Giant squid

The rarity of observations of specimens and the extreme difficulty of observing them alive, tracking their movements, or studying their mating habits militates against a complete understanding. While the league has always had a strong Canadian majority, the percentage of Canadian players has gone down slowly in the past 20 years since the arrival of European players. No genetic or physical basis for distinguishing between the named species has been proposed, as evidenced by the placenames -- of location of specimen capture -- used to describe several of them. The league also voluntarily stops its season so that its players can play in the Winter Olympics to have the players represent their own country. It is probable that not all of these are distinct species. Since the 1990s, the league has tried to promote itself throughout Europe with ads, media, and magazines. The broadest list is:. NHL is very proud of its players coming from all around the world.

Lumpers and splitters may propose as many as eight species or as few as one. After Gretzky's induction, the NHL declared that he would be the last one to have the waiting period omitted. The taxonomy of the giant squid, as with many cephalopod genera, has not been entirely resolved. In 1999 Wayne Gretzky became the last player to have the three years waived. Eyewitness accounts of other sea monsters like the sea serpent are also thought to be mistaken interpretations of giant squid. However, only 10 individual have been honoured in this manner. However, it is thought to be impossible for a giant squid to lift its tentacles from the water. In the past, if a player was deemed significant enough, the pending period would be waived.

The Lusca of the Caribbean and Scylla in Greek mythology may also derive from giant squid sightings. Three years after retirement, players are eligible to be voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Steenstrup, the describer of Architeuthis, suggested a giant squid was the species described as a sea monk to the Danish king Christian III c.1550. The National Hockey League presents numerous trophies per year; some are given to teams, and other are given to players. Tales of giant squid have been common among mariners since ancient times, and may have led to the Norwegian legend of the kraken, a tentacled sea monster as large as an island capable of engulfing and sinking any ship. If the penalized team is scored on during a minor penalty, the penalty immediately ends. [1]. A team is far more likely to score on a power play than during normal play.

In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia paid AUD$100,000 for the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice, which had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand's South Island earlier in the year. This is called a power play for the attackers and a penalty kill for the defenders. It seems that the species has a much more belligerent feeding technique. Normally, hockey teams have five skaters (excluding the goaltender), so if one penalty is called, play becomes five-on-four. This may disprove the theory that the giant squid is a drifter which eats whatever floats by, rarely moving so as to conserve energy. In most cases, the penalized team cannot replace that player and is thus shorthanded for the duration of the penalty. The photographs showed an aggressive hunting pattern by the baited squid, leading to it impaling a tentacle on the bait ball's hooks. During a penalty, the player who committed the infraction is sent to the penalty box.

Among other things, the observations demonstrate actual hunting behaviors of adult Architeuthis, a subject on which there had been much speculation. In the NHL, the Linesman may call major intent-to-injure penalties that the referee may have missed. According to Kubodera, "we knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived, so we used them to lead us to the squid." Kubodera and Mori reported their observations in the journal proceedings of the Royal Society. A linesman may call only obvious technical infractions such as too many men on the ice. The photo sequence, taken at a depth of 900 m (nearly 3000 ft) off Japan's Ogasawara Islands, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in "a ball of tentacles." The researchers were able to locate the likely general location of giant squid by closely tailing the movements of sperm whales. A referee makes all penalty calls. On September 27, 2005, Kubodera and Mori released the photos to the world. A penalty is a punishment for inappropriate behaviour.

Later, DNA tests confirmed the animal as a Giant squid. Under the rules following the 2004-2005 lockout, if a team ices the puck under five-on-five conditions, they are not allowed to make a line change for the following faceoff. The squid left behind, attached to the lure, an 18-foot tentacle. If the goalie on the side of the ice where the puck is being sent touches the puck, the icing is waved off. These were the first photographs ever captured of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. A short handed team is not penalized for clearing the puck out of its zone during a powerplay. It took the squid over four hours to break free, during which time the camera took over 500 photos. Play is resumed with a faceoff in the defending zone of the team that committed the infraction.

After over twenty tries that day, a 26-foot Giant squid attacked the lure and snagged its tentacle. When icing occurs, a linesman stops play. The line also held a camera and a flash. Icing occurs when a player shoots the puck across both the red line and the opposing team's goal line without the puck going into the net. The images were created on their third trip to a known Sperm whale hunting grounds 600 miles south of Tokyo, where they had dropped a 3,000 foot line baited with squid and shrimp. The NHL in 2006 removed the offside pass or two-line pass which was a pass from inside a team's defending zone that crosses the red line. They used a five-ton fishing boat and only two crew members. When an offside violation occurs, the linesman blows play dead, and a faceoff is conducted in the neutral zone.

