Ice hockey explained
Despite the best efforts of evangelists and proponents of the game, ice hockey remains a fringe sport in the United States, lagging far behind the popularity of baseball, football and basketball. Except for a few areas of the American Northeast, hockey is lumped in with sports like soccer, women’s curling and ping-pong and ignored by the mainstream sports fan.
Anyone who has ever actually been to a hockey game has most likely enjoyed it and been back to see another one, because hockey is about as good as sports get: fast, free-flowing, beautiful and violent without the long lags and delays in the action of football or baseball.
There are lots of reasons hockey isn’t as popular as other sports. Most people like to watch sports they started out playing as kids. To play football, all you need is a football. To play basketball, all you need is a hoop and a ball. Soccer is the favorite sport in the many impoverished areas of the world because all you need is a crude ball.
To play ice hockey, you need ice, which doesn’t occur naturally in much of the country. Skates, a stick and a puck are also necessary to get even the most basic pickup game going. If you plan on playing seriously, a helmet and lots of padding is highly recommended. That’s not even getting into the pounds of gear required to play goalie safely.
That doesn’t totally explain why NHL teams like the St. Louis Blues play to near-empty arenas. After all, the Kentucky Derby is a huge draw every year, and most of the degenerates gambling their kids’ college money have never raced on horseback. The key is horse-racing is easy to figure out: the first horse across the finish line wins.
Hockey is not so easy to understand the first time you watch it. The rules seem arcane and arbitrary without any basic knowledge to work with. Hard-core hockey fans speak a strange dialect that might as well be Swahili if you’ve never heard it before. Making matters worse, six governing bodies, each with slightly differing rules, regulate hockey worldwide. With the help of USU hockey’s Greg Finatti, Scotty John and Robert Hashimoto, The Statesman EXPLAIN series will try to make the game more accessible to casual fans.
Zones- There are three zones on a rink, two offensive zones and the neutral zone. The neutral zone is the middle of the ice between the two blue lines. The offensive zones are where the majority of the action and scoring take place.
Face-off- To start off each period and also after any stoppage in play, the referee will drop the puck between the two opposing centers, who fight for the puck with their sticks. There are nine faceoff circles on the rink: five in the neutral zone and two in each offensive zone. After a penalty is called, the ensuing faceoff will take place over the circle closest to where the infraction occured.
The Crease- A colored area directly in front of the net where the goalkeeper is supposed to be allowed to work without being interfered with. Offensive players will station themselves right outside the crease in order to be in position to get rebounds or receive a pass and whip it into the net.
Forecheck- This is a system where the offense applies pressure to the defense when the puck is in the zone. Hashimoto said USU uses a two-man forecheck: “Say the puck is in the corner, the first forward tries to take the defender’s body. The second forward is watching in the slot area, and he tries to take the puck. The number two guy supports the first guy whatever happens.” Some teams forecheck aggressively, flooding the offensive zone to try and create turnovers. There are many forechecking systems.
Cycle- When USU has the puck in the offensive zone, they will run what is called a two-one-two cycle. Two defenders skate near the blue line and try to keep the puck in the zone. One forward stays high above the circles and two forwards cycle the puck.
Hashi explains, “One forward could go up the boards and drop the puck behind him in the corner for the second forward to grab. The second forward goes up the boards, and the first guy takes the number two spot. There’s lots of options: You could drop it, you could skate it to the net yourself, kick it back to the D or to the third forward up high.” Hashi said USU legend Aaron Burrell was known for charging the net himself.
“You don’t want to keep cycling the whole time because you won’t score. You want to make the D commit to you after a few cycles,” Hashi said. John said USU favors a two-man cycle because the Aggies have a lot of fast skaters who can beat their man one-on-one.
“If you’re the number one forward and you’re shoulder to shoulder with your guy, you can beat him and go inside. You want to do that,” John said.
Backcheck- This refers to the forwards skating back down to help their defensemen. “The forwards come back to support the D. They’re breaking out and attacking us and we skate back to help the defense,” Hashi said.
Blueliner- This is a nickname for defensemen like John who stay home at the blue line to keep the puck contained in the offensive zone.
The Circles- Often used as a point of reference for where a shot is made. Scoring a goal from above the circles requires a fast, accurate shot. Kent Arsenault and Jordan Francom are two of the best Aggies at scoring from above the circles.
Offsides- Offensive players are not allowed to enter the offensive zone before the puck is either carried or passed in. A linesman will whistle the puck dead, and a faceoff will take place in the neutral zone.
Butterfly Style- “That’s a goalie that goes down more and uses his legs,” Finatti said. “There’s butterfly and standup. You take up more of the bottom of the net and leave corners open. I was never taught when I was young, and just started playing that way.”
Playing butterfly style forces the opposing team to attack the top shelf of the goal and puts more pressure on the goalie to make saves with his glove hand because his huge leg pads are walling off the net. Both Finatti and Scottie Beard play the butterfly style for USU. Finatti said this is a more acrobatic style of goaltending which is more exciting for the fans to watch. Butterfly style has largely replaced standup.
A good example of a standup goalie would be the character Denis who plays goalie for the fictional Charlestown Chiefs in the classic Paul Newman film “Slap Shot.”
Icing- Icing occurs when the two teams are at even strength and the offensive team dumps the puck into the zone from behind the red line. The offensive team must move the puck past the red line to dump it in behind the goal line. After icing the puck, play is halted and a face-off is conducted in the offending team’s zone. When the puck is dumped in from behind the red line, the linesman will raise his hand to indicate that icing has occured, but in the NHL, the icing can be cancelled if the puck touches the goalkeeper or a player from the team that iced it.
Breakaway- This is when a lane opens up allowing an offensive player to skate at the goalie with the puck without any defenders in the way. If a defender lacking the speed to catch up interferes with the breakaway, the offensive player may be awarded a penalty shot on the goal. USU’s Roberto Leo was awarded a penalty shot in the first game against BYU this season and scored a goal.
Bodycheck- There is much confusion as to what constitutes a legal body check. John explains how to properly execute a legal check: “Basically, as long as you can see a player’s numbers you don’t want to hit them. USA Hockey always stresses that because people have become paralyzed or died from that. You don’t ever want to have your stick in your hands up high. Just drop a shoulder and put it into a guy. Not every time is the right time to put a body check. if you miss him, you’re putting yourself out of position.”
It is illegal to check a player without the puck, although hockey players often stretch this rule by ramming into a player
who has just passed the puck off. USU’s Brett Fryslie specializes in the hip check, where he skates backwards parallel to an offensive player and smashes him with his hindquarters.
There is a lot more to learn about hockey, the best way being to go to the Eccles Ice Arena this weekend and watch the Skatin’ Aggies take the ice. For further reference, wikipedia.org has entries explaining such terminology as the Gordie Howe Hat Trick, puck bunnies, the Neutral Zone Trap and the Left Wing Lock.