Rules Primer

Rule set: Written to NHL rules, with IIHF, USA Hockey and rec-league differences flagged where they change how you play. Playing in Britain? The IIHF flags are yours — every level of UK hockey runs the IIHF book, amended locally; see UK and England Rules and read "If you play in Britain" in the Overview first.

Hockey has more than one rule book

The NHL, the PWHL, the IIHF, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA Hockey each publish their own rules, and they disagree. Your country, league and age class decide which book is yours. The same act can be ordinary play under one book and an ejection under another, so a rule you know from watching the NHL tells you about the NHL and nothing else. ⚠️ This is the one thing you cannot work out on the ice — somebody has to tell you, so ask before you play. Core Principles works it through, with the example of who is allowed to body check you.

Key focus

Two questions before your first game. First, does your classification allow body checking at all? ⚠️ Where it does not, even a textbook check is a penalty. USA Hockey bars it at 12 & under, in all girls' and women's hockey and in non-check adult hockey; Hockey Canada at U13 and below, in female hockey and in any division its Member bars it in; IHUK's junior competition at U10 and U12, and the WNIHL throughout. CARHA's adult book penalises deliberate body contact in every game. ⚠️ Your age group does not settle it under USA Hockey: a local body can bar checking at any age, and a game against a no-check team is no-check for both sides. Body fouls has the rule numbers.

Second, which rulebook does your league run? The books disagree about what a high stick or an illegal hit costs you. Anywhere in Britain it is the IIHF Rule Book — amended by the IHUK In-House Rules, or in the Elite League by the EIHL Casebook. Read the British note first; section 10 compares the books. Then four habits hold in every book here.

Never hit anyone's head or neck. Outside the NHL it can end your game whether or not you meant it, and even the NHL gives a match penalty for a deliberate or attempted injury.

Never finish a check into somebody's back, and never duck out of one. A hit from behind has no minor option in the NHL, PWHL or IIHF book — the call ends your game there — and can end it in every book. A chin tucked to your chest straightens the neck, so a head-on hit into the boards can fracture a vertebra — an injury USA Hockey's Heads Up Hockey guide says "can occur at walking speed." A wide base with knees bent is not crouching — it is how you take a hit.

Drag your trail blade on the blue line until the puck is in. Contact with the line keeps you onside in every book; a raised skate is offside in some.

Get the puck itself past the centre red line before you send it away, which keeps a clear out of icing wherever the red line divides the ice.

Keep your stick on the puck and off the player. Hooking, slashing and tripping are what a beaten player reaches for instead of skating, and each costs at least a minor — so the stride you take instead is the cheapest penalty-killing you will ever do. ⚠️ In IHUK U12 hockey that minor is not two minutes: it runs three, or four in a four-line game, served on your own line's shifts. UK and England Rules has the format.

Overview

Assume any ejection costs you more than tonight, and find out who reviews it before you need to. Under USA Hockey a game misconduct also suspends you for your team's next game (Rule 404(b)), and a match penalty keeps you out of every game and practice until the case is dealt with (405(c)). Hockey Canada reports every major and game misconduct to your league (4.4(a), 4.8(a)); the NHL counts game misconducts towards a suspension (Rule 23). USA Hockey (Rule 410(a)) and the IIHF (Rule 28.1) both let the disciplinary authority act on an incident the referee did not penalise — in Britain, the Elite League's Department of Player Safety or your home association. When penalties add up has the counts.

Learn the head-hit rule from the harshest book, not the most watched one. ⚠️ The NHL is the lenient outlier, making a head check short of an attempt to injure a minor. Under the IIHF — Britain's book — USA Hockey and Hockey Canada it can end your game without intent, and under USA Hockey even a careless one must. Body fouls has the tiers.

Keep your head up, your chin off your chest, and never duck. A chin tucked to your chest straightens the cervical spine, so a head-on hit into the wall stops the head while the body keeps going, hard enough to fracture a vertebra. Ducking can be penalised too — Hockey Canada bars crouching to avoid a check in every division, and the IIHF near the boards. ⚠️ Head up does not mean standing tall into the hit. Take it on a wide base with knees bent; near the wall, get your skates parallel to it and take the contact along your side — forearm and hip to the wall — never the point of your shoulder, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you. Turning your back hands them your spine, and in the NHL, PWHL and IIHF a deliberate turn also loses you the checking-from-behind call. If you are caught facing the boards, get your stick and gloves up and spread on the glass, head off it. See Body Contact and Battles.

Never finish a check on a turned back — if you can see their numbers, pull up and play the puck. ⚠️ A hit from behind is the one hit with almost no small version. The NHL and the PWHL write no minor for it, even when it reaches the head; under the IIHF, plan on the major and game misconduct, never on a minor — its glossary makes a check on a skater without the puck who cannot see it coming reckless by definition. CARHA, and Hockey Canada while the hit stays off the head, put a game misconduct on every tier — and so does a Hockey Canada hit that drives the player head first into the boards or goal frame. Both make it a mandatory match penalty when it drives a player who cannot protect themselves into the boards or goal frame. Even USA Hockey, whose lowest tier leaves you in the game, makes a forceful check along the boards or a head-first one a major and game misconduct or a match, and for a reckless one plan on the match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). "They turned at the last second" is no defence — the only turn the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL waive is a deliberate one to draw the contact, and a late turn is not that. Body fouls has the tiers.

In recreational hockey the penalty to expect is a stick foul, and a stick foul is usually a conditioning failure in disguise. Stick on the puck, never on the player. (That is coaching craft: nobody has counted recreational-league calls. What actually gets called has the nearest counted data, which is the NHL's.)

A first major can end your game. The IIHF attaches an automatic game misconduct to a major for twenty listed fouls (twenty-two in 2026/27), with no injury needed; the NHL's list is shorter and partly conditional in its table, though Rule 20.4 attaches no condition — assume the harsher reading. When penalties add up and the Common Mistakes below have the counts.

Learn offside and icing as constraints rather than definitions — between them they decide where you may be and where you can safely send the puck. Under NHL and IIHF rules an icing costs a defensive-zone draw, no change and no timeout; USA Hockey imposes neither of the last two. What works everywhere the red line divides the ice is getting the puck itself past it before you send it away.

If you play in Britain, the IIHF column is yours

In short: If you play anywhere in Britain, follow the IIHF flags; in the Elite League, its own Casebook overrides them where they differ.

