Boston Evening Gazette article referred to an early game of hockey on ice in Halifax that year.[13] An 1835 painting by John O'Toole depicts skaters with sticks and bung on a frozen stream in the American state of West Virginia, at that time still part of Virginia.[11]

text: In the same era, the Mi'kmaq, a First Nations people of the Canadian Maritimes, also had a stick-and-ball game. Canadian oral histories describe a traditional stick-and-ball game played by the Mi'kmaq, and Silas Tertius Rand (in his 1894 Legends of the Micmacs) describes a Mi'kmaq ball game known as tooadijik. Rand also describes a game played (probably after European contact) with hurleys, known as wolchamaadijik.[14] Sticks made by the Mi'kmaq were used by the British for their games.

text: Early 19th-century paintings depict shinney (or "shinny"), an early form of hockey with no standard rules which was played in Nova Scotia.[15] Many of these early games absorbed the physical aggression of what the Onondaga called dehuntshigwa'es (lacrosse).[16] Shinney was played on the St. Lawrence River at Montreal and Quebec City, and in Kingston, Ontario[12] and Ottawa, Ontario. The number of players was often large. To this day, shinney (derived from "shinty") is a popular Canadian[17] term for an informal type of hockey, either ice or street hockey.

text: Thomas Chandler Haliburton, in The Attache: Second Series (published in 1844) imagined a dialogue, between two of the novel's characters, which mentions playing "hurly on the long pond on the ice". This has been interpreted by some historians from Windsor, Nova Scotia as reminiscence of the days when the author was a student at King's College School in that town in 1810 and earlier.[13][14] Based on Haliburton's quote, claims were made that modern hockey was invented in Windsor, Nova Scotia, by King's College students and perhaps named after an individual ("Colonel Hockey's game").[18] Others claim that the origins of hockey come from games played in the area of Dartmouth and Halifax in Nova Scotia. However, several references have been found to hurling and shinty being played on the ice long before the earliest references from both Windsor and Dartmouth/Halifax,[19] and the word "hockey" was used to designate a stick-and-ball game at least as far back as 1773, as it was mentioned in the book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education by Richard Johnson (Pseud. Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey".[20]

text: Initial development[edit]

text: While the game's origins lie elsewhere, Montreal is at the centre of the development of the sport of contemporary ice hockey, and is recognized as the birthplace of organized hockey.[21] On March 3, 1875, the first organized indoor game was played at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink between two nine-player teams, including James Creighton and several McGill University students. Instead of a ball or bung, the game featured a "flat circular piece of wood"[22] (to keep it in the rink and to protect spectators). The goal posts were 8 feet (2.4 m) apart[22] (today's goals are six feet wide).

text: In 1876, games played in Montreal were "conducted under the 'Hockey Association' rules";[23] the Hockey Association was England's field hockey organization. In 1877, The Gazette (Montreal) published a list of seven rules, six of which were largely based on six of the Hockey Association's twelve rules, with only minor differences (even the word "ball" was kept); the one added rule explained how disputes should be settled.[24] The McGill University Hockey Club, the first ice hockey club, was founded in 1877[25] (followed by the Quebec Hockey Club in 1878 and the Montreal Victorias in 1881).[26] In 1880, the number of players per side was reduced from nine to seven.[7]

text: The number of teams grew, enough to hold the first "world championship" of ice hockey at Montreal's annual Winter Carnival in 1883. The McGill team won the tournament and was awarded the "Carnival Cup".[27] The game was divided into thirty-minute halves. The positions were now named: left and right wing, centre, rover, point and cover-point, and goaltender. In 1886, the teams competing at the Winter Carnival organized the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC), and played a season comprising "challenges" to the existing champion.[28]

text: In Europe, it is believed that in 1885 the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club was formed to play the first Ice Hockey Varsity Match against traditional rival Cambridge in St. Moritz, Switzerland; however, this is undocumented. The match was won by the Oxford Dark Blues, 6–0;[29][30] the first photographs and team lists date from 1895.[31] This rivalry continues, claiming to be the oldest hockey rivalry in history; a similar claim is made about the rivalry between Queen's University and Royal Military College of Kingston, Ontario. Since 1986, considered the 100th anniversary of the rivalry, teams of the two colleges play for the Carr-Harris Cup.[32]

text: In 1888, the Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston (whose sons and daughter were hockey enthusiasts), first attended the Montreal Winter Carnival tournament and was impressed with the game. In 1892, realizing that there was no recognition for the best team in Canada (although a number of leagues had championship trophies), he purchased a silver bowl for use as a trophy. The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (which later became known as the Stanley Cup) was first awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, champions of the AHAC; it continues to be awarded annually to the National Hockey League's championship team.[33] Stanley's son Arthur helped organize the Ontario Hockey Association, and Stanley's daughter Isobel was one of the first women to play ice hockey.

text: By 1893, there were almost a hundred teams in Montreal alone; in addition, there were leagues throughout Canada. Winnipeg hockey players used cricket pads to better protect the goaltender's legs; they also introduced the "scoop" shot, or what is now known as the wrist shot. William Fairbrother, from Ontario, Canada is credited with inventing the ice hockey net in the 1890s.[34] Goal nets became a standard feature of the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) in 1900. Left and right defence began to replace the point and cover-point positions in the OHA in 1906.[35]

text: In the United States, "ice polo", played with a ball rather than a puck, was popular during this period; however, by 1893 Yale University and Johns Hopkins University held their first ice hockey matches.[36] American financier Malcolm Greene Chace is credited with being the father of hockey in the United States.[37] In 1892, as an amateur tennis player, Chace visited Niagara Falls, New York for a tennis match, where he met some Canadian hockey players. Soon afterwards, Chace put together a team of men from Yale, Brown, and Harvard, and toured across Canada as captain of this team.[37] The first collegiate hockey match in the United States was played between Yale University and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Yale, led by captain Chace, beat Hopkins 2–1.[38] In 1896, the first ice hockey league in the US was formed. The US Amateur Hockey League was founded in New York City, shortly after the opening of the artificial-ice St. Nicholas Rink.

text: Lord Stanley's five sons were instrumental in bringing ice hockey to Europe, defeating a court team (which included the future Edward VII and George V) at Buckingham Palace in 1895.[39] By 1903, a five-team league had been founded. The Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace was founded in 1908 to govern international competition, and the first European championship was won by Great Britain in 1910. The sport grew further in Europe in the 1920s, after ice hockey became an Olympic sport. Many bandy players switched to hockey so as to be able to compete in the Olympics.[40][41] Bandy remained popular in the Soviet Union, which only started its ice hockey program in the 1950s. In the mid-20th century, the Ligue became the International Ice Hockey Federation.[42]

text: As the popularity of ice hockey as a spectator sport grew, earlier rinks were replaced by larger rinks. Most of the early indoor ice rinks have been demolished; Montreal's Victoria Rink, built in 1862, was demolished in 1925.[43] Many older rinks succumbed to fire, such as Denman Arena, Dey's Arena, Quebec Skating Rink and Montreal Arena, a hazard of the buildings' wood construction. The Stannus Street Rink in Windsor, Nova Scotia (built in 1897) may be the oldest still in existence; however, it is no longer used for hockey. The Aberdeen Pavilion (built in 1898) in Ottawa was used for hockey in 1904 and is the oldest existing facility that has hosted Stanley Cup games.

text: The oldest indoor ice hockey arena still in use today for hockey is Boston's Matthews Arena, which was built in 1910. It has been modified extensively several times in its history and is used today by Northeastern University for hockey and other sports. It was the original home rink of the Boston Bruins professional team,[44] itself the oldest United States-based team in the NHL, starting play in the league in today's Matthews Arena on December 1, 1924. Madison Square Garden in New York City, built in 1968, is the oldest continuously-operating arena in the NHL.[45]

text: Professional era[edit]

text: Professional hockey has existed since the early 20th century. By 1902, the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League was the first to employ professionals. The league joined with teams in Michigan and Ontario to form the first fully professional league—the International Professional Hockey League (IPHL)—in 1904. The WPHL and IPHL hired players from Canada; in response, Canadian leagues began to pay players (who played with amateurs). The IPHL, cut off from its largest source of players, disbanded in 1907. By then, several professional hockey leagues were operating in Canada (with leagues in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec).

text: In 1910, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed in Montreal. The NHA would further refine the rules: dropping the rover position, dividing the game into three 20-minute periods and introducing minor and major penalties. After re-organizing as the National Hockey League in 1917, the league expanded into the United States, starting with the Boston Bruins in 1924.

text: Professional hockey leagues developed later in Europe, but amateur leagues leading to national championships were in place. One of the first was the Swiss National League A, founded in 1916. Today, professional leagues have been introduced in most countries of Europe. Top European leagues include the Kontinental Hockey League, the Czech Extraliga, the Finnish Liiga and the Swedish Hockey League.

text: Game[edit]

text: While the general characteristics of the game stay the same wherever it is played, the exact rules depend on the particular code of play being used. The two most important codes are those of the IIHF[46] and the NHL.[47] Both of the codes, and others, originated from Canadian rules of ice hockey of the early 20th Century.

text: Ice hockey is played on a hockey rink. During normal play, there are six players per side on the ice at any time, one of them being the goaltender, each of whom is on ice skates. The objective of the game is to score goals by shooting a hard vulcanized rubber disc, the puck, into the opponent's goal net, which is placed at the opposite end of the rink. The players use their sticks to pass or shoot the puck.

text: Within certain restrictions, players may redirect the puck with any part of their body. Players may not hold the puck in their hand and are prohibited from using their hands to pass the puck to their teammates, unless they are in the defensive zone. Players are also prohibited from kicking the puck into the opponent's goal, though intentional redirections off the skate are permitted. Players may not intentionally bat the puck into the net with their hands.

text: Hockey is an "off-side" game, meaning that forward passes are allowed, unlike in rugby. Before the 1930s hockey was an on-side game, meaning that only backward passes were allowed. Those rules favoured individual stick-handling as a key means of driving the puck forward. With the arrival of offside rules, the forward pass transformed hockey into a truly team sport, where individual performance diminished in importance relative to team play, which could now be coordinated over the entire surface of the ice as opposed to merely rearward players.[48]

text: The six players on the ice are typically divided into three forwards, two defencemen, and a goaltender. The term skaters is typically used to describe all players who are not goaltenders. The forward positions consist of a centre and two wingers: a left wing and a right wing. Forwards often play together as units or lines, with the same three forwards always playing together. The defencemen usually stay together as a pair generally divided between left and right. Left and right side wingers or defencemen are generally positioned as such, based on the side on which they carry their stick. A substitution of an entire unit at once is called a line change. Teams typically employ alternate sets of forward lines and defensive pairings when shorthanded or on a power play. The goaltender stands in a, usually blue, semi-circle called the crease in the defensive zone keeping pucks from going in. Substitutions are permitted at any time during the game, although during a stoppage of play the home team is permitted the final change. When players are substituted during play, it is called changing on the fly. A new NHL rule added in the 2005–06 season prevents a team from changing their line after they ice the puck.

text: The boards surrounding the ice help keep the puck in play and they can also be used as tools to play the puck. Players are permitted to "bodycheck" opponents into the boards as a means of stopping progress. The referees, linesmen and the outsides of the goal are "in play" and do not cause a stoppage of the game when the puck or players are influenced (by either bouncing or colliding) into them. Play can be stopped if the goal is knocked out of position. Play often proceeds for minutes without interruption. When play is stopped, it is restarted with a "faceoff". Two players "face" each other and an official drops the puck to the ice, where the two players attempt to gain control of the puck. Markings (circles) on the ice indicate the locations for the faceoff and guide the positioning of players.

text: The three major rules of play in ice hockey that limit the movement of the puck: "offside", "icing", and the puck going out of play. A player is "offside" if he enters his opponent's zone before the puck itself. Under many situations, a player may not "ice the puck", shoot the puck all the way across both the centre line and the opponent's goal line. The puck goes "out of play" whenever it goes past the perimeter of the ice rink (onto the player benches, over the "glass," or onto the protective netting above the glass) and a stoppage of play is called by the officials using whistles. It also does not matter if the puck comes back onto the ice surface from those areas as the puck is considered dead once it leaves the perimeter of the rink.

text: Under IIHF rules, each team may carry a maximum of 20 players and two goaltenders on their roster. NHL rules restrict the total number of players per game to 18, plus two goaltenders. In the NHL, the players are usually divided into four lines of three forwards, and into three pairs of defencemen. On occasion, teams may elect to substitute an extra defenceman for a forward. The seventh defenceman may play as a substitute defenceman, spend the game on the bench, or if a team chooses to play four lines then this seventh defenceman may see ice-time on the fourth line as a forward.

