Language and Glossary

Key focus

Work out what a location word is measured from before you act on it. Almost always it is the net that matters right now: high is toward the blue line you are facing, low is toward the goal line.

Read your F-number off the order of arrival and do that job at once. The first forward to the puck is F1, the second is F2 in support, and F3 stays highest as the safety. Say it, so the line moves together. Some coaches assign F1 by position instead, so check yours.

Re-read strong side and weak side every time the puck crosses the middle, and swap jobs with it. In a low zone collapse — this guide's default, and a coaching choice — the strong-side defenceman plays the puck and the weak-side one holds the goalmouth. Under man-on-man you go with your check. Find out which your team plays.

Winger: in your own end, "stay high" ends the instant your team wins the puck. Leave the point and come down the wall to the outlet spot, between the hash marks and the goal line, in the usual swing breakout. A flat or spread breakout holds you higher.

Know whether you have been told to forecheck or to backcheck — they are opposite jobs. Forechecking is pressuring the other team in their end to win the puck back; backchecking is racing back toward your own end after you have lost it.

Ask which end of the ice a shape name means before you go and stand somewhere. 2-1-2, 1-2-2, 1-3-1 and 1-4 each name a forecheck in their end and a neutral-zone structure a hundred feet away.

Choose a rim or a reverse by where the forechecker is. Rim the puck on along the boards when one is sealing you against the wall; reverse it into the space one has just left when they have over-committed past you.

Act on a call the moment you hear it. "Outlet!" means I am your exit — move the puck. "Back door!" means take the unmarked player at the far post now. "Screen!" from your goalie means get out of the sightline, or hold your ice in front of the screener with no lean and no push; walking them off theirs can be called interference. Never shove with the shaft: that is cross-checking.

Play the puck, not the goalie, wherever they are standing. No rulebook that addresses it makes a goalie outside the crease fair game. When one comes out for a loose puck, pull up and take away the outlet: a goalie down or turned to play the puck cannot protect themselves.

Overview

Hockey's working vocabulary is small, and almost all of it is relative. "High", "low", "strong side", "F1" and "the wall" name a position relative to the net that matters now, the side the puck is on now, or the order players arrived in. The same patch of ice is high to one player and low to another.

That is why a beginner can do exactly what they were told and end up in the wrong half of the rink. The fix is not more words. It is learning what each word is relative to, and, where a word means different things to different positions, which sense is yours.

The words that matter most tell you what to do next, and they change while you are on the ice. F1 usually goes to whoever arrives first, and it can change twice in one sequence. Strong side and weak side flip every time the puck crosses the middle, and under a low zone collapse each flip is a new job for the defence pair and the centre; wingers usually keep one side. Under man-on-man you follow your check instead, so find out which your team plays. A winger's own-end "stay high" lasts only while the other team has the puck. Only the puck signals these changes, so re-reading the word each time it moves is most of the skill.

Some words sound like one instruction and are two. Forecheck and backcheck are opposite jobs at opposite ends. A shape name like 1-2-2 names a forecheck in their end and a structure in the middle third. A rim and a reverse go in opposite directions and beat different pressure.

Calls work only if you act on them at once. On-Ice Communication sets out the full set. "Screen!" is where the net front goes wrong: hold your ice by body position, do not walk the screener out of the lane, which can be called interference, and never put your stick on them. And a goalie who has come out of the crease for a puck is still not fair game.

The page has two halves. The first works through the words by theme — direction, the named areas, roles, pressure, moving the puck and the goalie's language — so that words which shift meaning sit side by side. The second is an alphabetical Glossary for looking a word up. Bold marks either a term defined on this page or plain emphasis.

Rink Map is the other half of the vocabulary and the place to start: every line, marking, zone and named area, drawn to scale.

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Direction, and what it is relative to

High and low

• High means closer to the blue line you are facing, away from the net.
• Low means closer to the goal line, toward the net.

This holds in all three zones, and it is always relative to the net that matters in that moment. In the offensive zone, "high" means back toward the line you came in over — so a forward rotating high is climbing away from the goal they are attacking. In your own end, "low" is toward your own goal line, because that is the only goal line in play there. Do not carry that narrower reading into the offensive zone, where "low" means toward the net you are shooting at.

For a defenceman, almost every instruction about your own positioning is a height instruction, in both zones: hold the line, stay above the puck, and do not go below the circles in the offensive zone without a forward taking your place at the line first.

For a winger, the height instruction you will hear most is "stay high", which means two different things to you and has its own section below.

For a centre, it is "swing low".

Swing low

A centre hears this more than any other player, and it is more specific than it sounds: it means get below the hash marks — the short red lines level with the faceoff dot, roughly a third of the way from the goal line to the blue line — not merely below the puck. Getting underneath the puck by a stick length is not swinging low.

Stay high

For a winger this means two different jobs at almost the same place on the ice, so check which one is meant.

• In your own end it means covering the opposing point — the area just inside your blue line where their defencemen stand — on your side while the other team has the puck, level with that defenceman and not halfway to the corner.
• In a flat or spread breakout it means holding near the blue line instead.

The first sense expires. The moment your team wins the puck, the winger covering the point comes down the wall to the outlet spot — where the first pass out of the zone is received — which in the conventional swing breakout is between the hash marks and the goal line. Nothing announces the switch; winning the puck is the switch.

That first sense is the low zone collapse job — the zone system this guide assumes, in which each player covers an area rather than an opponent. It is a coaching choice. Under man-on-man you follow your check wherever they go, the corner included, with no height to hold. Under a hybrid of the two you hold the height until your point man comes down off it, then go with them. Find out which your team plays.

A third sense is the plain one. Said of F3 — the third forward to arrive on a forecheck — "stay high" just means toward the blue line you are facing, with F3 above the puck as the safety. See Winger and Switching Positions.

Strong side and weak side

Strong side is the side of the ice the puck is currently on. Weak side is the other. They flip the instant the puck crosses the middle.

What changes between positions is not the definition. It is how often the label moves, and what it obliges you to do.

• For a defence pair they are job titles under a low zone collapse — this guide's default, and a coaching choice. The strong-side defenceman plays the puck, the weak-side one holds the goalmouth, and they swap every time the puck crosses the middle, which is why partners talk constantly. Under man-on-man, and under a hybrid of the two, which marks man-on-man low, each takes their assigned player and goes where that player goes. Find out which your team plays.
• For a centre they switch just as often, in the same system. A centre's defensive-zone job changes side every time the puck does, exactly as the pair's does.
• For a winger the label usually holds for a whole sequence rather than switching every few seconds — and the two jobs are genuinely different. The strong-side winger takes the puck up the wall; the weak-side winger collapses to cover the slot.

In Neutral Zone Systems, D1 and D2 mean the strong-side and the weak-side defenceman for that sequence. They do not mean the left and the right defenceman.

Your lane

The ice is divided lengthwise into three lanes: the strong-side boards lane, the middle lane and the weak-side boards lane. The usual default puts one player in each, which for a winger means the outside third on their side, for the centre the middle third, and for the other winger the far third.

"Stay in your lane" is a spacing instruction, not a personality one. Three forwards in three lanes stretch a defence across the whole width of the rink; three forwards in one lane can be covered by two defenders.

One player per lane is a coaching choice. The realistic alternative stacks a lane on purpose: a 1-3-1 regroup puts two players in the middle lane to overload the seam and pull the defence inward, accepting that one checker can see both. Some teams also send the weak-side winger out of their lane to press. Find out whether your team spreads or stacks — the two look identical for one stride, then ask for opposite decisions. Puck Support and Spacing sets out both.

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The named areas, and who owns them

The names below are terminology and they do not change. Who covers each area is a coaching choice, and it does. Rink Map draws every one of them to scale.

The slot, the high slot and the goalmouth

In short: Keep the high slot and the goalmouth apart; leaving the goalmouth to cover the slot leaves a tap-in unmarked.

• The slot is the ice directly in front of the net, between the two faceoff circles, from the tops of the circles down toward the goalmouth. It is where most goals are scored from — Shooting owns the shot-location figures and their qualifications. "The most dangerous ice on the rink" is also said of home plate, a wider shape, and of the inner slot nearest the crease, a narrower one. Treat it as the shape those figures agree on, not a measured ranking.
• The high slot is its upper layer, from the level of the faceoff dots up to the top of the circles. This is the shooting layer: a player unmarked here gets a clean look with time to pick a corner.
• The low slot is the layer beneath it, from the dots down toward the goalmouth and outside the crease. Tips, rebounds and screen position live here, and it is the ice a net-front player fights for. Rink Map owns the scoring evidence for it, and the limits on what has actually been counted.
• The goalmouth is the immediate net front, right at the edge of the crease. It is a much smaller area, and it is the layer below the slot rather than a part of it.

Who covers each layer is not terminology. Under a low zone collapse — the zone defensive system assumed as the default throughout this guide — the high slot belongs to the centre and the goalmouth belongs to the weak-side defenceman. Two layers, two owners.

Two things qualify that, and both matter more than the split itself.

• The centre's layer passes to the weak-side winger collapsing down whenever the centre goes to help in the corner. That is a handoff to agree before it happens rather than during it.
• Under man-on-man nobody holds a layer at all. Each belongs to whoever's check is standing in it, and you go with your check wherever they go. Under a hybrid — man-on-man below the dots on the commonest version of it, zone above — the net front belongs to whichever of the low three is matched to the net-front forward.

Find out which system your team plays. Defensive Zone Coverage sets out each one.

Either way, keeping the two layers apart is most of defensive-zone centre play, and confusing them is how net-front goals happen — coaching observation rather than a counted ranking. A defender who leaves the goalmouth to cover the slot has left a tap-in unmarked. They are two different jobs one layer apart.

The high slot is also where the dangerous passes out of the neutral zone are aimed — at somebody arriving into it, rather than at somebody already standing there.

The half-wall

The boards roughly level with the faceoff dot, between the corner and the point. There is one on each side of each end zone. You will also hear it called the half-boards; it is the same place under another name.

Two positions are told different things about it. They are two halves of one spacing rule rather than a contradiction.

• For a winger the half-wall is home base — in offensive-zone possession and on the power play. From there you can see the point, the slot, the corner and the net front.
• For a centre at even strength it is not your ice. It is where the wingers live, and drifting onto it collapses your line's spacing — a common centre mistake, by coaching observation rather than count.
• On the power play that second instruction does not hold. The two half-wall spots usually go to forwards chosen for shot handedness — ideally the off-wing, so the puck sits on the inside hand — not for position. A centre in an umbrella or an overload is often low or on the strong-side wall instead. Special Teams sets out each formation; ask where your unit puts you.

The half-wall is not the point. The point is up at the blue line; the half-wall is level with the dot, roughly twenty feet from the goal line, far below it.

The point

The area just inside the blue line, toward each set of boards, where the defencemen set up in the offensive zone. It is an area, not the line itself.

• For a defenceman it is where you live in the offensive zone, and where the opposition's defencemen stand in yours.
• For a winger, covering the point — denying the opposing defenceman time and space to shoot or walk in — is your own-end job under a low zone collapse, a coaching choice. Under man-on-man you follow that defenceman wherever they go, the corner included, and there is no point to hold. Under a hybrid of the two you cover the point as ice, then go with that defenceman the moment they come down off it. Find out which your team plays.

Those are the same job seen from two ends of the rink. The winger covering the point is doing to an opposing defenceman exactly what an opposing winger is doing to yours at the other end.

The top of the circle

The edge of a faceoff circle furthest from the goal line, roughly thirty-five feet out. It is a common landmark for where a shot becomes dangerous, and the standard depth marker for a defenceman supporting a cycle in the offensive zone. Rink Map has the full entry.

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Roles, not people

F1, F2 and F3

F1, F2 and F3 are roles defined by order of arrival. They are not positions, and they are not people. On the forecheck, F1 is whichever forward reaches the puck first, F2 the second support, F3 the highest and the safety. They change the moment the order of arrival does. Some coaches assign F1 by position instead, so check how yours does it.

F1 is often the centre, and much coaching material describes that common case. But if a winger gets there first, the winger is F1 and the centre is F2 — immediately, and without swapping back once the sequence is under way. Communicate, so the line moves as a unit and nobody is left guessing.

The numbers belong to whichever team is forechecking, ⚠️ which is not always yours. In Forechecking Systems the numbers describe you, because you are the team applying the pressure. In Breakouts they describe the opposition, because a breakout is what you run against their forecheck. Read the numbering off whichever team is chasing the puck.

D-partner

The other defenceman on your shift. Most of what Defender teaches is really about the pair as a unit rather than about either defenceman alone.

Checker, and "your check"

The word runs both ways in hockey, ⚠️ and the two senses point at opposite players.

• In Passing and Receiving, the checker is the opponent currently pressuring you.
• Elsewhere here, and in most coaching language, "your check" is the opponent you are responsible for covering.

Both usages are common. Take the direction from the sentence around it.

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Pressure, and which end of it you are on

Forecheck, backcheck, and the neutral zone forecheck

• Forechecking is pressuring the team that has the puck in their own end, trying to win it back rather than retreat.
• Backchecking is racing back toward your own end to defend after your team loses the puck. It is the opposite job, not a variant of the same one.
• A neutral zone forecheck is the structure your five players hold across the middle third while the opponent tries to break out. It is not a forecheck in the strict sense, because it is not in their end — but that is the name it goes by, so it is used that way here.

The shape names are shared, and the ice they describe is a hundred feet apart. 2-1-2, 1-2-2, 1-3-1 and 1-4 each name a forecheck in their end and a neutral-zone one. The 1-3-1, the 1-4 and the retreated 1-2-2 are usually played in the neutral zone — a 1-4 puts four skaters about 114 feet from the net they are supposedly forechecking. Ask which your coach means. Forechecking Systems sets out the in-their-end version and Neutral Zone Systems the middle-third one.

