The NHL is the major professional hockey league in North America, with 24 U.S.-based teams and six Canadian-based teams competing for the Stanley Cup. Other professional leagues in the U.S. include the American Hockey League and the ECHL. Additionally, nine U.S.-based teams compete in the three member leagues of the Canadian Hockey League.
USA Hockey is the official governing body for amateur hockey in the U.S. The United States Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Eveleth, Minnesota.
Although hockey does not enjoy the same popularity as football, baseball and basketball in the U.S., one of the nation's greatest ever sporting moments came during the 1980 Winter Olympics when the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union 4–3 in the first game of the medal round before going on to beat Finland to claim the gold medal. The game has since been called the "Miracle on Ice". Over the course of the last few years, many Americans have become more familiar with the great excitement, speed, and physical play of hockey, and it is gaining on the NBA in terms of popularity and is slowly becoming a more familiar sport to the average American family.
Historically, the vast majority of NHL players had come from Canada, with a small handful of Americans; only one European-trained player made his NHL debut during the 1942–67 Original Six era. After the NHL doubled in size in 1967, this began to change. During the 1970s and 1980s, the number of American-trained players dramatically increased, and the first wave of European players entered the league, mostly from Sweden and Finland with a number of defectors from the then-Communist states of Eastern Europe.
After the fall of communism in Europe, many players from the former Soviet bloc flocked to the NHL, primarily from the Czech Republic, Russia, and Slovakia. Western European players also significantly increased their presence following the fall of communism. The late first decade of the 21st century saw another surge in the number of American-trained players. Today, a slight majority of NHL players are Canadian, slightly more than 20% are Americans, and virtually all of the remainder are European-trained. (For a more complete discussion, see Origin of NHL players.) Notable NHL players in history include Wayne Gretzky, Eddie Shore, Stan Mikita, Guy Lafleur, Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, and Bobby Orr. Famous NHL players today include Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Martin Brodeur, Joe Thornton, Chris Pronger, Ryan Miller, Henrik Lundqvist, Patrick Kane, Brad Richards, Mike Richards, Derek Roy, Roberto Luongo, Patrick Sharp, Ryan Getzlaf, and Milan Lucic.
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