Hockey may be played on ice, but this game is one of the hottest and most exciting sports around. Hockey games are a rush of nonstop adrenaline where if you blink you’re almost guaranteed to miss out on the heart pounding action. There is nothing like sitting center ice watching your favorite team take on their opponent. Let Vivid Seats provide you with the truly unforgettable experience of live hockey of the NHL. You’ll leave amazed, energized and wanting more. Vivid Seats has all the best hockey tickets, and NHL tickets for any game in the United States or Canada. Purchase all your regular season hockey tickets, Stanley Cup Playoff tickets, and Stanley Cup Finals tickets.

In North America, hockey is governed by the National Hockey League (NHL). The league is made up of two conferences with three divisions in each. There are twenty-four teams playing in America and another six in Canada for a total of thirty teams. Even though there are fewer Canadian teams, Canadians themselves make up most of the players in the NHL. The league has its origin in Montreal, Quebec, with American and Eastern Europeans making up almost all of the rest of the players. While references to hockey are said to have been made throughout the world, the game’s true beginnings are given to students are McGill University in Montreal in 1875. The first teams were Canadian as was the first organized hockey league, the National Hockey Association. But as tensions arose between team owners, they finally managed to create a new league in 1917, the NHL.

The NHL hockey season consists of 82 games played mostly against the teams in their division, while also playing some teams not in their division. The division with which a certain team will play against is rotated each year. With each regular season win a team will be awarded two points. When a team wins in overtime or a shootout, the team will be awarded one point, while a loss earns the team no points. The winner of each division is the team with the highest number of points, as well as the teams with the next highest point total in each of the five conferences all qualify for the playoffs. You don’t want to miss any opportunity to see an NHL hockey playoff game. The are exhilarating! Get your Stanley Cup playoff tickets from Vivid Seats and truly live the experience. Each team in the Stanley Cup playoffs plays a single elimination tournament game against an opposing team. The last two standing winners play a best of seven series call the Stanley Cup Finals. The Stanley Cup finals are truly an experience of a lifetime. Let Vivid Seats get you in on the action with only the best Stanley Cup Finals Tickets.

The Stanley Cup is one of the oldest trophies in professional sports. It was named after Lord Stanley Preston, The Governor General of Canada who had an inherent love for the game. After his family became actively involved in the game, he decided it would be fun to have a championship cup that can be awarded to and held by the winning championship team. He purchased the large trophy from a silversmith in London for about the equivalent of $49 US dollars. The words “Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup” were engraved on it. Each year, the winner of the Finals was given the right to engrave their team name on the base ring of the cup trophy. By 1902, the base ring of the cup was full and teams would either have to buy another ring, or start engraving on other parts of the cup, which is exactly what happened. In 1907, the Montreal Wanderers engraved their name on the inside of the bowl, along with the name of every player on their team. Eventually, a second band was added to the cup. Teams began adding a new band each year until eventually, the entire trophy had to be redesigned. It now has 5 rings under it that teams can engrave their name on. When all five bands were finally engraved, the top band was removed and a new blank band was added to the bottom so that the trophy wouldn’t get any bigger.

Some of the players that made hockey famous in over the years include Wayne Gretsky, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, Bobby Orr, and many many more. Since the fall of communism over the eastern block, the NHL has now been able to draft players from Eastern European countries. While most of those players still represent their respective countries of origin in the Winter Olympics, the NHL has openly accepted those players and their style of hockey. The hockey rink is the only major professional sport that separates the game play from the fans by a wall around the rink as well as a clear plastic wall extending above the smaller wall. Sitting close to the wall is adrenalizing because due to the high speeds players move around the rink at, they often times stop themselves by running into the wall, or by running an opposing player into the wall. Sit as close as possible with NHL hockey tickets from Vivid Seats. It’s an experience that will be remembered for years.

During the years of 1992 and 2005, three labor strikes have plagued the NHL. The first was a 10-day players strike in 1992. The second was a lockout causing the 1994-1995 season to be reduced to only 48 games. But, the worst for hockey players and fans was the 2004-2005 season where players were locked out for a total of 310 days and effectively, the entire season. It marked the only time that a professional sports team lost an entire season because of labor strikes. Although, as a result, the 2005-2006 season had record number of hockey fans in attendance at the games. This has only increased the feverish excitement that people feel when going to see a live hockey game. Make sure to get all your NHL hockey tickets from Vivid Seats.