This document is written to NHL rules.

Every level of the game here runs on the IIHF Official Rule Book: the Elite League, the NIHL, recreational and junior hockey, university hockey and the GB teams. The IHUK In-House Rules adopt it for "England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (the Home Countries)" and for university hockey. They never name the Elite League, which rests on its own EIHL Casebook instead: “For all rules not mentioned in the EIHL Casebook, the official 2026 - 2027 IIHF Rulebook and IIHF Situation Handbook will serve as the official ruling.” That Casebook is read here only where it is cited — equipment, the physical fouls and the Elite League cells of section 10.

The In-House Rules do not settle which IIHF edition you are on, because they contradict themselves. Their cover names the "Current" IIHF Rule Book, but their Introduction adopts "the latest IIHF Official Rule Book (Version 1.1, published July 2025)" — which is the 2025/26 book; the 2026/27 book is Version 1.0, June 2026. The two editions differ on faceoffs, high-sticking and the numbering of Rule 46 and the Appendix tables. The In-House Rules settle the faceoff answer in their own text; the other differences are flagged where they matter. ⚠️ In the Elite League the question does not arise: the Casebook makes the 2026/27 book the ruling. Elsewhere in Britain, if the answer matters to you, ask your league.

On top of that base sits one thin layer of local amendment — the In-House Rules, or in the Elite League the Casebook, whose equipment provisions are in Equipment and physical-foul ones in Body Contact and Battles. The In-House Rules say they are "not intended to serve as a standalone rule book", but they are the "overriding interpretation of how the IIHF Rule Book is to be applied domestically", so where they amend it, they win.

So wherever the text below says "under IIHF rules", it is describing your game, and the USA Hockey and Hockey Canada flags are not yours. The section 10 table has a Home Countries column for everywhere in Britain except the Elite League. Where it reads "As IIHF", the In-House Rules make no amendment and the IIHF cell is your rule.

UK and England Rules has the full list of amendments — several (neck protection, facial protection, rink size, junior age categories) change things this document does not cover. ⚠️ Read the junior age categories from the current season's In-House Rules and nowhere else. Every band moved a year between the 2025-26 and 2026-27 editions — Under 19 went from birth years 2007–2009 to 2008–2010 — so an old table puts a player in the wrong category.

1. How a Game Is Structured

The teams on the ice

Each team plays five skaters and one goalie at even strength. A skater is any outfield player — the three forwards (a centre and two wingers) and the two defencemen, sometimes called defenders or D. The goaltender, or goalie, is the player permitted to use special equipment and to catch and hold the puck.

An NHL roster for a game is 20 players — 18 skaters and 2 goalies (NHL Rule 5.1). Rec teams are usually smaller; two lines of forwards, two pairs of defence and a goalie is a common minimum, and it makes for a very long night.

When a rule says "a player", does that include the goalie?

Most of the rules below say "a player" and never mention the goalie. In the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books it includes the goalie: Rule 5.1 in each reads "For the purposes of these playing rules, any reference to 'Player' shall refer to both skaters and goalkeepers. Any reference to 'goalkeeper' shall mean that the section of the rule is specific to goalkeepers." (That is why the IIHF says "skater" where it means everyone but the goalie — its 67.5 reads "If a skater…" where the NHL's reads "If a player…".) Hockey Canada and CARHA say the same in their Glossaries: "The goaltender is considered a player, except where explicitly stated because special rules or privileges apply to them", and "Except where special rules apply, the goalkeeper is to be considered as one of the players." USA Hockey publishes no such provision — its Glossary has no entry for "player" or "skater", and none was found in its rules or Casebook, which is a search result rather than a proof — and settles the question rule by rule instead.

How to use this. Under the five books that answer it, read a bare "player" as covering your goalie unless the rule carves them out. Under USA Hockey take the cautious reading: a prohibition binds your goalie until someone tells you otherwise, and a permission does not reach them until someone tells you it does.

Periods and the clock

In short: Check your own league's period length and clock; under USA Hockey a shorter period can also mean a shorter penalty.

A game is three periods of twenty minutes of actual play (NHL and IIHF Rule 77.1; USA Hockey 636(a) gives 20 minutes as the maximum). The clock is stop time — it runs only while the puck is in play — so a period takes roughly 35–40 minutes of real time.

🇬🇧 ⚠️ Twenty minutes is the British adult answer, not the junior or women's one: your competition's Rules of Competition set the length. NIHL Divisions 1 and 2 play "3 x 20 minute periods". Senior WNIHL must play 3 × 20 — 3 × 15 only with IHUK's permission "⁠[i]n extraordinary circumstances" — and WNIHL U16 plays 3 × 15. In the IHUK junior leagues U14 plays 3 × 15, and U16 and U19 3 × 15 or 3 × 20, chosen by the home team for the whole season. ⚠️ At U12, look it up: three 18-minute periods in a 3-line format and three 20s in a 4-line one, both on a running clock (Appendix D). U10 is played cross-ice or half-ice on an ice-slot length. Those four documents reach only the leagues they name — not the EIHL, NIHL National, the PNIHL, BUIHA or Scottish domestic competition outside the IHUK junior structure, and "IHUK runs my league" is not the test — so read your own competition's rules, and ask where you cannot find them. UK and England Rules has the formats in full.

Intermissions are 18 minutes in the NHL (Rule 77.2) and 15 under the IIHF (77.2) and USA Hockey (636(a)). Teams change ends after every period (NHL Rule 86.3), so in the second period your bench is at the far end from your defensive zone — the long change, which is why being caught tired in your own end costs you more in the second period. See Game Management.

Rec-league variation: many rec and beer leagues play shorter periods, a running clock (perhaps stopping in the final minutes) and a hard curfew. Under USA Hockey a shorter period also means a shorter penalty: a minor is 1:00 in periods of 12 minutes or less, 1:30 above 12 and under 17, and 2:00 in periods of 17–20 minutes (Rule 402). Affiliates may scale a major the same way (3:00, 4:00, 5:00), a match penalty's served time on the same figures, and a misconduct (6:00, 8:00, 10:00). Adult classifications always use the full times, and from 14 & under up affiliates may vary even the minor schedule (the Notes to 402–405). Check your league's sheet — this is the single most common thing players get wrong when they move between leagues.

