For years, the great white north was the bastion of winter sports and of ice hockey in particular. While our Canadian brethren lived and breathed the sport for decades, with the exception of the Northeast, the United States had remained largely immune to the hockey virus.
The "Original Six" National Hockey League (NHL) teams plodded along from the '40s to the '60s with no appreciable increase in interest (read on for the answer to the trivia question, "Who are the Original Six?"). These teams played in storied old arenas with qualities similar to the players who pioneered the game: uncomplicated, rough, and at times lacking control.