Canada Travel Guide

The sport that really ignites the passions of all Canadians is ice hockey . With players hurtling around at nearly 50kph and the puck clocking speeds of over 160kph, this would be a high-adrenaline sport even without its relaxed attitude to combat on the rink - as an old Canadian adage has it, "I went to see a fight and an ice-hockey game broke out". Players, especially in the minor leagues, are as adept at a right hook as they are at skating, and a few years ago the national team waged such a battle against the Soviet Union that the fight only stopped when officials turned all the lights off.

The North American National Hockey League (NHL) consists of thirty teams, of which six are from Canada: the Montréal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. There are two conferences - Western and Eastern - both divided into two divisions. The Canadiens, Maple Leafs and the Senators meet teams from Buffalo and Boston in the Northeast division of the Eastern conference and the Flames, Oilers and Canucks face Colorado and Minnesota in the Northwest division of the Western conference.

Teams have six players and perpetual substitutions are allowed during the game - some players rarely spend more than a few minutes on the ice at one time. There are three twenty-minute periods in a match, but the clock is frequently stopped for a variety of reasons so play usually goes on for three hours. Each team plays over eighty games a season , which lasts from October to May, and on alternate weeks will play two and then three games. At the end of the season the top four teams in each division go on into the play-offs for the Stanley Cup , ice hockey's most prestigious title. The two most successful teams are the Montréal Canadiens, who have won the Stanley Cup 23 times, and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have eleven victories under their belt.

Ticket prices range from around $15 for ordinary games to hundreds of dollars for a Stanley Cup final - indeed, you can forget about getting into this event unless you have high-level political or sporting contacts. For nearly all matches you have to buy a ticket in advance.

Other than the NHL there are also numerous minor league clubs composed of farm teams , so called because they supply the top clubs with talent. Ontario and Québec both have their own minor leagues; the rest of the country plays in the Western League, all with play-offs for a variety of awards. For college hockey , the University of Toronto and York in Toronto, Concordia in Montréal, St Mary's in Halifax and the University of Alberta in Edmonton all have good teams.