Stoppages

Play stops for a goal, a penalty, offside, icing, the puck leaving the playing surface, the goalie freezing the puck, a hand pass, a puck played above shoulder height, an injury, a displaced net, or a puck the official judges unplayable or out of sight. Every stoppage restarts with a faceoff at one of nine marked spots (see section 8).

Practically: the whistle is not the end of your shift's responsibility. The scrum around the net and the faceoff both carry on after it, and both are where undisciplined players hand over penalties and possession. ⚠️ And after the whistle the puck stops being yours to send anywhere. Firing it out of the rink is a minor in the NHL and IIHF, and the bottom of a ladder under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada — up to a misconduct, a game misconduct, and under USA Hockey a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension if you shoot it recklessly at an official or the crowd. Let the linesperson pick it up. Other infractions has the tiers.

Changing on the fly

You may change players at any time during play (NHL Rule 74.1), provided the player leaving is within five feet of the bench and out of the play before the substitute steps on. ⚠️ Five feet is the NHL's, the PWHL's (76.1) and the IIHF's (1.50 m) number, not everyone's: Hockey Canada (6.1(a)) and CARHA (19(b)) give 10 ft, and USA Hockey says only "at the players' bench" (204(b)).

The mechanics define the penalty:

A substitute is on the ice once both of their skates are on it.
If either player plays the puck, checks an opponent or makes contact with one while both are on the ice, that is too many men. ⚠️ USA Hockey adds a third trigger: a change that "causes their team to gain a competitive advantage" while both players are on — its Casebook calls it on a substitute who turns a 2-on-1 against into a 2-on-2 with nobody touching puck or opponent (204(b); Rule 204, Situation 8).
If the retiring player is accidentally struck by the puck during the change, no penalty and no stoppage.
A player on the bench who plays the puck or interferes with an opponent is called for interference (Rule 56), not too many men.
Leave by the bench, not another exit — leaving by the dressing-room gate and being replaced is a bench minor.

What this means for you: the change is a defensive act, not an administrative one. Change when your team has the puck in the offensive zone or going forward — never when it is coming at you. If the puck turns over while you are halfway to the bench, finish the trip and get off; turning round to play it is the infraction, and your teammate stepping on is the one who plays.

Long shifts are a rules problem as well as a fitness problem. A 90-second shift ends with you on the wrong side of the puck, reaching with your stick instead of moving your feet — which is where hooking and tripping calls come from. (Coaching craft, not a count: nobody has counted recreational-league calls.) See Conditioning and Recovery.

Too many men on the ice

Too many men is a bench minor — two minutes, served by any player the coach designates through the captain (NHL Rules 74.2, 17.1) — and either the referees or the linespersons can call it.

If the offending team scores before the whistle goes, the goal is disallowed and the penalty is still assessed (Rule 74.2).
A player leaving the penalty box who is being changed for must skate to within five feet of their own bench first (NHL 74.3; IIHF 74.3, 1.50 m) — sending a fresh body over while that player is still crossing the ice is too many men. ⚠️ Under Hockey Canada that is your own minor, not the bench's (6.1(b), under 10.4(a)); USA Hockey requires them to be "at their players' bench" (204(c)). ⚠️ USA Hockey's adults are the exception: needing no substitute in the box for a major or a match (403(d), 405(a)), they may send a player straight from the bench when it expires (Casebook Rule 204, Situation 11). Youth teams stay short until the penalised player has left the box by way of the ice, on pain of a bench minor (Situation 10).

Practically: count. If you step on and see six of your own jerseys, get straight back off — officials usually allow the correction if nobody has played the puck.

Line changes at a stoppage

At a whistle the visiting team puts its line-up on the ice first (up to five seconds), then the home team changes (up to eight), and the referee closes the window (NHL Rule 82.2). That is the concrete value of home ice: last change, so the home coach can match lines against yours.

After an icing, the team that iced it may not change, home or away — bar replacing a goalie pulled for an extra attacker, replacing an injured player, or a penalty that changes on-ice strength (82.1, 81.4). After the visitors ice it, the home team changes normally and keeps last change. That is why icing is expensive: you hand the other side fresh legs and the matchup. See Faceoffs and Game Management.

Knocking your own net off costs the same. ⚠️ You get the whistle and, unless you are hurt, you stay on the ice. When a defending skater or goalie accidentally displaces the net, the draw goes to your end — under the NHL and IIHF, at the dot the other team picks. As after an icing, "The offending team shall not be permitted to make any player substitutions prior to the face-off", on the same three exceptions (NHL and IIHF 63.8, both editions) — with no timeout (87.1) and no commercial break either (IIHF Situation 82.6; 82.7 in 2026/27).

If the referee judges it deliberate, it is a minor for delay of game (63.2(iv)) — or a penalty shot if that minor cannot be served in full before regulation ends or at any time in overtime (63.6). If it stops a goal on an open net, the referee can award the goal, and must if your goalie had been pulled or did it themselves on a breakaway (63.7).

Where an attacker displaces the net, play runs on while the defending side has the puck, with no substitution bar (63.4). Hockey Canada writes the same no-change bar, but only in U18 AAA, Junior and, at the Member's option, Senior (6.1(g)). No counterpart was found in USA Hockey, where 610(d) stops play and penalises a deliberate displacement with no substitution consequence — though its ordinary change window closes at every stoppage anyway. CARHA writes none either, beyond its one change per stoppage (19(d)).

Overtime

In short: Read your league's overtime rules before the game, because formats differ widely and many British games have none.

NHL regular season (Rules 84.1, 84.4): five minutes of sudden-death 3-on-3, then a shootout — three shooters a side, then sudden death, nobody shooting twice until everyone eligible has. A team that loses in overtime or the shootout keeps the point it earned by being tied after 60 minutes. Three-on-three is a different sport: open ice, possession is everything, and a turnover is very often a goal against within seconds. Pulling the goalie in regular-season overtime forfeits the guaranteed point if you lose while the goalie is off (84.2), and once off they cannot return on the fly — only at a stoppage, or it is a bench minor.

NHL playoffs (84.5): full 20-minute sudden-death periods, ends changed each period and a 15-minute intermission before the first; no shootout, no 3-on-3. (84.5 states no on-ice strength, so even strength is an inference from its silence, and it gives no length for the later intermissions, so none is given here.)