Their teams had worked together for nearly two years to make the accomplishment. In ice hockey, play is said to be offside if a player on the attacking team enters the attacking zone before the puck. On September 30, 2004, Tsunemi Kubodera (National Science Museum of Japan) and Kyoichi Mori (Ogasawara Whale Watching Association) succeeded in taking history's first images of a giant squid. If the game is still tied after the three shootout rounds, the shootout continues, but becomes sudden death. Approximately 65 specimens, one-fifth of all the giant squid ever found, have been found in the waters off Newfoundland; the last in December 2004. The team with the most goals during this shootout wins the game. Larval Architeuthis closely resemble larvae of Nototodarus and Moroteuthis, with distinctive characteristics being the shape of the mantle attachment by the head, the tentacle suckers, and the beaks. Three players for each team in turn perform a penalty shot.

The search for a live Architeuthis specimen includes attempts to find live young, including larvae. If the game is still tied at the end of overtime, the game enters a shootout. By and large, however, squid strandings remain a mystery. If the game is tied at the end of regulation time, a 5 minute, 4-on-4 sudden death overtime period is played, where the first team that scores a goal wins the game. A period of 90 years between mass strandings has been proposed by Frederick Aldrich, an Architeuthis specialist, who used this value to correctly predict a relatively small stranding that occurred between 1964 and 1966. The team that has the most goals at the end of 60 minutes wins the game. Many scientists who have studied squid mass strandings believe that they are cyclical and predictable, but the length of time between strandings is not yet known. A goal is scored when the puck passes the goal line and enters the net.

It is not known exactly why giant squid become stranded on shore, but it is possible that a periodic though temporary alteration of the distribution of the deep, cold water where the squid live might be the cause. It is used to judge goals and icing calls. Although strandings continue to occur sporadically throughout the world, the high frequency of strandings at Newfoundland and New Zealand in late nineteenth century have not yet been repeated. Near each end of the rink, there is a thin red goal line spanning the width of the ice. Large numbers of strandings also occurred in New Zealand during the late nineteenth century. They divide the ice into zones. In 1873 a squid "attacked" a minister and a young boy in a dory in Bell Island, Newfoundland. There are two blue lines that divide the rink roughly into thirds.

For example, a specimen washed ashore in Glover's Harbour, Newfoundland on November 2, 1878 was 6.1m (20 ft) long (mantle length), and one of its tentacles measured 10.7m (35 ft) long and it was estimated as weighing 2.2 tonnes. The red line is used to judge icing violations. Between 1870 and 1880, large numbers of strandings occurred on the shores of Newfoundland. The red line divides the ice in half lengthwise. A portion of a giant squid was secured by the French gunboat Alecton in 1861 leading to wider recognition of the species/genus in the scientific community. The hockey rink is an ice rink which is rectangular with rounded corners and surrounded by a wall . He first used the term "Architeuthis" in a paper in 1857. Each team may also take one 30 second time-out which may only be taken during a normal stoppage of play.

Japetus Steenstrup produced a number of papers on giant squid in the 1850s. Between stoppages of play, teams have 25 seconds before substituting their players except for referee stoppages for TV commercials. Much of what is known about these animals come from estimates based on these, and from undigested beaks found in sperm whale stomachs. Between each period there is a 15 minute intermission. The age of giant squids can be estimated by "growth rings" in the statocyst's "statolyth" much like counting tree rings. Each game is 60 minutes composed of three 20 minute periods. Like all cephalopods they use special organs called statocysts to sense their orientation and motion in the water. While the National Hockey League follows the general rules of Ice hockey, it differs slightly from those used in international games organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation such as the Olympics.

This makes the giant squid unfit for human consumption, although sperm whales seem to be attracted by (or are at least tolerant of) its taste. The overtime is sudden death with the game ending when either team scores a goal. One of the more unusual aspects of giant squid (as well as some other species of large squid) is their reliance upon the low density of ammonia in relation to seawater to maintain neutral buoyancy in their natural environment, as they lack the gas-filled swim bladder that fish use for this function; instead, they use ammonia (in the form of ammonium chloride) in the fluid of their flesh throughout their bodies. Overtimes are also full periods of twenty minutes (of five-on-five hockey), rather than the five minutes (of four-on-four hockey, followed by a shootout) in the regular season. Because sperm whales are skilled at locating giant squid, scientists have attempted to conduct in-depth observations of sperm whales in order to study squid. If the score is tied at the end of an overtime period, additional overtime periods are played until a winner is determined. The only other known predator of the adult giant squid is the Pacific sleeper shark, found off Antarctica, but it is not yet known whether these sharks actively hunt the squid, or are simply scavengers of squid carcasses. During playoff games if the score is tied at the end of the third period an overtime period is played.

