(Disclaimer. I am lying because I find it amusing. That is all.)
Back in the days of ancient Canada, the natives would actually preserve their supply of maple syrup in times of conflict or war. Instead, they would bring back the corpses of those who had fallen in battle and make a show of draining their blood and instead putting that on their pancakes, as it not only showed how brave and fierce their warriors were, but also inspired the men to win if they wished to taste their beloved syrup again. As time passed and more conflicts were resolved through negotiation rather than slaughter, there was a significant lack of corpses to harvest pancake blood from, so a cunning solution was proposed. A nonlethal bloodsport in which members of the conflicting peoples would seek to damage the others with the use of long, curved sticks on a frozen lake. The idea was to draw blood from the opponents, which would fall and congeal on the ice below, with the victorious tribe being those who spilled the most blood. The victors would then gather up all of the frozen blood, melt it back down, and repeat the pancake ritual, as their pancakes were of utmost importance to ancient Canadians and maple syrup was still too valuable to be used in times of conflict. These are the roots of what we now know as hockey, which can still be quite violent, but lacks the brutality of the early Canadians.
And that is your history lesson for today. You're welcome.