Sweeney Research Paper

Not long ago, thinking of the generations of Canadians who learned hockey on rivers and ponds, I collected my skates and with two friends drove up the Gatineau River north of Ottawa. We didn't know it at the time, but the ice conditions we found were rare, duplicated only a few times the previous decade. The combination of a sudden thaw and freezing rain in the days before had melted winter-high snow, and with temperatures dropping rapidly overnight, the river was left with miles of smooth glare ice. Growing up in the suburbs of a large city, I had played on a river only once before, and then as a goalie. On this day, I came to the Gatineau to find what a river of ice and a solitary feeling might mean to a game.

“The big name up there was the MacInnis family. Paul and Brian MacInnis contributed a lot to senior hockey in Port Hood. They were very involved.”

If you do, keep reading. Today, I’m going to tell you some things about ice hockey. Hockey was invented on March 3, 1875. The game hasn’t changed too much over the years. The point is still trying to hit the puck into the goal. How is hockey set up? In hockey there is two teams of six players each. The players are required to wear protective equipment. The ice has four lines that run sideways across it; one red thin line at the end of each side in front of the goalie’s net, two blue lines about one third of the way towards the middle, and one center red line. At the start of each match both teams play three forwards, who are trying to score and assist goals,

Number ONE on this list was affordability. Not willingness to play, not safety concerns, but affordability is the biggest barrier to entry. This is an extremely alarming stat because hockey has never been about who can pay the costs, but rather if you want to play the sport, then you are able to play. The direction it's trending towards is more about who can pay, and not so much about everyone being able to play. Just as the GTHL president John Gardner said “The game has changed in this respect: It used to be that you had a right to play, now it's can you afford to pay” (Mirtle, 2014). The alarming stats don't stop there. The average household pays $1500 per season, just for equipment. The average cost for a player(non goalie) is $750 per season, once again just for equipment. Not only are these costs extremely high but they increase when a player plays goalie, with just the goalie pads ranging anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $1300 for top of the line pads. Comparing these costs to other sports, it's easy to see why some parents are opting for their kids to play other sports rather than hockey. For basketball, the cost for equipment is a measly $325 per

The sense of belonging that comes from skating with a team, is similar to how I feel volunteering with local communities during the last few years. As I moved around when I was younger, I volunteered at many hospitals in the community and in various

Since sixth grade, I have been a program assistant in two skating clubs, helping to deliver Skate Canada's

A rookie NHL All-Star, the number one overall pick, an 18 year old from Arizona, and the future of the NHL, number 34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews is fifth overall in total goals this season. Auston Matthews was born in San Ramon, California on September 17, 1997 and at two months old, moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. To start, his Uncle had season tickets to then, Phoenix Coyotes games, now Arizona Coyotes, where Auston went to his first hockey game when he was three years old and fell in love with the sport. He first started hockey at age five and was once better at baseball than he was at hockey. He was good baseball because he had good eye-hand coordination and hitting was his strength. Anyhow, there weren't

Throughout time, the progression and evolution of snowboarding has increased greatly. It has gone from non existence in the late 1970’s, to one of the most watched action sports in a matter of thirty-five years. The upward takeoff and popularity of snowboarding relies on two people, Jake Burton and Shaun White. Jake Burton back in 1977 had the vision for what snowboarding would be, but Shaun White had what it took to manifest that vision. Evidence has shown that time brings change in sports, history has repeated itself with snowboarding, this history reflects the time & changes that has occurred in America.

Even though the story of Manon Reaume is a significant story about her talent and the struggles she faced the history behind the ice hockey is the most important. The sport of Ice Hockey was a developing sport in the late 1800’s in Canada, as men began playing the contemporary sport in 1875, women beginning to play in 1889. The beginning of women’s ice hockey began with Lord Stanley of Preston, the Canadian governor-general, who was a fan of ice hockey. Lord Stanley took part in supporting and being involved in ice hockey for the soul purpose of his sons and daughters, which he later donated the Stanley cup to the armature leagues. The Stanley cup currently is the symbol of men’s professional ice hockey league,

In the early 1800s the game has been played on frozen ponds, pucks made out of wood, the sticks were also made of wood. Since that time the sport has evolved to be one of the most sports watched sport in Canada and,The United States Of America.Since 1915 the silver engraved Stanley cup has been apart of the N.H.L hockey playoffs,and continues to coveted players today.

When Bobby Adedge was 18 years old, he had already won two Olympic gold medals. By the time he was twenty-two, he had been a well-known goalie on a prestigious professional hockey team. He had married an even more famous supermodel, who had her own budding career as an actress. He was thought to be smart, having invented the first dissolvable hockey puck, which was great for planet Earth and recycling, but not-so-good when hockey games went into overtime, the puck often melting onto the ice before the game was over. His inventor-phase was short-lived.

Ice hockey didn’t even exist in Costa Rica until 1996. A Canada native, Bruce Callow, helped hockey become a known sport in Costa Rica by making a plastic, makeshift hockey rink in the middle of the food court of the Real Cariari Shopping Center. "The rink was long and thin, and the pucks would sometimes fly off into the food court while people were eating," he told the Tico Times. The Real Cariari Shopping Center is home to the only ice skating rink in Central America. Bruce Callow was a major help in Costa Rica; he started hockey programs on synthetic ice in an amusement park in Belen and an abandoned warehouse in Santa

You know it’s hockey season when the entire province is cheering as the Montreal Canadians take the ice at the Bell Sports Complex. Even though the multi-purpose sports venue is mainly for NHL use, amateur and youth leagues also get their chance to carve up the ice.

First of all, the sport of Lacrosse, which is French for “the crosier”, is the national game of Canada at confederation and by 1867 the official rules had been established. More famously know in Canada is the sport of ice hockey which is a Canadian tradition and it’s origins can be traced to an old Irish game of Hurling. The Stanley Cup is awarded to the league's champion and is named after Frederick Arthur who was Canada’s governor-general in 1888. Many of Hockey’s greatest players are from Canada such as Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe. Wayne Gretzky was born in Ontario, Canada and started skating at 2 years old.

(Dolan page 21-26) Field hockey was played in 1870 in England, as well as Egypt and India. Although the rules for field hockey play a major role in the early evolution of ice hockey in Canada. But most students of the game doubt that field hockey was the forerunner of ice hockey, for the reason that both sports started around the same time. Despite its overwhelming popularity as primarily a woman's sport in North America, field hockey didn't arrive in America until 1901, (when Miss Constance Applebee of England arrived at Harvard summer school and organized a game with the group of students and teachers. (Dolan page 29-31) The English played a game called Bandy, which is a hockey-like game, who have been playing it as far back as the late 18th century and it is still played today in Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United States (Minnesota). Many of the stars of the early Soviet hockey teams had been Bandy players. It is played on a large sheet of ice with short sticks, a ball and large goals. The Dutch, long known for their ice skating ability, have played the game Kolven since the 1600's. It is played with a golf-like stick, a ball, and posts stuck in the ice for goals. Evidence of this game can be seen it in 17th century Dutch paintings. Emigrants from Holland who settled in New York City played the game in their new locale. Another hockey-like game played on both sides of the Atlantic was shinny. It was played on the frozen pans of North