The size of these suction cups can vary from 2 to 5 cm in diameter (one to two inches), and it is not uncommon to find their circular scars on the head area of sperm whales that have fed — or attempted to feed — upon giant squid. Four of the seven games are played at this team's home venue - the first and second, and, where necessary, the fifth and seventh, with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue. Giant squid possess the largest eyes of any living creature ever, over 30 cm (one foot) in diameter, and their arms are equipped with hundreds of suction cups in total; each is mounted on an individual "stalk" and equipped around its circumference with a ring of sharp teeth to aid the creature in capturing its prey by firmly attaching itself to it both by suction and perforation. In each round the higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-ice advantage. The reproductive cycle of the giant squid is still a great mystery, but what has been learned so far is both bizarre and fascinating; male giant squid are equipped with a prehensile spermataphore-depositing tube, or Hectocotylus, of over 90 cm (three feet) in length, which extends from inside the animal's mantle and apparently is used to inject sperm-containing packets into the female squid's arms — how exactly the sperm then is transferred to the egg mass is a matter of much debate, but the recent recovery in Tasmania of a female specimen having a small subsidiary tendril attached to the base of each of its eight arms could be a vital clue in the solution of this enigma. In the third round, the conference finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Stanley Cup Finals. Post-larval juveniles have been discovered in surface waters off New Zealand, and there are plans to capture more such juveniles and maintain them in an aquarium in an attempt to learn more about the creature's biology and habits. In the second round, or conference semifinals, the NHL re-seeds (unlike the NBA) the teams, with the top remaining conference seed playing against the lowest remaining seed, and the other two remaining conference teams pairing off.

The weights of recovered specimens have been measured in hundreds, rather than thousands, of kilograms. The first round of the playoffs, or conference quarterfinals, consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth. Despite their great length, giant squid are not particularly heavy when compared to their chief predator, the Sperm Whale, because the majority of their length is taken up by their eight arms and two tentacles. The Stanley Cup Playoffs is an elimination tournament, where two teams battle to win a best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. . The division winners are seeded one through three, and the next five teams with the best records in the conference are seeded four through eight. The photos were released a year later. At the end of the regular season, the three division champions and the five other teams in each conference with the highest number of points, 8 teams in each conference, qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

On September 30, 2004, researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan and the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association took the first images of live giant squid in their natural habitat. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in each division is crowned the division champion. There were reported claims of specimens of up to 20 m (66 ft), but none had been scientifically documented. Points are awarded for each game as follows:. The mantle length, though, is only about 2 m (7 ft) in length (more for females, less for males), and the length of the squid excluding its tentacles is about 5 m (16 ft). The two divisions from the opposite conference which each team plays against will be rotated every year, much like interleague play in baseball. They are deep-ocean dwelling squid that can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 10 m (34 ft) for males and 13 m (44 ft) for females from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles (second only to the Colossal Squid at an estimated 14 m, one of the largest living organisms). Teams play 32 games within their division (8 games against four other teams), 40 games against non-divisional, conference opponents (4 games against 10 other teams) and 10 interconference games, 1 game against each team in two of the three divisions in the opposite conference.

Giant squids, once believed to be mythical creatures, are squid of the Architeuthidae family, represented by as many as eight species of the genus Architeuthis. Each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 games at home and 41 on the road. Architeuthis stockii. For a list of previous teams see List of defunct NHL teams. Architeuthis sanctipauli, "Southern Giant Squid". Over the years many different organizations have existed. Architeuthis physeteris. The National Hockey League currently has 30 teams divided into two conferences, and 6 divisions, an organization that started in the year 2000.

Architeuthis martensi. The NHL, despite negative press generated during the lockout, has success attracting fans to the initial games of the season and extends fan bases into non-traditional markets in the US such as Nashville, Atlanta, and the Carolinas. Architeuthis kirkii. Of those 15 games, 11 were in front of sell out crowds. Architeuthis japonica. On October 5, 2005, the first post-lockout NHL season got under way with 15 games. Architeuthis hartingii. A new collective bargaining agreement was ratified in July 2005 with a term of six years with an option of extending the collective bargaining agreement for an additional year at the end of the term, allowing the NHL to resume as of the 2005-06 season.

