Stanley Cup in the context of "Victoria Skating Rink"

Ice hockey or simply known as hockey in North America, is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. The two opposing teams score by using their ice hockey sticks to control and advance a vulcanized rubber hockey puck, and then shooting it into the net of the other team, each goal is worth one point. The team with the highest score after an hour of gameplay is declared the winner; ties are broken in overtime or a shootout. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, including a goaltender. It is a full contact game and one of the more physically demanding team sports.

The modern sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada, most notably in Montreal, where the first indoor game was played on March 3, 1875. It draws influence from shinty which originated in Scotland, as well as field hockey which originated in England. Some characteristics of ice hockey, such as the length of the ice rink and the use of a puck, have been retained to this day. Amateur ice hockey leagues began in the 1880s, and professional ice hockey originated around 1900. The Stanley Cup, emblematic of ice hockey club supremacy, was initially commissioned in 1892 as the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" and was first awarded in 1893 to recognise the Canadian amateur champion and later became the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL). In the early 1900s, the Canadian rules were adopted by the Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace, in Paris, France, the precursor to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The sport was played for the first time at the Olympics during the 1920 Summer Games—today it is a mainstay at the Winter Olympics. In 1994, ice hockey was officially recognized as Canada's national winter sport.

The National Hockey League (NHL; French: Ligue nationale de hockey [liɡ nɑsjɔnal də ɔkɛ], LNH) is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams, 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional ice hockey league in the world. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The NHL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.

The NHL was organized at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal on November 26, 1917, after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which had been founded in 1909 at Renfrew, Ontario. The NHL immediately took the NHA's place as one of the leagues that contested for the Stanley Cup in an annual interleague competition before a series of league mergers and foldings left the NHL as the only league competing for the Stanley Cup in 1926.

Pavel Valeryevich Datsyuk (Russian: Па́вел Вале́рьевич Дацю́к, IPA: [ˈpavʲɪl dɐˈtsuk]; born 20 July 1978) is a Russian former professional ice hockey player, who played for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2001 to 2016. Nicknamed the "Magic Man", Datsyuk was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history, and was the only active player on the list outside of the NHL at the time of announcement.

Datsyuk won the Stanley Cup in 2002 and 2008 with the Red Wings, and the Gagarin Cup in 2017 with SKA Saint Petersburg. He was part of the Russia men's national ice hockey team at the Olympic Games in 2002, 2006, 2010 and was team captain in 2014 and 2018. With his gold medal win at the 2018 Olympics, Datsyuk joined the Triple Gold Club.

Bryan Peter Rust (born May 11, 1992) is an American professional ice hockey right winger for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017 and is the fourth longest tenured member of the organization aside from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.

Braden Holtby (born September 16, 1989) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He previously played for the Washington Capitals, Vancouver Canucks and Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected in the fourth round, 93rd overall, of the 2008 NHL entry draft by the Capitals, with whom he spent the first ten seasons of his career.

After a couple years of development, Holtby became the Capitals' starting goaltender during the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season. Beginning during the 2014–15 season, Holtby won at least 40 games in three consecutive seasons. In 2016, Holtby tied the league record for most wins by a goaltender in a single season (shared with Martin Brodeur) with 48 and was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender. The following year, he won the William M. Jennings Trophy for helping the Capitals allow the fewest goals in the league. In 2018, Holtby backstopped the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history.

The Stanley Cup playoffs (French: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is the annual elimination tournament to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, and the league champion of the National Hockey League (NHL). The four-round, best-of-seven tournament is held after the NHL's regular season. Eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season points totals. The final round is known as the Stanley Cup Final, which matches the two conference champions.

The NHL is the only one of the big four major leagues in Canada and the United States to refer to its playoffs by the name of its championship trophy, a tradition which has arisen because the Stanley Cup is North America's oldest professional sports trophy, dating back more than two decades before the establishment of the NHL. Originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy was donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, then–Governor General of Canada, initially as a "challenge trophy" for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. From 1893 when the first Cup was awarded to 1914, the champions held onto the Cup until they either lost their league title to another club, or a champion from another league issued a formal challenge and defeated the reigning Cup champion in a final game to claim their win. Professional teams then first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. Starting in 1915, the Cup was officially contested between the champion of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the champion of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). After a series of league mergers and folds, including the 1917 establishment of the NHL as a successor to the NHA, the Stanley Cup became the championship trophy of the NHL prior to the 1926–27 season.

Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (15 January 1841 – 14 June 1908), known as Hon. Frederick Stanley until 1886 and Lord Stanley of Preston between 1886–1893, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as Colonial Secretary from 1885 to 1886 and Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. An avid sportsman, he built Stanley House Stables in England and is famous in North America for presenting Canada with the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy in ice hockey. Stanley was also one of the original inductees of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Montreal Hockey Club of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was a senior-level men's amateur ice hockey club, organized in 1884. They were affiliated with the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA) and used the MAAA 'winged wheel' logo. The team was the first to win the Stanley Cup, in 1893, and subsequently refused the cup over a dispute with the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. The club is variously known as 'Montreals', 'Montreal AAA' and 'Winged wheel' in literature.

The team played in several early ice hockey leagues, including the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada from 1886 until 1898, winning its championship seven times. The team competed in purely amateur leagues until 1906. After two seasons of playing with professionals, the club left its league, the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association to continue playing in amateur competition. It would go on to win the Allan Cup in 1930, the successor of the Stanley Cup as the trophy given to Canadian amateur hockey champions. In 1932, the club would leave the MAAA association and become the Montreal Royals, eventually becoming a 'semi-professional' team in the Quebec Senior Hockey League.