text: Periods and overtime[edit]

text: A professional game consists of three "periods" of twenty minutes, the clock running only when the puck is in play. The teams change ends after each period of play, including overtime. Recreational leagues and children's leagues often play shorter games, generally with three shorter periods of play.

text: Various procedures are used if a tie occurs. In tournament play, as well as in the NHL playoffs, North Americans favour sudden death overtime, in which the teams continue to play twenty-minute periods until a goal is scored. Up until the 1999–2000 season regular season NHL games were settled with a single five-minute sudden death period with five players (plus a goalie) per side, with both teams awarded one point in the standings in the event of a tie. With a goal, the winning team would be awarded two points and the losing team none (just as if they had lost in regulation).

text: From 1999–2000 until 2003–04, the National Hockey League decided ties by playing a single five-minute sudden death overtime period with each team having four skaters per side (plus the goalie) to "open up" the game. In the event of a tie, each team would still receive one point in the standings but in the event of a victory the winning team would be awarded two points in the standings and the losing team one point. The idea was to discourage teams from playing for a tie, since previously some teams might have preferred a tie and 1 point to risking a loss and zero points. The only exception to this rule is if a team opts to pull their goalie in exchange for an extra skater during overtime and is subsequently scored upon (an "empty net" goal), in which case the losing team receives no points for the overtime loss. Since the 2015–16 season, the single five-minute sudden death overtime session involves three skaters on each side. Since three skaters must always be on the ice in an NHL game, the consequences of penalties are slightly different from those during regulation play. If a team is on a powerplay when overtime begins, that team will play with more than three skaters (usually four, very rarely five) until the expiration of the penalty. Any penalty during overtime that would result in a team losing a skater during regulation instead causes the non-penalized team to add a skater. Once the penalized team's penalty ends, the number of skaters on each side is adjusted accordingly, with the penalized team adding a skater in regulation and the non-penalized team subtracting a skater in overtime. This goes until the next stoppage of play.[49]

text: International play and several North American professional leagues, including the NHL (in the regular season), now use an overtime period identical to that from 99–00 – 03–04 followed by a penalty shootout. If the score remains tied after an extra overtime period, the subsequent shootout consists of three players from each team taking penalty shots. After these six total shots, the team with the most goals is awarded the victory. If the score is still tied, the shootout then proceeds to a sudden death format. Regardless of the number of goals scored during the shootout by either team, the final score recorded will award the winning team one more goal than the score at the end of regulation time. In the NHL if a game is decided in overtime or by a shootout the winning team is awarded two points in the standings and the losing team is awarded one point. Ties no longer occur in the NHL.

text: The overtime mode for the NHL playoffs differ from the regular season. In the playoffs there are no shootouts nor ties. If a game is tied after regulation an additional 20 minutes of 5 on 5 sudden death overtime will be added. In case of a tied game after the overtime, multiple 20-minute overtimes will be played until a team scores, which wins the match.

text: Penalties[edit]

text: In ice hockey, infractions of the rules lead to play stoppages whereby the play is restarted at a face off. Some infractions result in the imposition of a penalty to a player or team. In the simplest case, the offending player is sent to the "penalty box" and their team has to play with one less player on the ice for a designated amount of time. Minor penalties last for two minutes, major penalties last for five minutes, and a double minor penalty is two consecutive penalties of two minutes duration. A single minor penalty may be extended by a further two minutes for causing visible injury to the victimized player. This is usually when blood is drawn during high sticking. Players may be also assessed personal extended penalties or game expulsions for misconduct in addition to the penalty or penalties their team must serve. The team that has been given a penalty is said to be playing "short-handed" while the opposing team is on a "power play".

text: A two-minute minor penalty is often charged for lesser infractions such as "tripping", "elbowing", "roughing", "high-sticking", "delay of the game", "too many players on the ice", "boarding", illegal equipment, "charging" (leaping into an opponent or body-checking him after taking more than two strides), "holding", holding the stick (grabbing an opponent's stick), "interference", "hooking", "slashing", "kneeing", "unsportsmanlike conduct" (arguing a penalty call with referee, extremely vulgar or inappropriate verbal comments), "butt-ending" (striking an opponent with the knob of the stick—a very rare penalty), "spearing", or "cross-checking". As of the 2005–2006 season, a minor penalty is also assessed for "diving", where a player embellishes or simulates an offence. More egregious fouls may be penalized by a four-minute double-minor penalty, particularly those that injure the victimized player. These penalties end either when the time runs out or when the other team scores during the power play. In the case of a goal scored during the first two minutes of a double-minor, the penalty clock is set down to two minutes upon a score, effectively expiring the first minor penalty. Five-minute major penalties are called for especially violent instances of most minor infractions that result in intentional injury to an opponent, or when a "minor" penalty results in visible injury (such as bleeding), as well as for fighting. Major penalties are always served in full; they do not terminate on a goal scored by the other team. Major penalties assessed for fighting are typically offsetting, meaning neither team is short-handed and the players exit the penalty box upon a stoppage of play following the expiration of their respective penalties. The foul of "boarding" (defined as "check[ing] an opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards")[50] is penalized either by a minor or major penalty at the discretion of the referee, based on the violent state of the hit. A minor or major penalty for boarding is often assessed when a player checks an opponent from behind and into the boards.