Which team is forechecking depends on ⚠️ which end of the play you are being taught. Forechecking Systems describes your forecheck, in their end. Breakouts describes the same pressure arriving in your defensive zone and trying to stop your exit. One play, two points of view.

Breakout

Your team's structured exit from your own zone with possession. Breakouts names nine — up, wheel, reverse, D-to-D, rim, over, quick-up, stretch pass and off the glass — each chosen by a read rather than ranked.

Seen from the other side it is the thing you are trying to break: in Forechecking Systems, ⚠️ "breakout" means the opponents' organised attempt to carry or pass the puck out of their own end.

Angling, steering and sealing

• Angling is forcing an opponent in a direction you have chosen, normally toward the boards. It is the foundation of forechecking, and where body checking is barred it is the whole toolkit, not a beginner's version of hitting. In women's play under the IIHF or the PWHL you may make contact to play the puck, but a step or glide into her is at least a minor, and pinning or pushing her into the boards (IIHF) or putting an arm, shoulder or hip into her after the angle (PWHL) is an illegal hit too. Britain's WNIHL is non-checking at U16 and senior level, so plan no body check there. Forechecking Systems owns the skill and the rules that bound it in each book.
• Steering is shadowing the carrier, with your route and stick, so they skate into an area where you can take away their time and space.
• Sealing is arriving second and closing the escape route the first forechecker has forced them toward.

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Moving the puck

Tape-to-tape

A pass that arrives flat on the receiver's stick blade, on the taped part, ready to be played immediately.

The blade, its heel and its toe

The blade is the flat part of your stick that touches the ice. Its heel is the end nearest the shaft; its toe is the far end. Where the puck sits on the blade changes what a shot does and how quickly it leaves.

Cupping

Tilting the top edge of the blade slightly forward over the puck, so the face is closed rather than open to the sky. On a pass that is what makes the puck arrive flat; on a shot it is what stops the puck sliding off the blade. Puck Handling covers the technique.

Support

A teammate positioning themselves to receive a pass from you.

Release

The moment the puck leaves your blade — and, by extension, how long your shooting motion takes from first movement to that moment.

Flex

How much your stick shaft bends. A bent shaft stores energy and springs it back into the puck, like a drawn bow.

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The goalie's vocabulary

Goaltending has its own vocabulary, used throughout Goaltender, and several of its words name what a skater is trying to beat. The words below are about choice. The places, the equipment and the things done to a goalie — the paint, the five-hole, the post, the blocker, the back door, the screen, traffic and the butterfly — are in the Glossary.

Depth

How far out of the net a goalie is, measured along the line from the puck to the middle of the goal.

Square

Chest, hips and shoulders facing directly at the puck, with the middle of the body on the line from the puck to the centre of the net.

Challenging, staying deep, playing back

Challenging is coming out toward the shooter to reduce how much net they can see. The opposite is staying deep, or playing back.

Save selection

Choosing which save to make. The word "selection" is doing real work in that phrase: it names a decision rather than a reflex.

Reading the situation

Recognising where every player and the puck are, and deciding from that where to be and which save to use. A goalie does not play a series of shots; they play situations, many of which never end in a shot at all.

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Glossary

Alphabetical. An entry whose name starts with the is filed under the next word, so the paint sits under P and the trap under T. Most entries are a sentence or two; those that carry a rule run longer. A bolded term inside a definition is defined elsewhere — in this list, in the sections above, or on Rink Map. Bold also marks plain emphasis, so a bolded phrase that is not the name of a thing is not a term to look up. Where a word has its own section above, the entry points to it.

1-3-1 — three different formations share these digits, and all three appear in this guide. On the power play it is one point, two half-walls, a bumper in the slot and a net-front player. In the neutral zone it is a trap posture — one forechecker, three across the middle, one back. As a forecheck it is the modern trap-adjacent shape pressuring in the opponent's end. Different zones, different shapes, same three digits: context tells you which, and if it does not, ask. See Special Teams, Neutral Zone Systems and Forechecking Systems.

Activation — a defenceman joining the attack as an extra forward. No rule ties a skater to a position, so a defenceman going up ice is bound by offside like anyone else. The coaching constraint is that a forward back-fills so someone stays above the puck, and Defender lists activating without that cover as a common mistake. Trailing late raises the risk a team will accept, but it is not on its own a reason to go: what lifts the cover requirement is a bench call — a full-ice press, a delayed penalty, 6-on-5 — not your own read of the scoreboard. See Offensive Zone Play for the three depths.

Attack triangle — the shape three forwards make during an established offensive-zone possession when one is below the puck, one level with it and one above it, giving the attack width and depth at the same time. This is a coaching choice and not a law of hockey: an overload loading one side, a five-player rotation and a 1-3-1 spread are all real alternatives, so find out which your team plays. See Offensive Zone Play.

Backcheck — racing back toward your own end to defend after your team loses the puck. It is the opposite job to a forecheck, not a variant of it. Set out in Forecheck, backcheck, and the neutral zone forecheck above.

Backdoor — the weak-side net-front area, usually the far post. A backdoor pass goes cross-ice to a player arriving there unmarked, behind the goalie's line of sight. Goalies use the word slightly differently: when they challenge a shooter, the shooter is the front door and the space opened behind them, usually toward the far side, is the back door. One sense is fixed by the puck's side, the other by where the goalie stands, so they usually cover the same ice but not by definition. Every positioning decision a goalie makes trades one door against the other. The shouted "Back door!" is narrower than either: an unmarked opponent at the far post, to be taken now. See Goaltender and On-Ice Communication.

Blocker — the rectangular pad on a goalie's stick hand. The catching mitt on the other hand is the glove or trapper. A shot "blocker side" is to the goalie's stick hand, not their glove. See Goaltender.

Board battle — a contest for a loose puck against the boards. Body position and leverage often beat strength, though a big enough strength gap wins anyway. That is coaching consensus, not a measured law: nothing found in the ice hockey biomechanics literature quantifies it. See Body Contact and Battles.

Boards (also the wall) — the perimeter wall around the rink, 40–48 inches high, and always in play. That is the wall in "on the wall" (playing tight to the boards), "off the wall", "along the wall", "the left wall" and "the strong-side wall". But "the wall" also names a line of skaters strung across the ice to deny a lane — "behind the wall", "the flat wall", "the three-player line", "a wall of four". The preposition usually tells you which: you play a puck off or along the boards, and you get behind a line of skaters.

Breakout — your team's structured exit from your own zone with possession. Seen from the other end of the play it is the thing the forecheck is trying to break. Set out in its own section above, which names the nine kinds and what the word means from that other side.

Bumper — the player in the middle of a 1-3-1 power play, sitting in the slot between the point and the net-front player. Not the same as the net-front player, who is at the goalmouth. A true umbrella has no bumper.

Butterfly — a goalie dropping to their knees with both pads extended sideways and the five-hole closed. It covers the great majority of the lower net, which is the usual explanation given for its place as the base save of modern goaltending. It is a save selection, not a style: go down when going down is the answer. See Goaltender.

Checking from behind — a check on a player who is not aware of it and so cannot protect or defend themselves, with the contact on the back part of the body. ⚠️ Never finish a check on a turned back — if you can see their numbers, pull up and play the puck.

"Checking" is the misleading word: a stick from behind can be called checking from behind, not only your body. The IIHF — Britain's book — reaches a hit from behind into the boards, the goal frame or on open ice "in any manner (i.e., high-sticking, cross-checking, etc.)" (43.1), the NHL, the PWHL, Hockey Canada and CARHA name the cross-check, and USA Hockey names no stick: a stick shove with the force of a check can be checking from behind (608), and a lighter one to the back is still cross-checking (Casebook 609). ⚠️ So on a screener, hold your ground by body position — no lean, no push, and never the shaft. Hockey Canada's own glossary lists high-sticking where its Rule 7.5 does not, but 7.5(c) still reaches a hit from behind into the boards or goal frame "in any manner" when they cannot protect themselves. Body Contact and Battles sets out where each book draws the line.

Not the same as cross-checking, and you do not choose which you are called for. Under Hockey Canada (Interpretation 1 to 7.5(a)), a stationary checker is cross-checking and one in motion is checking from behind — and a player put into the boards or the goal is checking from behind either way.

What it costs. ⚠️ Plan on leaving the game: no book allows a bare minor for a hit from behind that stays off the head, and every book can eject you for one. The match is mandatory under Hockey Canada (7.5(c)) and CARHA (53(b)) for a hit from behind into the boards or goal frame on a player who cannot protect themselves. Under USA Hockey, plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension for any reckless hit — Rule 602(a) says a match "shall be assessed" for reckless endangerment — and any USA Hockey game misconduct also costs your next game (404(b)). If it reaches the head, the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL charge the harsher of this rule and Rule 48; Hockey Canada prices it as head contact instead (7.6; 7.7 in Junior and Senior), and takes the harsher of the two only if it drives them head first into the boards or goal frame. Body Contact and Battles owns every book's tiers and the carve-out for a player who turns into the check.

Chip — a short, deliberate flip of the puck past a defender into space, usually off the boards or the glass, for a teammate to skate onto. The same word covers chipping the puck out — past a forechecker and clear of your own zone — where there may be no teammate to receive it at all.

Crease — the light-blue ice in front of the net where a goalie operates. Keep your skates out of it and live just outside it — and under USA Hockey your stick as well (625(b)). Its other name is the paint; that entry carries the dimensions, the stick limb, and which books count the red line around it as crease.

Cycle — offensive-zone possession maintained by rotating forwards around the low zone — corner, half-wall, behind the net — passing short and low-to-low while protecting the puck, rather than shooting. Wears defenders out and pulls coverage out of shape. It is a set-up, not an outcome: a low-to-high with a screen is one of the things that ends a cycle. See Offensive Zone Play.

Dangle — a stickhandling move to beat a defender one-on-one. Broadly interchangeable with deke; "dangle" usually implies a longer sequence of moves.

Deke — a single fake with the puck, body or head to make a defender or goalie commit the wrong way.

Drop-in — pay-at-the-door pick-up hockey: you turn up alone, get a jersey colour and play — usually full equipment, usually no referees, no commitment. It is usually distinguished from stick-and-puck and shinny, but all three are conventions that rinks use inconsistently, so the rink's own posted session description is the authority. Turning up to a session above your standard is the commonest beginner mistake. Getting Started explains what to ask at the desk.

D-to-D — a pass between defence partners, which resets the forecheck and changes the angle of attack. The usual instruction is to go behind your own net rather than through the slot — a coaching default, not a rule: some teams allow it high in the zone, above the tops of the circles, where an interception is not a slot chance. Ask where your coach draws the line. See Risk Management.

Dump-and-chase — putting the puck deep into the opponents' zone without possession and forechecking to win it back; putting it in is a dump-in. Chosen when a controlled zone entry isn't on. It works partly because, where the trapezoid applies, the goalie cannot come and collect it. The USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA books have no trapezoid, and the PWHL switches it off but still writes the minor (65.2(viii)), so plan for the goalie to come out there. Plan for it in Britain too, since the documents do not settle how far England Ice Hockey's suspension reaches or whether it still stands. Rink Map carries the trapezoid and that unsettled status.

Empty net — the net with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, usually late when trailing. A shot that goes in counts as a goal rather than an icing, wherever it came from — but the books are not equally explicit, and the NHL's and PWHL's are not explicit at all, so read Icing before you rely on it. A shot that misses and crosses the goal line untouched is icing: a goalie going to the bench for an extra attacker does not, on its own, wave it off (NHL 81.3). So when protecting a lead, shoot at the empty net only with a clean lane — a defensive-zone draw against an extra attacker is the last thing you need. See Game Management.

F1 / F2 / F3 — roles defined by order of arrival, not positions and not people: on the forecheck, F1 is whichever forward reaches the puck first, F2 the second support, F3 the highest and the safety. They belong to whichever team is forechecking, which on a breakout is the opposition. Set out in their own section above.

Faceoff — the restart, with one player from each team facing off at one of the nine dots. The books disagree on who puts their stick down first, so check yours before you build a habit on it. Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL the defending player goes first at all eight non-centre dots — both end zones and the four neutral-zone dots — and the visitor first at centre ice (Rule 76.4). ⚠️ In Britain outside the Elite League, the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27 switch that off: "Either centre can now put their stick down first for a face-off." The Elite League's Casebook amends no Rule 76, so an Elite League centre keeps the IIHF order. USA Hockey reverses it: the attacking player goes first at all eight, the visitor at centre ice (613(a)). Hockey Canada puts the visitor first at every dot, though a home player may go first "if it does not cause a problem" (Interpretation 1 to 6.2(a)). CARHA sets no order (Rule 57). The rest of Rule 76.4 has changed: the NHL replaces an offending centre with a teammate, and the IIHF moved from a warning (2025/26) to the same replacement (2026/27). See Faceoffs and UK and England Rules.

Five-hole — the gap between a goalie's legs. The six-hole is the gap between their stick arm and body, which opens when the paddle is too long or the shoulder rolls. Goaltender covers the paddle length and stick-hand position that open the six-hole; Shooting teaches shooting at the five-hole.

Forecheck — pressuring the team that has the puck in their own end, trying to win it back rather than retreat. The word also reaches the neutral zone forecheck, the structure your five hold across the middle third. Set out in Forecheck, backcheck, and the neutral zone forecheck above, which covers both zones, the shape names they share, and which team the numbering belongs to.

Gap control — the distance a defender keeps from an oncoming puck carrier. Aim for roughly a stick-and-a-half at the red line, closing to about a stick length at your blue line. Too big and they build speed; too small and one move beats you. These are a guide, not a law — they move with your backward speed and the attacker's skill — and coaching convention rather than measurement. Of the ladder Defending the Rush sets out, the neutral-zone figure of two to three stick lengths is published, and so is a stick length at the blue line. But the pages disagree: the only one found that anchors a distance to the red line prints two stick lengths there, and it prints one at the blue line where a second page prints two.