Overtime with penalties (84.3): teams never drop below three skaters, so a power play in 3-on-3 is played 4-on-3 and a two-man advantage 5-on-3, corrected to 3-on-3 at the next stoppage once strength evens out.

IIHF (84.1, 84.4–84.6): preliminary-round games get five minutes of 3-on-3 then a five-shooter shootout; playoff, relegation-round, classification-round and bronze-medal games up to ten minutes of 3-on-3 then a shootout; a top-category gold-medal game goes to unlimited sudden-death 3-on-3 periods with 15-minute intermissions — no change of ends for the first, a change for each after. (84.6 gives no period length for the gold-medal game, so none is given here.)

🇬🇧 The IHUK In-House Rules often mean no overtime at all: it "is only played in NIHL fixtures and in SNL fixtures where specifically provided for in competition regulations", so most other games under those Rules end level at the buzzer, unless the In-House Rules' own BUIHA section adds it (Varsity OT fixtures) or a competition's regulations do (junior finals). NIHL overtime is five minutes of 3-on-3, then a three-shooter game-winning-shots competition. At Playoff Final Weekend a semi-final gets one 20-minute 5-on-5 period and then the same GWS, and the final successive 20-minute 5-on-5 sudden-death periods with no GWS at all (In-House Rules, Appendix 1). See UK and England Rules.

USA Hockey (Rule 638) recommends overtime — a 5-minute rest, then a 10-minute sudden-victory period, never below three skaters a side, with or instead of a shootout — and lets affiliates and local bodies make their own rules.

Rec and beer leagues: ⚠️ there is no general practice, so read your league's rules. CARHA's book lets an ordinary league tie stand, points shared (85(a)), and leaves overtime to league regulations; its own tournaments use a 5-minute 4-on-4 sudden-victory period in the round robin, and 5-on-5 then a best-of-3 and sudden-death shootout in the semi-final and final, a player still serving a penalty when the shootout begins being ineligible (Section Seven). That is one book's tournament format, not a rec standard, and this document has no count of what other leagues do.

Timeouts

Each team gets one 30-second timeout in the NHL and IIHF (Rule 87.1) and under Hockey Canada (6.17(e)), and one of 60 seconds under USA Hockey (636(f)) — except in a USA Hockey curfew game, where neither team has one at all, and both teams must be told the curfew time before the start. In Hockey Canada minor and female hockey the timeout exists only in stop-time games with the local Member's approval, and is mandatory at regional and national championships; Members and leagues may otherwise set their own rules on time of game, but not in inter-Member or national competition.

The NHL and IIHF grant no timeout (87.1):

after a faceoff violation;
to the defensive team after an icing;
to the defensive team when the goalie froze a puck shot in from beyond the centre red line;
when a defending player accidentally dislodged the net;
once a penalty shot has been called, or during a shootout.

The pattern is deliberate: each is a moment a team is supposed to be stuck on the ice, tired. USA Hockey lists none of them, so outside a curfew game a team there can ice the puck and buy its tired players a minute, provided it asks during the stoppage before the line change ends. Hockey Canada writes no such list either, and expressly allows either team the timeout after an icing where its no-change rule runs (6.7(d)(iii)) — though the offending team still cannot substitute during it, so the clock stops and the same five take the draw.

2. Offside

Offside: The rule

Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone (NHL Rule 83.1).

The mechanics, precisely:

Skates decide, not sticks. Your stick can be as far into the zone as you like.
You are offside when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line.
You are onside if either skate is in contact with the blue line, or on your own side of it, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge.
"Your own side of the line" is defined by a vertical plane rising from the leading edge of the blue line. If your skate has not yet broken that plane, you are onside — even if it is in the air, under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL (85.1). USA Hockey (630(a)) and Hockey Canada (6.11) require actual skate contact, so there an airborne skate is offside, and CARHA does not settle it (72(c) Note 1). See Rule-set differences below.
New for 2025-26: "a 'skate' is to be considered the blade of the skate only." Your boot and your ankle are irrelevant; the blade is the reference.
The puck must completely cross the leading edge of the blue line. A puck sitting on the line is not yet in the zone.
The blue line is 12 inches wide (Rule 1.5). That is a full foot of legal real estate.
A player carrying the puck may cross the line ahead of it, provided they had possession and control of the puck with their stick before both skates crossed. That is the 2025-26 wording; Scouting The Refs, comparing the 2024-25 and 2025-26 books, suggests it may close the case of a player kicking the puck ahead of themselves, though the rulebook does not say so.

The technique consequence: drag a trail skate

Because one skate on or behind the plane keeps you onside, and the line is a foot wide, you do not have to slow down at the blue line: attack it at full speed with your body and lead skate already in the zone, holding the trail blade on or behind the line until the puck crosses. Keep the blade in contact with the line — that is onside in all six books checked. Holding it in the air behind the plane works only under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL; it is offside under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, and CARHA does not answer it. This document has no count of which leagues run which book, so find out yours.

The technique itself belongs to Zone Entries — the four steps, the timing, and what it does to a defender. The same logic applies on a regroup: see Neutral Zone Systems, and Defending the Rush for the defender's side of it, which is that you cannot rely on the blue line to save you.

Delayed offside and tagging up

In short: When the arm goes up, leave the puck and its carrier alone, touch the blue line, and wait until everyone has.

If attackers have preceded the puck into the zone but the defending team is in a position to bring the puck out without delay or contact, the linesperson raises an arm for a delayed offside instead of blowing the whistle (NHL Rule 83.3, signal 29.7). It is nullified — arm down, play carries on — if either:

Every attacker clears the zone with skate contact on the blue line. This is tagging up. ⚠️ The zone has to be empty before anyone re-enters, so the last man decides: in every book a teammate who re-enters while another is still deep keeps the delayed offside alive (IIHF Situation 83.34; Hockey Canada Interpretation 11 to 6.11(b)). Under USA Hockey 630(d) there is no delayed offside and no tag-up below Youth 15-Only, Girls 16U, High School and Adult — the whistle goes at once. Once the arm is down, everybody may re-enter.
The defending team passes or carries the puck into the neutral zone.

Clearing needs actual skate contact — the plane does not apply here. IIHF 83.3(I) spells it out: "(skate contact with the blue line, '3D' judgement is not used in this situation)". So the airborne trail skate that keeps you onside on the entry does not clear you on a delayed offside. Touch the paint.

Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL the delayed offside becomes a whistle if any attacker, while the arm is up, touches the puck, attempts to gain possession of a loose puck, forces the defending puck carrier further back into their own zone, or is about to make physical contact with the defending puck carrier (83.3; PWHL 85.3). So merely chasing the defenceman deeper kills the play — the most misunderstood part of the rule, and it costs teams offensive-zone possession every game.

USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write no about-to-make-contact trigger. USA Hockey stops play for touching the puck, going for it, or continuing "to apply pressure to the defending puck carrier" (630(d)) — a judgement about pressure, not an imminent hit, and it lapses once the carrier passes. Hockey Canada's stop-play clause (6.11(b)(ii)) and CARHA's (72(e)(2)) stop it only for touching the puck or going for a loose puck in the zone. ⚠️ So under those books do not close on the puck carrier expecting a whistle to arrive first: the carrier is still playing the puck, and is not braced for you.

Hockey Canada answers the hit only afterwards, making a deliberate play "against an opposing player" while knowingly offside an intentional offside — a faceoff in your own end, not a penalty, and no protection for the man you hit (6.11(d)(i)). USA Hockey's Casebook does tell linespersons to stop play at once where offside players chase the puck instead of tagging up, because "⁠[t]he potential for unnecessary body contact should not be allowed" (Rule 630, Situation 39) — guidance on a delayed offside already in progress, with its own exception where a defender will plainly reach the puck first. (Hockey Canada's 6.11(b) carries two separate i./ii. lists, so "6.11(b)(ii)" names both a tag-up clause and a stop-play clause; those labels are this page's, not the book's. Its thirteen interpretations to 6.11 mention no contact at all, and no CARHA casebook is held here.) Zone Entries works this through from the forechecker's side.

You can also clear by going to the bench — "his players' bench": you are cleared "when both skates are off the ice and the Linesperson judges him to have left the playing surface" (NHL 83.3; IIHF 83.3 to the same effect). A replacement who comes on in the attacking zone while the delayed offside is still in effect must clear the zone too. ⚠️ Use your own bench door: under USA Hockey, jumping off anywhere else and being replaced is a bench minor for illegal substitution (Casebook Rule 630, Situation 12). Hockey Canada names the same door (Interpretation 11 to 6.11(b)), and if a substitute comes on before you are at the bench, 6.1(a) makes it a too-many-players bench minor (10.7(a)).

What to do as a player on a delayed offside:

If you are in the zone: get out cleanly to the line, do not drift, and do not re-enter on your own tag while a teammate is still deep. Under Hockey Canada, playing the puck or an opponent while knowingly offside is an intentional offside, with the faceoff in your own end (6.11(d)(i)).
Do not touch the puck. Do not chase the D. Retreat to the line, tag up, then attack again.
If you are defending: ⚠️ keep your head up and expect to be hit, in every book. Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL the triggers name the puck carrier, so the protection lapses the instant you pass, and a whistle for an imminent hit stops the play, not a body already committed at speed. Under Hockey Canada and CARHA nothing in the stop-play clause stops a forechecker closing on you at all, and under USA Hockey only a pressure call might. Take the extra look; do not take it with your head down. See Breakouts.

Disallowed goals on a delayed offside

If the puck is shot into the zone creating a delayed offside and that same shot goes in the net — directly or off the goalie, a player, the boards, the glass, equipment or an official — the goal is disallowed, even if the attacking team had cleared the zone in the meantime (Rule 83.4). The NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL allow one exception: the defending team puts it in its own net with no action by the attackers (83.4; PWHL 85.4). Hockey Canada and CARHA write no own-goal exception (6.11(b) and its Note 1; 72(e)(2)), so it is unsettled there. USA Hockey's Casebook rules it out: asked "May a goal ever be allowed during the course of a delayed offside?", it answers "No", "⁠[e]ven if the defending team shoots, passes or deflects the puck into its own goal" (Rule 630, Situation 41; its Playing Rules alone do not settle it). Under none of the three North American amateur books count on it.

Where the faceoff goes

In short: Carry it over the line rather than firing in a hopeful pass: a pass offside can send the draw to your own end.

Where the draw goes after an offside, under NHL Rule 83.6 — an NHL rule, and where the IIHF and USA Hockey books put the draw is not established here, so do not assume it is the same place. One attacker has preceded the puck into the attacking zone at the right, and the two entries drawn are alternatives rather than a sequence, because what the rule turns on is how the puck followed them in. Carried over the line, and the draw is the neutral-zone spot nearest that attacking zone. Shot or passed in, and it goes back to the faceoff spot in the zone closest to where the pass came from — a spot, not the patch of ice it was shot from — drawn here as a defenceman firing it in from their own end. The two draws are 89 feet apart up the ice, which is arithmetic on the rink dimensions, not a figure from the rulebook. That far marker is this pass’s answer and not a fixed destination. Move the pass and the spot moves with it.

What the shapes and fills mean

This is worth learning, because it is a real territorial consequence (Rule 83.6):

Offside where the puck entered the zone in an attacker's possession — "as a result of the attacking team carrying the puck over the attacking blue line" → faceoff at the neutral-zone spot nearest that attacking zone. You lose the zone but keep the neutral-zone draw. The carrier is not the offender — a player with possession and control may cross ahead of the puck (83.1); the offence is a teammate who had already preceded it.
Offside where the puck entered on a shot or a pass → faceoff at the "face-off spot in the zone closest to the point of origin of the shot or pass (even if deflected off an attacking or defending player or an official)" — the one "that gives the offending team the least amount of territorial advantage". That is a faceoff spot, not the patch of ice the pass left from: fired in from behind your own net, the draw goes to an end-zone dot in your own end.

So a carried offside costs you a little; a pass-created one can cost you up to 89 ft of ice — from the neutral-zone spot outside the attacking blue line back to an end-zone dot in your own end. That is the NHL sheet's spot positions added up, not a distance any rulebook states (Rink Map owns the positions), and USA Hockey 630(c) words the location differently — "the nearest last play face-off location". It is a real argument for carrying the puck over the line under pressure rather than firing a hopeful pass in.