text: Some varieties of penalties do not always require the offending team to play a man short. Concurrent five-minute major penalties in the NHL usually result from fighting. In the case of two players being assessed five-minute fighting majors, both the players serve five minutes without their team incurring a loss of player (both teams still have a full complement of players on the ice). This differs with two players from opposing sides getting minor penalties, at the same time or at any intersecting moment, resulting from more common infractions. In this case, both teams will have only four skating players (not counting the goaltender) until one or both penalties expire (if one penalty expires before the other, the opposing team gets a power play for the remainder of the time); this applies regardless of current pending penalties. However, in the NHL, a team always has at least three skaters on the ice. Thus, ten-minute misconduct penalties are served in full by the penalized player, but his team may immediately substitute another player on the ice unless a minor or major penalty is assessed in conjunction with the misconduct (a two-and-ten or five-and-ten). In this case, the team designates another player to serve the minor or major; both players go to the penalty box, but only the designee may not be replaced, and he is released upon the expiration of the two or five minutes, at which point the ten-minute misconduct begins. In addition, game misconducts are assessed for deliberate intent to inflict severe injury on an opponent (at the officials' discretion), or for a major penalty for a stick infraction or repeated major penalties. The offending player is ejected from the game and must immediately leave the playing surface (he does not sit in the penalty box); meanwhile, if an additional minor or major penalty is assessed, a designated player must serve out of that segment of the penalty in the box (similar to the above-mentioned "two-and-ten"). In some rare cases, a player may receive up to nineteen minutes in penalties for one string of plays. This could involve receiving a four-minute double minor penalty, getting in a fight with an opposing player who retaliates, and then receiving a game misconduct after the fight. In this case, the player is ejected and two teammates must serve the double-minor and major penalties.

text: A "penalty shot" is awarded to a player when the illegal actions of another player stop a clear scoring opportunity, most commonly when the player is on a "breakaway". A penalty shot allows the obstructed player to pick up the puck on the centre red-line and attempt to score on the goalie with no other players on the ice, to compensate for the earlier missed scoring opportunity. A penalty shot is also awarded for a defender other than the goaltender covering the puck in the goal crease, a goaltender intentionally displacing his own goal posts during a breakaway to avoid a goal, a defender intentionally displacing his own goal posts when there is less than two minutes to play in regulation time or at any point during overtime, or a player or coach intentionally throwing a stick or other object at the puck or the puck carrier and the throwing action disrupts a shot or pass play.

text: Officials also stop play for puck movement violations, such as using one's hands to pass the puck in the offensive end, but no players are penalized for these offences. The sole exceptions are deliberately falling on or gathering the puck to the body, carrying the puck in the hand, and shooting the puck out of play in one's defensive zone (all penalized two minutes for delay of game).

text: In the NHL, a unique penalty applies to the goalies. The goalies now are forbidden to play the puck in the "corners" of the rink near their own net. This will result in a two-minute penalty against the goalie's team. Only in the area in-front of the goal line and immediately behind the net (marked by two red lines on either side of the net) the goalie can play the puck.

text: An additional rule that has never been a penalty, but was an infraction in the NHL before recent rules changes, is the "two-line offside pass". Prior to the 2005–06 NHL season, play was stopped when a pass from inside a team's defending zone crossed the centre line, with a face-off held in the defending zone of the offending team. Now, the centre line is no longer used in the NHL to determine a two-line pass infraction, a change that the IIHF had adopted in 1998. Players are now able to pass to teammates who are more than the blue and centre ice red line away.

text: The NHL has taken steps to speed up the game of hockey and create a game of finesse, by retreating from the past when illegal hits, fights, and "clutching and grabbing" among players were commonplace. Rules are now more strictly enforced, resulting in more penalties, which in turn provides more protection to the players and facilitates more goals being scored. The governing body for United States' amateur hockey has implemented many new rules to reduce the number of stick-on-body occurrences, as well as other detrimental and illegal facets of the game ("zero tolerance").

text: In men's hockey, but not in women's, a player may use his hip or shoulder to hit another player if the player has the puck or is the last to have touched it. This use of the hip and shoulder is called "body checking". Not all physical contact is legal—in particular, hits from behind, hits to the head and most types of forceful stick-on-body contact are illegal.

text: A delayed penalty call occurs when a penalty offence is committed by the team that does not have possession of the puck. In this circumstance the team with possession of the puck is allowed to complete the play; that is, play continues until a goal is scored, a player on the opposing team gains control of the puck, or the team in possession commits an infraction or penalty of their own. Because the team on which the penalty was called cannot control the puck without stopping play, it is impossible for them to score a goal. In these cases, the team in possession of the puck can pull the goalie for an extra attacker without fear of being scored on. However, it is possible for the controlling team to mishandle the puck into their own net. If a delayed penalty is signalled and the team in possession scores, the penalty is still assessed to the offending player, but not served. In 2012, this rule was changed by the United States' National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for college level hockey. In college games, the penalty is still enforced even if the team in possession scores.[51]

text: Officials[edit]

text: A typical game of hockey is governed by two to four officials on the ice, charged with enforcing the rules of the game. There are typically two linesmen who are mainly responsible for calling "offside" and "icing" violations, breaking up fights, and conducting faceoffs,[52] and one or two referees,[53] who call goals and all other penalties. Linesmen can, however, report to the referee(s) that a penalty should be assessed against an offending player in some situations.[54] The restrictions on this practice vary depending on the governing rules. On-ice officials are assisted by off-ice officials who act as goal judges, time keepers, and official scorers.

text: The most widespread system in use today is the "three-man system," that uses one referee and two linesmen. Another less commonly used system is the two referee and one linesman system. This system is very close to the regular three-man system except for a few procedure changes. With the first being the National Hockey League, a number of leagues have started to implement the "four-official system," where an additional referee is added to aid in the calling of penalties normally difficult to assess by one single referee. The system is now used in every NHL game, at IIHF World Championships, the Olympics and in many professional and high-level amateur leagues in North America and Europe.

text: Officials are selected by the league they work for. Amateur hockey leagues use guidelines established by national organizing bodies as a basis for choosing their officiating staffs. In North America, the national organizing bodies Hockey Canada and USA Hockey approve officials according to their experience level as well as their ability to pass rules knowledge and skating ability tests. Hockey Canada has officiating levels I through VI.[55] USA Hockey has officiating levels 1 through 4.[56]

text: Equipment[edit]

text: Since men's ice hockey is a full contact sport, body checks are allowed so injuries are a common occurrence. Protective equipment is mandatory and is enforced in all competitive situations. This includes a helmet (cage worn if certain age or clear plastic visor can be worn), shoulder pads, elbow pads, mouth guard, protective gloves, heavily padded shorts (also known as hockey pants) or a girdle, athletic cup (also known as a jock, for males; and jill, for females), shin pads, skates, and (optionally) a neck protector.

text: Goaltenders use different equipment. With hockey pucks approaching them at speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) they must wear equipment with more protection. Goaltenders wear specialized goalie skates (these skates are built more for movement side to side rather than forwards and backwards), a jock or jill, large leg pads (there are size restrictions in certain leagues), blocking glove, catching glove, a chest protector, a goalie mask, and a large jersey. Goaltenders' equipment has continually become larger and larger, leading to fewer goals in each game and many official rule changes.

