Ice hockey (1983: Doomsday)
From Alternative History
Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover, specifically northern Europe, North America and Siberia. It has retained its popularity in survivor nations of northern North America and Europe, as well as Socialist Siberia.
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[edit] Pre-Doomsday
The sport had been popular pre-Doomsday in Canada, the United States, the Nordic and Baltic countries of Europe and in the Soviet Bloc countries of the USSR and Czechoslovakia.
Ice hockey was the national sport of Canada, which helped birth the largest and most powerful professional league pre-Doomsday, the North American National Hockey League (NHL). Professional leagues also existed in northern and central Europe, and their equivalents in the eastern bloc were popular and well-attended.
[edit] Post-Doomsday
As with other sports, play, even at the amateur, informal level gave way to matters of survival in the first years after Doomsday.
In the late 1980s, however, people in surviving nations within the colder climates of the northern hemisphere picked up their hockey equipment - sometimes made from whatever material was available - and once again played the sport.
In Siberia, government officials saw sports as something that could unify their country and give citizens something to occupy their attention amidst the still harsh realiities of life in a post-war society. So, ice hockey was one of the first sports formally restarted.
The Alpine Confederation and Nordic Union of nations saw professional leagues started on three occasions in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Alpine's fourth league, started in 1997, finally stuck. The Nordic League is actually three leagues (Iceland, Norway/Aland, and Sweden/Finland) that play separately and in a regional league (similar to association football's domestic leagues and UEFA Champions League).
In the 1990s, fans and surviving amateur and professional league officials started the Canadian Hockey League, in eastern Canada, intended as a successor to the old NHL at least in name, if not in talent. In former British Columbia, a similar effort led to the formation of the Victorian Hockey League.
In 1997, a government bill passed into law funded the creation of Superior's professional league.
It remains the official national winter sport of Canada (both in the eastern Remainder Provinces and the Provisional Government in the west), where the game enjoys immense popularity, and is also the official national sport of the Republic of Victoria.
Ice hockey also is currently played, at least at an organized amateur level, in Superior; Vermont; Aroostook; Saguenay; the North American Union; the Alpine Confederation; the Nordic Union of nations; North Germany; Prussia; Socialist Siberia; the ANZC; and Mexico. The sport's existence in Mexico and former Australia is directly attributed to the interest of refugees from the former United States.
[edit] Domestic and regional leagues
Organized professional leagues began to be restored in 1991, when the Nordic Union nations decided to form the Nordic Hockey League. Professional leagues in Canada, the Alpine Confederation followed suit, and in the late 1990s leagues were founded in Superior and Victoria. In the 2000s the Nordic League considered splitting into domestic leagues, but the member clubs decided their best scenario was staying together; a team from North Germany joined in 2008.
A professional-type league also exists in Socialist Siberia.
Prussia has had amateur leagues based in Berlin for the past five years, and is considering starting a professional league with help from Alpine clubs.
In 2009, businessmen from Manchester, Vermont attempted to apply for an expansion franchise in the Canadian Hockey League, only to run into resistance from Vermont government officials concerned about the effect on the nation's political status. Vermont later relented, and has given its blessing for Manchester to pursue a CHL franchise. The prospective owners, however, have spoken with CHL franchise owners and officials from both Saguenay and Superior about membership in a group called the Atlantic Hockey League for the 2010-11 or 2011-12 seasons. They have also proposed reviving the Stanley Cup (the trophy given to the champion of the old National Hockey League), awarding it to the winner of a playoff series between the Atlantic champion and the Victorian Hockey League champion. That has garnered some interest amongst fans and team owners, but the greatest concern, especially for Superior teams, is travel costs.
That concern has led to another proposal: the champions of the Canadian, Superior and Victorian leagues playing for a Stanley Cup-type championship, along with another team serving as host for a four-team tournament.
[edit] Sanctioning bodies
The International Ice Hockey Federation, headquartered in Zurich, Alpine Confederation, is the sport's international sanctioning body.
The IIHF plans to put on a World Cup tournament in 2011 in the Alpine Confederation, and to "plant" the sport in several nations over the next ten years, especially in the Celtic Alliance; Brazil; Japan; Singapore; and the United American Republic.
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