Hockey For Dummies: Penalties

This week for the installment of Hockey for Dummies, I will be discussing penalties in hockey. First off penalties in hockey are placed into two different categories, Team penalties and Individual penalties. When the whistle is blown for a team penalty this usually results in a face off either in the the penalized team’s defensive zone or in the neutral zone. This depends on what the type of penalty it is.

As for individual penalties a specific player does something that they are put in the penalty box or sin bin as it is sometimes called, for a specific amount of time. These can either be major or minor penalties. In a minor penalty the player sits out for two minutes and the other team has the man advantage. If a goal is scored before the two minutes is up the player is allowed out the box. Major penalties can range from five to ten minutes. A ten minute penalty is a misconduct in which the player is not allowed back on the ice in that time bracket. A lot of ten minute penalties in hockey end up being Game Misconducts, which result in a player being ejected from a game. Sometimes these can also result in disciplinary action through a suspension as per the league’s review.

So let’s break it down between these types to explain in layman’s terms what penalties in hockey are.

Offsides : The offsides penalty is always a tricky rule since it has changed over the years. I may have written about this one in another of the Hockey For Dummies blogs, but to refresh those who forgot, here goes. Since hockey is played on the ice and is restricted by boundaries, it is not as obvious what an offsides penalty would be. Essentially when a player is trying to go into the opposing zone, if their body goes in before the puck it’s offsides. The puck has to pass the red line first. If they shot the puck and it bounces of a defending player, it is also an offsides.

Icing: Icing is where a player lobs the puck from one end of the ice to the other. If the player can get to the other zone before it hits the opposing goal line or before a defending player gets it, then it is not considered an icing. If it does go past the line it is icing and the face off is in the penalized team’s zone.

There are a lot of individual penalties in the NHL rulebook, so I’m going to explain the most common ones that you will see when watching hockey.

Boarding: This is where a player is checked against the boards so hard that he is violently thrown against the boards. This can be a tricky call since hockey is an extreme contact sport and bodychecking is an important part of the game. If there is definite proof of boarding it will be called and it is a five minute major penalty.

Cross-checking: This is when a player takes his sticks and rams it into the back of a rival player, usually to thrown him off balance. Things get heated on the ice, so a lot of times this is a stupid penalty to take when a player gets pissed.

Tripping: Pretty self-explantory, when a player is tripped by a stick or another player’s skate.

Slashing: This occurs when a player is hit with another player’s stick, most times this results in a stick from being broken and that’s how a lot of these calls get made.

Hooking: Another simple term, when a player hooks his stick around another, usually to try to prevent them from scoring.

Holding: Exactly what you think, when a player holds back another player to interrupt their play.

Fisticuffs: More commonly known as fighting. The golden rule in hockey is that a fight is initiated with the drop of the gloves, but both players have to drop the gloves in order for the fight to happen. Fighting is frowned upon in the NHL, but officials don’t really try that hard to break them up, mostly because fans enjoy them so much. Once a fight loses its heat, that’s when the players are broken apart and giving five minutes in the sin bin.

Roughing: Similar to fighting, roughing is usually a fight that may occur but the gloves are not dropped.

High Stick: This occurs when a player touches another with their stick above the shoulder. Most times if blood is drawn it can be a double minor and the penalized player sits for four minutes.

Too many Men: This was mistaken written as “Too Much Man” in a Penguins broadcast a few seasons back, but it basically just means having too many men on the ice other than the three forwards and two defenders.