text: Hockey skates are optimized for physical acceleration, speed and manoeuvrability. This includes rapid starts, stops, turns, and changes in skating direction. In addition, they must be rigid and tough to protect the skater's feet from contact with other skaters, sticks, pucks, the boards, and the ice itself. Rigidity also improves the overall manoeuvrability of the skate. Blade length, thickness (width), and curvature (rocker/radius (front to back) and radius of hollow (across the blade width) are quite different from speed or figure skates. Hockey players usually adjust these parameters based on their skill level, position, and body type. The blade width of most skates are about 1⁄8 inch (3.2 mm) thick.

text: The hockey stick consists of a long, relatively wide, and slightly curved flat blade, attached to a shaft. The curve itself has a big impact on its performance. A deep curve allows for lifting the puck easier while a shallow curve allows for easier backhand shots. The flex of the stick also impacts the performance. Typically, a less flexible stick is meant for a stronger player since the player is looking for the right balanced flex that allows the stick to flex easily while still having a strong "whip-back" which sends the puck flying at high speeds. It is quite distinct from sticks in other sports games and most suited to hitting and controlling the flat puck. Its unique shape contributed to the early development of the game.

text: Injury[edit]

text: This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: "Both sections are closely related" Please help improve this article if you can. (January 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: Ice hockey is a full contact sport and carries a high risk of injury. Players are moving at speeds around approximately 20–30 mph (30–50 km/h) and quite a bit of the game revolves around the physical contact between the players. Skate blades, hockey sticks, shoulders, hips, and hockey pucks all contribute. The types of injuries associated with hockey include: lacerations, concussions, contusions, ligament tears, broken bones, hyperextensions, and muscle strains. Women's ice hockey players can have contact but are not allowed to body check.

text: Head injuries[edit]

text: According to the Hughston Health Alert, "Lacerations to the head, scalp, and face are the most frequent types of injury [in hockey]."[57] Even a shallow cut to the head results in a loss of a large amount of blood. Not only are lacerations common, "it is estimated that direct trauma accounts for 80% of all [hockey] injuries. Most of these injuries are caused by player contact, falls and contact with a puck, high stick and occasionally, a skate blade."[57] One of the causes of head injury is checking from behind. Due to the danger of delivering a check from behind, many leagues, including the NHL have made this a major and game misconduct penalty (called "boarding"). Another type of check that accounts for many of the player-to-player contact concussions is a check to the head resulting in a misconduct penalty (called "head contact"). A check to the head can be defined as delivering a hit while the receiving player's head is down and their waist is bent and the aggressor is targeting the opponent player's head. The most dangerous result of a head injury in hockey can be classified as a concussion. Most concussions occur during player-to-player contact rather than when a player is checked into the boards. Checks to the head have accounted for nearly 50% of concussions that players in the National Hockey League have suffered. Concussions that players suffer may go unreported because there is no obvious physical signs if a player is not knocked unconscious. This can prove to be dangerous if a player decides to return to play without receiving proper medical attention. Studies show that, ice hockey causes 44.3% of all traumatic brain injuries among Canadian children.[58] In severe cases, the traumatic brain injuries are capable of resulting in death. Occurrences of death from these injuries are rare, but occur all too much in a variety of sports.

text: Tactics[edit]

text: Checking[edit]

text: An important defensive tactic is checking—attempting to take the puck from an opponent or to remove the opponent from play. Stick checking, sweep checking, and poke checking are legal uses of the stick to obtain possession of the puck. The neutral zone trap is designed to isolate the puck carrier in the neutral zone preventing him from entering the offensive zone. Body checking is using one's shoulder or hip to strike an opponent who has the puck or who is the last to have touched it (the last person to have touched the puck is still legally "in possession" of it, although a penalty is generally called if he is checked more than two seconds after his last touch). Often the term checking is used to refer to body checking, with its true definition generally only propagated among fans of the game.

text: Offensive tactics[edit]

text: Offensive tactics include improving a team's position on the ice by advancing the puck out of one's zone towards the opponent's zone, progressively by gaining lines, first your own blue line, then the red line and finally the opponent's blue line. NHL rules instated for the 2006 season redefined the offside rule to make the two-line pass legal; a player may pass the puck from behind his own blue line, past both that blue line and the centre red line, to a player on the near side of the opponents' blue line. Offensive tactics are designed ultimately to score a goal by taking a shot. When a player purposely directs the puck towards the opponent's goal, he or she is said to "shoot" the puck.

text: A deflection is a shot that redirects a shot or a pass towards the goal from another player, by allowing the puck to strike the stick and carom towards the goal. A one-timer is a shot struck directly off a pass, without receiving the pass and shooting in two separate actions. Headmanning the puck, also known as breaking out, is the tactic of rapidly passing to the player farthest down the ice. Loafing, also known as cherry-picking, is when a player, usually a forward, skates behind an attacking team, instead of playing defence, in an attempt to create an easy scoring chance.

text: A team that is losing by one or two goals in the last few minutes of play will often elect to pull the goalie; that is, remove the goaltender and replace him or her with an extra attacker on the ice in the hope of gaining enough advantage to score a goal. However, it is an act of desperation, as it sometimes leads to the opposing team extending their lead by scoring a goal in the empty net.

text: One of the most important strategies for a team is their forecheck. Forechecking is the act of attacking the opposition in their defensive zone. Forechecking is an important part of the dump and chase strategy (i.e. shooting the puck into the offensive zone and then chasing after it). Each team will use their own unique system but the main ones are: 2–1–2, 1–2–2, and 1–4. The 2–1–2 is the most basic forecheck system where two forwards will go in deep and pressure the opposition's defencemen, the third forward stays high and the two defencemen stay at the blueline. The 1–2–2 is a bit more conservative system where one forward pressures the puck carrier and the other two forwards cover the oppositions' wingers, with the two defencemen staying at the blueline. The 1–4 is the most defensive forecheck system, referred to as the neutral zone trap, where one forward will apply pressure to the puck carrier around the oppositions' blueline and the other 4 players stand basically in a line by their blueline in hopes the opposition will skate into one of them. Another strategy is the left wing lock, which has two forwards pressure the puck and the left wing and the two defencemen stay at the blueline.

