Iain Fyffe
Hockey fact-checker
Let's have a look-see.One of the alternative claims, outlined in December of 1933, in The Gazette by D.A.L MacDonald:
"sometimes with as many as ten men aside." Certainly plausible, recorded games have up to nine a side, so ten would not be a stretch.
"A match was won when one team scored." No evidence of this in any recorded match.
"The rules usually called for a two-hour limit." In early recorded game, 90 minutes was the usual time.
"The longest game on record was one which lasted six hours and 20 minutes." You'd think if it was on record, that they'd provide some detail to confirm this.
"McGill had a hockey team in 1880...but it was not organized as such and it was not hockey they played in those days, [Smith] emphatically states." No suggestion of what he thought they were playing.
"Games were played in the old Victoria rink and any number of players could take part. About 70 figured in one contest." The Victoria rink was about the size of a standard NHL rink. I might agree with Mr. Smith that if there were that many players on that surface, it would not be hockey that they were playing.
"[Smith] joined the Victorias (he writes) in 1884 and the club won the carnival that year." The Victorias did win the Carnival in 1884, but there's no record of Smith being on that team. He did play with the Montreal HC in 1885, but the article claims this team did not exist until 1886.
"M.A.A.A. played Quebec in the semi-final of the carnival tourney and the game went 6 hours and 20 minutes. The contest started on a Friday but had to be halted and was decided by the fourth "sudden death" rule at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. They plated McGill again Saturday night." So here's that game they mentioned before. They don't specify which year it was. It had the AAA playing against Quebec in a semi-final match, however, which means it must have been in 1883, since that was the only year Quebec ever participated in the carnival. So the AAA, which the article claims did not exist until 1886, played Quebec in 1883. Well, the Montreal HC did play Quebec on a Friday in the 1883 Carnival. And it was a tie game. But somehow the game report failed to mention that it took so long, instead saying "Play was had for two half hours, with an intermission of ten minutes....at the end of the hour it was declared 'a draw.'" (Montreal Daily Witness 27 Jan 1883). And then Quebec played a second match that evening.
"In 1879, sticks were not to be raised above the knee. In 1883, a regulation was passed that sticks were not to be raised above the waist." In fact, in 1877 stick were not to be raised above the shoulder, a rule that persisted for many years.
Fairly typical results when relying on 50-plus-year-old memories.
My information establishes that the rules text published in 1877 exactly matches the Hockey Association code. It's going to take a heck of a something to demonstrate that it was coincidence.Well your information is far from complete.
All available newspapers have been thoroughly searched, mostly by Pat Houda and Carl Giden, who despite being Swedish have assembled more relevant information about early hockey in Canada probably than all Canadian researchers combined.The 1876 Gazette excerpt is not the complete article, so if you have the complete article support the bolded. Nor was any evidence presented of cross-checking against other Montreal newspapers French and English. French would be particularly interesting.
I have already supported the bolded, and explained why it's support. I'm not going to do it again. Read the thread.