Give-and-go — pass to a teammate and immediately skate into open space to receive it straight back. The simplest and most reliable way to beat a defender without stickhandling.

Goalie — the player who guards the net, and the word this guide uses. The rulebooks say goaltender or goalkeeper, as in goalkeeper interference. See Goaltender.

Goalmouth — the immediate net front, right at the edge of the crease. It is a much smaller area than the slot, and it is the layer below it rather than a part of it. Set out in The slot, the high slot and the goalmouth above, with the layers in front of the net and who covers each of them.

Half-wall (also half-boards) — the boards roughly level with the faceoff dot, between the corner and the point, one on each side of each end zone. It is a long way below the point, not another name for it. Set out in its own section above, which covers the different things a winger and a centre are told about it.

Hash marks — the short red lines outside each end-zone faceoff circle: two inches wide, 2 ft long and 5 ft 7 in apart in the NHL, on the outer edge of both sides of the circle, parallel to the goal line. Four per circle (Rule 1.9), roughly level with the dot. They restrain players on a draw; Rink Map owns the markings. They are also the standard depth landmark in your own end, and the distance is what people get wrong: the dot is twenty feet out from the goal line (Rule 1.9), well above the crease, and the blue line sixty-four (Rule 1.5). So "on the wall at the hash marks" means the band on the boards between the hash-mark line and the goal line, at or just below the dot — roughly the bottom third of the way from goal line to blue line, the same spot as "between the hash marks and the goal line".

Home plate — also the house: the analysts' high-danger scoring area, wider than the slot. It runs across the tops of the two faceoff circles, down the dot lines to the dots, then angles in to the two posts — a baseball home plate with its point at the net. It is the working definition of a high-danger chance, an analytics convention rather than an official marking, and its exact boundaries vary between providers, so treat it as a concept rather than a measurement. Rink Map owns the shape and Shooting the scoring figures. On a breakout it is the ice you do not move the puck through.

House league — also local league: the recreational tier of a local association. Hockey Canada describes it as one or two practices and a game a week, inexpensive registration, away games "rarely hosted more than an hour's drive away", and players "almost always given equal ice time regardless of skill or talent". So it does travel — just not far. Not the same as travel/rep hockey, which is entered by tryout and asks much more of you. Tier names vary by association and by year; Getting Started explains how to work out where you belong.

Hybrid — the defensive-zone system that plays man-on-man low and zone high: the two defencemen and the low forward take bodies down low, while the wingers cover the points as an area but go with their point man the moment that player comes down. The usual rule of thumb is man-on-man below the dots, zone above, but where that line sits is a team decision — the dots, the hash marks or the tops of the circles — so learn your team's version. A coaching choice; the alternatives are a low zone collapse and man-on-man. See Defensive Zone Coverage.

Icing — shooting the puck from your own half across the opponent's goal line untouched. ⚠️ Which version you are playing is set by your book, and "most leagues use hybrid" is not the answer. The NHL (from 2013-14) and the IIHF (from 2014) use hybrid icing: the race is to the puck, and the end-zone faceoff dot is the decision deadline, not the finish line (Rule 81.1 in both). The linesperson must judge it by the instant the first player's skate reaches the dot, and if it is too close to call then, icing is called.

🇬🇧 The IIHF adds a limb the NHL lacks, for when there is no race: icing then waits until a defending skater crosses their own blue line and the puck crosses the goal line "(not between the goal posts)" — which is also where the IIHF says a puck that goes in is a goal. USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA run no race, so do not carry the hybrid habit into them. USA Hockey is automatic in every standing classification — its one "hybrid icing" is a sled hockey adaptation. Hockey Canada is automatic except in U18AAA, Junior and, at the Member's option, Senior (6.7(e)). CARHA is automatic (65(a)), and some CARHA leagues divide the ice at the blue lines rather than the red (65(b), 65(c)). How much rec, beer-league and youth hockey each of those adds up to is a question about leagues, and this document has no count for it.

When it is waved off. It is waved off if the opposing goalie plays the puck, or "feigns playing the puck, attempts to play the puck, or skates in the direction of the puck" at any time, with no need to leave the crease (NHL 81.3). USA Hockey does not wave off for goalie movement. It is also waved off if it comes directly off a faceoff, if the team is shorthanded (conditionally — see Shorthanded), or if a linesperson judges an opposing skater could have played it. A puck that goes in is a goal rather than an icing — but check which book says so. USA Hockey (624(a)) and Hockey Canada (6.7) say it flatly, and CARHA too unless the puck was batted with the hand or kicked in (65(a)). The IIHF says it only inside its no-race limb, and neither the NHL's Rule 81 nor the PWHL's Rule 83 says it anywhere, each read whole for it.

After your own icing. Under the NHL and the IIHF: a defensive-zone draw, no line change (81.4) and no timeout (87.1). The two 81.4s differ. The NHL's excepts replacing a goalie pulled for an extra attacker, replacing an injured player, and a penalty that changes the strength; the IIHF's adds "a Player with a broken skate", but the same book's 82.1 lists only the NHL's three, and neither rule says which governs. One IIHF Situation Handbook answer (81.7) allows a change "only" on a strength-changing penalty — over-broad, but unhelpful to you. So ask your officials rather than plan a change around it. Send a replacement over anyway and the IIHF referee sends them back and warns your coach (82.2(V)) — one warning per team per game, covering all three acts that rule names — and the next attempt is a bench minor for delay of game.

The NHL is harsher: its 82.3 gives the visiting team a bench minor for any change after the referee's signal, with no warning, though its 82.2(v) says warning first and the book does not say which governs. A USA Hockey team may both change and take a time-out after its own icing: Rule 624 says nothing about substitution, and the time-out rule (636(f)) has no icing condition. Hockey Canada bans the change only in the categories that run hybrid — U18AAA, Junior and Senior at the Member's option (6.7(d)) — and there allows the time-out but no substitutions during it (6.7(d)(iii)). See Rules Primer.

Limb — one of the separately-stated parts a single rule breaks into; nothing to do with arms and legs. It is worth having because a rule and the exception that rescues you are usually two limbs of one rule. Goaltender interference at Rule 69.7 has four. Incidental contact in a rebound or loose-puck scramble is allowed, inside the crease or out, and the goal stands. A goal is disallowed where an attacker pushes the goalie into the net with the puck after a stop. That goal can be given back where a defender's push or foul caused it. And nobody may score by shoving a player lying on the puck into the goal. Take away only the second and you have the rule backwards. Count limbs, not paragraphs — the NHL prints those four as three paragraphs and the IIHF as four. Where a book names its parts — Hockey Canada's Interpretations, USA Hockey's Notes and its Casebook's Situations — quote the name, because a name still finds the right text after a new edition renumbers. See Rules Primer.

Low zone collapse — the zone defensive system this guide assumes: in your own end each player covers an area rather than an opponent, sagging toward the middle rather than chasing to the boards, with the wingers holding the points and the centre the high slot. It is a coaching choice, and the realistic alternatives are man-on-man and the hybrid. Find out which your team plays. See Defensive Zone Coverage.

Man-on-man — the defensive-zone system in which you take an opponent rather than an area and follow them wherever they go, the corner included, so there is no height or layer to hold. The wingers take the opposing defencemen and go down with them — the sharpest practical difference from a low zone collapse. A coaching choice; the alternatives are a low zone collapse and a hybrid — find out which your team plays. See Defensive Zone Coverage.

Net drive — skating hard at the net without the puck. It pulls a defender with you, creates a rebound and deflection threat that changes the goalie's depth, and bends the defence toward the net, opening the high slot and the point behind you. A half-hearted glide does none of that. ⚠️ The drive stops at the blue paint: keep both feet outside the crease — and under USA Hockey your stick too (625(b)) — and never start contact with the goalie, inside or outside it. Deliberate contact is penalised "whether or not the goalkeeper is inside or outside the goal crease" (NHL 69.2), unnecessary contact is penalised in every book, and USA Hockey files even accidental contact under interference. The NHL's crease sentence reaches an attacker who "enters the goal crease" (69.1), and the NHL and IIHF situation tables answer "Goal is allowed" where the attacker stayed outside it (Situation 5C).

Under USA Hockey your position in the crease voids the goal on its own, whoever scored — unless the puck preceded you in, the goalie is out of the crease area, or a defender's interference put you there. ⚠️ That goalie carve-out reverses while the goalie is on the way back: under USA Hockey's Casebook (625, Situation 9), stopping a returning goalie from making a play means "the goal must be disallowed and an interference penalty shall be assessed". The NHL and the IIHF reach the same play (69.4), but only where the goalie "has played the puck outside of" the crease and is kept from returning "due to the deliberate actions of an attacking player", and the penalty is "may" rather than must. Under Hockey Canada a teammate's goal from outside the crease stands only if you stay passive in there and clear of the goalie's view and movements (8.5). See Playing Without the Puck.

Odd-man rush — an attack where the attackers outnumber the defenders back, such as a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2. On a 2-on-1 the common teaching is that the defender takes away the pass and leaves the shot to the goalie; a timed slide to force the shot is a legitimate alternative — Defending the Rush sets out both.

Offside — an attacker entering the attacking zone before the puck. Both skates must have completely crossed the blue line before the puck completely crosses it; one skate on or behind the line keeps you onside. A skate in the air over the neutral zone counts as onside under the NHL and IIHF (83.1) and the PWHL (85.1), but USA Hockey (630(a)) and Hockey Canada (6.11) require skate contact and CARHA (72(c)) settles it neither way — so keep the blade down and you are onside in every book. ⚠️ Three other things share the word, and none of them is this rule. Your off side, two words, is your unnatural-hand side (a left shot on right defence). Off-side is sometimes used for the weak side of the ice. And lining up in an off-side position at a faceoff is a separate violation with its own remedy (NHL and IIHF 76.3). Arriving late to the dot draws a once-a-game warning before a penalty (76.7 in both). Rule 82.2 restates that at (vii), and 82.2(viii) switches that copy off in the last two minutes of regulation and in overtime — but 76.7 has no such carve-out, so the books do not settle whether it stops late in a game.

One-timer — a shot taken directly off an incoming pass without stopping the puck. Devastating when timed, because the goalie cannot reset between the pass and the shot. Not the same as a one-touch, which is a pass played the same way. See Shooting.

One-touch — a pass you redirect on contact without controlling it first; also a first-time pass, and the basis of a tic-tac-toe sequence. Not the same as a one-timer, which is a shot played the same way. When it is on it beats coverage, because every touch gives the defence time to reset; when it is not, it fails badly. See Passing and Receiving.

Outlet — the first pass out of your own zone, and the teammate available to receive it; both uses are standard. Shouted — "Outlet!" — it means I am your exit: move the puck and start the breakout. (Shouting it is common, but no published coaching source held here documents it.) In the conventional swing breakout the outlet spot for a strong-side winger is on the wall between the hash marks and the goal line; other breakouts hold the winger higher. See Breakouts and On-Ice Communication.

Overload — an offensive or power-play structure that loads four players onto one side of the ice, overwhelming that side and creating a weak-side option. Distinct from the 1-3-1 and the umbrella.

The paint — the light-blue crease in front of the net, where a goalie operates: a semicircle of six-foot radius from the centre of the goal line, with straight sides starting one foot outside each post and running four feet six inches out (NHL Rule 1.7). The red line around it counts as crease in every book that settles it in rule text or glossary — the IIHF (1.7), USA Hockey (Note to 625(b)), Hockey Canada and CARHA (their Glossaries). The NHL's rule text leaves it unsaid, and the one place its book addresses the line answers the other way, as the PWHL's copy does — so off the line is the only ice safe under every book (Rink Map sets them out). "Stay out of the paint" is the instruction; "live just outside the paint" is the skill. ⚠️ Under USA Hockey your stick counts too, and that is how a net-front player loses a goal with both feet outside the line.

USA Hockey's Rule 625(b) stops play for an attacker who "stands, holds their stick, or skates through the goal crease", and its Casebook (625, Situation 10) disallows a goal scored while an attacker's stick or skates are in the crease with the goalie in it: "the Referee shall have no alternative but to disallow the goal." The other books key the crease to your body — the NHL, IIHF and PWHL to an attacker who "enters" it (69.1; PWHL 71.1), Hockey Canada and CARHA to one who stands in it (8.5, 66(b)) — and nothing on the ice tells you which book you are under.

Screening from outside the crease is normally legal. The NHL and IIHF situation tables answer "Goal is allowed" for a screen set outside the crease and for one planted on the crease line or outside it (NHL Reference Table 14, IIHF Appendix IV Table 14 — Table 16 in 2025/26 — Situations 5C and 5E) — though neither book says what status those tables have. The rule text points the same way without saying so: its disallowing sentences name the crease, and 69.4 takes a goal outside it for contact only — but 69.1's "only if" list has a positioning limb that names no location, and Rule 69 is "enforced exclusively in accordance with the on-ice judgement of the Referee(s)". The crease line is the unresolved edge, so keep off it too. USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA do not reach a screen from outside the crease that never touches the goalie — but contact with the goalie there can cost the goal in all three; inside it they differ, and Net drive sets out how, with the returning-goalie limb. See Screen.

Penalty kill (PK) — playing shorthanded while serving a penalty. Standard shapes: box (two forwards high, two defencemen low — no single top), diamond (a single apex, used against a 1-3-1 because a box leaves the bumper unmarked), and wedge+1. The wedge+1 is three in a tight triangle around the net plus a fourth — the "+1" — who pressures the puck rather than following it round the perimeter. When the puck moves, the nearest wedge player steps out as the new +1 and the old one drops in. The +1's route — straight out, sweeping across the top, or roaming to the wall and the point — is a coaching choice that published descriptions differ on, so ask which your team runs. See Special Teams.