text: There are many other little tactics used in the game of hockey. Cycling moves the puck along the boards in the offensive zone to create a scoring chance by making defenders tired or moving them out of position. Pinching is when a defenceman pressures the opposition's winger in the offensive zone when they are breaking out, attempting to stop their attack and keep the puck in the offensive zone. A saucer pass is a pass used when an opposition's stick or body is in the passing lane. It is the act of raising the puck over the obstruction and having it land on a teammate's stick.

text: A deke, short for "decoy," is a feint with the body or stick to fool a defender or the goalie. Many modern players, such as Pavel Datsyuk, Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane, have picked up the skill of "dangling," which is fancier deking and requires more stick handling skills.

text: Fights[edit]

text: Although fighting is officially prohibited in the rules, it is not an uncommon occurrence at the professional level, and its prevalence has been both a target of criticism and a considerable draw for the sport. At the professional level in North America fights are unofficially condoned. Enforcers and other players fight to demoralize the opposing players while exciting their own, as well as settling personal scores. A fight will also break out if one of the team's skilled players gets hit hard or someone gets hit by what the team perceives as a dirty hit. The amateur game penalizes fisticuffs more harshly, as a player who receives a fighting major is also assessed at least a 10-minute misconduct penalty (NCAA and some Junior leagues) or a game misconduct penalty and suspension (high school and younger, as well as some casual adult leagues).[59] Crowds seem to like fighting in ice hockey and cheer when fighting erupts.[60]

text: Women's ice hockey[edit]

text: Ice hockey is one of the fastest growing women's sports in the world, with the number of participants increasing by 400 percent in the 10 years through 2005.[61] In 2011, Canada had 85,827 women players,[62] United States had 65,609,[63] Finland 4,760,[64] Sweden 3,075[65] and Switzerland 1,172.[66] While there are not as many organized leagues for women as there are for men, there exist leagues of all levels, including the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL), Western Women's Hockey League, National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), Mid-Atlantic Women's Hockey League, and various European leagues; as well as university teams, national and Olympic teams, and recreational teams. The IIHF holds IIHF World Women's Championships tournaments in several divisions; championships are held annually, except that the top flight does not play in Olympic years.[67]

text: The chief difference between women's and men's ice hockey is that body checking is not allowed in women's hockey. After the 1990 Women's World Championship, body checking was eliminated in women's hockey. In current IIHF women's competition, body checking is either a minor or major penalty, decided at the referee's discretion.[68] In addition, players in women's competition are required to wear protective full-face masks.[68]

text: In Canada, to some extent ringette serves as the female counterpart to ice hockey, in the sense that in many families, the boys play hockey while the girls play ringette.

text: History[edit]

text: Women are known to have played the game in the 19th century. Several games were recorded in the 1890s in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The women of Lord Stanley's family were known to participate in the game of ice hockey on the outdoor ice rink at Rideau Hall, the residence of Canada's Governor-General.

text: The game developed at first without an organizing body. A tournament in 1902 between Montreal and Trois-Rivieres was billed as the first championship tournament. Several tournaments, such as at the Banff Winter Carnival, were held in the early 20th Century and numerous women's teams such as the Seattle Vamps and Vancouver Amazons existed. Organizations started to develop in the 1920s, such as the Ladies Ontario Hockey Association, and later, the Dominion Women's Amateur Hockey Association. Starting in the 1960s, the game spread to universities. Today, the sport is played from youth through adult leagues, and in the universities of North America and internationally. There are two major women's hockey leagues, the National Women's Hockey League with teams in the Northeastern United States which is a professional league and the Canadian Women's Hockey League with teams in Canada and the United States, which is semi-professional and is developing toward becoming a fully professional league.

text: The first women's world championship tournament, albeit unofficial, was held in 1987 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This was followed by the first IIHF World Championship in 1990 in Ottawa. Women's ice hockey was added as a medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The United States won the gold, Canada won the silver and Finland won the bronze medal.[69]

text: The United States Hockey League (USHL) welcomed the first female professional ice hockey player in 1969–70, when the Marquette Iron Rangers signed Karen Koch.[70] One woman, Manon Rhéaume, has played in an NHL pre-season game as a goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the St. Louis Blues. In 2003, Hayley Wickenheiser played with the Kirkkonummi Salamat in the Finnish men's Suomi-sarja league. Several women have competed in North American minor leagues, including Rhéaume, goaltenders Kelly Dyer and Erin Whitten and defenceman Angela Ruggiero.

text: Leagues and championships[edit]

text: Most popular leagues[edit]

text:
League
Country
Notes
Average Attendance[71]
for 2016–17

National Hockey League (NHL)
 Canada (7 teams)
 United States (24 teams)

17487

National League A
  Switzerland

6882

Deutsche Eishockey Liga
 Germany

6198

Kontinental Hockey League
 Russia (22 teams)
 Belarus (1 team)
 China (1 team)
 Finland (1 team)
 Kazakhstan (1 team)
 Latvia (1 team)
 Slovakia (1 team)
Successor to Russian Superleague and Soviet Championship League
6121

American Hockey League
 United States (26 teams)
 Canada (4 teams)
Developmental League for NHL
31 teams in 2018–19 with one ECHL team moving to the AHL
5865

Swedish Hockey League
 Sweden
Known as Elitserien until 2013
5707

Czech Extraliga
 Czech Republic
Formed from the split of the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League
5178

Liiga
 Finland
Known as SM-Liiga until 2013
4326

Western Hockey League
 Canada (17 teams)
 United States (5 teams)
Junior league
4312

ECHL
 United States (27 teams)
 Canada (1 team)

4297

Ontario Hockey League
 Canada (17 teams)
 United States (3 teams)
Junior league
4117

NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament
 United States
Amateur intercollegiate competition
3432

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
 Canada
Junior league
3355

Champions Hockey League
 Europe
Europe-wide championship tournament league. Successor to European Trophy and Champions Hockey League
3259[72]

Southern Professional Hockey League
 United States

3037

Austrian Hockey League
 Austria (8 teams)
 Hungary (1 team)
 Czech Republic (1 team)
 Italy (1 team)
 Croatia (1 team)

2974

Elite Ice Hockey League
 United Kingdom
Teams in all of the home nations: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
2842

