Crossover, Pass, Shoot, Goal! : Hockey at it’s Finest By: Kyle Ball

Hockey is a very fun sport where you get to skate, shoot, pass, and score! If you want to find out how it works, get to reading!

What You Need to Play the Game

Equipment players use

Offense & Defense have the same equipment. What you need is a helmet, chest protector, elbow pads, gloves and a hockey jersey to go on the top half. Shin pads, hockey pants, skates, mouth guard (optional), hockey socks, stick, and most importantly, cup (optional) for your bottom half. When your skates get dull,(opposite of sharp) you want to go to the closest hockey shop and get them sharpened. Also, you need a hockey rink, pucks, nets, and a hockey bag to carry all of your equipment in. These are things you need to play hockey.

How many players?

Player positions

There are 5 players on the ice and a goalie for each team. There are 2 defense behind a center, left wing and right wing. When the play is on your side of the ice or in the defensive zone, the defenseman stay in front of the goal and protects the goalie. The offense battle for the puck in the corners, behind the net, and they cover the defenseman on the other team at the blue line. In the offensive zone, the defenseman stays at the blue line and tries to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Also, they shoot the puck at the goal to create rebounds (The puck bounces off the goalie’s pads and a player shoots it again) for the offense to get.

A goalie is what I like to call the ultimate defender. Why? The goalie protects the goal. He stops the puck from getting into the goal. For that big job, he needs heavy equipment. He/she needs goalie pads (not cheap), goalie chest protector (elbow pads connected), hockey socks, goalie helmet, goalie stick, glove & blocker, and goalie skates. This is what the players positions are.

Goalie Equipment

What does the ice look like?

A hockey rink looks like this:

(From birds eye view)

It has 5 faceoff dots (dots where faceoffs take place) in the neutral zone (in between the blue lines). One in the middle, and one in each corner. There is a red line in the middle and 2 blue lines on either side. The ice is 200 ft long. The blue half circle on each end of the ice is the crease. That is what the ice looks like.

What’s Hockey Without Rules?

Without rules hockey would be a mess. There are many rules that keep hockey in place.

A referee calling a penalty

Penalties are the punishment for breaking a rule. When you get a penalty, you go to the penalty box. Also, the referee puts his hand in the air like a sharks fin above water when you get a penalty. When a player serves a penalty, his team is shorthanded. They have 4 players and a goalie. A minor is 2min., a double minor is 4min., and a major is 5min. Spearing, boarding, fighting, and charging are major penalties. If you get a misconduct, it is 10 min. A game misconduct is 10 min and you get kicked out of the game and sit in the locker room. Another penalty is, too many men. If there are 6 players and a goalie you could get a penalty. However, if you are changing lines, you don’t usually get penalized.

Other important rules are icing, offsides, and crease violation. Icing is when you are behind the red line, and you dump the puck in past the goal line. The next faceoff is in your defensive zone. Although, if a player on the opposing team touches it, it’s no icing. Also, the ref may not call icing if it barely goes across the line and he wants to let the play go on. Crease violation is when a player is in the opposing team’s crease when the puck isn’t. The next faceoff is outside the zone. That is what penalties, icing, offsides, and crease violation are.

“You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don’t Take”

That is a quote from Wayne Gretzky, the best player ever. He’s the Michael Jordan of hockey. If you don't take shots, you can't score.

To score, the puck has to cross the goal line in the goal. However, it has to be a legit goal. The referee can wave it off if he didn’t think it was a legit goal. If a player kicks the puck in the goal, 9 out of 10 times it’s no goal. The referee may not see it, and it could be a goal. If a player shoots the puck, and it hits a skate, it is usually a goal. If a player passes to another player, and he scores, the player who passed it gets the assist. If 14 passes to 20 and 20 scores, 14 gets the assist. If a player has the puck with the opposing team behind him, and he is skating towards the opposing team's goalie, it is called a breakaway. Also, if there are 2 players driving towards the net with 1 defender, it is an odd man rush. It is the same with 3 players driving and 2 defenders. Teams have a goal horn when they score. That is how you score and what odd man rushes, breakaways, and assists are.

GOOOOOOAAAAAAL!

How Do You Win?

To win you have to score more goals than the other team. For example, if the Flames had 2 goals and the Bruins had 1, the Flames win.

If the game ended right now, the team on the left wins

In the playoffs there are 4 rounds : 1st round, 2nd round, Conference finals, and finals. For every round, it is best of 7 games. The first one to win 4 games advances to the next round. If a team wins the conference finals, they go to the finals. The team that wins the finals in 4 games are the Stanley Cup champions. Each player and coach gets to have the Stanley cup for a week. Over time the Stanley cup has been all over the place. Also, the players drink beverages out of the cup in celebration. That is how you win a hockey game.

Credits:

Created with images by Dan4th - "071220 bruins (138)" • Dan4th - "20100202 Pollock" • pointnshoot - "Goal by Gregory Campbell" • slgckgc - "Scoreboard"

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