Pick — a penalty, not a play. Hockey is not basketball, and there is no legal pick on a skater. The NHL defines it as checking an opponent who does not have the puck and is unaware of the hit, by moving into their path without first having body position (Rule 56.1). That is an interference minor; Playing Without the Puck sets out the wording book by book and how far up the ladder it can go. What you may do instead is hold the ice you are already on, without stepping into anyone's path. ⚠️ In any game, never plant yourself in a defender's path to free the puck carrier: USA Hockey calls a "protective screen" for the carrier interference (625(a)(1)). CARHA (66(a) Note 2) and Hockey Canada (8.3) bar the side with the puck from running "deliberate interference for the puck carrier". And CARHA, which gives the right to stand your ground to "the defending players", still penalises any player who "does not avert body contact with an opponent" (49(a)). See Traffic.

Pinch — a defenceman stepping down from the offensive blue line into the zone to keep a puck in. Not the same as step up. Relatively safe, because your forwards are behind you. Usually only one defenceman pinches at a time, the other holding the middle — a near-universal coaching default, not a rule: some teams give both a standing green light, and every team sends both on a delayed penalty, a full-ice press or 6-on-5. See Forechecking Systems and Offensive Zone Play.

Point — the area just inside the blue line, toward each set of boards, where the defencemen set up in the offensive zone. It is an area, not the line itself, and it is not the same as the half-wall. Set out in its own section above, which covers what covering it asks of a winger and how that changes with the system.

Post — the vertical pipes at the sides of the net. "Far post" and "near post" are read from the puck, so they swap as it moves. Post integration is the family of techniques for sealing against a post and getting off it cleanly. When a goalie goes to the post is a coaching choice. The conservative North American default is late on and early off, sealing only for pucks genuinely below the goal line or right on top of you; other coaches, particularly in the Swedish tradition, teach an earlier, more systematic seal with a defined trigger line. Both are defensible, so ask what your trigger is — what nobody defends is dropping to a post out of habit. See Goaltender.

Power play (PP) — playing with a man advantage while the opponent serves a penalty. Common structures: 1-3-1 (exactly one player at the point, two half-walls, a bumper between them, one net front), umbrella (three high) and overload (four to one side). The four-forward first unit has been counted; the shape has not. Matt Cane (Hockey Graphs, March 2017) measured four-forward units at "roughly 56% of the 5-on-4 ice-time this season" — 2016-17 data, a share of league-wide ice time, not a count of teams, and not split by unit. Nothing found counts which shape teams run, so "most teams use a 1-3-1" is consensus, not measurement. See Special Teams.

Privileged area (the goalkeeper's) — a USA Hockey term with no counterpart in any other rulebook, and much larger than the crease. It is drawn by joining the end-zone faceoff dots and running a line from each dot straight to the end boards (607(d) Note 2; Casebook 607, Situation 6). So it takes in the whole net front, the goal line and the ice behind the net — but not the corners. ⚠️ Being outside it is not a licence to hit the goalie, and 607(d) says so in the same clause: "A goalkeeper is NOT 'fair game' because they are outside the privileged area. A penalty for interference or charging should be called in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper."

Even outside the privileged area, take a goalie's puck with your stick, never with your body: a goalie turned to play the puck cannot see you coming. The Casebook (607, Situation 5) allows a legal check on a goalie outside the area — ⚠️ but only in a game where USA Hockey's Rule 604 permits body checking, which depends on the fixture and not only your age group — and still penalises unnecessary or avoidable contact there. You may "physically engage" the goalie only when they have the puck, to win it, and a check meant "to intimidate or punish the goalkeeper" is charging: a minor plus a misconduct at the least (607(a)), and a mandatory major plus game misconduct where it recklessly endangers them, wherever it happens (607(b)).

Two rules key off the area. Rule 614(c) stops a goalie freezing the puck outside it; Rink Map sets out that limit. Rule 607(c) prices contact on a goalie inside it — a minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct for a body check or charge in the crease or privileged area. ⚠️ There is no bare minor anywhere in that rule. 607(e) says only that a match "may also be assessed" — but plan on the match, because Rule 602(a) says a match "shall be assessed" to any player who "recklessly endangers or attempts to injure" an opponent, and a likely multi-game suspension comes with it.

Do not read every bump at the net front as an ejection. Under 607(d) Note 1, "accidental or unavoidable contact" is interference — a minor (625(a)(8)) — and "deliberate body contact or check" is charging. Within charging the Casebook (607, Situation 4) runs three rungs. There is no penalty only where a defender forced the attacker into the goalie and the attacker "clearly made every attempt to avoid the contact". It is a minor plus misconduct where a player going hard to the net makes an honest attempt to avoid the goalie once contact is unavoidable. It is "the major plus game misconduct, or match penalty option" where the player makes no attempt and recklessly endangers the goalie — accelerating through, extending the arms or dropping the shoulder. ⚠️ Read that top rung as at least the major plus a game misconduct, never less — 607(b) says it "shall" be assessed for reckless charging — and plan on the match above it and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)).

The other books reach the same ice by other routes. ⚠️ In none of them is a goalie who has come out to the wall or the corner a hittable player: the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL penalise unnecessary contact outside the crease every time, and Hockey Canada's and CARHA's rules say the same. And the ejection is not always the referee's choice. Hockey Canada makes a major plus a game misconduct mandatory for any charge on a goalie (8.5(b)) — on the head, plan on the harsher of that and head contact — and CARHA for a charge on one in the crease or one that injures (52(b)). Under both, a collision called as plain interference becomes a major and an ejection the moment it injures, and under CARHA that major also brings at least a one-game ban (32(d)). The NHL, the PWHL and the Elite League add a game misconduct to any charging major that injures the face or head (NHL and PWHL 42.5, EIHL Casebook 42). Body Contact and Battles prices it in every book; see also Goaltender.

Quarterback — the player who runs a power play from the top; in a 1-3-1, the single point player. That this is usually a defenceman describes the common set-up, not a counted one — see Power play for what has been measured. Their job is distribution and walking the line, not just shooting.

Regroup — turning the puck back toward your own end when there is no good way forward, resetting, and coming again. You still have the puck, so you have given nothing up. Usually better than forcing a bad zone entry: at amateur level players regroup far too rarely — a coaching observation, not a tracked figure. The one regroup count found is professional, on AHL power plays and under a wider definition, so the amateur comparison is untracked. Neutral Zone Systems owns that study and its limits.

Reverse — sending the puck back against the flow, into the space a forechecker has just vacated, usually to a defence partner arriving behind you. Not the same as a rim. A reverse beats a forechecker who has over-committed.

Rim — a hard pass along the boards that follows the curve of the rink onward in the direction you are facing, typically corner-to-corner behind the net. Not the same as a reverse. A rim beats a forechecker who is sealing you against the wall.

Royal road (also the slot line) — an imaginary line down the middle of the ice, net to net; nothing is painted. A pass that crosses it in the attacking zone just before a shot — a royal road, slot-line, cross-seam or cross-slot pass — forces the goalie out of small shuffles into a hard lateral push, so the shot arrives before they are set. It is the highest-value pass type measured, roughly double the next: volunteer-tracked data, 51,308 five-on-five shots, counting all attempts rather than shots on goal. Accounts disagree on how far the line runs — most take it net to net, but the two sources closest to the goalie who coined it stop it at the tops of the circles. Shooting sets out that disagreement; Offensive Zone Play owns the figures and covers how to create one.

Saucer pass — a pass flipped so the puck flies flat, off the ice, and lands flat. Used to clear a defender's stick or a body in the passing lane.

Screen — standing in the goalie's line of sight so they cannot see the shot. Normally legal if you stay outside the crease — stick included, under USA Hockey (625(b)) — off the red line around it, and off the goalie. The NHL and IIHF answer it in their Rule 69 situation tables, and a screener is planted, so the row that applies is Situation 5E — a player planted "on the crease line or outside the goal crease" who obstructs the goalie's vision — not 5C, which is for one who "remains in motion". Both are answered "Goal is allowed" (NHL Reference Table 14, IIHF Appendix IV Table 14 — Table 16 in 2025/26); the only rows either book disallows put the attacker inside the crease, and neither book says what status those tables have. The rule text points the same way, though one positioning limb in 69.1 names no location.

A screen is not a licence to stand in a goalie's way home. ⚠️ 69.4 still reaches where you stand out there, for a penalty rather than the goal: an attacker whose "deliberate actions" stop a goalie who has played the puck outside the crease from getting back "may be penalized", and no contact is needed. USA Hockey's version is narrower but mandatory: an attacker in the crease who stops a returning goalie from making a play costs the goal and "an interference penalty shall be assessed" (Casebook 625 Situation 9). USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA do not reach a screen from outside the crease that never touches the goalie — but contact with the goalie there can cost the goal in all three, and inside it they differ (see Rules Primer).

"Screen!" from your goalie means move, or move the player in front of them — that it is among the most ignored calls is an observation, not a count. Hold your ground in front of the screener by body position — no lean, no push — and never walk them off their ice: moving a screener out of the lane can be called interference. ⚠️ Never a two-handed shove on the shaft. It is cross-checking in every book, and the injury is the reason, not the whistle: a screener usually faces the shooter, so the shove lands, in front of the posts, on someone with their back to you who cannot see it coming. USA Hockey's Standard of Play and Rule Emphasis – Body Checking gives this exact play as its first cross-checking example — a player in front of the goal using the shaft and extended arms to contact an opponent "in a dangerous manner" to create space.

Hockey Canada tells its referees that a "pushing" motion "may not" need a penalty while "a striking motion must be penalized" (Interpretation 1 to 9.2(a)). ⚠️ That grades a motion for an official, and it is not a licence to put your stick on a player facing away from you. The same book defines cross-checking as using "the shaft of the stick, between their two hands, to check an opponent", which is this shove exactly.

What the shove costs. ⚠️ Do not plan around a two-minute minor: every book has a major for a cross-check, none of those majors needs an injury, and in all six a cross-checking major also ends your game. Under USA Hockey, plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension for one that recklessly endangers (602(a)). Body Contact and Battles owns every book's rungs.

Above the shoulders it costs more. A cross-check to the head is a major and an ejection whether or not they are hurt under Hockey Canada (7.6(b), 7.7(b)) and CARHA (54(b)), and under USA Hockey for any intentional or careless contact to the head, face or neck (620(b)). Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL it is at least a high-sticking minor and can go well beyond. Body Contact and Battles owns the head-contact tiers.

From behind, the shove can fall under a different rule entirely. ⚠️ It can be called checking from behind, where no book allows a bare minor for a hit that stays off the head — Hockey Canada gives at least a minor plus a game misconduct for a push from behind anywhere on the ice (7.5(a)), and the IIHF, Britain's book, sends any hit from behind there, cross-checking included (43.1). Checking from behind above sets out what that costs.

Where you may not put your body on the screener at all. The NHL, IIHF, PWHL and USA Hockey each let a player stand their ground, and CARHA gives that to the defending side — but in a CARHA game, in women's hockey or in any non-checking division, keep your body off the screener altogether. CARHA penalises a player who "does not avert body contact with an opponent" (49(a)) — a minor or a major, the major mandatory "⁠[w]hen injury results from intentional body contact", and that major ends your game, with at least a one-game suspension (30(a), 32(d)). In women's play under the IIHF (101.1) and the PWHL (52.1) any step or glide into an opponent is at least a minor. Hockey Canada's non-checking divisions (U13 and below, female hockey and any a Member approves) give a minor to anyone who "intentionally body-checks, bumps, shoves, or pushes" (7.3(a)), as USA Hockey's 604(c) does for a body check in its Competitive Contact classifications, its Note reaching any deliberate contact made with no effort to play the puck.

Hockey Canada writes no stand-your-ground sentence into its interference rule — its only blocking permission is in Rule 8.1, and its 8.3 reaches any player who impedes "an opponent, who is not in possession of the puck" — so in a Hockey Canada game hold only ice you already have and never move into the screener's path. On-Ice Communication sets out what each book lets you do. Not the same as traffic: a screen is done to a goalie's sightline. Do it to a skater and it is interference — USA Hockey penalises "⁠[p]roviding a protective screen" for the puck carrier by name (625(a)(1)), and the NHL and IIHF call it a pick. See Goaltender.

Seam — a gap between two defenders' coverage areas, and the passing lane that runs through it. "Finding the seam" means threading a pass through that gap into the slot.

Shinny — informal pick-up hockey, indoor or outdoor; in much of Canada the usual municipal-rink word for drop-in. House rules vary enormously — contact, lifting the puck and whether there is a goalie are all local. See Getting Started.

Shorthanded — playing with fewer skaters because of a penalty. A shorthanded team may ice the puck freely (Rule 81.6), the single most useful fact on the penalty kill — and the exemption turns on the on-ice count, not on whether a penalty is still running, bar one narrow NHL and PWHL case below. Every book here writes it that way: you are exempt while you have fewer skaters on the ice than your opponent. A penalty expiring counts its player back in whether or not they have left the box, so an expiry ends the exemption only where it leaves you level. Killing a lone minor, it does — but on a 5-on-3 it does not: when the first penalty ends you are 4-on-5, still below their strength, and may still ice the puck. The relief runs the other way too: get the puck away before the expiry and no icing is called, however late it lands.

Two carve-outs are book-specific. USA Hockey grants the exemption only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult (624(b)(1)), so below those a shorthanded team is called for icing like anyone else. The NHL and the PWHL (83.6) withdraw it after a major has expired with nobody in the penalty box to come out. That bites at the expiry, not during the kill, because NHL Rule 20.3 lets the box stay empty until a stoppage before the penalty ends. It cannot arise where minors are being served alongside the major, since the substitute is then due "immediately". The IIHF carries neither carve-out, so the British rule is simpler — but not unconditional, because the head count still applies. ⚠️ On the major, the IIHF's silence is a reason rather than a gap: its Rule 20.3 requires a team whose penalised player "has been removed from the game or is injured" to "place a substitute in the penalty box immediately", so there is no empty box to punish. Special Teams sets out the wording book by book and when each takes the count; Rules Primer has the rulebook text.

