A Time-Lapse Look At NHL Expansion
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Even the casual hockey fan knows that the Chicago Blackhawks are part of the "Original Six."
What might be surprising is how long it took for the National Hockey League to evolve.
Ann Frazier, who does digital media work for the San Jose Sharks' and the team's American Hockey League affiliate, the Barracuda, created this nifty time-lapse showing the league's growth from 1917 to the present.
The "Original Six" teams -- the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs -- actually dates from the 1940s.
Frazier's video starts with four of the teams from 1917, when the NHL was created after the demise of the National Hockey Association.
The original league was composed of: the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Arenas, and Quebec Bulldogs, according the NHL's website. (Quebec's team did not actually play that year.)
For the course of the next 25 years, a handful of teams in Canada and the Northeast popped up and quickly died.
Then, the "Original Six" was formed in 1942 and the league stayed that way for another quarter century.
It wasn't until the 1960s the NHL began is aggressive expansion.