Hockey is a sport of speed and intense physical contact.  Two opposing teams glide over the ice to battle for a cause… winning and love of the game.  Another ice sport, Figure Skating, offers a different type of drama filled with beauty and grace.  Individuals dance, jump, and maintain strict rhythm to express themselves emotionally and physically.  Both forms of skating require endurance, coordination, skill, power, agility and timing.  While hockey players are forced to trust the ability of their teammates to execute successful, fast-paced maneuvers, figure skaters concentrate instead on consistency and fluidity of motion to perfect a beautiful individual routine.  The popularity of both sports is growing.  In fact, according to Sports Illustrated, hockey is becoming “the” sport to watch, and figure skating ranks second only to football as the most popular spectator sport in the United States.

Click here and find out how much work it takes to give skaters a "perfect" sheet of ice. You'll be amazed!

HOCKEY TRIVIA
by the
NUMBERS!

Q. What year was the first formal ice hockey game played? 
A. The first year on record was 1855 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  Hockey was adapted from the Native American game of lacrosse to play on a frozen ice surface.

Q. What year did the National Hockey League begin its first season?
A. In 1917, the NHL began with the following “Original Six” teams:  Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Q. What was the price of the Stanley Cup, the most famous trophy in sports?
A. The Stanley Cup was purchased in the late 1890’s by Lord Stanley of Preston, Canada’s Governor-General for $48.67.  Lord Stanley of Preston originally donated the Cup to the Canadian National Champion in 1893.  Today, the Cup is awarded to the NHL Playoff Champion.

Q. What is the size and weight of an official game puck?
A. An official game puck measures three inches in diameter and one inch thick.  It weighs six ounces and is constructed of vulcanized rubber.  The puck is not only solid to remove the “bounce”, but it is frozen prior to professional games to make it even more bounce resistant.

Q.  What are the dimensions of player’s sticks?
A.  The stick shaft (heel of blade to top grip of shaft) may not exceed 63 inches.  The stick blade (heel to toe) may be no more than 12 inches long and three inches wide.  Sticks weigh 17 to 25 ounces.  All sticks are not alike; they may be made of wood, aluminum, graphite, fiberglass, plastic or a combination of all five (generally, northern white ash or rock elm is used for the wooden parts of the stick).  The handle is one piece and the laminated blade is affixed to it.   Each player has their own personalized and patterned stick.  Features such as flexibility, lie (angle of the blade), weight, etc. varies from player to player.

Q.  How many different countries are represented on NHL teams?
A.  Hockey is played worldwide with a variety of professional leagues.  Here in the United States, the National Hockey League hosts players from 16 different countries including:  Canada, United States, Russia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Latvia, Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (England, North Ireland and Scotland).

Q.  How many players are allowed on an official NHL game roster for each team?
A.  Twenty players are allowed on each roster (18 players and 2 goaltenders).

Q.  What is the most number of Stanley Cup Victories that have been won by a single team in the history of the NHL?
A.  The Montreal Candadiens have won an amazing 23 Stanley Cups since 1917.

Q.  What are the dimensions of the nets?
A.  The nets are six feet wide and four feet high – allowing twenty-four square feet between the pipes for potential scoring opportunity.

Q.  How fast does the puck travel?
A.  Some slap-shot shooters can propel the puck between 90-100 miles per hour (MPH).  Speeds of up to 120 MPH have been recorded by some of the hardest shooters.  Compounding the problem for goaltenders is that frequently the puck will curve in flight, much like a baseball.

Q.  What is a “Hat Trick”?
A.  A “Hat Trick” is when one player scores three goals in one game.  A “Natural Hat Trick” is scoring three goals in a row within the same period, with no intervening goals from either team.  A “Gordy Howe Hat Trick” is when a player has a goal, an assist and a fight during one game. 

