Hockey In Cuba

On the very front page of the very first issue in the long history of The Hockey News is a fascinating story about the possibility of a National Hockey League game being played in Havana, Cuba of all places. 

Remember, this is 1947. NHL teams did do some international games back then, most notably in Britain. Over more recent years the NHL has travelled the globe, including debuting in Australia in 2023. But no one has ever mentioned Havana, Cuba in terms of hockey at any other point in hockey history.

The idea was pitched by a Cuban promoter named Ernesto Azua. Azua was the sport director at Havana's fancy new Sports Palace. His vision, which he pitched to media largely, was to have the Montreal Canadiens play an American based team, preferably the New York Rangers. The Sports Palace featured a full refrigeration system for creating artificial ice, though it had never been put to use in the first four years of it's existence to that point. Azua also wanted skating shows to visit Havana.

A quick search of Cuban hockey history tells us that there was a Cuban hockey team, the Havana Tropicals, dating back to 1938. But they played in Miami as there was no rink in Cuba at that point. They played in a 4 team Tropical Hockey League, finishing last with a 4-11 record despite reportedly stocking their team with Canadian born ringers such as leading Soggy Green and goaltender Hugo Caron

I don't know if ice ever was created for the Sports Palace at any point in history, or if any other rinks were ever established in the country. There are no rinks in Cuba today. Cuba is a common vacation destination for winter weary Canadians though, so one of the resorts tried introducing a skating rink but there was no ice involved - it was synthetic plastic that no longer is in operation.

I also found this piece about a cruise line that invited former NHLers Gary Leeman, Bernie Nicholls, Dave Hutchison, Jack Valiquette and Ric Natress to Cuba and headlined a ball hockey friendly.