<Li> NBC / NBCSN </Li> <Tr> <Th> Official website </Th> <Td> NHL.com </Td> </Tr> <P> The National Hockey League (NHL; French: Ligue nationale de hockey--LNH) is a professional ice hockey league in North America, currently comprising 31 teams: 24 in the United States and 7 in Canada . The NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada . The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season . </P> <P> The National Hockey League was organized on November 26, 1917, at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which had been founded in 1909 in Renfrew, Ontario . The NHL immediately took the NHA's place as one of the leagues that contested for the Stanley Cup in an annual interleague competition before a series of league mergers and folds left the NHL as the only league left competing for the Stanley Cup in 1926 . </P>

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