Ice hockey is a sport in which two teams compete on a specific area of ice (Ice hockey arena) where players put sleds on their feet so that they can move quickly and players carry hockey sticks to push or pass the puck on the ice and the team scores a point when the disc enters the opponent’s goal, and the ice hockey ring has a semi-oval shape divided in half by a red line (midfield) followed by a blue line from each side to determine the centers of attack and then a red line is the goal line At the end of the pitch there are five circles, one of which is the center circle where play begins and four spreaders on both halves of the pitch to determine the areas of attack and defense.
Ice hockey arena specifications
When watching the ice hockey arena, it is expected to ask about misleading areas or areas with a semi-deviant shape or half-circle in the middle, all these points, lines and the distances between all of this, the dimensions of the arena will be first talked about:
Dimensions of the ice hockey arena:
The standard dimensions of the Hockey Arena in the American League (NHL) is 61 meters long and 26 meters wide and the blue line is 9 meters from the red midline, and behind the goal there is an area with round edges with a radius of 8.5 meters, and the goal line is 4 meters away from the boards and the diameter of all circles drawn on the ice is 9 meters, and another measure is the global measurement of the hockey arena with only a difference from the measurement of the American arena which is wider than the American B 4 meters to make the entire width of the world arena 30 meters.
Parts of the hockey field:
- Center ice: The center of the hockey arena with the team logo on it and the game begins.
- Boards: The wood panels that surround the ring to keep the hockey disc within the ring limits.
- Goal cage: Two goal cages are located at the back of each side of the arena, where goals are scored.
- Safety glass: This type of mesh glass surrounds the ring boundaries along the top of the panels and is for protection.
- Penalty box: One penalty area for each team and next to the players’ seats for each team, as the player stands in this area when he deserves a penalty for a specified period.
- Player benches: Each team gets seats for its players next to the box from the ring outside the wooden panels, which is where coaches and players sit.
- Scoreboard: Hangs from the top of the hockey arena where fans and players can look at them for details of goals, strikes on goal, game clock and penalty time for players.
Hockey field lines:
- Center line: The red line that cuts the center of the ring and divides it in half, and all confrontations at the beginning of the half or after the goal take place along this line.
- Blue lines: The blue lines that define neutral areas and the team cannot cut that line and enter the offensive zone of the opposing team unless it enters the hockey disc first or will be considered an offside infiltration.
- Face-off spots: The four red dots are opposite around the red midfield and between the blue lines, when the Offside rule is broken, the stop-play whistle is blown and play between the two teams restarts to the nearest face-off spot.
- Face-off Circles: The areas from which the team with the hockey disc is starting to score goals, four large red circles, two in the offensive zone and two in the defensive zone.
- Goal line: It is the line that runs horizontally across the goal net and determines whether or not the referees get a goal by cutting the entire hockey disc to the goal line.
- Goal Crease: The blue-shaded area against the goal net, the goalkeeper has the right to move freely inside, and the opponent has the right to ski through it without friction with the goalkeeper.
The goalkeeper’s restricted area is the area behind the goal net and is defined by the goal line and the wooden panels at the back, and the goalkeeper is not allowed to handle the disc in this area. - Referee Crease: A semi-circle area along the midfield where referees and assistants meet only to discuss refereeing matters and coaches of both teams can only approach the external boundaries and talk to the referees.
- Hash marks: Intermittent markers around front points or around front circles for players to stand on.
Basic ice hockey laws
The goal of ice hockey is to score more goals than the opponent by inserting the hockey disc into the opponent’s goal, and a goal is scored only if the entire disc has crossed the entire goal line, in each game you must know the laws in order to play the right way, here is a guide to the basic ice hockey rules:
- Ice hockey face-offs: Confrontations are used to start playing periods or restart play after stopping for whatever reason, the confrontation is between two players standing against each other at nearly the length of one stick and the responsible referee drops the hockey disc between them, and then the two players try to get the ball.
- Ice hockey time: Play with three 20-minute runs and stop the timing every time the game stops, i.e. every second is important.
- Ice hockey teams: Each team consists of 20 players, two of whom are goalkeepers, while 6 players are on the ground during play, and a change of players can be made at any moment.
- Ice hockey areas: Ice is marked by a series of red and blue lines, the red line (middle) divides the ice in half, while the blue lines separate the ice into three equal ‘areas’: a defense area, a neutral zone and an attacking area.
- Ice hockey referees: The referee (wearing a red armband) controls the game and makes the final decision on any issue, and this referee has an assistant referee who is interested in sneaking (offside). An assistant goalkeeper, who decides whether the hockey disc has crossed the goal line, ruled.
- Close the hand on the disc: Any player, other than the goalkeeper holding the disc with his hands is placed back into the ice, resulting in the player being expelled for two minutes.
- Play the disc with a high stick: When the opponent hits the disc in the air with the stick level above the height of the shoulder the play must stop and the resulting face-off and the goal scored by the disc hit with a stick that was above the height of the crossbar must not be counted.
- Offside: The team is considered an intruder when any player from the attacking team precedes the discus on the blue line of the defending team, the location of the player’s sleds and not his stick determines the infiltration (the two skis are together after the blue line).
- Delay time: The following actions will result in a two-minute penalty for delaying the game: deliberately hitting the disc out of the ring, deliberately removing the goal net from its natural place or not providing the right number of players on the ice surface after a warning from the referee or making an illegal replacement.
- Penalty shots: A penalty is awarded when a player pulls an opponent from behind on the chance to score a goal or when the net is deliberately pulled by a rival goalkeeper or defence.
- Icing the puck: When a player and his team’s area hit the disc, cutting the red midfield and crossing the opponent’s goal line without entering the goal and without touching anyone while it was moving, when it happens, the play is stopped and the disc is returned to the other end of the ring for the face-off in the opposing team area.
- Shootouts: Any regular-season game that ends in overtime with a tiebreaker will go to the penalty shootout, a series of penalty kicks in which each team is allowed three tries to score in a rotational manner, if after three attempts the two teams remain even, the strikes will continue until one of them fails. Winner of the strikes
