The NHL once held games on Christmas Day, but the practice ended after the 1971-72 season.
The league’s first Christmas game was in 1920 between the Toronto St. Pat’s and the Montreal Canadiens.
From 1926 to 1971, the NHL scheduled games on Christmas Day for 45 consecutive years.
Today, the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement includes a holiday break from Dec. 24-26 with no games, practices, or travel.
Unlike the NBA and NFL, the NHL doesn’t have games on Christmas Day. However, there was a time when there was NHL action on Dec. 25.
In the first three years of the NHL’s existence, there were no games on Christmas Day, but that changed in 1920. The Toronto St. Pat’s defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 in the league’s first-ever game on Christmas.
For the following three years, the NHL didn’t schedule a game on Dec. 25.
In 1924, those festivities returned with two games on the timetable. This time, the Hamilton Tigers beat the St. Pat’s 8-1, and the Boston Bruins were silenced in a 5-0 loss to the Canadiens.
After that, they skipped another year. But 1926 marked the beginning of a 45-year streak of NHL action on Christmas Day, which lasted until 1971.
With games during a big holiday, some wild scorelines came to fruition.
The biggest win came in 1930 when the Detroit Falcons defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 10-1. Hockey Hall of Famer Ebbie Goodfellow scored four goals and five points in that contest.
On the same day, the Bruins won 8-0 against the Philadelphia Quakers. The Quakers would go on to have one of the worst seasons in NHL history. They finished the campaign with a 4-36-4 record and a .136 points percentage.
A notable Christmas Day was in 1967, when the NHL had its first major expansion. The league introduced six new teams: the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues.
The highest-scoring game that day was between the Bruins and Seals, which Boston won 6-3. Boston’s Derek Sanderson and Pittsburgh’s Andy Bathgate scored the most points on this day, each recording two goals and a helper.
The last time the NHL had games on Christmas Day was in the 1971-72 season. There were six games on that day, and all teams were in action except for the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Black Hawks.
Since then, there have been zero games on Dec. 25. These days, teams aren’t allowed to play, practice or even travel during the holiday break from Dec. 24 to 26.
While other leagues in North American sports use Christmas as a time to set up marquee matchups and create a big event, the NHL remains true to giving the players, staff and arena workers time off during the break to spend time with their families.
Game data is according to hockey-reference.com.
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