When a delayed offside and an icing happen on the same play, the call decides where you draw. USA Hockey's Casebook (Rule 630, Situation 33) and Hockey Canada (Interpretation 8 to 6.11(b)) call the icing, with the faceoff in the offending team's end; Hockey Canada adds that if play is stopped for the offside instead, the draw goes to the spot nearest where the shot started (Interpretation 10(iii)). The IIHF leaves it to the linesperson, who "whenever possible with player safety at the forefront... will allow the icing to be completed" but must call the offside first if the offside attacker "will get to the puck first or may make contact with an opponent" (Situation Handbook 81.20 — 81.21 in 2026/27 — and 81.1). ⚠️ No precedence provision was found in the NHL's or the IIHF's rule text, and the NHL publishes no case book, so for the NHL this is unanswered here. Under the NHL and the IIHF the call also decides whether you can change, because only the icing bars it.

Video review

An offside that leads to a goal is reviewable by Coach's Challenge (NHL Rule 38.2(a); IIHF 83.5 and Rule 38). A failed challenge costs a minor (2:00), and a further one in the same game a double minor (4:00) (NHL 38.8; IIHF 38.7, as bench minors). Otherwise no goal can be disallowed after the fact for offside (Rule 83.4).

In EIH and SIHA competition, ⚠️ the IHUK In-House Rules remove on-ice review entirely: there is no review during the game. "On-ice video review is not available in EIH or SIHA competition and may not be used by referees, official scorers, timekeepers, or any other game official" (against IIHF Rule 37), and "a Coach's Challenge is not permitted in EIH or SIHA competition" (Rule 38). The bar is repeated against double minors (18.4), high-sticking (60.3), goaltender interference (69.1), goals (78.5, 78.6) and puck out of bounds (85.7). The referee's call on the ice is the call. Supplementary discipline can still use video afterwards (In-House Rule 28), even for an incident nobody penalised. ⚠️ The Elite League runs the other way: its Casebook keeps video review, in the arena or from the EIHL Situation Room (37.1, 37.2), and the Coach's Challenge (38.5). So wherever this document describes a call being reviewed or challenged, that is the NHL, the international game and the Elite League — not EIH or SIHA competition. See UK and England Rules.

Rule-set differences

In short: Keep your trail skate's blade on the ice at the line; an airborne skate is onside in some books, offside in others.

IIHF Rule 83 follows the NHL, plane and all. ⚠️ The 2026/27 book closes the last gaps in the NHL's words — "For the purposes of this rule, a 'skate' is to be considered the blade of the skate only", and the puck carrier needs possession "with their stick prior to both skates completely crossing the leading edge of the blue line". Both change what you do: only the blade counts, and pushing the puck across with a skate no longer earns the carrier's carve-out. The 2025/26 (Version 1.1) book has neither. Whether that has reached Britain is unresolved here: the Elite League is on the 2026/27 book by its own Casebook, while the In-House Rules name both editions and do not amend Rule 83 — so outside the Elite League, ask which edition your competition is on. The IIHF also adds that offside "never arises until the puck has completely crossed the leading edge of the blue line".
USA Hockey and Hockey Canada test skate contact, not a plane, so an airborne trail skate is offside there. USA Hockey 630(a): offside when the player "does not have skate contact with any part of the Neutral Zone or the blue line", one skate on the line being enough. Hockey Canada 6.11: "Only the player's skate(s) that are in physical contact with the ice surface will be used in determining an off-side", and Interpretation 3 to 6.11(a) rules a skate above the line and not touching the ice OFF-SIDE. Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL (85.1, "blade of the skate only") the same skate held back over the neutral zone is onside.
CARHA does not answer it. Its 72(c) Note 1 makes a player onside when a skate is touching "or on their own side of" the line, and the word "plane" appears nowhere in the book, so the airborne skate is unresolved there. ⚠️ Keep the blade on the ice — that is onside under all six books. CARHA governs CARHA-affiliated leagues only, and this document has no count of how many adult leagues that is.
USA Hockey's delayed offside exists only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult (630(d)); below those, offside is immediate. Hockey Canada's 6.11 has no division limit, unlike its icing and body-checking rules, so a delayed offside tags up the same way in every Hockey Canada division.
🇬🇧 IHUK U12 hockey has no delayed offside to tag up on: "Play does not stop", the official calls the attackers out of the zone, and "Failure to retreat quickly = delay of game penalty" (Junior Rules of Competition, Appendix D). U10 is played cross-ice or half-ice. Your competition's regulations set the format, not the rule book.

3. Icing

Icing: The rule

If a team equal or superior in numerical strength to their opponent shoots, bats or deflects the puck from their own half of the ice across the opposition goal line, play is stopped (NHL Rule 81.1). The centre red line divides the ice into halves for this purpose, and the reference point is the point of last contact by the team in possession.

"Gaining the line"

To nullify a potential icing, your team must "gain the line": the puck, while on a player's stick — not a skate — must make contact with the centre red line (NHL Rule 81.1; IIHF Rule 81.1 carries the sentence word for word).

This is the detail almost nobody knows. If you are carrying the puck through the neutral zone and you fire it down the ice, the question is not where you were, it is where the puck on your stick was. Carry it that extra half-stride so the puck touches the red line and you can dump it in freely. Under those two books and the PWHL's (Rule 83.1), kicking it forward over the line with your skate does not count.

Two players in exactly the same place — both bodies on the centre red line, one drawn above the other — and only one of them has iced the puck. NHL Rule 81.1, for a team equal or superior in numerical strength: to nullify a potential icing the puck must make contact with the centre red line while it is on a player’s stick, not on a skate. So the question is not where you were. It is where the puck on your stick was. The shading is the shooting team’s own half: the upper player’s dump-in leaves with the puck still inside it and is iced, while the lower player’s leaves with the puck touching the line — the black dot, which is the whole rule. This notation has no symbol for a stick, so what you can see is only where each dump-in begins.

What the shapes and fills mean

Hybrid, no-touch and touch icing

In short: Ask which icing your league uses before your first game, because it decides whether you chase a dump-in at all.

There are three systems:

Touch icing (historical): a defending skater must physically touch the puck for icing to be called. Produces high-speed races into the end boards; largely abandoned for injury reasons.
No-touch / automatic icing: play stops the instant the puck completely crosses the goal line, whoever is chasing.
Hybrid icing: the race is to the puck, but the linesperson must decide it by the time the first player reaches the end-zone faceoff dot — the dot is a deadline, not a finish line.

