Sergei Makarov was on the gold-winning Soviet national ice hockey team in the World Championships in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1989 and 1990. In 1989, he was allowed by the Soviet Union to join the National Hockey League and the Calgary Flames, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as "rookie" of the year at the age of 31. As a result, a new rule was introduced (the Makarov Rule) so that only players under 26 qualify for the award.

On December 16, 2014, Nick Bjugstad scored the game-winning goal in the longest shootout in NHL history to lift the Florida Panthers over the Washington Capitals 2-1. Bjugstad's goal came in the 20th round, beating Braden Holtby on the right side. The previous record was 15 rounds.

On November 3, 2007, legendary New York Islanders coach Al Arbour came out of retirement for one night to coach his 1,500th game for the Islanders. At age 75, he became the oldest man ever to coach a National Hockey League game. The Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2, giving Arbour his 740th win. He is the only coach in NHL history to coach 1,500 games for the same team.

Marguerite Norris became president of the Detroit Red Wings after her father James E. Norris died in 1952, making her the first female chief executive in NHL history. She also became the first woman to have her name engraved on the Stanley Cup when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in both the 1954 and 1955 seasons.

Hall of Fame goaltender Roy "Shrimp" Worters was notable for recording 66 shutouts in his career and being, at 5'3" tall, the shortest player ever to play in the NHL.

The club was founded in 1993 by The Walt Disney Company as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a name based on the 1992 hockey film The Mighty Ducks. Disney sold the franchise in 2005 to Henry and Susan Samueli, who along with then-general manager Brian Burke, changed the name of the team to the Anaheim Ducks before the 2006-07 season.

The third game of the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals was the legendary Fog Game. Due to unusual heat in Buffalo in May 1975 and the lack of air conditioning in the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, parts of the game were played in heavy fog that made players, officials, and the puck invisible to many spectators. To make things even weirder, a bat in the arena flew above and around the players for the majority of the game ... that is, until Buffalo Sabres center Jim Lorentz spotted the bat flying across the rink during a face-off and killed it with his stick.

In 1958 the Boston Bruins called African-Canadian Willie O'Ree up from the Quebec Aces, not knowing that he was effectively blind in his right eye due to being hit with a hockey puck two years earlier. O'Ree managed to keep his injury a secret and appeared in 48 games for the Bruins. O'Ree would later note that "racist remarks were much worse in the U.S. cities than in Toronto and Montreal," and that fans would yell, 'Go back to the South' and 'How come you're not picking cotton?' "It didn't bother me, he said. "I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, that was their problem, not mine."

On January 17, 2012, the Tampa Bay Lightning mascot sprayed a Boston Bruins fan with Silly String. The fan took offense and pushed ThunderBug down. Thousands saw it on YouTube. The team did not condone ThunderBug's actions, and the performer was fired for inappropriate use of Silly String.

During his rookie campaign in 2005-06, Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward not only became the first starting goaltender to win the Stanley Cup as a rookie since Patrick Roy in 1986, he also became the first rookie goaltender to both play and record a shutout in the Finals since Roy, tied the rookie record for wins in the playoffs (15), previously held by Roy and Ron Hextall, and became the first rookie goalie to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (Stanley Cup playoffs MVP) since Hextall in 1987.