The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded on November 22, 1917.

 

The Montreal Canadiens have won the most Stanley Cups in league history (24).

 

Since 1914, the Stanley Cup has been awarded in every year but two. In 1919, it was not awarded after members of the Montreal Canadiens were stricken with sickness during the Spanish flu pandemic, and in 2005, it was not handed out after the season was cancelled due to a lockout.

 

Before games, hockey pucks are frozen to prevent them from bouncing during play.

 

The Stanley Cup is named after a former Canadian Governor General, Lord Stanley of Preston, who donated the trophy in 1893.

 

In the 1974 NHL Draft, Buffalo Sabres GM Punch Imlach decided to fool the media and league officials by drafting Taro Tsujimoto of the Japanese Hockey League’s Tokyo Katanas. Trouble was, neither Tsujimoto nor his team was real. The pick was later removed from the records.'

 

Frank Zamboni invented the first self-propelled ice-clearing machine, in 1949.

 

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