Hybrid icing: both skaters reach the end-zone dots level, and the box marks the near dot only as the deadline for the decision, not a finish line. Under NHL and IIHF Rule 81.1 the linesperson decides by the time the first skate reaches the dots, on who would touch the puck first, so being level settles nothing: be clearly on course to reach the puck first, because a race still too close to call at the dots is icing. ⚠️ This is not everybody’s icing. USA Hockey (outside adult sled hockey) and CARHA play automatic icing, so there is no race, and Hockey Canada runs hybrid only in U18AAA, Junior and, at the Member’s option, Senior. Ask which your league plays. The race is not a licence to hit: unnecessary contact with a player playing the puck on an obvious icing is boarding if they hit the boards (NHL, IIHF and PWHL 41.1, Hockey Canada 7.2), and USA Hockey penalises any unnecessary contact on an obvious icing (624(d)). Whoever wins, in any league, checking or not, never turn your back to anyone coming at you, and never duck. Get your skates parallel to the wall instead, take it on your forearm and hip, head up and chin off your chest — and not on the point of your shoulder, and not the whole shoulder if you can help it.

What the shapes and fills mean

The NHL and IIHF both use hybrid icing (NHL Rule 81.1; IIHF Rule 81.1 — near-identical wording, but not identical, because the IIHF adds a paragraph on what happens when there is no race for the puck at all). The mechanism is:

The linesperson first judges that the puck will cross the goal line.
They then judge which player would touch the puck first.
That decision is made no later than the instant the first player reaches the end-zone faceoff dots, with the skate as the determining factor.
If the race is too close to call by that point, icing is called.

Note the clarification the rulebook makes explicitly: the determining factor is who would touch the puck first, not who reaches the dot first. The dot is a deadline for the decision, not the finish line of the race.

The NHL adopted hybrid icing in 2013-14 and the IIHF in 2014. USA Hockey uses automatic icing in the standing game — "⁠[i]cing the puck shall have been completed the instant the puck has completely crossed the goal line" (624); its book mentions hybrid only for adult sled hockey. Some rec and youth leagues use no-touch, and a few still use touch. Ask before your first game — it changes whether you chase a dump-in at all.

The full wave-off list

In short: Outside NHL, IIHF and PWHL rules, do not expect a goalie skating out or a touch after the line to wave icing off.

This is the NHL's list, from NHL Rule 81 — it is not a list of what every book waves off. ⚠️ Each item names its own book scope, so read the item, not the list. Where an item does not mention a book, take it as not found rather than not there: the six icing rules have not been read clause by clause against one another. Under NHL Rules 81.1, 81.3, 81.5 and 81.6, icing is not called if:

The team that shot it is shorthanded — in all six books, though three of them ration it; section 6 sets that out.
The puck goes directly off a faceoff into the far end — in all six books, and at even strength too, for both teams. Five of the six say "directly". USA Hockey ties it to the puck travelling the length "as a result of" a taker, but its Casebook requires that "the puck must receive its impetus from the initial stick contact on the face-off", so a centre who wins the puck and then shoots it the length of the ice is iced (Rule 624, Situation 15). Treat any other touch as ending it — no book says in terms whether a puck that clips a stick on its way is still covered. Faceoffs has the full treatment.
The puck touches any part of an opposing player before or after crossing the goal line. "Or after" is only the NHL's, the IIHF's and the PWHL's: USA Hockey (624(b)(4)) and Hockey Canada (6.7(c)(i)) need the touch "prior to" the line, and CARHA names no moment — so elsewhere do not expect a touch after the line to save you.
The puck touches the opposing goalie — the same split on timing; CARHA says "at any time before crossing the goal line" (65(g)(2)).
The opposing goalie feigns playing the puck, attempts to play it, or skates toward it (NHL and IIHF 81.3, PWHL 83.3). This is the item that travels worst — see below.
A linesperson judges that an opposing skater (not the goalie) could have played it but did not, including a team declining to play it during a line change to avoid a too-many-men call — in all six books, every one excepting the goalie (Hockey Canada reaches the line-change half through Interpretation 7 to 6.7(c)(iii)).
The puck rebounds off an opponent in their own half so as to cross the shooter's own goal line — all six books.
The puck goes into the net — a goal, not an icing (stated by USA Hockey 624(a) and Hockey Canada 6.7) — but CARHA disallows one "batted with the hand or kicked into the opposing net" (65(a)), so do not expect that one.
The goalie dislodges the puck from the back of the net — NHL, IIHF and PWHL only.
The attacking team gained the line, as defined above — NHL, IIHF and PWHL. USA Hockey judges "the point of last contact with the puck" (624 Note), and a puck that "leaves the stick directly on the center red line" is not icing (Casebook, Situation 9). Hockey Canada asks where the puck was last contacted and calls it not icing "if the stick was still in contact with the centre red line when the puck was shot" (Interpretations 1 and 5 to 6.7(a)). CARHA nullifies icing on "⁠[a]ny contact with the puck over the centre red line" (65(a)) — a different test — and in a CARHA league that divides the ice at the blue lines, moves it to "the defensive teams blue line" without saying which team's (65(b)), so ask.

A puck deflecting off an official does not automatically nullify a potential icing.

On the shorthanded clause, the test is a head count, so a 5-on-3 that becomes 4-on-5 is still exempt, and ⚠️ a clear released before the penalty expires is not icing in any book that grants the exemption — under USA Hockey only from Youth 15-Only, Girls 16U, High School and Adult up (624(b)(1)) — however late it lands. Under the NHL and the PWHL a team killing a major loses the exemption only once the major has expired with nobody in the box to come out. Section 6 has the detail.

The goalie wave-off (item 5) is narrower everywhere else. USA Hockey has no goalie-movement wave-off; only actual contact counts (624(b)). ⚠️ Hockey Canada's only one is inside hybrid icing — U18AAA, Junior, and Senior at the Member's option — and needs the goalie to leave the crease "with both skates, moving in the direction of the puck" (6.7(e)(vi)). Outside those categories a goalie who comes out but does not play the puck leaves it ICING (Interpretation 8 to 6.7(c)(iii)), unless the goalie prevented an attacker playing it. CARHA reaches only an actual touch. So a goalie who wanders out on a dump-in has waved nothing off in most of the hockey world.

