Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is a man made canal running about 200 km (120 miles) which connects Ottawa to the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River Waterway. The canal opened in the 1830's and has been used for ice related activities since then. Ice hockey goes back to at least the turn of the 20th century.

A skate way was opened in the winter of 1970-71 and has been used each winter since then.



The main claim to fame for the Rideau Canal in terms of hockey history was on a night in 1905 members of the Ottawa Hockey Club celbrated a little too heavily and one member of the team bet another player that he could kick the cup across the canal. Due to their imparement they could not tell if it made it across. They left and went home. The next morning several players returned to the scene and recovered the cup on top of the thankfully frozen canal.