Hockey Lessons to Get Ready for the Stanley Cup Finals

Standing three feet tall and weighing about 35 pounds, the Stanley Cup is considered one of the most prestigious trophies in all sports. Why? Because of the dedication it takes to win after 82 regular-season games and four best-of-seven playoff rounds. And don’t even get us started on the potential for sudden-death overtime games. 

Help your students get excited for the action-packed Stanley Cup Finals series with these engaging hockey lessons:

• Go on a power play with engaging ELA hockey lessons
• Break the ice with eco-conscious science lessons

[Go on a power play with engaging ELA hockey lessons](id-ela)

What do your students know about hockey and the NHL? Help them build background knowledge on the sport and its playoff run using ELA lessons:

Debate if athletic competition is good

Many people love watching sports, especially during the playoffs when the stakes are high. They may make brackets to predict which team will win or make silly bets with friends about a game or series outcome. But is all this devotion to winning and competition healthy? 

Use this hockey lesson as a debate topic for your students. To help them form their opinions and strengthen their arguments, share articles on topics like:

• The reaction to the Washington Capitals’ first franchise Stanley Cup win in 2018.
• How the Pittsburgh Penguins use their home scoring stats for good by partnering with a local nonprofit to plant a tree for every goal scored.
• A profile on PWHL star Sarah Nurse, cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse, and how she’s quickly becoming one of the faces of the new women’s professional league.

See how women are changing professional hockey

More and more women are joining NHL teams as scouts, executives, and coaches. Teach students about how these and other women are changing the face of professional hockey with articles on topics like:

• How women in professional hockey and other sports are joining the SheIS initiative to increase resources, viewership, and attendance at their games.
• How there is an increasing number of women joining leadership roles in the NHL and how it’s encouraging more diverse involvement in the sport.
• See how the NHL is gaining admirers from around the world and growing the diversity of the sport’s fan base.

Decide if contact sports should be banned

Hockey, like many other sports, promotes full-contact play. But is this good for the athletes’ bodies? Students can debate if sports should stop allowing rough play by examining resources like:

• A video of the consequences of contact sports on young people’s health.
• An article that discusses how hits to the head—even those that don’t cause a concussion—can hurt young athletes’ brains.
• An article that explores whether concussion symptoms last longer in women than in men.

[Break the ice with eco-conscious science lessons](id-sci)

Science affects sports more than your students may realize. Use STEM lessons to help students explore how topics like states of matter and climate change can impact the game of hockey:

See how the NHL is battling climate change

Does climate change have anything to do with sports? Athletes, spectators, and even the executives of professional sports leagues say yes. Use this lesson to teach students about climate change and its effect on sports. Throughout the lesson, you can cover:

• How climate change affects a variety of indoor and outdoor sports, from hockey to golf and even the Winter Olympics.
• What the NHL is doing to combat climate change and preserve the game's future, particularly for its outdoor events such as the Winter Classic, Heritage Classic, and Stadium Series.
• Extend the lesson by asking students to brainstorm ways to prevent climate change in their town and write a proposal to town leaders to make one of their initiatives happen.

Learn how fast ice melts on different surfaces.

The Stanley Cup Finals—and all other hockey games—need ice to play. But with the last series of the year happening in May and June (and sometimes also in the desert!), what does that mean for the playing surface? 

Use this lesson to teach students how and when ice melts, and see if where you live could affect the ice quality at a Stanley Cup Finals game:

• Look at the three phases of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—and how water can take all three forms.
• Discover the phase changes between states of matter and consider what they might mean for making and maintaining ice at a hockey game.
• Explore why salt melts ice to teach students about temperature and freezing point.

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