DEL2
 Germany
Second division of Germany
2466

United States Hockey League
 United States
Amateur junior league
2647

HockeyAllsvenskan
 Sweden
Second division of Sweden
2637

GET-ligaen
 Norway

1955

Slovak Extraliga
 Slovakia
Formed from the split of the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League
1905

Ligue Magnus
 France

1886

Supreme Hockey League (VHL)
 Russia (24 teams)
 Kazakhstan (2 teams)
 China (2 teams)
Second division of Russia and partial development league for the KHL
1746

National League B
  Switzerland
Second division of Switzerland
1644

WSM Liga
 Czech Republic
Second division of Czechia
1569

Latvian Hockey Higher League
 Latvia (7 teams)

1354

Metal Ligaen
 Denmark

1310

Asia League
 Japan (4 teams)
 South Korea (3 teams)
 Russia (1 team)
 China (1 team)

958

Mestis
 Finland
Second division of Finland
817

Polska Hokej Liga
 Poland

769

Erste Liga
 Hungary (6 teams)
 Romania (2 teams)
 Austria (1 team)

690

Alps Hockey League
 Austria (7 teams)
 Italy (8 teams)
 Slovenia (2 teams)
Formed in 2016 with the merger of Italy's Serie A and the joint Austrian–Slovenian Inter-National League
648

Belarusian Extraleague
 Belarus

624

BeNe League
 Netherlands (10 teams)
 Belgium (6 teams)
Formed in 2015 with teams from Dutch Eredivisie and Belgian Hockey League
565

text: North America[edit]

text: National Hockey League[edit]

text: The NHL is by far the best attended and most popular ice hockey league in the world. The league's history began after Canada's National Hockey Association decided to disband in 1917; the result was the creation of the National Hockey League. The league expanded to the United States beginning in 1924. In 1967, the NHL doubled in size to 12 teams, undertaking one of the greatest expansions in professional sports history. A few years later, in 1972, a new 12 team league, the World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed and due to its ensuing rivalry with the NHL, it caused an escalation in players salaries. As of 1979, the NHL had grown to 17 teams and merged with the WHA. This created a 21 team league.[73] By 2017, the NHL had expanded to 31 teams, and after a realignment in 2013, these teams were divided into two conferences and four divisions.[74]

text: Minor leagues[edit]

text: The American Hockey League (AHL), sometimes referred to as "The A,"[75] is the primary developmental professional league for players aspiring to enter the NHL. It comprises 30 teams from the United States and Canada, and will expand to 31 teams for the 2018–19 season. It is run as a "farm league" to the NHL, with the vast majority of AHL players under contract to an NHL team. The ECHL (called the East Coast Hockey League before the 2003–04 season) is a mid-level minor league in the United States with a few players under contract to NHL or AHL teams. The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a developmental minor league in the United States with no NHL affiliations. Most undrafted players get their start in the ECHL or SPHL.

text: University competitions[edit]

text: In the United States especially, college hockey is popular and the best university teams compete in the annual NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship. The American Collegiate Hockey Association is composed of college teams at the club level.

text: Junior leagues[edit]

text: In Canada, the Canadian Hockey League is an umbrella organization comprising three major junior leagues: the Ontario Hockey League, the Western Hockey League, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. It attracts players from Canada, the United States and Europe. In the United States, the United States Hockey League (USHL) is the highest junior league. Players in this league are strictly amateur, so that they may play college hockey if they wish.

text: Eurasia[edit]

text: Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)[edit]

text: The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the largest and most popular ice hockey league in Eurasia. The league is the direct successor to the Russian Super League, which in turn was the successor to the Soviet League, the history of which dates back to the Soviet adoption of ice hockey in the 1940s. The KHL was launched in 2008 with clubs predominantly from Russia, but featuring teams from other post-Soviet states. The league expanded beyond the former Soviet countries beginning in the 2011–12 season, with clubs in Croatia and Slovakia. The number of teams has since increased to 28 from eight different countries.

text: Minor leagues[edit]

text: The second division of hockey in Eurasia is the Supreme Hockey League (VHL). This league features 24 teams from Russia and 2 from Kazakhstan. This league is currently being converted to a farm league for the KHL, similarly to the AHL's function in relation to the NHL. The third division is the Russian Hockey League, which features only teams from Russia. The Asia League, an international ice hockey league featuring clubs from China, Japan, South Korea, and the Russian Far East, is the successor to the Japan Ice Hockey League.

text: Junior leagues[edit]

text: The highest junior league in Eurasia is the Junior Hockey League (MHL). It features 32 teams from post-Soviet states, predominantly Russia. The second tier to this league is the Junior Hockey League Championships (MHL-B).

text: Europe[edit]

text: Several countries in Europe have their own top professional senior leagues. Many future KHL and NHL players start or end their professional careers in these leagues. The National League A in Switzerland, Swedish Hockey League in Sweden, Liiga in Finland, and Czech Extraliga in the Czech Republic are all very popular in their respective countries.

text: Champions Hockey League[edit]

text: Beginning in the 2014–15 season, the Champions Hockey League was launched, a league consisting of first-tier teams from several European countries, running parallel to the teams' domestic leagues. The competition is meant to serve as a Europe-wide ice hockey club championship. The competition is a direct successor to the European Trophy and is related to the 2008–09 tournament of the same name.

text: Other[edit]

text: There are also several annual tournaments for clubs, held outside of league play. Pre-season tournaments include the European Trophy, Tampere Cup and the Pajulahti Cup. One of the oldest international ice hockey competition for clubs is the Spengler Cup, held every year in Davos, Switzerland, between Christmas and New Year's Day. It was first awarded in 1923 to the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club. The Memorial Cup, a competition for junior-level (age 20 and under) clubs is held annually from a pool of junior championship teams in Canada and the United States.

text: International club competitions organized by the IIHF include the Continental Cup, the Victoria Cup and the European Women's Champions Cup. The World Junior Club Cup is an annual tournament of junior ice hockey clubs representing each of the top junior leagues.

