And the stories do grow....

There used to be an NHL team in Brooklyn, New York. In 1941, an NHL team named the Americans became the Brooklyn Americans. They played only one season of pro hockey before dropping out of the league in 1942.

When its time for a faceoff in hockey, the official quickly drops the puck between the sticks of two opposing players. However, before 1914, officials had to actually place the puck on the ice with their hands. That rule led to a lot of officials with sore fingers and broken hands. The faceoff rule was changed in 1914, allowing them to just drop the puck.

In 1950, the Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings squared off in the best-of-seven series for the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately for the Rangers, the circus had been booked to play at MSG at the same time the Stanley Cup Playoffs were going on. The circus and the Stanley Cup Playoffs both couldn't be held at the Garden, so hockey had to go! The Rangers could not play a single game of the 1949-50 Stanley Cup finals on their home ice. Forced to choose a neutral site, they played what were supposed to be their home games at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. The Rangers played as well as they could without any home-ice advantage, but eventually lost the Stanley Cup to the Red Wings four games to three.

Coach Lester Patrick cooked up a crazy way that he thought would keep his New York Rangers healthy during the 1929-30 season. Patrick ordered everyone on his team to drink a glass of hot water when they woke up in the morning.

New York Ranger goalie Lorne Worsley once stopped an incredible 269 shots from opposing players in the span of only six games. It happened during the 1962-63 NHL season.

Everyone knows that Wayne Gretzky is one of hockey's greatest players. But he is also a good baseball player. In 1980 during hockey's off-season, the 19-year-old Gretzky played for the Brantford Red Sox of the Inter-County Major League, a semipro league in southern Ontario. Gretzky, who batted over .400 that year, attracted the interest of the Toronot Blue Jays, but Wayne decided to stick with hockey.

A modern hockey team is made up of six players: a center, 2 wingers, two defensemen, and a goalie. However, back in the early days of organzied hockey, teams played with seven players on a side. The seventh player was called a "rover", and he went anywhere and everywhere, roaming around the outdoor rinks that most teams played on in those days. In 1910 the National Hockey Association (the forerunner of the NHL) became the first league to require its teams to skate with only six players on a side. The NHL has used six-player teams since its birth in 1917.

Info courtesy of Hockey Humor