A.L. Heard

Last year I wrote Vampires Don’t Play Hockey as a fun way to play around with hockey romance during Halloween. This year I plan to do something similar, but for Christmas.

After playing around with some ideas, I settled on a Victorian era hockey romance. It’s set in London in 1886, and though obviously it’s historical fiction and I tweak things to make the story work, I’ve been doing a lot of research on the origins of hockey. I collected my major findings and figured I’d share them with you guys ahead of the story 🙂

• 1772: First recorded mention of “hockey”
• mid-1800s: ice hockey might have come from a game called “shinny” that British soldiers in Nova Scotia played
• March 3, 1875: First indoor ice hockey game; in Montreal, Canada
• January 7, 1876: the Glaciarium opens – this was the world’s first mechanically frozen ice rink; in London, England
• 1886: The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada formed, with teams in Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City
• 1893: Frederick Arthur (aka Lord Stanley of Preston and Governor-General of Canada) donates a trophy called the “Stanley Cup” to the league
• 1911: First mechanically frozen ice rink opens in Canada; Vancouver, British Columbia
• November 26, 1917: The NHL forms in Montreal

So by the time my story takes place in London, there are existing hockey leagues AND indoor ice rinks…but sadly, no NHL or Stanley Cup! Since this is historical fiction, I’ll also be taking a few liberties with the timeline 😉

So far I have my Halloween story, this Christmas story, and ideas for a Valentine’s Day story. What holiday do you think works really well with hockey romance?