Ice hockey

Hockey is a sport played on ice and involves two teams competing to shoot a puck into the opposing teams net.

Organization

Hockey is governed at an international level by the International Ice Hockey Federation(IIHF), which has 64 members. The most competitive professional league exists in North America as the National Hockey League (NHL). Consisting of 30 teams, the NHL competes annually for the oldest trophy in professional sport, the Stanley Cup. The first team to win the Cup was the Montreal AAA team in 1892-93. The first US-based team to play for the Stanely Cup were the Portland Rosebuds (1916), and the first US-based team to win it were the Seattle Metropolitans (1917).

Game Play

Each team may have five skaters plus a goalie on the ice at one time. The skaters usually consist of two defencemen and three forwards called the right winger, left winger and center. If a player is penalized, they must leave the game and remain in the penalty box while their team plays with only four skaters. Penalties usually last for either 2 minutes (minor) or 5 minutes (major). However, if the opposing team scores during a minor penalty, the penalized player may return. Minor penalties are called for tripping, roughing, high-sticking, holding, interference, hooking, cross-checking, elbowing, charging, diving, having too many players on the ice, illegal equipment or delay of game. A four-minute double-minor penalty may be called when unintentional injury results. Major penalties are called for extremely violent infractions and for fighting. During the 1992/93 season, the NHL adopted an instigator rule to curtail fighting. Whereas fighting in hockey usually resulted in both combatants receiving off-setting five minute majors, the new instigator rule applied an additional minor to the person who was initiated the fight. In the years following the adoption instigator rule, there was an increase players attempting to obstruct the path of other players. This strategy of "clutching and grabbing" was aimed at slowing an opposing teams most talented players. Starting in the 2005/06 season, an effort was made to penalize all forms of obstruction and the speed of the game returned.

In the NHL, games are typically played over three periods, each period being 20 minutes long. If a game is tied after regulation time expires, a 5 minute sudden-death overtime period is played with both teams playing with four skaters (plu a goalie). If the game remains tied, a shootout is played with three shooters per team. The team with the most goals at the end of the shootout wins. If the teams are still tied, a sudden death shootout begins using only players that have not taken a shot. In playoff games, there is no shootout and teams play sudden death overtime until one team wins. This can result in extremely long games, the record being a 1936 game between Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons that consisted of 6 overtime periods for total game time of 176 minutes and 30 seconds.

Equipment

Hockey in its simplest form is played on skates with a stick and puck. Hockey sticks are traditionally made of wood, but today are made of composite materials such as Kevlar or carbon fiber. Stick blades may have no more than a 3/4" curve. If a player is caught with a curve, they receive a minor penalty. Marty McSorely was famously penalized for such an infraction in the 1993 Stanley cup finals.

The puck is a black vulcanized rubber disc and is 1" thick and 3" in diameter. Given its small size, many casual fans have found it difficult to follow the puck during games. This problem was especially problematic for viewers watching games on television. In 1996, Fox incorporated the use of a puck equipped with 20 infrared emitting diodes to track its position on screen. The system called "FoxTrax" created a blue glow around the puck to help trace its path and a red streak appeared whenever the puck was moved faster than 70 mph.

References

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