Hockey Hall of Fame Saturday

Last Saturday we finally made it to one of the top tourist attractions in Toronto, the Hockey Hall of Fame!

The good ol' Stanley Cup

After living in Toronto for the past 1.5 years, and after Luke has lived in Canada for 4 years, we figured it was about time we checked out the Hockey Hall of Fame. We may not be massive hockey fans, but Luke used to play "ice hockey" growing up and we have been known to watch a game here and there, so we were excited to check out what all the hype was about.

There is construction going at the Hockey Hall of Fame on so we had to enter through the exit and were absolutely overwhelmed by all of the memorabilia. We meandered to the entrance to get started... 

There are no words to describe this photo.

We started off by learning about the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, all the way back to 1917 when the team was known as the Arenas, as part of the Maple Leafs Centennial Exhibit. The team has a storied history as one of the original teams in the NHL. We took a look at the timeline of the NHL, which was accompanied by jerseys of various teams throughout its history. From 1942 until 1967, there were only six teams, and it was only in 1967 that the NHL had its first expansion. It was cool to see the old styles of jerseys from the Maple Leafs as well as other teams, especially ones that no longer exist. ​

We were also impressed that in addition to the NHL, the Hockey Hall of Fame also had a section on Diversity in Hockey which included women, minorities, and people with disabilities. One of our favourite anecdotes was about when women started playing hockey in the late 19th century, they wore long flowing skirts and used these skirts tactically to hide the puck when they were playing. The Hockey Hall of Fame was also very open about past discrimination against minorities (and women), which we thought was respectable. It's all part of the history, after all. 

As we walked through the complex, we walked past the exhibition cases for every NHL and corresponding AHL team (although, sadly, they didn't have a St. John's Ice Caps jersey on display!).

We ended up in the NHLPA Game Time activity centre with interactive games where you shoot pucks at the screen and other ones  where the screen shoots pucks at you. The line up was too long, and was full of kids... so we decided to move on. 

After looking at some exhibits on some of the biggest hockey legends, we went to see the Stanley Cup to finish off our visit! We really enjoyed our time at the Hockey Hall of Fame and for super hockey fans, it would be even more amazing to see hockey history.

Here are some more photos from our afternoon:

(SLIDESHOW)