Basic Ice Hockey Rules

A little application in SVG and HTML5 to show the basic rules of Ice Hockey

Click the buttons to see the animation. Further information about each rule in the tabs below.

Icing Offside Power Play vs. Short-handed Penalty Shot Reset

Ice hockey rules

Rules of Ice Hockey may be quite difficult for newcomers, most of all because of the game speed: following the puck is already quite difficult. In this page I will show some of the basic rules with an animation. Information about these rules will be very short, so I will not provide all the details required to fully understand each rule.

Icing

Icing is an infraction in the sport of ice hockey. It occurs when a player shoots the puck across both the center red line and the opposing team's goal line, and the puck remains untouched. However, it is not icing if the puck is shot from behind the halfway line into the goal, or when the shot must be played by the opposing team's goaltender to keep it out of the net. In the former case with a shot puck crossing the goal line completely, the goal is counted. (Source: Wikipedia)

Offside

In ice hockey, a play is offside if a player on the attacking team enters the offensive zone before the puck, unless the puck is sent or carried there by a defending player. When an offside violation occurs, a linesman will stop play. A faceoff is then held at a neutral ice spot closest to the infraction to restart play. (Source Wikipedia)

Power play vs. Short-handed

Short-handed is a term used in ice hockey and refers to having fewer skaters on the ice during play, as a result of a penalty. The player removed from play serves the penalty in the penalty box for a set amount of time proportional to the severity of the infraction. If a goaltender commits a minor infraction, another player who was on the ice at the time of the penalty serves, often but not necessarily the team captain.

The penalized team is said to be on the penalty kill, abbreviated as "PK" for recording purposes, while their players are in the penalty box. The opposing team is usually referred to as having an "advantage" until the penalized player returns to play. This situation is often called a power play for the opposing team, due to the increased likelihood of scoring during this time. Not only does the power play team have the main advantage, the penalized team is frequently trapped in their zone and often cannot make line changes, resulting in their players being on the ice for longer-than-normal shifts. As a result, the penalized team's players are often exhausted when the penalty expires and they are often scored on shortly afterward. (Source Wikipedia)

Penalty Shot

In ice hockey, a penalty shot is a type of penalty awarded when a team loses a clear scoring opportunity on a breakaway because of a foul committed by an opposing player. A player from the non-offending team is given an attempt to score a goal without opposition from any defending players except the goaltender. This is the same type of shot used in a shootout to decide games in some leagues. (Source Wikipedia)

For further information consult the Wikipedia page about Ice Hockey Rules. Keep in mind that there are some differences between rules used in North America (NHL) on one side, and rules of the Internation Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that are applied in Europe, during World Championship, and the Olympic Games.

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