{"database": "pelican", "table": "content", "rows": [["ryan", "musings", "I've written a few times before about hockey. I love watching my local sports\npuck team1 and really wish more people watched it. So, I'm going to write a\nbeginners guide to watching hockey so that you too, dear reader, can become an\navid fan.\n\nHockey is a pretty fast paced game at the professional level. In the 90s Fox\nSports had broadcast rights to hockey in the US and to help its viewers they\nhad a glowing halo on the puck called\n[FoxTrax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FoxTrax) which allowed fans to more\neasily find it. This practice was discontinued at some point, and I honestly\nthink it was one of the better innovations that Fox Sports did and really wish\nthat it would make a come back.\n\n## The Rules\n\nAs a beginner hockey observer there's only three rules that you really need to\nknow to be able to follow the game.\n\n  1. Offside2\n  2. Icing\n  3. Power Play / Penalty Kill\n\n### The Set up\n\nThe ice rink can be broken into 3 sections from the perspective of 1 team.\nLet's assume we have two teams, A and B. Let's root for team A.\n\n![Ice Hockey Rink](https://www.conceptdraw.com/How-To-Guide/picture/Sport-\nHockey-Simple-hockey-field-Template.png)\n\n  1. The Defending zone - This is where team A's Goal is located. It starts right behind team A's goal and goes to the right toward the blue line\n  2. Neutral Zone - This is the center of the ice between the two blue lines; it also contains a red line that is called 'Center Ice'\n  3. The Attacking Zone - This is where team A are trying to score. It starts at the OTHER blue line and goes back behind Team B's goal\n\n### Offside\n\nOffside is defined as ... actually that's not important. What is important to\nunderstand is that a player on the offense cannot enter their Attacking zone\nbefore the puck does. If they do, then that player is called Offside. When an\nOffside happens a face off takes place outside of the Attacking zone (i.e. in\nthe Neutral Zone) where each team will try and gain control of the puck.\n\n### Icing\n\nIcing, or icing the puck, is when a player in their half of the ice and shots\nthe puck down the ice towards their Attacking zone and it is NOT touched by\nanyone before it passes the face off circles in the Attacking zone. When an\nicing occurs the puck is returned to the defending zone for a face off3. When\nan icing occurs the team that the icing is called on have to keep all of their\nplayers on the ice, that is, they can not send in any substitutions.\n\n### Power Play / Penalty Kill\n\nThe two rules above, when broken, result in a stoppage of play and a new face\noff for each team to try to gain control of the puck. Other rules, when\nbroken, will result in a penalty4 which sees one, or more, players sent to the\nPenalty Box5. Penalties can either be minor, which result in a two minute\npenalty, or major, which typically result in a 5 minute penalty6.\n\nWhen a team is on the Power Play they will have 1 or more extra skaters than\nthe other team. The other team's 'missing' players will be in the Penalty Box.\nThe Power Play team, with the advantage, will remain on that advantage until\neither they score OR the penalty expires. If a team scores while on the Power\nPlay, they are said to have scored a Power Play Goal.\n\nThe team that has penalized players is said to be on the Penalty Kill. They\nare trying to 'kill' the advantage that the Power Play brings to the other\nteam. If the team on the Penalty Kill scores a goal, it is called a Short-\nhanded goal ... because they were short a person, i.e. short handed, when the\ngoal was scored. In the [National Hockey League](https://www.nhl.com/) (NHL),\n[American Hockey League](https://theahl.com/) (AHL), and most other leagues\nwhen a short handed goal is scored the Penalty keeps going until time is over\nOR a goal is scored by the team on the Power Play. The [Professional Women's\nHockey Leagure](https://www.thepwhl.com/en/) (PWHL) has a rule (which I think\nis genius) which states that IF a team scores a short handed goal, the Power\nPlay is over.7\n\nIn the next post I'll talk a bit more about game play.\n\n  1. The [Coachella Valley Firebirds](https://cvfirebirds.com) \u21a9\ufe0e\n  2. in hockey it is not pluralized like in American Football ... even though in American Football it's not pluralized either! \u21a9\ufe0e\n  3. This does NOT apply when your team is on a Penalty Kill \u21a9\ufe0e\n  4. I'll talk more about various penalties in future a post \u21a9\ufe0e\n  5. it's a small room where players are sent to think about what they did \u21a9\ufe0e\n  6. There are a few caveats here about game misconduct, but they're not important for an introductory primer \u21a9\ufe0e\n  7. Now, there are lots of Nuances to the PP/PK write up above, but you don't need to understand them initially to enjoy hockey. \u21a9\ufe0e\n\n", "2025-01-27", "how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules", "I've written a few times before about hockey. I love watching my local sports\npuck team1 and really wish more people watched it. So, I'm going to write a\nbeginners guide to watching hockey so that you too, dear reader, can become an\navid fan.\n\nHockey is a pretty \u2026\n\n", "How to Watch a Hockey Game - Three Rules", "https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/"]], "columns": ["author", "category", "content", "published_date", "slug", "summary", "title", "url"], "primary_keys": ["slug"], "primary_key_values": ["how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-three-rules"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.525247797369957}