Shoulder check — the everyday name for a scan: a head turn to see the ice away from the puck. Turn your head, chin over your shoulder, rather than flicking your eyes or dipping your chin, and take a snapshot rather than a stare. Check both shoulders, because what you need is usually on the side you were not planning to use. See Scanning and Anticipation.

The same phrase also names an open-ice body check with the shoulder, and many leagues ban body checking. USA Hockey and Hockey Canada bar it in younger age groups and throughout girls' and women's play, and USA Hockey bars it in "all non-check Adult classifications" (604(a)) — and the same rule lets a local governing body prohibit it in any classification, so the printed list is a floor, not an answer. How much adult hockey is non-checking is not something a rulebook records. In Britain the age line is in competition regulations: the IHUK Junior Rules of Competition make U10 and U12 non-checking and U14 and above checking, NIHL Divisions 1 and 2 are checking, and the WNIHL is non-checking at U16 and senior level; nothing read here sets one for any other adult competition (UK and England Rules quotes each). So find out what your league allows before you play.

In women's hockey under the IIHF (101.1) and the PWHL (52.1), any step or glide into an opponent is at least a minor, so an open-ice shoulder check is not yours to throw. Where Hockey Canada bars checking — U13 and below, female hockey and any division a Member approves — Rule 7.3(a) reaches much less than a check: a minor for anyone who "intentionally body-checks, bumps, shoves, or pushes any opposing player". USA Hockey's non-check play penalises "deliberate physical contact with an opponent, with no effort to legally play the puck" (604(c) Note), and CARHA gives a minor or a major to anyone who "intentionally bodies, pushes, shoves" an opponent or "does not avert body contact" with one (49(a)). USA Hockey's Introduction To Body Contact calls the open-ice version a "high risk check", allowed only when a single stride reaches the opponent. See Body Contact and Battles.

Slot — the ice directly in front of the net, between the two faceoff circles, running from the tops of the circles down toward the goalmouth. It is where most goals are scored from — Shooting owns the shot-location figures and the qualifications on every one of them. Set out in The slot, the high slot and the goalmouth above, with its high slot and low slot layers, the goalmouth below them, and who covers each.

Stay high — "high" means toward the blue line you are facing, away from the net — but for a winger the phrase names two different jobs at almost the same place on the ice, and the one that means covering the point expires the instant your team wins the puck. Said of F3 it is the plain directional word. Set out in its own section above, which covers all three senses.

Step up — moving forward to challenge an attacker early, in the neutral zone or at your own blue line. Not the same as a pinch. Riskier, because there is nothing behind you if you miss.

Stick-and-puck — open ice booked for individual practice rather than a game (a convention, not a defined category — see Drop-in): many pucks, no teams, no referees, often no goalie, and often lighter gear rules than drop-in. See Getting Started.

Stretch pass — a long pass from your own end through the neutral zone to a forward who has left early, aiming to create a breakaway or odd-man rush. Legal since the two-line pass was removed in 2005-06. High reward, high turnover risk.

Tag up — on a delayed offside, the attacking team clearing the zone, after which they may re-enter and attack with no whistle. ⚠️ Check your book before you rely on it. Under USA Hockey the delayed offside and the tag-up exist only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult (630(d)) — below those the whistle goes at once, and a player who clears and re-enters is rejoining a play that has already stopped. The NHL, the IIHF and Hockey Canada (6.11(b)) set no such limit. That includes Britain: the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27 amend Section 10 only at Rules 76, 78, 84 and 85 and never mention Rule 83, and the EIHL Casebook amends no Rule 83 either, so tag-up reaches British players at every age band. One limit on that: the In-House Rules say IHUK "may also issue Rule Bulletins from time to time", and no bulletin has been read here.

It is a five-player act. "All players" of the offending team must clear the zone at the same instant, though skate contact with the blue line is enough for each (83.3(i)). The linesperson's arm stays up until the last attacker has tagged, and tagging alone while a teammate is still inside gets the play whistled dead. Tagging up rescues the possession, never the shot already on its way. If the puck that created the delayed offside goes in, the goal comes off in every book, zone cleared or not (NHL and IIHF 83.4; Hockey Canada 6.11(b) Note). The NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL (85.4) leave one way back in — the defending team putting the puck into its own net "without action or contact by the offending team" — and USA Hockey closes even that (Casebook 630, Situation 41). See Zone Entries.

Tip-in — redirecting a shot — usually a point shot — with your stick blade as it passes, changing its direction late so the goalie cannot adjust. Aim knee, waist or chest. A puck that touches your stick above the crossbar is no goal, and "⁠[t]he determining factor is where the puck makes contact with the stick" (NHL 80.3). ⚠️ That ceiling covers this puck's path into the net — "either directly or deflected off any player or official" — and stops there. A teammate who takes possession and shoots starts a new chain, and that goal stands (IIHF Situation Handbook 80.9(c), 2025/26 v1.1 and 2026/27). That escape works only below your shoulders, because above them the whistle goes as soon as your own side gains possession (80.1). So do not stop playing after a high touch. ⚠️ Under USA Hockey the ceiling for a goal is the shoulder, not the crossbar (621(d)) — but it bars only a puck "directly entering the goal", so a deflection on the way is outside its reach and inside the NHL's.

Batting the puck above the shoulder stops play under the NHL only if your team then gains possession (80.1). USA Hockey's rule is written the other way up: play stops unless an opponent gains possession, and a defender batting it into their own net is a goal. But its Casebook applies the same test: "an offending team player must be the first to gain possession", and a deflection off either team does not complete it (621, Situation 15). With a defender high-sticking it to their own goalie, play stops "When the goalkeeper gains possession" (Situation 6). So where someone can still play the puck, the whistle waits. The exception is a high-sticked puck that goes straight into the other team's goal, which stops play at once with a faceoff in the offending team's zone (Situation 15). CARHA stops play the moment your stick meets the puck above your shoulders (62(d)). So keep the blade below your shoulder under USA Hockey and CARHA, and below the crossbar under the NHL, the IIHF, the PWHL (82.3) and Hockey Canada. See Shooting.

Traffic — bodies between the goalie and the puck, from either team. Distinct from a screen, which is an opponent standing in the goalie's sightline: your own defenceman can be traffic without being a screen. Away from the net it also means the bodies a skater weaves through — call that traffic or a route, never a "screen": no rulebook allows a skater-on-skater screen (see Pick). The word is not what makes it legal; how much ice you may hold depends on your book. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL (56.1; PWHL 57.1) and USA Hockey's Preface let you keep the ice you stand on, and block an opponent while you are in front of them moving the same way. USA Hockey's limit is a "block" on a player without the puck "with no effort to play the puck, maintain normal foot speed or maintain an established skating lane" (625 Note). CARHA gives "the defending players" the right to "stand their ground" or "shadow", and bars the side with the puck from running interference for the carrier (66(a) Note 2). ⚠️ In a CARHA game, in women's hockey or in any non-checking division, hold your ice without putting your body on anyone — Screen sets out what each of those costs.

Moving sideways without body position and then contacting a player without the puck is interference (NHL and IIHF 56.1), and moving into their path without body position is a pick. Never stop in a defender's path to take the contact. ⚠️ In a Hockey Canada game, hold only ice you already have, and never move into the path of a player without the puck. Its interference rule has no stand-your-ground sentence; its only blocking permission is a strength move with body position (8.1), and impeding a player without the puck is interference (8.3). See Playing Without the Puck and Time and Space.

Trailer — also the late man: a player arriving late into the offensive zone behind the puck carrier, into open space the defence has already collapsed away from. Often the most dangerous attacker on a rush. See Defending the Rush.

The trap — a neutral-zone defensive system (usually a 1-2-2 or 1-3-1) that concedes the opponent's end and clogs the middle to force turnovers there. It is defined by intent as much as shape: a neutral-zone 1-2-2 is not automatically the trap. It is beaten by patient regroups, quick puck movement, and — when the entry is not on — putting the puck deep past the red line and hunting it with three forwards. Those are options to choose between, not a ranking, and the last is a read on the picture in front of you rather than a general preference: the tracked work behind it found NHL players give the puck up at the line too readily. See Neutral Zone Systems, which owns that study.

Umbrella — a power-play structure with three players high across the top and two low, shaped like an umbrella canopy. There is no bumper in a true umbrella.

Walk the line — a point player skating laterally along the blue line to change the shooting angle and pull the penalty kill or defensive box out of shape.

The wall — usually the boards, as in "on the wall", "off the wall" and "the strong-side wall". It also names a line of skaters across the ice denying a lane, as in "behind the wall" and "a wall of four". The preposition usually tells you which. See Boards.

Wheel — a defenceman skating the puck themselves from behind their own net around and up the ice to start the breakout, rather than passing. Good against a slow or one-player forecheck.

Wrap-around — carrying the puck from behind the net around the post and attempting to stuff it in at the far side before the goalie can seal.

Zone entry — the act of getting the puck into the offensive zone. Controlled entries (carrying or passing it in with possession) produce far more shots and goals than dump-ins, which is why teams work so hard to enter with speed and width. See Zone Entries.

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Common Mistakes

• Hearing "high" as "up the ice". Go toward the blue line you are facing — in the offensive zone that is back the way you came in. A forward who hears "rotate high" and goes to the net has gone the wrong way.
• Carrying "low means toward your own goal line" into the offensive zone. Go toward the goal line that is in play: your own in your end, the one under the net you are shooting at in theirs.
• Taking "stay high" as one instruction. Check which team has the puck before you act on it. For a winger it is two jobs, both up at the blue line, and the own-end one expires the moment your team wins the puck — a winger still glued to the point is not the outlet anybody is looking for.
• Swinging low by a stick length. When you are told to swing low, get below the hash marks, not merely below the puck.
• Reading F1, F2 and F3 as positions, or as people. Read the order of arrival and take that job: on most teams, if a winger gets to the puck first, the winger is F1 and the centre F2 from that moment. Some coaches assign them by position, so check yours.
• Assuming F1 means somebody on your team. On a breakout, look for F1 coming at you — the numbers belong to whichever team is forechecking.
• Treating a rim and a reverse as the same play. Rim it when a forechecker is sealing you against the wall; reverse it when one has over-committed past you. Sent the wrong way, each finds an opponent instead of a teammate.
• Confusing a pinch with stepping up. Know which you are being asked for. A pinch comes down from the offensive blue line with forwards behind you; stepping up challenges in the neutral zone or at your own line, with nothing behind you if you miss.
• Conflating the point and the half-wall. As a defenceman, hold the point, just inside the blue line. The half-wall is level with the faceoff dot, about twenty feet from the goal line, and a defenceman who drifts down to it has abandoned the blue line.
• Conflating the goalmouth and the slot. If the goalmouth is your job, stay in it. They are two coverage jobs one layer apart, and a defender who leaves the goalmouth to cover the slot has left a tap-in unmarked.
• Hearing "the high slot is the centre's" as a rule of hockey. Ask which coverage your team plays. A low zone collapse asks for it; under man-on-man nobody holds a layer, and under a hybrid the low assignments are matched to players rather than to ice.
• Hearing "the checker" and "your check" as the same player. Let the sentence around the word tell you which: the checker is the opponent pressuring you, your check is the opponent you are covering.
• Reading "at the hash marks" as "above the dot line". Go to the wall in the band between the hash-mark line and the goal line, at or just below the dot.
• Confusing a one-touch with a one-timer. Pick your target before the puck arrives, and do not play a bouncing puck first time. A one-touch is a pass redirected on contact, a one-timer a shot played the same way, and a missed one usually goes the other way.
• Calling your route past a defender a "screen". Screen the goalie's sightline, not a skater. Between two skaters it is traffic, or a route, and the word does not make it legal: moving sideways into a defender's path, or stopping in it to take the contact, is interference.
• Answering "Screen!" with a two-handed shove on the shaft. Hold the ice you already have by body position instead, with no lean and no push. The shove is cross-checking in every book, and since a screener usually faces the shooter, it lands on someone with their back to you who cannot see it coming. ⚠️ So do not plan around a cross-checking minor: a shove into the back is often called checking from behind, where no book allows a bare minor for a hit that stays on the back, and any cross-checking major also throws you out of the game in all six books. See Screen and Checking from behind.
• Keeping both feet outside the crease and reaching in with the stick. Keep your stick out of the paint as well as your skates. Under USA Hockey a stick in the crease counts as you being in it: with the goalie in there, a goal scored is disallowed — unless the puck got in first or a defender's interference put you there. The other books key the crease to your body, and nothing on the ice tells you which book you are under.
• Hearing "back door" as one thing. Read it from who is saying it: to a skater it is the weak-side space, to a goalie the ice behind a challenging goalie, and shouted, an unmarked opponent at the far post to take right now.
• Treating a goalie outside the crease as a hittable player. Play the puck, not the goalie, wherever they are standing — no book that addresses it makes a goalie outside the crease fair game. ⚠️ A charge on one can end your game without the referee choosing it: a major and a game misconduct is mandatory for any charge on a goalie under Hockey Canada, for a reckless one under USA Hockey, where you should plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension, and under CARHA for one in the crease or one that injures, which also costs at least your next game. A match is there for any attempt to injure in every book that writes one. ⚠️ And you do not have to charge the goalie to be thrown out: under Hockey Canada and CARHA, a collision called as plain interference becomes a major and an ejection the moment it injures them. See Privileged area.
• Assuming "most leagues run hybrid icing." Find out which icing your book plays, and until you know, race for the puck. The NHL and the IIHF race to the puck; USA Hockey (adult sled hockey aside), most of Hockey Canada and CARHA call icing automatically the instant the puck crosses the goal line. See Icing above.
• Tying the shorthanded icing exemption to the penalty clock rather than the ice. Count skaters, not the clock: you may ice the puck while you have fewer skaters on the ice than your opponent. On a 5-on-3 you still may after the first penalty expires; killing a lone minor, the expiry ends it — but a clear released before that expiry is still not icing, however late it lands. USA Hockey grants the exemption only from Youth 15-Only and Girls 16U up through High School and Adult, and the NHL and the PWHL withdraw it once a major has expired with nobody in the box to come out. See Shorthanded.