Architeuthis dux, "Atlantic Giant Squid". With no new agreement in hand when the existing contract expired on September 15, 2004, league commissioner Gary Bettman announced a lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office, causing the NHL to lose an entire season. A song by the heavy metal group "Tourniquet" titled "Architeuthis" is about the mysteries of the giant squid. The league vowed to install what it dubbed "cost certainty" for its teams, but the National Hockey League Players Association countered that the move was little more than a euphemism for a salary cap, which the union initially said it would not accept. In the film "The Squid and the Whale". Negotiations to replace the contract that expired in 2004 turned into one of the most contentious collective bargaining sessions in the history of professional sports. The Doctor Who episode The Power of Kroll (1978) features a carnivorous monster resembling a giant squid (the largest monster ever seen in the series) which lives at the bottom of a swampy lake, and is worshipped by the natives (despite the fact that it sometimes eats them). The resulting collective bargaining agreement was set for renegotiation in 1998 and extended to September 15, 2004.

In the Futurama episode The Deep South, Fry and Umbriel cheer at a fight between a sperm whale and a giant squid. A lockout at the start of the 1994-95 forced the league to reduce the schedule from 84 games to just 48, with the teams playing only intra-conference games during the reduced season. The House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin has an enormous sculpture of a giant squid and sperm whale battling. The first was a strike by the National Hockey League Players Association in April 1992 which lasted for 10 days, but the strike was settled quickly and all affected games were rescheduled. In the Sega Dreamcast game Skies of Arcadia, the main character fights (in a ship battle) a giant squid named Obispo. There have been three work stoppages in NHL history, all happening between 1992 and 2005. In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, mind-controlled Giant Squids are one of the most powerful naval units in the Soviet arsenal. Approaching the new millennium, the NHL added another four teams; the Nashville Predators (1998), the Atlanta Thrashers (1999), the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets (both added in 2000) bringing the total to 30 teams.

Lovecraft is known to have squid like creatures in his Cthulhu mythos. In 1993, the NHL added an additional two teams, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the Florida Panthers. H.P. The San Jose Sharks debuted in 1991, a season later the Ottawa Senators would join the NHL along with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Chapter 59 ("Squid") of Moby-Dick details the Pequod's encounter with a giant (or perhaps colossal) squid. In the early 90's the NHL expanded further with five new franchises. River Moth, which flows through author Jeff VanderMeer's fictional city Ambergris, is inhabited by a giant squid. As of 2005, the Oilers are the last remaining original WHA franchise still playing in the city where they began in the NHL.

Although Tolkien's description is vague, the creature is frequently depicted as a giant squid or kraken with varying (often exaggerated) numbers of tentacles, and appeared as such in the 2001 film. Four of the remaining six WHA teams merged with the NHL: The Hartford Whalers, Québec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the Fellowship come up against the Watcher in the Water, a monster that lurks in the waters of the Sirannon, beneath the western walls of Moria. The two leagues fought for the services of hockey players and fans until the WHA folded in 1979. In J.R.R. The dilution of the talent pool, however, caused the overall quality of play to suffer. A giant squid acts as a minor character in Charles Sheffield's novel The Web Between the Worlds. In response to that, the NHL decided to rush its own expansion plans by adding the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames that year, along with the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals two years later.

A giant squid fighting a sperm whale is shown on the album cover of They Might Be Giants' Apollo 18. Though it never challenged for the Stanley Cup, its status as a viable NHL rival was unquestionable. However Benchley's description of the Beast (with clawlike teeth in the center of its suckers) more accurately describes the Colossal Squid. In 1972, the World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed. Jaws' author Peter Benchley's novel Beast features a giant squid terrorizing Bermuda. Three years later, the NHL added the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres as franchises. A giant squid is a key player in Michael Crichton's novel Sphere, as well as in the film version. Louis Blues, Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Oakland Seals, and Pittsburgh Penguins.

A giant squid also dwells in the lake at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series of books. They were the Philadelphia Flyers, St. No. Six new teams were added to the NHL roster, and placed in their own newly-created division. James Bond fights a giant squid in Ian Fleming's book, Dr. The rise of the Western Hockey League, which many pundits thought planned to transform into a major league and challenge for the Stanley Cup, spurred the NHL in 1967 to undertake its first expansion since the 1920s. Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, fights a giant squid in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.. With these developments and the onset of World War II, the NHL was reduced to six teams during its 25th anniversary year of (1942) – six teams still known today, if somewhat inaccurately, as the Original Six: The Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Bruins, Rangers, and Blackhawks.