The teams

A hockey team typically dresses (has) 20 players, 18 skaters and 2 goalies (goaltenders/goalkeepers). The 18 skaters consist of 12 forwards (4 lines of 3 forwards) and 6 defense (3 lines of 2 defense). One goalie is the starter and the other is the backup. The lines of players play short shifts (typically not more than 60 seconds and often less) and then switch. This is called a line change. Hockey is a very fast and intense game, so shifts that are longer than a minute are very exhausting for players. Of course, each team also has a head coach, an assistant coach, and several other support staff members.

The equipment

Hockey players wear uniforms (the shirt is called a jersey), helmets, skates, mouthguards, and plenty of pads for protection. They use sticks to shoot the puck (the small black disc made of rubber) at the net. Goalies have a special stick, a trapper (special glove), and a blocker to stop pucks. Because hockey is very intense, sometimes players’ equipment breaks, and there are rules for these situations. For example, if a player’s stick breaks, that player must go to the bench to get a new stick (playing with a broken or damaged stick is not allowed).

The rules

Like other sports, hockey has many rules. Some, like offsides, may be familiar, while others, like icing, are unique to hockey. Breaking some rules can result in penalties. Minor penalties (2 minutes) are the most common and usually result from unacceptable physical contact. Although hockey is a very rough game and players are allowed to check (hit) each other, some kinds of contact, such as slashing (hitting someone with your stick) and tripping are not allowed and will result in a minor penalty. Major penalties (5 minutes) are less common, and they result from serious offenses such as fighting. If a player commits a very serious offense, that player may receive a misconduct (10 minutes) or match penalty (the player is ejected from the game). During a penalty, the penalized team is on the penalty kill (PK), while their opponents are on the power play (PP) and have a good chance to score.   

The end