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Key Takeaways

1. Ask what a location word is measured from — almost always the net that matters right now. High is toward the blue line you are facing; low is toward the goal line.

2. Strong side and weak side flip every time the puck crosses the middle. Under a low zone collapse the defence pair and the centre swap jobs on every crossing, while a winger usually holds one side for a whole sequence. Under man-on-man, and low in a hybrid, you go with your check instead. Find out which your team plays.

3. On the forecheck, the first forward to the puck is F1 — not the centre by default. Read the order of arrival and take that job at once, unless your coach assigns F1 by position. When you are breaking out, F1 is the opponent coming at you.

4. The slot, high slot and goalmouth are fixed ice; who covers each is a coaching choice. In a low zone collapse the high slot is the centre's and the goalmouth the weak-side defenceman's. Under man-on-man you cover your check; in a hybrid the net front goes to whoever marks the net-front forward. Find out which your team plays.

5. The half-wall is a winger's home base, and at even strength a centre stays off it. On the power play a half-wall spot goes to a forward chosen for shot handedness, so a centre may have one — ask where your unit puts you.

6. The point is an area just inside the blue line — not the line, and not the half-wall. A defenceman stands there in the offensive zone. In a low zone collapse a winger covers it in their own end; under man-on-man you follow that defenceman; in a hybrid you cover it until they come down, then go with them.

7. Rim the puck on along the boards when a forechecker is sealing you against the wall; reverse it back against the flow when one has over-committed past you. They beat opposite kinds of pressure, so never swap the words.

8. A pinch comes down from the offensive blue line with your forwards behind you; stepping up challenges in the neutral zone or at your own line, with nothing behind you if you miss. Know which one you are being asked for.

9. Before you act on "stay high" or "your check", work out which job is meant from who has the puck and the sentence around it — and ask if you cannot tell. A winger's own-end "stay high" ends the instant your team wins the puck. "Your check" is the player you cover; "the checker" is the one pressuring you.

10. As a shooter, read the goalie's depth and whether they are square before you choose the shot; as a goalie, choose your depth and your save on purpose. A goalie who challenges hides more net but opens the back door.

11. Play the puck, not the goalie, even one out of the crease. A charge can eject you — always under Hockey Canada, and under CARHA in the crease or if it injures. ⚠️ Plan on a match for a reckless charge under USA Hockey, with a likely multi-game suspension, and for any attempt to injure in every book that writes one.

12. At the net front, when your goalie shouts "Screen!", hold your ice — no lean, no push. In a CARHA league, women's hockey or a non-checking division, keep your body off the screener. ⚠️ Never shove with the shaft: that is cross-checking, and on the back it can be called checking from behind, never a bare minor in any book.

13. Shorthanded, count skaters, not the clock, before icing the puck. You may ice it while you have fewer skaters on the ice than your opponent — on a 5-on-3, even after the first penalty ends. Exceptions: USA Hockey below Youth 15-Only, Girls 16U and High School, and the NHL and PWHL after a major expires with nobody in the box.

Sources — retrieved 27 July 2026. The four NHL rules in the next paragraph were re-read 12 September 2026

Rules: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rule 1.5 for the blue lines, drawn "sixty-four feet (64') out from the goal lines"; Rule 1.7 for the goal crease, "One foot (1') outside of each goal post a two-inch (2'') line shall be painted extending four feet, six inches (4'6") in length" and "A semi-circle line six feet (6') in radius" drawn from the centre of the goal line; Rule 1.9 for the hash marks, "two red lines, two inches (2'') wide and two feet (2') in length and five feet seven inches (5'7") apart" at the outer edge of both sides of each end-zone faceoff circle, and Rule 1.9 again, a few lines further on, for the location of the end-zone faceoff spots, "Along a line twenty feet (20') from each goal line and parallel to it, mark two points twenty-two feet (22') on both sides of the straight line joining the center of the two goals". All four located in the rulebook itself.

Measurements and the full map: rink and marking dimensions and the shapes of the named areas are owned by Rink Map, with the qualifications that document attaches to each. The depth of the top of the circle — roughly thirty-five feet — is stated here as the round landmark coaches use rather than as a rulebook figure: the rulebook does not state it. It follows from two figures Rule 1.9 does state, the dot twenty feet out from the goal line and the circle's fifteen-foot radius, and the rule does not sum them. The dot's own twenty feet, by contrast, is Rule 1.9's own and is quoted above.

Terminology: the entries above are the working vocabulary of this guide, recorded as each position and system document uses it. Where two of them use a word differently, both senses are given rather than one being preferred. The rules bounding a named skill belong to the document that owns the skill — Forechecking Systems for angling, Defending the Rush for gap, Defensive Zone Coverage for who covers which layer of the slot, and On-Ice Communication for the shouted calls.

The rulebook and reference citations below support the glossary entries above; each carries inline whatever retrieval or re-reading date was recorded for it. Where a figure belongs to another document, that document is named with it and its qualifications travel with the figure.

Rink specifications: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rule 1.2 Dimensions, 1.3 Boards and Glass, 1.5 Lines, 1.6 Division of Ice Surface, 1.7 Goal Crease / Referee Crease — whose "all the space outlined by the crease lines" is the book's only statement about the crease boundary, the Glossary of Terms carrying no crease entry at all — 1.8 Goalkeeper's Restricted Area, 1.9 Face-off Spots and Circles, 2.1 Goal Posts, 3.1–3.2 Benches, 5.1 Eligible Players, 27.8 Restricted Area, 63.2(i) and 63.2(vii) — the goalkeeper's freeze outside and inside the crease, 63.2(viii) the restricted-area minor, 63.2(iii) — the defending-zone puck-out-of-play minor, read in full for its "except where there is no glass" carve-out, its clause assessing the penalty for a puck "shot over the glass 'behind' the players' bench" and its Note exempting a puck shot into the bench and one out "directly off a face-off", Rule 69.4's returning-goalkeeper clause — which reaches only a goalkeeper who "has played the puck outside of his crease" and is then "prevented from returning to his crease area due to the deliberate actions of an attacking player", where that player "may be penalized" — Reference Table 14 (Rule 69 – Interference on the Goalkeeper), row E of its fifth group, headed "SCREENING SITUATIONS", the only place in the book the crease line's status is addressed, Rule 42 Charging — 42.1's sentence that "A minor, major or a major and a game misconduct shall be imposed on a player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within his goal crease", ⚠️ which is longer than the IIHF's sentence at the same number, read with the paragraph that follows it, located in the rulebook on 12 September 2026 — "A goalkeeper is not 'fair game' just because he is outside the goal crease area. The appropriate penalty should be assessed in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper" — ⚠️ whose quotation marks around fair game are curly in the book, so a straight-quote search returns nothing — and with 42.2 (minor), 42.3 (major), 42.4 (match) and 42.5 (game misconduct on a major causing a face or head injury) — Rule 43 Checking from Behind, read 12 September 2026 — 43.2, "There is no provision for a minor penalty for checking from behind", and 43.3, "Any player who cross-checks, pushes or charges an opponent from behind who is unable to protect or defend himself, shall be assessed a major penalty"; Rule 56.1 Interference, read 12 September 2026 for the two sub-definitions printed inside it: Pick, "A 'pick' is the action of a player who checks an opponent who is not in possession of the puck and is unaware of the impending check/hit" and "A player delivering a 'pick' is one who moves into an opponent's path without initially having body position", and Body Position, "A player is allowed the ice he is standing on (body position) and is not required to move in order to let an opponent proceed" with the "Moving laterally and without establishing body position, then making contact with the non-puck carrier is not permitted and will be penalized as interference" sentence — ⚠️ the book sets pick in curly quotation marks, so a straight-quote search finds neither sentence — 74.1 Too Many Men, 76.7 Face-off Violations, Rules 80.1 and 80.3 High-sticking the Puck — 80.3 read in full for the "either directly or deflected off any player or official" clause that fixes how far the crossbar ceiling reaches, and for its sentence allowing the goal where contact is "at or below the level of the crossbar"; 80.1 for the whistle that is conditional on the offending team gaining possession — Rule 81 Icing — 81.1, for the two judgments and the "For clarification, the determining factor is which player would first touch the puck, not which player would first reach the end zone face-off dots" sentence; 81.3, the goalkeeper who "feigns playing the puck, attempts to play the puck, or skates in the direction of the puck… at any time"; 81.6 Numerical Strength, read in full 14 September 2026 for its three paragraphs — the shorthanded exemption, then the timing test, "the decision as to whether there has been an 'icing' shall be determined at the instant the penalty expires", with "⁠[s]hould the puck be released from the stick of the player shooting the puck down the ice prior to the penalty expiring, the icing infraction shall not apply" and "⁠[t]he action of the penalized player remaining in the penalty box will not alter the ruling", and then the major-penalty carve-out, "are not permitted to ice the puck. Icing will be called", whose underlying substitution requirement is Rule 20.3 Substitution, read 14 September 2026 — "When a player has been assessed a major penalty and has been removed from the game or is injured, the offending team does not have to place a substitute player on the penalty bench immediately, but must do so at a stoppage of play prior to the expiration of the major penalty"; and 81.4, the post-icing substitution ban and its three exceptions — with Rule 82.1, which states that same ban and those same three, and Rule 87.1 Time-out, Rule 83 Off-side — 83.1, the both-skates test and the on-side definition ("A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with the blue line, or on his own side of the line"), 83.3, the delayed off-side and the "skate contact with the blue line" tag-up at 83.3(i), and 83.4, read 12 September 2026 — the disallowed goal, its "has no bearing on this ruling" sentence and its own-goal exception, "The only way an attacking team can score a goal on a delayed off-side situation is if the defending team shoots or puts the puck into their own net without action or contact by the offending team" — Rule 59 Cross-checking, read the same day: 59.1's definition, 59.2's minor "at the discretion of the Referee based on the severity of the contact", 59.3's major on the same test and 59.5's automatic game misconduct on any major. ⚠️ Rules 81.1 to 81.6 were also read whole that day for a clause waving off an icing because the puck entered the net, and the book carries none — the wave-offs at 81.5 run to deflections, the faceoff, an opponent able to play it, any touch by the opposing side and a goalkeeper dislodging the puck from the back of the net. Rule 21.1, read 17 October 2026 — "A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner." Also the official rink diagram (page iv)

