In the third iteration of my hockey mailbag series, I’m going to answer as many miscellaneous questions as I can. If you haven’t already checked out my two previous mailbag articles, give them a read. They covered penalties and line changes.
If you have hockey questions that you’d like answered in article form, keep an eye out for my next mailbag request on X. I’ll probably do another one within the next month or so.
I’ll make one quick note that will make everything else make sense: Hockey is a game of zones. A team has a strategic advantage when it controls the puck in the other team’s zone. Lots of rules are based on these advantages.
How do faceoffs work?
You probably already realized that whenever play stops, it resumes via a faceoff: two players battling for puck possession. But what are the rules for a faceoff? Why do players get kicked out of the faceoff circle? How do they determine where the faceoff is held?
Let’s dive in.
You’ll notice in the diagram below that there are five circles, each with a dot at the center, and four additional red dots. These are the only locations where a faceoff can happen.
One player per team is allowed in the faceoff circle. Teams’ centermen, also called centers, typically take the faceoffs. The player on the home team positions his stick first, followed by the center on the visiting team.
If either player moves his stick before the official drops the puck, he is waved out of the faceoff circle. At this point, one of his teammates must take the faceoff. If that player also gets waved out, the team gets a penalty for delay of game.
You’ll notice that the four faceoff circles in the corners have extra markings both on the inside and the outside. These are guidelines for where each player must stand, and they apply to faceoffs in all locations — not just the locations that have the markings.
The marks on the outsides of the circles are called “hashmarks.” Both teams’ players must stand behind their respective teams’ hashmarks until the puck is dropped. The right angles on the insides of the circles indicate where and how the centermen must stand. Their toes can’t cross the horizontal lines and their feet must be parallel to the vertical lines.
Faceoff locations are determined by two things: the location of the event that stopped play and the type of event that stopped it. The NHL rulebook has five and a half pages explaining the minutia of faceoffs, including locations for every possible scenario. I’ll summarize it.
If your team is responsible for the stoppage in play, the faceoff usually happens at the least advantageous spot for your team. Here are some examples of scenarios that would cause a faceoff in your zone:
- Your team takes a penalty
- Your goalie covers the puck
- Your team gets called for icing
- Your team causes the puck to go out of play from your zone
There are also some scenarios in which the faceoff is held at one of the neutral zone locations. These include:
- When a goal is scored
- When a period begins
- When either team is called for offside
- When the puck goes out of play in the neutral zone
- When a goalie covers the puck, but the attacking team’s defensemen get involved in a scrum at the net
- When the officials make a mistake
There are lots of other situations that determine faceoff locations, but these are the main ones.
How do offside and icing work in hockey?
Let me first reemphasize that in hockey, it’s “offside” — not “offsides.” If you ever hear someone say it the wrong way, be sure to poke them in the eye.
With that out of the way, let’s explain what both offside and icing are.
Offside in hockey is similar to offside in soccer, except rather than the last defender being the point of reference, it’s the blue line. The puck must cross the blue line before a player on the attacking team does. If it happens the other way around, the linesman blows the whistle when the player touches the puck.
Once the puck exits the zone, the whole attacking team must leave the offensive zone before they can bring the puck back in.
There is one exception to this rule though it doesn’t happen very often: If the defending team brings the puck back into the zone, there is no offside. This caused some confusion in the playoffs last year, though the linesman made the right call.
The person who asked this question understands icing, but I’ll explain it anyway for those who don’t.
Icing is when a team shoots the puck from its own side of center ice all the way down to the back of the other team’s zone. But it doesn’t end there. The two teams race for positioning, and the winning team is the one that has the best chance to touch the puck by the time they get to the edge of the faceoff circle.
If the defending team wins the race, the linesman blows the whistle and the faceoff happens in the offending team’s zone. If the attacking team wins, there is no whistle and the attacking team can pursue puck possession in the offensive zone.
Note that when one team has a penalty, that team can ice the puck without being called for it. However, if both teams have penalties at the same time, neither team can ice the puck.
What happens when a player breaks his stick?
Sticks in the current age are hollow and extremely light-weight. They’re made out of composite materials and most of them weigh 15 ounces or less. That makes them really easy to use, but it also makes them really easy to break.
When a player breaks his stick, he must drop it immediately. If he continues to play with it, he is assessed a penalty for playing with illegal equipment. He can get a new stick one of two ways: by grabbing one from the bench or by getting one from a teammate. This occasionally makes for cool goals.
Most commonly, though, when a player breaks his stick, he simply leaves the ice and someone else takes his place.
Some of you might be interested to know that players typically have several backup sticks at every game. There’s a rack at the entrance of every NHL dressing room with dozens of sticks just for that game. Teams also have rooms full of sticks at their home rinks.
Can a hockey player catch the puck?
The person who asked this question is quite observant: a player can catch the puck, but he must drop it right away. If he holds onto it for too long, throws it, skates with it or does anything else that the referee deems to work to the player’s advantage, he is subject to a penalty for closing his hand on the puck.
A player also can’t pick the puck up off the ice, lest he receive a penalty for closing his hand on the puck.
Goalies are the exception to this rule. A goalie can “cover” or “freeze” the puck by grabbing it — whether out of midair or off of the ice — and hold onto it until an official blows the whistle.
Hand passes, which occur when a player bats or swipes the puck to a teammate, or when a puck deflects off a player’s glove and goes to a teammate, are permitted only in the defensive zone. If a hand pass happens in the neutral or offensive zone, the whistle is blown but no penalty is called.
It’s also important to note that if a player hits the puck with his hand while taking a faceoff, he gets a penalty.