A journey through ice hockey’s history in Montréal

Hockey’s origins in Montréal

With stick-and-ball games dating back thousands of years to many cultures around the world, and evidence of hockey both on a field and on ice going back to the 14th and 17th century respectively, the earliest origins of hockey don’t begin in Montréal. Organized ice hockey, however? That’s another story.

On March 3, 1875, the Montreal Gazette announced that “Hockey will be played at the Victoria Skating Rink this evening, between two nines chosen from among the members. Good fun may be expected, as some of the players are reputed to be exceedingly expert at the game.”

That evening was notable for a few reasons, starting with the "flat circular piece of wood" that replaced the ball, introduced to assuage fears of it "flying about in too lively a manner." The night ended 2–1 for the side captained by Nova Scotian James George Aylwin Creighton over the one led by Charles E. Torrance. Most notable of all, however, was that this event is regarded as the first game of organized ice hockey.

Was it the first organized game of ice hockey of all time? Yes and no, as newspapers in England also report games of ice hockey in the early 1870s, but the sport took off in Montréal after that match with more exhibitions and the introduction of uniforms. In less than a decade, the first Montréal Winter Carnival hockey tournament arrived in 1883, a four-team affair played partly outdoors on the St. Lawrence between McGill University, the Montreal Victorias, the Quebec Hockey Club, and the Montreal Hockey Club. McGill took home first place.

The sport's development continued to snowball from there, often headlining the city's annual winter carnivals, which eventually led to a season-long Montréal tournament that some historians count as the first hockey league, though it ran without a name and on straight elimination. That in turn produced the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, founded at the Victoria Skating Rink on December 8, 1886. It lasted twelve seasons, and its 1893 champion, the Montreal Hockey Club, became the first team to get its name on the Stanley Cup. 

1886 was also when the first international hockey game in the world took place. Montréal's winter carnival had been cancelled that year in the wake of the smallpox epidemic that tore through the city the previous autumn, so planners took the game south to Burlington, Vermont. Over five days in late February, two Montréal clubs, the Montreal HC and the Crystals, played a round robin against the local Van Ness House side on a rink cut into Lake Champlain. The second game of the tournament, Montreal HC against Van Ness House, was the first time two countries met on the ice. Montreal HC took gold and the Crystals took silver.

The Canadian rules of these games instigated in Montréal and elsewhere in the country began to be adopted in Europe. This eventually led to professional hockey as we know it, beginning with the National Hockey Association in 1909. The NHA didn't so much collapse as get abandoned. Five of its six owners, worn down by Toronto's Eddie Livingstone, walked away and built a new league without him, reconvening at Montréal's Windsor Hotel to found the National Hockey League on November 26, 1917.

Enter the Montréal Canadiens

Many of Montréal’s claims to hockey history fame may be contested when it comes to who put a puck to ice and bandied it around for points, but make no mistake: the oldest continuously operating professional hockey team in the world plays here. The Canadiens were founded on December 4, 1909 as a charter member of the NHA, they're one of the Original Six, and they remain the only NHL franchise that predates the league itself.

Even the team’s nickname and logo speak to this long history in professional hockey. When the team was part of the NHL’s launch in 1917, they went by the name of the Club de Hockey Canadien; this origin story is still referred to today with the team’s jerseys still sporting stylized Cs with an H in the middle. That H is widely assumed to stand for Habitants, the term for the settlers who farmed New France, and by extension Habs. It doesn't. It stands for Hockey. The nickname arrived on its own track: the earliest known print use came from Le Devoir on February 9, 1914, describing a Canadiens win over Toronto.

While every Canadian city roots for their home team, the Canadiens’ victories make them monolithic. Every decade of the Canadiens in the NHL is filled with trials, tribulations and—most of all—victories: With 24 Stanley Cup championships under their belts, the Canadiens have won more than any other organization, and the team has appeared in the Stanley Cup finals for a total of 35 times to date, more than any other team. 

More than 60 players and personnel who came through the organization have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, from Maurice “Rocket” Richard to the late Guy Lafleur to Shea Weber, whose 2024 induction is the most recent.

The generation after them is still writing its chapter. Carey Price's decade in net ended in 2022, and Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield lead the group that followed. The franchise keeps its hold on Montrealers and on fans well beyond the city. 

How to experience hockey year-round

With its wealth of history and the stacked victories and struggles of the Montréal Canadiens, hockey has become downright foundational in Montréal. The sport turns the Bell Centre into a mecca for just under 21,000 fans a night, and sports bars in Montréal get packed to the brim when the stakes get high enough in games; bronze sculptures and statues have been erected in homage to great players and symbols; and part of the Windsor Hotel where the NHL was founded still stands, though it trades as Le Windsor now, an office and event venue rather than a hotel. 

As for everyday appreciation, the city keeps more than 200 outdoor rinks going when the weather cooperates, plus dozens of indoor arenas year-round. Rest assured: many still have to wait their turn to get on the ice.