Q.  Why is it called a “Hat Trick”?
A.  This question poses some difficulty as there exist numerous answers and no definite way of proving which historical view is correct.  Below you will find outlined the four most common answers.
1. Hockey borrowed the term from Cricket.  In 1958, a Cricket player in England took three wickets with consecutive balls, an incredible trick.  As a reward, his club gave the bowler a new hat, hence the name “Hat Trick”.
2. In the early days of hockey history, players earned little money from their teams and fans were not allowed to give the players money.  In those days, hats were a sign of wealth and affluence and worn by all respectable men.  As a result, the fans gave players hats instead of money.  Unable, due to rules and practicality , to give players a hat after every game, fans only gave a hat to a player when he accomplished the impressive feat of scoring three goals in one game.
3. When the sport of hockey first began, it was a very different game than it is today.  Instead of putting the puck into the net to score, the players had to knock the puck, on the ice, between two posts.  The goal judge sat five feet back from the posts and waved his hankie when a goal was scored.  On one windy day, a goal judge had his hankie blow away.  To get the attention of the players and fans when a goal had scored, he threw his hat on the ice.  It just so happened to be after the player scored his third goal.  From this point on, fans took to throwing hats on the ice after a player scored three goals.
4. “I take my hat off to you.”  When a player managed the amazing task of scoring three goals in one game, the fans recognized this by taking their hats off to the player.  This eventually turned into the fans throwing their hats on the ice after a “Hat Trick”!

Q.  When hockey players suit up with all of their equipment, how much more do they weigh?
A.  On average, when a player suits up with skates, helmet, shoulder pads, shin pads, elbow pads, gloves, hockey pants, socks, stick, suspenders, garter belt, athletic supporter, and jersey, they are adding an extra 25-35 pounds to their body weight.  The equipment used by goalies increase their weight by 40-45 pounds.
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 DID you KNOW?!

The worlds first ice surface to be frozen by mechanical means was the Glaciarium in London England. This modern marvel was built in 1876 by John Gamgee was accomplished by an indirect refrigeration system utilized glycerine as the secondary coolant and either as the primary coolant.

 Before 1914, referees used to place the puck on the ice between the players’ sticks for face-offs.  This led to many cuts, bruises, and even broken hands for the referees.  Starting in 1914, the referees were allowed to drop the puck between the players’ sticks.

 The in-line skate was actually designed before the roller skate in the 18th century by the Dutch and was simply a metal frame attached to an old hockey boot.  It was not manufactured, however, until the early 1980’s by the Olson brothers in North Carolina.  The skates became more and more successful as hockey players found them to be helpful for training during the off season.  Today, in-line skating is the fastest-growing sport.

 Falmouth’s very own Colleen Coyne was part of the 1998 Women’s Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Team at the games in Nagano, Japan.  Before joining the U.S. Olympic Team, Colleen played youth hockey here at the Falmouth Ice Arena and  graduated from Falmouth High School in 1989.
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BITS & PIECES
about the
ICE RINK!

Click Here For A In Depth Look at Ice Making.
 

Q.  What is the temperature and thickness of the ice?
A.  The best ice for professional hockey is approximately 3/4 of an inch thick and is held at 16 degrees Fahrenheit for proper hardness.  The thicker the sheet of ice becomes, the softer and “slower” it is.  Commercial ice shows often perform on “warmer”, slower ice. 

Q.  What is the ice surface size of the Falmouth Ice Arena?
A.  The surface of Falmouth’s rink is 185 feet long and 85 feet wide (the same as the old Boston Garden).  Today’s official NHL rinks are 15 feet longer with the same width (200’x 85’).  An Olympic-size rink is 200’x100’.  Fiberglass boards surround the rink from the ice to a height of about 40 inches.  Attached above the boards, the Falmouth rink has NHL endorsed “extra thick” glass to allow for better view of the game by fans.

Q.  How much piping does it take to freeze an ice rink?
A.  It takes approximately 10 miles of piping (laid down below a concrete surface) to freeze an ice rink.  Glycol (anti-freeze) is chilled by compressors and flows continuously through the pipes 24 hours a day to keep the temperature of the ice surface at a cool 16 degrees.

Q.  How many gallons of  water does it take to fill a regulation size NHL rink?
A.  It takes 15,000 gallons of water to make a regulation-size rink ready before hockey games are to be played on them. 

Q.  How are the markings (the red and blue lines, the goal line and crease, and face-off circles) applied to the ice?
A.  The ice is built up to a half-inch thickness by spraying water over the concrete floor, which has the freezing pipes embedded.  Then, the markings are painted on, after which additional water is sprayed to “coat” the markings and build the ice to the prescribed thickness.

Q.  What exactly does a Zamboni do?
A.  The Zamboni is a highly specialized machine that reconditions the ice – leaving a smooth surface behind.  In its travel across the ice, it scrapes the loose shavings off and lays down a layer of hot water.  The water must be hot to melt the upper ice surfaces and weld a smooth sheet of ice.  It takes just a few minutes to freeze.