USA Hockey: USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 (PDF) — the Standard of Play and Rule Emphasis – Body Checking, read 12 September 2026, whose CROSS-CHECKING section gives as the first of its two examples "When a player in front of the goal uses the shaft of the stick and extension of the arms to contact an opponent in a dangerous manner to create space" — the word dangerous is the book's, and Rule 609 itself carries no examples; Rule 604(a), read 10 September 2026, which bars body checking "in the 12 & under youth age classifications and below, all Girls'/Women's age classifications and all non-check Adult classifications", read with the Glossary entry Age Classifications, Note 3 — "Adult classifications shall include Adult non-check, Adult U.S., Adult Elite and Adult Women, and shall be governed by these rules, except where otherwise noted". ⚠️ Neither passage records what share of adult leagues sits in a non-check classification, and 604(a)'s second sentence only "encourage[s]" local governing bodies to provide Competitive Contact options; Rule 604(c) and its Note, read 21 October 2026 — the minor for a body check in a Competitive Contact category, and "deliberate physical contact with an opponent, with no effort to legally play the puck, shall be penalized"; Rule 204(b), the substitution rule, which sets no distance — only that the retiring player "shall always be at the players' bench and out of the play"; the "within 10 feet of the players' bench" wording elsewhere in the book belongs to the Sled Hockey discipline's own Section 2 and ⚠️ is not the general rule; Rules 101–109 (the whole of Section 1, The Rink) and Rule 610 Delaying the Game, read for a goalkeeper's restricted area — the book marks none, and 610's seven clauses place no limit on where a goalkeeper may play the puck; Rule 610(b), the minor with no warning for a goalkeeper who "has an opportunity to play the puck prior to being pressured by an attacking player, but instead intentionally causes a stoppage of play", and Rule 614(c), whose four triggers restrict where a goalkeeper may freeze it — including the "goalkeeper's privileged" area defined in its own Note, which excludes the corners; Rule 608 Checking from Behind, read 12 September 2026, whose Note reaches "body checking or pushing an opponent from behind in open ice or directly into the boards or goal frame" and whose 608(a) floor is "A minor plus a misconduct penalty", whose 608(b), read 26 September 2026, is mandatory on two independent limbs — "A major penalty plus game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to any player who recklessly endangers an opponent, or causes them to go head first into the boards or goal frame, as a result of checking from behind" — and whose 608(c) reads "A match penalty shall be assessed for checking from behind in all instances when a player recklessly endangers an opponent from behind with excessive force while the opponent is in a vulnerable or defenseless position", read with the general Rule 602(a), "A match penalty shall be assessed to any player or team official who recklessly endangers or attempts to injure any opposing player or team official"; Rule 607 Charging, read in full for the same area's other job — 607(a), "A minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed for charging an opponent"; 607(b), read 12 September 2026, whose "A major penalty plus game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to any player who recklessly endangers an opponent as a result of charging" is a command where the Casebook's Situation 4 calls the same rung an "option"; 607(c), "A minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to a player who body checks or charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within the goal crease or privileged area"; 607(d) itself, read the same day — "A goalkeeper is NOT 'fair game' because they are outside the privileged area. A penalty for interference or charging should be called in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper", ⚠️ the book's own quotation marks around fair game being curly; 607(d) Note 1, sending "any accidental or unavoidable contact" to the Interference rule and "⁠[a]ny deliberate body contact or check" to charging; 607(d) Note 2, the privileged area's definition; and 607(e), "A match penalty for reckless endangerment may also be assessed for charging." No limb of 607 carries a bare minor; Rule 624 Icing the Puck, read in full 12 September 2026 — its Note completing the icing "the instant the puck has completely crossed the goal line", 624(a)'s second Note, "However, if the puck has entered the goal as a result of a legal action by the team shooting the puck, the goal shall be allowed", and 624(b)(1), read again 14 September 2026, which limits the shorthanded icing nullification to Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult classifications and carries the timing test in the same sub-clause — "The determination is made at the time the penalty expires and if the puck was shot prior to the penalty time expiration, regardless as to the position of the penalized player, no icing shall be called"; Rule 609 Cross-Checking, read the same day — 609(a)'s flat "A minor penalty shall be assessed for cross-checking an opponent" and 609(b)'s major plus game misconduct for reckless endangerment; Rule 621(d), read for the word "directly" — "no goal can be scored as a result of an attacking player playing the puck above the shoulder with the stick and directly entering the goal", narrower in reach than NHL 80.3's "either directly or deflected off any player or official"; Rule 630(a), the offside definition, which requires that the player "does not have skate contact with any part of the Neutral Zone or the blue line" — the provision that makes a raised skate offside here where the NHL and IIHF keep it onside; Rule 630(d), which confines the delayed off-side and the tag-up to those same classifications, and Rule 630(c), which carries no classification clause and is what stops play immediately below them; Rule 625(a)(1), the protective screen set on a skater; and Rule 625(b), whose three paragraphs run to a neutral-zone face-off "any time an attacking player stands, holds their stick, or skates through the goal crease" — ⚠️ the stick limb is USA Hockey's alone, and the corpus states it because the other three books key their crease bar to the body — "provided the puck is in the attacking zone, the attacking team has possession of the puck and the goalkeeper is in contact with the crease", then the flat bar on a goal with an attacking player in the goal crease and its two carve-outs — the puck preceding the player in, or the goalkeeper being out of the crease area, the second of which the Casebook narrows at Situation 9, below — and then the push-in relief, "play shall not be stopped and any legal goal scored shall be allowed", read with the Note that closes 625(b), defining the goal crease area as "all the space outlined by the semi-circular crease lines (including crease lines)"; read with 617(c)(4), which disallows the goal for an attacker "positioned in the crease" or "interfering with the goalkeeper", carries the push-in parenthetical on the first limb only, and cross-refers to 625(b) rather than restating its carve-outs — the book was read in full for a provision on screening the goaltender or obstructing the goaltender's vision, and has none — 625(a)(1) above is a screen set on a skater, not on a goaltender · USA Hockey Official Rules and Casebook 2025-29 (PDF) — Rule 625, Situations 1 to 17, read in full for a screening or goaltender-vision provision, of which they have none; they run to stick and bench interference, the crease bar and a goalkeeper's abandoned stick (Situations 14 to 17, all under 625(c)), and Situation 10 answers both limbs, in opposite directions — the stoppage is not automatic ("Play should not be stopped because a player momentarily places their stick and/or skates in the goal crease, unless they interfere with the goalkeeper in any manner"), while the goal bar is as flat as it reads: with an attacking player's stick or skates in the crease and the goalkeeper in it, the Referee "shall have no alternative but to disallow the goal". Situation 9 is the one that supplies the missing limb of the goalkeeper-out carve-out, allowing the goal where the goalkeeper is "completely out of their crease" and then adding "However, if the goalkeeper is attempting to return to the goal crease and there is any interference by the attacking player who prevents the goalkeeper from making a play, then the goal must be disallowed and an interference penalty shall be assessed." Also Casebook, The Rink, Situation 4 (Rule Reference 103(b)), which answers the crease-boundary question in terms — "Is the two inch red line outlining the goal crease considered to be a part of the goal crease? Yes.", the area running to "the outside edges of the semi-circular crease lines" — read with Rule 103(b) itself, which specifies the two-inch semi-circle without saying which side of it bounds the area. Also Rule 607, Situations 4 and 6 — Situation 4's three rungs for charging a goalkeeper in the crease or privileged area ("no penalty should be assessed" only "⁠[i]n the case where a defending player has forced the attacking player into their own goalkeeper" and they "clearly made every attempt to avoid the contact"; "a minor plus misconduct penalty is deemed appropriate" on an honest attempt; "the major plus game misconduct, or match penalty option" where they make no attempt), Situation 5, read 12 September 2026 and written expressly on contact outside the privileged area — "Although a goalkeeper can be legally checked when outside the privileged area, they are not considered to be 'fair game.'", with "A penalty should be assessed in every instance where unnecessary or avoidable contact is made with the goalkeeper – even when outside the privileged area" and "any check delivered with the intent to intimidate or punish the goalkeeper should be penalized as charging" — and Situation 6, "Does the goalkeeper's Privileged Area include the area behind the goal line? Yes… The goalkeeper's Privileged Area extends to the closer end boards." Also Rule 608, Situation 1, read 30 September 2026 — "The major plus a game misconduct penalty, or match penalty, must be called in the following instances", the first being "every instance where a player forcefully checks an opponent who is standing along the boards (back toward the middle of the ice)", and the minor plus misconduct for "minimal body contact from behind to an opponent who is in close proximity to them, and board contact is made". Also Rule 621, Situation 15, read 12 September 2026 for the exception it carries to the possession test — "The exception to this rule is when the puck played with the high stick goes directly in the goal of the non-offending team, which calls for an immediate stoppage of play" — and Rule 630, Situation 41, "May a goal ever be allowed during the course of a delayed offside? No… Even if the defending team shoots, passes or deflects the puck into its own goal, a goal may not be allowed." ⚠️ Situation 41 names the Rule Reference 630(d.3), a sub-clause that does not appear in the printed rule; recorded rather than repaired, and the Situation number rather than that reference is what to cite. · Hockey Canada: Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) — the Glossary entry "GOAL CREASE: The half-circle of space designed for the protection of the goaltender. The lines of the crease are considered part of the crease." — the only place Hockey Canada settles the crease boundary, its Rule 1.5(c) using the NHL's looser "outlined by the crease lines". Also Rule 8.5 Interference with the Goaltender, whose 8.5(b) makes a major plus game misconduct mandatory "to any player who charges the goaltender" and, in a third limb read 26 September 2026, "to any player who injures an opponent by an Interference with the Goaltender infraction that would otherwise call for a Minor penalty", whose 8.5(c), read 26 September 2026, puts a Match penalty above it — "A Match penalty will be assessed to any player who attempts to injure or deliberately injures a goaltender by Interference" — its "Protection of the Goaltender" paragraph — read 12 September 2026, and the widest of the four books compared that day: "A Goaltender is not 'fair game' just because they are outside their goal crease. A penalty under this rule will be called where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with the goaltender anywhere on the ice." ⚠️ The book sets fair game in curly single quotation marks here, so a straight-quote search finds neither this sentence nor Interpretation 2 to Rule 8.3(a)(i), which cross-refers to it in curly doubles — its "Goal Crease Area" paragraph and Interpretation 3 to 8.5(a) — a crease bar that is not flat, since a teammate's goal from outside the crease stands where the crease player stays passive, and an impairment ground naming the goaltender's "vision or movements"; its only two references to a goaltender's view both reach a player in the crease. Also Rule 6.1(a), the substitution rule — "at the Players' Bench (within 3.05m (10 ft.)) and out of play". Also Section 1, Rules 1.1–1.14 and Rule 10.1 Delay of Game, read for a goalkeeper's restricted area — the book marks none, and 10.1's thirteen clauses place no limit on where a goaltender may play the puck. Also Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a), the five clauses on a goaltender freezing the puck — a minor after one warning inside the crease when not under pressure (clause iii), and a minor with no warning once they have left it (clause v). Also Rule 6.11 Off-side — its preamble ("⁠[o]nly the player's skate(s) that are in physical contact with the ice surface will be used in determining an off-side"), Interpretation 3 to 6.11(a), which rules one skate above the line and not touching the ice OFF-SIDE, and 6.11(b), the delayed off-side and its nullification clauses, which carry no classification clause at all — read again 12 September 2026 for its disallowed-goal limb, "the puck enters the net, either directly or as a deflection, the goal will not be allowed as the original shot was off-side", and its Note 1, "This applies even if, after the puck is shot, the attacking team clears the attacking zone and the linesperson drops their arm to nullify the delayed off-side, prior to the puck entering the net." Also Rule 6.7 Icing the Puck, read in full the same day — its preamble ("If the puck enters the net on such a play, then it is not icing"), 6.7(b)'s shorthanded exemption, read again 14 September 2026 — ⚠️ not unconditional: the sub-clause carries Note 1 immediately beneath it, "A team will no longer be considered shorthanded once the penalty time expires, irrespective of whether or not the penalized player has left the Penalty Bench", reinforced by Interpretation 2 to 6.7(b) ("NO ICING will be called and play will be allowed to continue unless the penalty terminates before the puck is shot… The determining factor is based on the numerical strength at the instant the puck is shot") and Interpretation 3 to 6.7(b) ("as soon as the penalty time expires (0:00), the player is considered to have completed their penalty and is on the ice, for the purpose of equal numbers (or not)") — 6.7(d), whose no-change rule runs only "⁠[i]n categories of U18AAA, Junior, and at the option of the Member in Senior" and whose (iii) permits the time-out but not the substitution, and 6.7(e), the hybrid rule confined to the same categories. Also Rule 9.2 Cross-Checking, read in full 12 September 2026 — its opening definition, "Cross-checking is when a player uses the shaft of the stick, between their two hands, to check an opponent", 9.2(a)'s flat "A Minor penalty will be assessed", 9.2(e)'s game misconduct "any time a Major penalty is assessed", and Interpretation 1 to 9.2(a), "In applying this rule, the Referee should consider whether the player is 'pushing' or 'striking' an opponent with the shaft of their stick. If a pushing motion is used, a penalty may not be necessary. However, a striking motion must be penalized." ⚠️ That Interpretation is written about grading a motion, and the entries above decline to read it as permission for a two-handed shove, because 9.2's own definition is that act; read with Rules 7.6 and 7.7 Head Contact, whose 7.6(b) and 7.7(b) each carry "Any player who strikes an opponent above the normal height of their shoulders with a cross-check will be penalized with a Major penalty and a Game Misconduct penalty, whether or not injury results", under 7.6's opening "There is no type of legal contact to the head, face, or neck" — 7.6 covering minor and female hockey and 7.7 junior and senior, so the limb reaches every division. Also Rule 7.3 Body-Checking, read 12 September 2026 — "This rule applies only in divisions of U13 and below, in female hockey, and any other divisions approved by a Member of Hockey Canada", with 7.3(a)'s minor for a player who "intentionally body-checks, bumps, shoves, or pushes any opposing player" in those divisions, and Rule 7.5 Checking from Behind, read the same day — 7.5(a), "A Minor penalty and a Game Misconduct penalty will be assessed to any player who intentionally pushes, body-checks, cross-checks while in motion, or otherwise hits an opposing player from behind, anywhere on the ice", read with 7.5(e), which makes that game misconduct mandatory on a minor as well as a major, and with 7.5(c), read 26 September 2026, the book's Match penalty — "A Match penalty will be assessed to any player who pushes, body-checks, cross-checks, or hits an opposing player in any manner from behind into the boards or goal frame, in such a way that the player is unable to protect or defend themselves" — ⚠️ it names the cross-check and the goal frame in one clause, as IIHF 43.1 and CARHA 53(b) do too. · CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF) (read in the 2020 printing; every rule cited here is unchanged in the 2026 book) — Rule 19(b), for the substitution distance "at the players' bench (within 10 ft (3.05 m)) and out of play"; Rule 53(b), read 26 September 2026 — "Where a player is high sticked, cross-checked, body-checked, pushed, hit or propelled in any manner from behind into the boards or goal net, in such a way that the player is unable to protect or defend themselves, a Match penalty shall be assessed", Hockey Canada's 7.5(c) at the same tier in the book that governs affiliated adult leagues; Rule 52 Charging, read in full 26 September 2026 for 52(b) — "A Major penalty and a Game Misconduct shall be assessed to any player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within the goal crease or who injures an opponent as a result of a charge" — and for its Note, "A goalkeeper is NOT 'fair game' just because they are outside the goal crease area", ⚠️ the book setting fair game in curly double quotation marks here, as USA Hockey's rule does; Rule 48(a), read the same day, the Match penalty this book keeps above 52(b) for a deliberate or attempted injury, "to any player or team official who deliberately injures or attempts to injure an opponent… in any manner" — Rule 52 itself writes no Match limb; Rule 66(e), read the same day — "A Major penalty shall be imposed on any player who injures an opponent by interference" — read with Rule 30(a), which makes a CARHA major an ejection, the player "ruled off the ice for the remainder of the game (Major penalty plus Game Misconduct)" — its Note carving out one case, "when a Major penalty has been assessed for an ACCIDENTAL high stick, in which case the Game Misconduct shall not apply", and the Note to Rule 62(b) takes even that back "when injury results"; and Rule 65 Icing the Puck, read 14 September 2026: 65(d) states the shorthanded exemption with no timing clause of its own — "'Icing the puck' shall not be called if a team is below the numerical strength of the opposing team at the instant the puck is shot" — ⚠️ but the book supplies the timing test at 65(a) Note 2, "A team shall not be considered below the numerical strength of its opponent by reason of a penalized player remaining in the penalty box after their penalty has expired", so this book agrees with the others and is not the exception a reading of 65(d) alone suggests. Also read 14 October 2026, as the entries above quote them: Rules 49(a), 53(a), 54, 66(a) and its Note 2, 66(b) — including its bar on standing in the crease unless the puck is there — 72(c) and its Note 1, and the Glossary entry Creases; the book marks no goalkeeper's restricted area. It binds CARHA-affiliated adult leagues and is not a general rec-hockey standard

