7 Feb
Ice hockey is the game evolved from the field hockey and is played on ice. It is usually played in the northern Europe. Nowadays this game is an Olympic sport and is played between two teams wearing ice skates. It is very exciting and famous game in the world.
Learning ice hockey basics involves few basic elements. To get the punk in the goal, players must use hockey sticks not hands. Each team has six players; five plus one goal keeper. Ice sheet which is the playing field is called Rink. This is divided into three regions by red line at centre and blue lines in the halves. Defending Zone is the area where net is located for the team defending that net. Neutral zone is the middle area of the rink between two blue lines. Offensive or attacking zone is the area where the opposing net is located. Goal keeper guards the goal in the crease and no player can enter the Crease. Crease is surrounded by the half circle. Goalkeeper is supposed to use hands or any part of the body to keep away the puck from entering the goal. Penalty box is near the centre line of the rink, the referee sends the player back if he commits an offense. Each goal scores one point as scoring in ice hockey is straight forward.
Three basic rules of hockey includes offside, icing the puck and offside pass. A team is offside when any player of opposing team precedes the puck over the defending teams blue line. The player is offside if both the skates are over the blue line before the puck. He is onside if he has only one skate on the blue line.
Icing the puck is not allowed when teams are at equal numbers. If a player on his team side of centreline hits the puck all the way across red goal line and touched by defender, the puck is returned to other end for faceoff in the offender’s half.
Offside pass refers to 2-line pass from defending zone to beyond the centre red line also crossing own blue line and is determined by position of puck (Unlike skates position in team being offside).