Line (ice hockey) of players for different situations. Because of the use of lines in hockey, ice hockey rosters have relatively large rosters compared to the number of players on the ice (23 for a typical NHL team, with 20 active on game day and six on the ice at any given time). Only gridiron football has a larger relative roster size (the NFL has 53 players, 46 active on gameday, 11 on the field). Line (ice hockey) In ice hockey, a line is a group of forwards that play in a group, or "shift", during a game. A complete forward line consists
Ice hockey kept); the one added rule explained how disputes should be settled. The McGill University Hockey Club, the first ice hockey club, was founded in 1877 (followed by the Quebec Hockey Club in 1878 and the Montreal Victorias in 1881). In 1880, the number of players per side was reduced from nine to seven. The number of teams grew, enough to hold the first "world championship" of ice hockey at Montreal's annual Winter Carnival in 1883. The McGill team won the tournament and was awarded the "Carnival Cup". The game was divided into thirty-minute halves. The positions were now named: left