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Hockey
or, as they call it in Kentucky, "Ice Hockey" is the
best game in the world. It has speed, crushing slapshots, skill,
acrobatic goaltending, and heavyweight fights which result in
the loss of teeth and brain fluid.
New hockey teams are springing up all over America, and it might have occurred
to you to start watching the game or root for your new home team.
Or perhaps you couldn't care less about hockey, but your
significant other watches it, and you want to at least know what's
going on. Maybe you just like to watch people hit each other with
large sticks. Whatever your motivation for wanting to know more
about hockey is, this article will explain the game to you so
that you can keep track of what's happening on the ice. You
do know they play it on ice, don't you?
By
the way, this article discusses hockey the way it is played in
the National Hockey League (NHL), but the rules in junior hockey
and international hockey are similar.
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Before
the game even starts, there's lots of background information
that you need to soak up. You need to know all about technical
mumbo-jumbo, like: the rink, the goals, the players, the equipment,
the amount of time in a game, the different leagues, how the season
is structured, and the blind peop
we mean, the referees.
The
rink
Hockey
is played on a rink 200' long and 85' wide, with rounded corners.
The ice surface has painted lines on it, which indicate face-off
circles, the goal crease, and the various zones. The most important
lines are the red line (which runs across the center of the ice)
and the blue lines (which are parallel to the red line and are
painted 73' from each end of the rink). The red line indicates
center ice, and regulates how far players can pass and shoot (see
Section 2). The blue lines divide up
the ice into three zones. Each team plays from one side of the
ice, and the area behind a team's blue line is called its defending
zone. The area behind the opposing team's blue line is called
the attacking zone. Finally, the area between the two blue lines
is called the neutral zone. You can check out a diagram
of the rink.
The
goals
Thirteen
feet from each end of the ice, right in the center, is a stationary
set of goal posts with a net attached behind them. The object
of the game is to put the puck in the net more times than the
other team does. The posts are six feet apart and the top post
(or crossbar) is four feet from the ice. A red line called the
goal line is painted between the two posts, and the puck must
cross this line entirely for a goal to be counted. We know it's
confusing that the place where the pucks go and the act of putting
a puck there are both called the same thing (a goal). You have
two choices: you can either get used to it or you can always call
the goal "the net." A blue area is painted in front
of the goal. It goes out a foot from each side, then extends straight
forward for four and a half feet and ends in a semi-circle whose
furthest point is six feet from the goal line. This is called
the crease (see Section 2 for more
about the crease).
The
players
There
are three basic kinds of players: forwards, defensemen, and goaltenders
(goalies). Unless a team is shorthanded due to a penalty or overtime,
each team will have six players on the ice during play. Three
forwards line up at the front of the team, and they are (from
left to right) the left wing, the center, and the right wing.
Two defensemen line up behind them, one on the left and one on
the right. The goalie is the sixth player. The forwards are responsible
for most of the offense, and they tend to stay out front, while
the defensemen are largely responsible for hanging back and making
sure they are ready to protect the defensive zone. The goalie
rarely strays far from his crease, but he does skate out and pass
pucks to the other players.
One
of the interesting things about hockey is that all the players
have to be aware of and involved in what is going on all over
the rink. Every movement of the puck and the opposing team's
players demands a reaction from each player on the team. Forwards
must be responsible for defending their own zone, and defensemen
must play a role in the offense.
Forwards
tend to stick to one position for most of their careers, but they
move around a bit from time to time as the team needs them to
or if the coach thinks, for example, that a left wing might be
better suited to playing at center. Defensemen are more flexible,
in that they can usually play either side, and some will occasionally
fill in at a forward position. Goalies are very specialized players.
They have to stand in front of the net and stop pucks, some of
which are travelling at 90 miles per hour or more. They never
play other positions, and other players never play in goal (with
a few rare exceptions).
The
equipment
Each
player carries a stick and the players use these sticks to pass
and shoot a puck, a small, hard rubber disk, around the rink.
