Annual championships began in Montreal in the 1880s, leading to the awarding of the Stanley Cup, considered the oldest trophy in North American sports.

His two sons, Arthur and Algernon, convinced their father to donate a trophy that would be considered to be a visible sign of the ice hockey championship, which was a silver bowl inlaid with gold.

Though some believe the IHL's short existence was due to lack of spectator interest, the primary reason the league failed was a loss of good players back to Canadian teams that by 1906 played in hockey associations, such as the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association, that allowed professionals to play alongside amateurs.

Newspapers described hockey as a combination of "brutal butchery" and "strenuous spectacle," speaking to public perceptions and different ways of experiencing the game.

The lacklustre performance of the Canadian national hockey team at the 1936 Olympics, over player availability forced radical changes on approaches to how the game was formulated in the country.

When Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau had met his Soviet counterpart, Alexei Kosygin, in 1971, their discussions included increasing the hockey competitions between the two countries.

The architects of Soviet hockey, on the other hand, had designs on surprising Canada and the world with their skill and claiming the Canadian game as their own.

[11] The Summit Series was the catalyst for a re-examination of the Canadian hockey system, organization, coaching, and training methods.

Some of the great Canadian hockey players honoured in the Hall include Wayne Gretzky, who holds many NHL scoring records; Maurice Richard, a hero in Quebec who led the Montreal Canadiens to eight Stanley Cups;[12] Gordie Howe; and Bobby Orr, among many others.

[13][14] Ice hockey is one of the most played sports in the country at the youth level[15][16][17] and remains popular for adults whether in organized professional, amateur or recreational leagues.

Women's shinny games were known to have been organized in Ontario as early as the 1880s, including at the behest of Lady Isobel, daughter of Lord Stanley.

In Montreal, investors established the Eastern Ladies Hockey League in 1915, which regularly drew thousands of fans.

In 1987, Rider led organizing the first, unofficial, Women's World Championship, which took place in Toronto and was won by Canada.

[32] In 1990, the International Ice Hockey Federation organized the first official Women's Worlds, which took place in Ottawa and was again won by Canada.

[26] The Canadian national team has been dominant on the international stage, and has formed an enduring rivalry with the United States.

[4] The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) largely replaced the NWHL and ran for 12 seasons, from 2007 to 2019, with teams competing for the Clarkson Cup.

The CWHL, which operated on a non-profit basis, did not pay player salaries, but it did at times offer stipends and bonuses, and it aspired to become a professional league.

A new National Women's Hockey League, which did offer player salaries, was established in the United States in 2015, and it expanded into Canada in 2020 with the addition of the Toronto Six.

[36] However, after the collapse of the CWHL, hundreds of prominent women's players, including Canadian and American Olympians, founded the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) and opted to boycott existing leagues in pursuit of a unified, financially stable professional league.

[52][53] His endeavour to declare hockey as Canada's national game coincided with the Great Canadian Flag Debate.

[54] On October 28, 1964, Roxburgh moved to introduce Bill C–132, with respect to declaring hockey as the national game of Canada.

[55] Canadian Lacrosse Association members responded to the motion by calling it insulting and "out of line", and vowed to fight it.