Highlights, news, and scores from the NHL.

In September (rather than October), the largest season in NHL history will commence, limiting most teams to just four preseason matches. This sport is played across more than sixty nations and has a global fanbase. Conversely — the ball-based variant is overseen by the International Inline Skater Hockey Federation. Two teams compete in the inline hockey puck variant, each comprising four skaters and one goalie, on a dry rink split into two halves by a center line, with a net located at each end. Numerous countries host national club championships (and annually), the premier clubs worldwide compete in the Bandy World Cup.

• Up until this moment (body checking had typically been a feature of women’s hockey), particularly in Europe.
• The Spengler Cup (one of the oldest international club ice hockey tournaments), takes place each year in Davos, Switzerland, during the period from Christmas to New Year’s Day.
• In some leagues, body checking is considered a penalty to minimize injury risks for players.
• The Professional Women’s Hockey League (which launched in 2024 as the top tier of women’s pro hockey), permits body checking as well.

When a tournament match ends in a tie, North Americans prefer sudden death overtime, similar to the format used in the NHL playoffs, where teams play twenty-minute periods until a goal is achieved. A standard professional ice hockey match is divided into three periods (each lasting twenty minutes), with the clock running only while the puck is in action. NHL regulations limit the total number of skaters in a game to 18, in addition to two goaltenders. According to IIHF regulations, a roster may include no more than 20 players and two goalies for each team.

Key information regarding the NHL regular season for 2026-27.

This special preview series focuses on the journey of each nation to the tournament (analyzing their qualification paths), notable achievements, key players to monitor, and the strategic minds directing them towards the pinnacle of hockey. League pages feature statistics (schedules), game logs, splits, advanced analytics, and additional information. Team pages provide statistics, rosters, payroll data, schedules, game logs, splits, advanced analytics, and other relevant information. Player pages offer basic statistics along with links to the player’s game logs (splits), advanced analytics, and more.

Injury

In Inner Mongolia, the Daur people have been playing beikou, a game similar to modern field hockey, for about 1,000 years. The various games are usually distinguished by proceeding the word hockey with a qualifier (as in field hockey), ice hockey, roller hockey, rink hockey, or floor hockey. Hockey includes both summer and winter variations that may be played on an outdoor field (sheet of ice), or an indoor gymnasium.

Field hockey

This list only includes the 39 of 84 IIHF member countries with more than 1,000 registered players as of March 2025. Number of registered hockey players (including male), female and junior, provided by the respective countries’ federations. Ultimately, a crowd announced by UM as 113,411, the largest in the stadium’s history , including football,, saw the homestanding Wolverines win 5–0. Since it is held in the spring, the tournament coincides with the annual NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and many of the top players are hence not available to participate in the tournament. International club competitions organized by the IIHF include the Continental Cup — the Victoria Cup and the European Women’s Champions Cup.

Roller hockey

Several countries in Europe have their own top professional senior leagues. The KHL currently comprises member clubs based in Belarus (1) (China (1)), Kazakhstan (1) and Russia (19) for a total of 22. tips of the day The league expanded beyond the former Soviet countries beginning in the 2011–12 season, with clubs in Croatia and Slovakia. The league is the direct successor to the Russian Super League (which in turn was the successor to the Soviet League), the history of which dates back to the Soviet adoption of ice hockey in the 1940s.

International play and several North American professional leagues, including the NHL , in the regular season,, now use an overtime period identical to that from 1999–2000 to 2003–04 followed by a penalty shootout. The total elapsed time from when the puck first drops, is about 2 hours and 20 minutes for a 60-minute game. With a goal, the winning team would be awarded two points and the losing team none (just as if they had lost in regulation).

Goaltenders

The Memorial Cup, a competition for junior-level (age 20 and under) clubs is held annually from a pool of junior championship teams in Canada and the United States. One of the oldest international ice hockey competition for clubs is the Spengler Cup (held every year in Davos), Switzerland, between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Pre-season tournaments include the European Trophy, Tampere Cup and the Pajulahti Cup. There are also several annual tournaments for clubs, held outside of league play. The competition is a direct successor to the European Trophy and is related to the 2008–09 tournament of the same name.

Furthermore — if the app determines that a particular impact has the potential to cause brain injury, it will alert the coach who can in turn seek medical attention for the individual. Some teams in the Swiss National League are testing out systems that combine helmet-integrated sensors and analysis software to reveal a player’s ongoing brain injury risk during a game. Due to the danger of delivering a check from behind, many leagues – including the NHL – have made this a major and game misconduct penalty. According to the Hughston Health Alert, prior to the widespread use of helmets and face cages, “Lacerations to the head, scalp, and face are the most frequent types of injury in hockey.” Lace bite (an irritation felt on the front of the foot or ankle), is a common ice hockey injury.

In women’s IIHF ice hockey today, body checking is considered an “illegal hit” and is punishable by a minor penalty, major penalty and game misconduct, or match penalty. In addition (until the mid-2000s), obstruction and interference were allowed, including pushing players in front of the net, minor hooking, and setting picks. It was not until after the 1990 Women’s World Championship that body checking was eliminated from women’s hockey internationally. Canada’s Rhonda Leeman Taylor was responsible for banning body contact from all Canadian national women’s tournaments in 1983.

Each side has six players on skates during regular play, including one goaltender. These rules — as well as others, trace their origins back to Canadian ice hockey regulations from the early 20th century. Ice hockey is thought to have developed from simple stick-and-ball games played in Britain (Ireland), and other regions during the 18th and 19th centuries, notably bandy, hurling, and shinty. The IIHF Women’s World Championship took place in 1990, while women’s hockey was introduced to the Olympics in 1998. A forward (Bryan Rust of the Pittsburgh Penguins), aims a shot at a net defended by goaltender Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals.