Canada is widely regarded as the home of ice hockey because that is where the official rules were developed and the game was first played in an organized way. Most often, Montreal is mentioned as the place where the game was born. In Montreal, members of McGill University Football Club played an exhibition match in 1875. Ice hockey was imported to Europe in the late 1800's. The International Ice Hockey Federation was founded in May 1908 in Paris by the national representatives of France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Great Britain

Canada and Latvia at the
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics in 1936.
Photo: Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame.