Modern ice hockey began in Montreal in 1875, and on 14 June 2026 the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup for the second time, with their captain Jordan Staal named playoffs MVP.
Ice hockey grew out of older stick-and-ball games, including bandy, hurling and shinty, according to Wikipedia’s history of the sport, which says it combined contributions from British, Scottish, Irish and Dutch settlers who played on frozen North American waters. Montreal became the birthplace of the modern game. On 3 March 1875 the first organised indoor game was played at the Victoria Skating Rink between teams of nine, including McGill University students, and the game used a flat circular piece of wood in place of a ball.
Organisation followed within a few years. McGill University Hockey Club, the first ice hockey club, was founded in 1877, and a first world championship was held at the Montreal Winter Carnival in 1883. The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was organised in 1886, according to the history.
The sport’s most famous trophy dates from this period. Governor General Lord Stanley bought a silver bowl in 1892-93 as a trophy, and it was first awarded to the Montreal Hockey Club in 1893, according to the same history. The Stanley Cup has been competed for ever since.
The game became international and professional in the early 20th century. The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League employed the first professionals in 1902, and the International Professional Hockey League was formed in 1904. The Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace was founded in 1908 for international competition, and Great Britain won the first European championship in 1910, according to the history.
The same year, 1910, the National Hockey Association was established in Montreal, and in 1917 it was reorganised as the National Hockey League. The Boston Bruins began play in 1924 as the first NHL team based in the United States. Ice hockey became an Olympic sport in the 1920s, and many bandy players switched to hockey, according to the history.
The 2026 Final was won by the Carolina Hurricanes, who beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2, clinching with a 3-0 win in Game 6 on 14 June, according to NHL.com and The Hockey News. It was the club’s second championship. Their captain Jordan Staal won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP, becoming the oldest player to win it at 37 years and 277 days, according to the reports.
Staal scored in each of the first five games of the Final, tying an NHL record, and scored a franchise-record six goals in the Final, finishing the playoffs with 12 points, eight goals and four assists in 19 games, according to the same reports. The Hurricanes had a record of 16-3 in the playoffs.
The story runs from nine-a-side teams at McGill to a modern Cup Final in 151 years, from 1875 to 2026, a count by Delima News. The sources reviewed do not give details of when the Hurricanes first won, so only the fact that 2026 was their second title is reported.
Image: A Stanley Cup parade (file photo; a stand-in image, not from the 2026 celebrations). Photo: Michael Saffle from Columbia, MD, USA / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