International: IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (PDF) — Rules 1.2 Dimensions, 1.3 Boards and Protective Glass, 1.5 Lines, 1.6 Division of Ice Surface, 1.7 Goal Crease / On-Ice Officials' Crease — "The marked line belongs to the Goal Crease.", verified word for word in the 2025/26 v1.1 and 2026/27 books alike — 1.8 Goalkeeper's Restricted Area, 1.9 Face-off Spots and Circles, 3.1 Players' Benches, 27.7 Goalkeeper Restricted Area (the IIHF's own 27.8 being "Infractions – Unique to Goalkeepers"), Rule 63.2(I), (VI) and (VII), read 1 September 2026 and word for word the same in the 2025/26 v1.0, v1.1 and 2026/27 books — 63.2(I)'s "On any Player, including the goalkeeper, who holds, 'freezes' or plays the puck… Regarding to a goalkeeper, this rule applies outside of their goal crease area", 63.2(VI)'s Note ("If a goalkeeper comes out of their goal crease to 'cut down the angle' on a shot and after making the save covers the puck, this shall be legal") and 63.2(VII)'s in-crease limb with its "unless they are actually being checked by an opponent" exception — read with Appendix IV Table 13 (Rule 27, Goalkeeper's Penalties) — renumbered Table 11 in the 2026/27 book, whose rows and rule references were read against it and are identical — which prints "Playing puck outside restricted area" and "Deliberately 'freezes' the puck inside or outside the goal crease" as two separate rows against different rule numbers, 63.2(III) — the defending-zone minor, read in full: its "except where there is no protective glass" carve-out, its sentence that "⁠[w]hen the puck is shot over the protective glass surrounding the Players' bench, the penalty will be assessed", and its Note exempting a puck shot into the bench and one out "directly off a 'face-off'" — where the NHL's 63.2(iii) writes "no glass" and "'behind'"; the IIHF's clause is word for word the same in the 2026/27 book, 63.2(VIII) the same minor "On a goalkeeper who plays the puck outside of the designated area behind the net", Rule 43 Checking from Behind, read 12 September 2026 — 43.1, which routes a hit from behind "into the boards, the goal frame, or on open ice in any manner (i.e., high-sticking, cross-checking, etc.)" to this rule, and 43.2, "there is no option to award a minor penalty"; 69.4, whose returning-goalkeeper clause carries the same protection in the IIHF's own wording, unchanged across the 2025/26 v1.0 and v1.1 books and the 2026/27 book, 74.1 Too Many Players on the Ice — "within 1.50m of their Players' bench and out of the play", read with the Appendix VI infographic captioned "Player´s Changing Zone ➔ Rule 74", which illustrates that limit at 150 cm; Rule 1 and Rule 3.1 require no such ice marking, 81.4 Line Change on Icing, whose exceptions run to four — it adds "a Player with a broken skate" to the NHL's three — read against 82.1 Line Change, which states the identical post-icing ban and lists only the NHL's three, so the fourth is not consistent inside the book and neither rule says which governs, and 87.1 Time-out, whose icing sentence is the NHL's word for word, Rule 42 Charging — 42.1's "A penalty shall be imposed on a Player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within their goal crease", read 12 September 2026 with the paragraph that follows it, "A goalkeeper is not 'fair game' just because they are outside the goal crease area. The appropriate penalty should be assessed in every case where an opposing Player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper" — the NHL's sentence in the IIHF's pronouns, word for word the same in the 2025/26 v1.0 and v1.1 books and the 2026/27 book — with 42.2 (minor), 42.3 (major) and 42.4 (major plus game misconduct for reckless endangerment); the book writes no privileged area — 81.1 Icing, read in full 12 September 2026 — ⚠️ its closing sentence is a limb the NHL book does not carry, "If there is no 'race' for the puck, icing should not be called until a defending skater crosses its defending blue line and the puck crosses the goal line (not between the goal posts)", present in the 2025/26 v1.0 and v1.1 books and the 2026/27 book and absent from the NHL book, searched in full — 81.6 Icing – Numerical Strength, read in full 14 September 2026 in the v1.1 and 2026/27 books alike, ⚠️ which have only the NHL's first two paragraphs and not its major-penalty carve-out — but do carry the timing test, in the NHL's wording: "the decision as to whether there has been an 'icing' shall be determined at the instant the penalty expires", "⁠[s]hould the puck be released from the stick of the Player shooting the puck down the ice prior to the penalty expiring, the 'icing' infraction shall not apply", and "⁠[t]he action of the penalized Player remaining in the penalty box will not alter the ruling" — 83.3 Delayed Off-side (materially identical to the NHL's, with no age or category floor; its clause (I) adds one phrase the NHL lacks, that "3D" judgement is not used when the attacking players tag up), 83.4 Disallowed Goal – Off-side, read the same day and the NHL's 83.4 word for word, including the "has no bearing on this ruling" sentence and the own-goal exception, 59.2 and 59.3 — the minor "based on the degree of force and violence" and the major carrying "an automatic game misconduct penalty", the IIHF folding into 59.3 what the NHL prints at 59.5, 76.4 Face-off Procedure – Centers (the defending player's stick down first at eight spots, the visiting player's at centre ice), Appendix IV Table 16 (Rule 69 – Interference on the Goalkeeper), Situations 5 D and 5 E, renumbered Table 14 in the 2026/27 book, where Tables 15 and 16 are both Rule 84 Overtime — so a bare "Table 16" cited against the current book resolves to Overtime, and ambiguously at that — read across both columns of the printed table — and the Appendix VI "Rink Dimensions", "Rink Lines" and "Goal Crease and Goalkeeper's Restricted Area" infographics (all measurements in centimetres) · IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27 (PDF) — read here for Rules 76.4, 1.8, 27.7, 63.2(III), 63.2(VIII), 81.4, 81.6 and 82.1 only. 76.4's stick-down sentence is word-for-word unchanged from 2025/26 while the same rule's remedy for a centre out of position moved from a warning to "replaced for that face-off by any teammate then on the ice"; the other seven are unchanged, including 63.2(III)'s bench clause and Note, 81.4's fourth substitution exception, 82.1's omission of it, and 81.6's two paragraphs, timing test included. Nothing else in this document rests on the 2026/27 book, and it has not been read end to end · IIHF Situation Handbook 2025/26, v1.1, August 2025 (PDF) and IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27 (PDF) — Situation 80.9 only, read in both editions on 2 September 2026 and put there in the same words: its (a) and (b) hold a puck contacted above the crossbar and deflected off a defender or off a teammate to be no goal, and its (c) allows the goal where a teammate instead takes possession and shoots. ⚠️ Quoted in part above because the book's own answer to (c) mis-names the player who batted the puck — it reads "the goal was scored as a result of the teammate's shot, not the batting of the puck out of the air by the teammate", where that second "teammate" is the attacking player who batted it rather than the one who shot. Recorded, not repaired. The Handbook's Foreword ranks itself below the rule book — "in case of any contradictions, the valid IIHF Rulebook is always the basis" — and there is no contradiction to resolve here, a teammate's own possession and shot being neither of the two routes Rule 80.3 names. Shooting owns this rule and carries it, the other three books and the Casebook layer, in full · IIHF – New Rule Book for global game — the IIHF's own announcement, 5 June 2021, that it would "introduce a new Rule Book for the 2021/22 season", listing among the rules to be integrated "A restricted area for goalkeepers behind the net to create more offensive play (i.e. trapezoid familiar to NHL and KHL)". It dates the IIHF's adoption, and it is the only support held here for the KHL — a governing body's aside rather than a KHL rule. Nothing held here dates the NHL's own adoption · IIHF Statement on Ice Hockey Rink (Milano Cortina 2026) — a single source, and the only one: the "insignificant for safety and quality of play" sentence above rests on this citation alone and is not corroborated elsewhere.

Women's professional, read in the primary text on 26 September 2026: PWHL Official Rule Book 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rule 85.1 (Off-side), which carries the NHL's vertical-plane test word for word: "If a player’s skate has yet to break the “plane” prior to the puck completely crossing the leading edge, she is deemed to be on–side for the purpose of the off–side rule." ⚠️ The book renumbers from Rule 52 onward, so the NHL's and the IIHF's 83.1 will not find it. Also Rule 43 Checking from Behind — 43.2, "There is no provision for a minor penalty for checking from behind", and 43.3, a major for any player who "cross–checks, pushes or charges an opponent from behind who is unable to protect or defend herself". Also read 14 October 2026: 1.8 and 27.8, which switch the trapezoid off, against 65.2(viii), which still makes playing the puck outside the designated area a minor; 60.5, the automatic game misconduct on a cross-checking major; 71.1, whose crease sentence reaches an attacker who "enters the goal crease"; 83.6, the shorthanded icing exemption; and 21.1, read 17 October 2026, which prints the NHL's general match penalty for a deliberate attempt to injure word for word.

Britain — In-House Rules retrieved 29 August 2026, England Ice Hockey Rules & Regulations 29 July 2026: IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, Revision 1, published 25 July 2026 (PDF) — the Introduction, where IHUK and the British Universities Ice Hockey Association adopt the IIHF book "to be applied in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (the Home Countries)"; Section 1, Rule 1 "Rink size and eligibility" (the below-56 m × 26 m authorisation, the Sutton and Coatbridge exceptions, and the scope line "This rule applies to all fixtures") and Rule 3 "Benches and Penalty Boxes"; Rule 76 "Face-Offs" for the stick-down order. Read in full for any amendment to Rule 83: its Section 10 "Game Flow" amends Rules 76, 78, 84 and 85 only, and every rule number appearing anywhere in the document — 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 18, 25, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 60, 64, 69, 76, 78, 84, 85, 100–102 and 200–201, of which 25 and 31 appear only as cross-references rather than as amendments — excludes 83, so the tag-up reaches British players unamended and unfloored. The same document records that IHUK "may also issue Rule Bulletins from time to time"; no bulletin has been obtained here. The Motorpoint EIHL Casebook 26-27, read in the primary text on 14 October 2026, amends Rules 5–7, 9–12, 28, 30, 36–38, 41, 42, 46, 47, 63, 64, 69, 77, 84 and 86 and no Rule 83, so the tag-up reaches Elite League players unamended too; its Rule 42 makes a game misconduct mandatory on a charging major that injures "the face or head of an opponent". The superseded 2025-26 edition (PDF) was read alongside it to establish what changed: it named a third rink, Limekilns Road, confined the rink rule to EIH and SIHA fixtures, and carried no Rule 76 at all. UK and England Rules carries the full amendment list and its sourcing. · England Ice Hockey Rules & Regulations 2024-2025 — Rules 22.2 (non-standard rinks, worded as approval rather than blanket authorisation) and 22.3 (the Goalkeepers' Restricted Area "not currently enforced"), with 22.5 (only approved venues, temporary rinks included) and 22.8 ("a list of approved rinks can be found by contacting EIH" — the register is not published); it is a governance and administration document and carries no playing-rule amendment to off-side. ⚠️ Searched for any provision touching IIHF Rule 63 or the freezing of the puck: it contains neither, so 22.3's suspension is of the Restricted Area alone. The In-House Rules 2026-27 and the superseded 2025-26 edition were searched for the same and carry no amendment to Rule 63 in either

Rule history: NHL Announces Rule Changes for 2014-15 — trapezoid widened two feet on each side · Scouting The Refs – NHL Rule Changes 2014-15 · Two-line pass — Wikipedia (a redirect to Offside (ice hockey)) — background on the rule and its removal for 2005-06. That page says the NHL abolished it "under the terms of their 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement", and carries no citation for that sentence; a CBA is a labour agreement and does not set playing rules, so §3 above states it as a playing-rule change adopted alongside the CBA rather than by it.

Power-play personnel: Matt Cane — "Second Units and Zone Entries: Why teams should go all-in on the 4 forward power play", Hockey Graphs, 7 March 2017 — refetched 2 September 2026, HTTP 200, the 56% sentence located in the rendered body. This is the URL the page names in its own <link rel="canonical">; the shorter …/second-units-and-zone-entries/ slug that was cited here before 301s to it and serves the same article. ⚠️ A 200 against a shortened slug on this host is weaker evidence than it looks — a truncated …/second-units/ also resolves to this article, because the platform prefix-matches; only a wholly invented path 404s. The figure quoted in the Power play entry is a share of league-wide 5-on-4 ice time, not a count of teams. The article's footnote 2 — attached to its first-versus-second-unit comparison rather than to the 56% figure itself — records that the method looks at shift starts "and not which units are on the ice". Nothing in it counts which shape a unit runs. Owned by Special Teams.

Terminology and concepts: Ice hockey rink — Wikipedia · High-Danger Chances in Hockey Explained · Hockey Graphs – Quantifying the Importance of Handedness · Cross Ice Hockey – Should You Play the Off Wing?

James Bloom, "Language and Glossary", Learning to Play the Game. https://learn-ice-hockey.com/foundation/language_and_glossary/ — licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

<a href="https://learn-ice-hockey.com/foundation/language_and_glossary/">Language and Glossary</a> by <a href="https://github.com/jamesdbloom">James Bloom</a>, licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC 4.0</a>.

@misc{foundation-language-and-glossary,
  author  = {James Bloom},
  title   = {Language and Glossary},
  howpublished = {Learning to Play the Game},
  url     = {https://learn-ice-hockey.com/foundation/language_and_glossary/},
  note    = {Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}