They also use these sticks to hit each other and to smash on the
boards in disgust, but they're not supposed to do that (see
Section 2). In order to avoid being
hurt by the sticks and the pucks, the players wear a good deal
of padding and they are required by league rules to wear helmets.
This is a relatively new rule in the NHL, and many players were
resistant to the wearing of helmets when it was first instituted.
There is still a certain amount of macho resistance to wearing
face shields, probably because it is bad form to fight when wearing
a face shield and, therefor, wearing one proclaims a player to
be something of a sissy. The players also wear skates, of course.
For skating. On the ice.
Regulation
time and overtime
Each
game consists of three periods of twenty minutes each. The players
get about fifteen minutes of rest between periods. In the regular
season, if the game is tied at the end of regulation time (the
end of the third period), the teams almost immediately go into
overtime, which is an extra five minutes of playing time. During
these five-minute overtimes there are only five players on the
ice. You will often hear this format referred to as 4-on-4 because
although there are five players on the ice for each team only
four of them are skating against each other. This is to allow
more room to skate and to allow teams to capitalize on their fastest
and most skilled players in an attempt to resolve the contest.
The overtime in hockey is "sudden death" because if
either team scores at any time, that team automatically wins and
the overtime period ends. If neither team scores by the end of
overtime, the game is declared a tie.
During
the playoffs, if the game is tied at the end of regulation time
the game will go into overtime, but the players get a fifteen
minute rest, and the overtime period is also twenty minutes. These
overtime periods are played with six players (or 5-on-5) and are
identical to periods in regulation time except that they are "sudden
death." The game will continue until one team scores and
wins, so overtime playoff games can go into double overtime, triple
overtime, etc. There are no ties in the playoffs.
The
league
The
NHL consists of 28 teams, but two more will be added in the 2000-01
season to bring it up to a total of 30. The league is divided
into the Eastern Conference (15 teams) and the Western Conference
(13 teams this season, 15 in 2000-01). These conferences are each
divided into three divisions of four or five teams. There is inter-conference
play, but teams from the same division and conference play each
other more often. The Eastern Conference is divided up into the
Atlantic, Northeast, and Southeast Divisions, while the Western
Conference is divided up into the Central, Northwest, and Pacific
Divisions.
Regular
Season and playoffs
The
NHL season is divided up into the regular season and the playoffs.
The regular season consists of 82 games and runs from October
until April. During the regular season, a team collects points
based on its performance as follows: two points for a win, one
point for a tie, one point for a loss in overtime, and zero points
for a loss. At the end of the regular season, the eight teams
with the most points in each conference go on to the playoffs.
However, the top team in each of the three divisions in a conference
will go on to the playoffs, even if it had a lower point total
than another team that didn't win its division.
The
NHL playoffs are long, grueling, and glorious to watch. The top
eight teams in each conference are ranked from first to eighth,
with the division leaders taking the first through third spots
in order of their point totals. The fourth to eighth spots go
to the other teams in order of their point totals. The playoffs
consist of four rounds. The first three rounds are the quarterfinals,
semifinals and finals in each conference, after which the two
winners of the conference finals play each other for the Stanley
Cup, the ultimate prize in the NHL. Each round is a best of seven
series, so a team could play as many as 28 extra games in order
to win the Stanley Cup. It is always as much a contest of endurance
and determination as it is of skill and teamwork, and we get the
theme from Rocky going through our heads just thinking about it.
Officials
In
each game there are one or two referees, who make on-ice decisions
regarding penalties, goals, and other matters. They wear striped
jerseys with orange bands on the arms and they skate around, get
in the way of players, and fail to see obvious infractions committed
against your team's players. There are also two linesmen,
who wear striped jerseys with no orange bands, skate around, get
in the way of players, keep track of offsides, passing, and icing
(see Section 2), and offer opinions to the referee if he asks.
Other officials include the time keeper, the official scorer,
two goal judges (one behind each net), and the video goal judge.
The latter official conducts video reviews of certain plays to
see if questionable goals count or not.
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