text: National team competitions[edit]

text: Ice hockey has been played at the Winter Olympics since 1924 (and was played at the summer games in 1920). Hockey is Canada's national winter sport, and Canadians are extremely passionate about the game. The nation has traditionally done very well at the Olympic games, winning 6 of the first 7 gold medals. However, by 1956 its amateur club teams and national teams could not compete with the teams of government-supported players from the Soviet Union. The USSR won all but two gold medals from 1956 to 1988. The United States won their first gold medal in 1960. On the way to winning the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics amateur US college players defeated the heavily favoured Soviet squad—an event known as the "Miracle on Ice" in the United States. Restrictions on professional players were fully dropped at the 1988 games in Calgary. NHL agreed to participate ten years later. 1998 Games saw the full participation of players from the NHL, which suspended operations during the Games and has done so in subsequent Games. The 2010 games in Vancouver were the first played in an NHL city since the inclusion of NHL players. The 2010 games were the first played on NHL-sized ice rinks, which are narrower than the IIHF standard.

text: National teams representing the member federations of the IIHF compete annually in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. Teams are selected from the available players by the individual federations, without restriction on amateur or professional status. Since it is held in the spring, the tournament coincides with the annual NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and many of the top players are hence not available to participate in the tournament. Many of the NHL players who do play in the IIHF tournament come from teams eliminated before the playoffs or in the first round, and federations often hold open spots until the tournament to allow for players to join the tournament after their club team is eliminated. For many years, the tournament was an amateur-only tournament, but this restriction was removed, beginning in 1977.

text: The 1972 Summit Series and 1974 Summit Series, two series pitting the best Canadian and Soviet players without IIHF restrictions were major successes, and established a rivalry between Canada and the USSR. In the spirit of best-versus-best without restrictions on amateur or professional status, the series were followed by five Canada Cup tournaments, played in North America. Two NHL versus USSR series were also held: the 1979 Challenge Cup and Rendez-vous '87. The Canada Cup tournament later became the World Cup of Hockey, played in 1996, 2004 and 2016. The United States won in 1996 and Canada won in 2004 and 2016.

text: Since the initial women's world championships in 1990, there have been fifteen tournaments.[67] Women's hockey has been played at the Olympics since 1998.[69] The 2006 Winter Olympic final between Canada and Sweden marked the only time the women's world championship or Olympic final did not involve both Canada and the United States.

text: Other ice hockey tournaments featuring national teams include the World U20 Championship, the World U18 Championships, the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, the World Junior A Challenge, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, the World Women's U18 Championships and the 4 Nations Cup. The annual Euro Hockey Tour, an unofficial European championship between the national men's teams of the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden have been played since 1996–97.

text: Miscellaneous[edit]

text: Oceania[edit]

text: The Australian Ice Hockey League and New Zealand Ice Hockey League are represented by nine and five teams respectively. As of 2012, the two top teams of the previous season from each league compete in the Trans-Tasman Champions League.

text: Africa[edit]

text: Ice hockey in Africa is a small but growing sport; while no African ice hockey playing nation has a domestic league, there are several regional leagues in South Africa.

text: Pond hockey[edit]

text: Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey played generally as pick-up hockey on lakes, ponds and artificial outdoor rinks during the winter. Pond hockey is commonly referred to in hockey circles as shinny. Its rules differ from traditional hockey because there is no hitting and very little shooting, placing a greater emphasis on skating, puckhandling and passing abilities. Since 2002, the World Pond Hockey Championship has been played on Roulston Lake in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, Canada.[76] Since 2006, the US Pond Hockey Championships have been played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships have been played in Huntsville, Ontario.

text: In popular culture[edit]

text: Ice hockey is the official winter sport of Canada. Ice hockey, partially because of its popularity as a major professional sport, has been a source of inspiration for numerous films, television episodes and songs in North American popular culture.[77][78]

text: Attendance records[edit]

text: The record for a Stanley Cup playoff game is 28,183, set on April 23, 1996, at the Thunderdome during a Tampa Bay Lightning – Philadelphia Flyers game.[79]

text: A record was set on December 11, 2010, when the University of Michigan's men's ice hockey team faced cross-state rival Michigan State in an event billed as "The Big Chill at the Big House". The game was played at Michigan's (American) football venue, Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, with a capacity of 109,901 as of the 2010 football season. When UM stopped sales to the public on May 6, 2010, with plans to reserve remaining tickets for students, over 100,000 tickets had been sold for the event.[80] Ultimately, a crowd announced by UM as 113,411, the largest in the stadium's history (including football), saw the homestanding Wolverines win 5–0. Guinness World Records, using a count of ticketed fans who actually entered the stadium instead of UM's figure of tickets sold, announced a final figure of 104,173.[81][82]

text: The record was approached but not broken at the 2014 NHL Winter Classic, which also held at Michigan Stadium, with the Detroit Red Wings as the home team and the Toronto Maple Leafs as the opposing team with an announced crowd of 105,491.

text: Number of registered players by country[edit]

text: Number of registered hockey players, including male, female and junior, provided by the respective countries' federations. Note that this list only includes the 40 of 76 IIHF member countries with more than 1,000 registered players as of September 2017.[83][84]

text:
Country
Players
% of population

 Canada
631,295
1.724%

 United States
555,935
0.170%

 Czech Republic
113,425
1.075%

 Russia
105,059
0.073%

 Finland
76,387
1.379%

 Sweden
63,901
0.644%

  Switzerland
26,840
0.317%

 France
21,682
0.033%

 Germany
20,646
0.026%

 Japan
18,995
0.015%

 Slovakia
11,502
0.212%

 United Kingdom
10,325
0.016%

 Austria
9,483
0.110%

 Norway
9,073
0.170%

 Latvia
7,145
0.367%

 Kazakhstan
6,202
0.034%

 Ukraine
5,860
0.013%

 Italy
5,726
0.010%

 Hungary
5,291
0.054%

 Belarus
5,180
0.055%

 Denmark
4,647
0.081%

 Australia
4,111
0.017%

 Poland
3,633
0.009%

 Netherlands
2,970
0.017%

 South Korea
2,675
0.005%

 Mexico
2,577
0.002%

 North Korea
2,320
0.009%

 Belgium
2,316
0.020%

 Hong Kong
1,785
0.024%

 Lithuania
1,620
0.057%

 Estonia
1,502
0.115%

 New Zealand
1,405
0.031%

 India
1,293
0.000%

 Romania
1,282
0.007%

 China
1,101
0.000%

 Spain
1,054
0.002%

 Turkey
1,041
0.001%

 Slovenia
1,024
0.049%

 Argentina
1,023
0.002%

 Chinese Taipei
1,015
0.004%