Of Ice And Men: A complete beginner's guide to professional hockey (Part 3)

The war on ice, explained.

This is Part III of our beginner’s guide, where we’ll focus on the players. Tomorrow (Part IV) we’ll talk about penalties and special teams. You can read Part II here.

The surface that hockey is played on easily its most complicated. Because it’s ice, everything moves fast. The players move fast. The puck moves fast. The surface itself, with its many markings, helps keep things contained so that the action is not just one big blur. It’s precisely this ice structure that takes the chaos out of the game to create something more intentional.

Hockey is defined by three zones, a netminder’s personal space (the goalie crease), several important lines that require some explanation, and a bunch of faceoff dots.

Below is a crude diagram of the ice that I’ve borrowed from a tracking tool called Shot-Plotter. And then we’ll go through them, one by one.

Neutral Zone (NZ): This is the zone separating each team’s immediate attacking or defending territory. The center red line cutting through the neutral zone is important because teams cannot just lob pucks from their own zone into their opponent’s zone to get out of trouble. Icing is a term you will hear a lot. When a team throws the puck into the opposite zone from the defending zone or without crossing the red line, as long as the opponent retrieves the puck first (which is almost always), then the play will stop, and the icing team will be forced to take a defensive zone faceoff as a low-stakes punishment. If you’d prefer an explanation from Snoop Dogg, you can. Keep in mind, this rule only applies at even-strength play, and it applies to all players, the goaltender included (we’ll get into that tomorrow).

The speed of the game makes the new rule, hybrid icing, somewhat gray. Hybrid icing is icing, with the asterisk that the refs won’t blow the whistle to stop the play until the retrieving team possesses the pick. This means the icing team has a chance to prevent the defensive zone faceoff. However, a few things complicate icing. Refs can and often do wave off icing if the non-icing team is able to retrieve the puck. Here’s an icing play that will not only look confusing to new fans, but perhaps even to old fans as well. It’s one of the reasons why Patrik Laine (the Finnish player who looks like he’s about to beat Team Sweden to the puck) immediately begins arguing with the official.

We’re not gonna get lost in the weeds of this, however. While the mechanics of icing are important, it’s more important to know why icing exists: in this case, as a way to prevent excessive prevent defense. Teams can’t just win faceoffs and dump the puck out to sit on a lead. What’s more, icing teams aren’t allowed to change players upon the ensuing faceoff. This is often what happens when players are trapped in their own zone; exhausted, they look for the icing for the odd reprieve.

Offensive Zone (OZN): The offensive zone is the attacking zone. You would think there are no rules beyond shooting the puck, and beating the goalie but in point of fact, there are. Each player is not allowed to deflect pucks into the goal if their sticks go above the height of the crossbar. They can’t play the puck itself with a high stick either to keep it in the zone if the defenders try to lob it out. They can’t pass the puck with their hands, and they can’t kick the puck into the net¹. Most critically, teams entering the opponent’s zone must have the puck cross the blueline first. If they don’t — for example they enter the zone even just fractions of an inch in front of the puck — then offsides is called. Offsides results in many goals being disallowed after the fact as a result.

There’s a good chance you will hate offsides if you’re a new hockey fan. After all, a goal may take a while to develop. The scoring team may put in a minute’s worth of attacking, and score, only for it to be called back because the first skater to enter the zone was a tardigrade’s length past the blueline before the puck entered.

Forechecking refers to the attacking team in the OZN when they don’t have possession.

Defensive Zone (DZN): The defensive zone is the defending zone. The only real difference here is that unlike the OZN, you can hand pass or bat the puck to a teammate with your hand (hockey doesn’t like the idea of more offense, but that’s another story for another day). The best defensive zone teams tend to be able to break out of the zone cleanly when they do have possession, or retrieve the puck successfully when they don’t.

Faceoff Dots: There are nine in total. Every game begins with a faceoff in the middle of the ice. A faceoff itself is when the referee drops the puck between two players (usually the center forward) who then battle for immediate possession of the puck. Faceoffs occur in the other neutral zone areas from an offside call, or a stoppage, such as a hand pass. A faceoff in these areas will occur in the place closest to where the stoppage was called. Faceoffs in the neutral zone away from center ice are pretty rare, however.

The faceoff dots in the attacking/defending zones are a big deal, on the other hand. Like with those in the neutral, a stoppage of play occurring closest to the faceoff dot is where the next faceoff will take place (this includes after a goalie makes a save and stops play). However, faceoffs will also occur here during special teams, and after an icing. The attacking team gets to decide which faceoff circle they want the puck dropped.

Faceoffs are a big deal in the commentary booth, and TV analysts will often make a deal about the team winning the faceoff battle. But the degree to which they impact the game is up for a spirited debate.

Blueline: Just as it sounds. It’s the blue line identifying the entry into the attacking or defending zone.

Goalie Crease: This is the immediate domain of the goaltender, and they have free reign to move within this allotment. Teams are allowed to play the puck in this small blue area so long as they don’t interfere with the goalie himself. And don’t worry. You’ll be as confused as the rest of us when you see what gets called and what doesn’t.

Trapezoid: This is where goalies are allowed to handle the puck. If they handle the puck anywhere outside of their crease, or the trapezoid, they will be penalized.

Ref’s Crease: Whenever referees need to huddle to discuss a penalty, they huddle in this area of the ice.

The war on ice, explained (advanced)

This one will be quick. There’s a lot of terminology in hockey so rather than just throw a bunch of words at you, here’s a visual² for some of the terms you’ll hear, and what they signify. Each term is basically just a lesson in geography anyway. The ones you’ll hear more often than not are: corner, halfwall, low slot, high slot, and the hashmarks.

Most of hockey is played along the exterior of the ice—80 percent in fact. A lot of terminology signifying exterior areas will be terms you hear a lot on any telecast.

Player roles and responsibilities

New fans might not care about strategies and tactics, but it’s important to have some idea — at least insofar as they relate to player roles. As with certain areas of the ice, this terminology is used a lot. These definitions are stripped of all their tactical nuance, so keep that in mind.

• Strongside: the side of the ice where the puck is. This term is often used in connection with the defenseman carrying the puck, be it in the offensive or defensive zone.

• Weakside: the side of the ice where the puck is not. This term is often used in connection with the defenseman not carrying the puck, be it in the offensive or defensive zone.

• F1: this stands for first forward to enter the zone. If F1 is attacking, F1 is considered the initial puck carrier. If they are not, F1 is considered the initial forechecker or forward pressure.

• F2: this stands for the second forward to enter the zone. F2 is primary support of the puck carrier, or primary pressure support on the forecheck.

• F3: this stands for the third forward to enter the zone. This forward straddles the line between playing offensively versus defensively.

With the speed at which hockey is played, strongside and weakside are two terms that change on a dime. The important takeaway here is that the movement of these five skaters forms together to create a lot of other terms that flow from them: rebounds, deflections, tips, tracking, recoveries, availability, puck support, and picks.

Of course, there’s a lot more that goes into roles and responsibilities because they don’t exist in a vacuum. The ice and each player role take place within a coach’s system, and systems vary. There’s a lot of overlap, granted. You will hear terms like “man on man”, “zone coverage”, “aggressive forecheck”, and “trapping”. If you want to get into this side of the game without feeling overwhelmed, pay attention to how teams break out of their own zone, and how they enter the opposing zone.

Part IV Preview

And finally, we will talk about special teams, and how this gamestate is governed (rules and penalties).

1. This is described as a “kicking motion” in the rulebook. You can technically use your feet if positioned perfectly.

2. This visual has been repurposed from Belfry Offense by Darryl Belfry (2023).