The consequences

In short: An icing hands them a draw in your end; assume your tired line cannot change unless your league allows it.

Under NHL rules, an icing costs the offending team three things:

A defensive-zone faceoff, with the attacking team choosing the dot (Rule 81.2).
No line change before the faceoff (81.4, 82.1), except to replace a goalie pulled for an extra attacker, to replace an injured player, or when a penalty changes on-ice strength. Who is on the ice is fixed when the puck leaves the offending player's stick.
No timeout — and no commercial timeout either — unless a penalty changes on-ice strength (87.1).

If a linesperson erred, the faceoff goes to centre ice (NHL and IIHF 81.2; USA Hockey 624(c)); if the defending team deliberately abstains from playing the puck, it goes to the corner spot nearest its own goal (81.2).

The IIHF imposes all three (81.2, 81.4, 87.1), and the In-House Rules amend none of it — so in British league hockey, treat the NHL treatment as your own. ⚠️ But your competition's Rules of Competition sit on top, and in IHUK junior competition there is no icing at U12 at all: "No icing calls at U12" (Junior Rules of Competition 2026-2027, Appendix D). The same appendix runs the clock unless both teams agree otherwise, changes lines on a buzzer every 60 seconds with the puck "left where it is", and does not stop play for offside. So at U12 a length-of-the-ice clear is simply live — ⚠️ and with no whistle, that chase runs all the way to the end boards; below is how to arrive there. IHUK revises these regulations in place, so read the current season's; UK and England Rules has the U12 and U10 formats.

The IIHF's broken-skate exception is not one to plan on. IIHF 81.4 adds a fourth permitted change the NHL's does not — "a Player with a broken skate" — but IIHF 82.1 restates the same bar with only the other three, and the book does not say which governs. The Situation Handbook reads the two together, names no broken skate, and at Situation 81.7 says the "⁠[o]nly time a line change is permitted is when a penalty is assessed" — over-broad, since it also drops the injured player and the pulled goalie, but not encouraging. Both rulebook editions read the same, and the In-House Rules amend neither rule. So tell the official the blade has gone and expect to stay on, and never send a replacement over the boards on it.

Under IIHF 82.2(V) the referee "will send the Players who have attempted to change back to their Players' bench" and warns the coach that "any subsequent violations during the rest of the game (including overtime), shall result in a bench minor penalty for 'delaying the game'". There is one warning per team per game, covering every 82.2(V) violation, so a bench already warned for anything else takes the bench minor straight away, late in the game included (82.2(VIII) suspends only points (vi) and (vii); Situation 82.5). ⚠️ Under the NHL it may be a bench minor with no warning at all: its 82.2(v) carries the IIHF's warning, but its 82.3 gives the visiting team a bench minor for "⁠[a]ny attempt... to make a change after the Referee's signal", and the book does not say which governs.

USA Hockey allows a line change after an icing, and a timeout — Rule 624 restricts neither (204; 636(f), though there is no timeout in a curfew game). ⚠️ But the change window still closes at every stoppage: the visitors get five seconds, then the home team five, and then "no additional player substitutions shall be permitted until the face-off has been completed legally and play has resumed", bar a penalty that changes on-ice strength (204(a)). A late change draws a warning, then a minor for delay of game (204(a)) or a bench minor (610(g)) — and 204(a) does not say who serves its minor. At a false faceoff, players trying to change are sent back to the bench (Casebook Rule 613, Situation 15). (The Casebook and both Summaries of Penalties cite that bench minor as "610(h)"; the printed rule runs (a) to (g), so quote 610(g).) You may change after your own icing under USA Hockey; you may not change late.

Hockey Canada sits between the two: 6.7(d) bars the change only in U18AAA and Junior, and in Senior at the Member's option, with the NHL's first two carve-outs and a wider third — any penalty to either team — and allows a timeout there with no change during it. Below those categories the 30-second timeout exists in minor and female hockey only in stop-time games with the local Member's approval (mandatory at regional and national championships). If you play adult Hockey Canada hockey, assume you may not change until somebody tells you otherwise. An attempted change is a bench minor after a warning — Rule 10.1 names "'no change' situations" — and a second change in a single stoppage is a bench minor with no warning (6.1(c)). CARHA writes no icing bar, but allows one change per stoppage (19(d)), closes the window after ten seconds, and makes a repeat breach a bench minor (19(e), 19(g)) — so after your own icing, change once and promptly, or stay on.

What this means for how you play

In short: Clear it off the glass and out of the zone, and carry the puck over the red line before you dump it in.

Icing is the tax on a bad clear. The punishment for an illegal clear is a defensive-zone draw with your most tired players stuck on the ice and no way to rest (an injured player can still be replaced).

From your own end under pressure, the safe clear is off the glass and out along the boards, or high off the glass — out of the zone, no icing, and very hard to intercept. A rim that carries all the way down the ice is what gets iced.
Get the puck past the red line, on your stick, before you dump it. One extra stride is the whole difference between a legal dump-in and an icing. (In a CARHA league that divides the ice at the blue lines instead, ask your league where its line is.)
While you are actually below their on-ice strength, ice it freely (81.6) — it is the kill's biggest structural advantage. But a penalty against them that takes you to 4-on-4 ends it, the NHL and the PWHL take it away once a major expires with nobody in the box, and USA Hockey grants it only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult (624(b)(1)). See Special Teams.
Chasing a dump-in under hybrid icing, race to the puck — the linesperson's judgement is locked in when the first skate reaches the dot, so the first half of the race is the half that counts. Beating the other player to the dot does not decide it; being clearly on course to reach the puck first does. Clearly beaten, do not run yourself into the end boards for nothing; clearly winning, commit to it. A race still too close to call at the dot is icing. ⚠️ However the race ends, how you arrive at the wall is the part that hurts people — in every league, checking or not. Never turn your back to anyone coming at you, and never duck: skates parallel to the wall, contact on your forearm and hip, head up and chin off your chest. A turned back makes it a hit from behind you can neither see nor brace for; a tucked chin straightens the cervical spine, and that injury, from a head-on hit into the boards or a post, "can occur at walking speed", says USA Hockey's Heads Up Hockey guide. Body Contact and Battles has the full treatment.
As the goalie, be careful behind your net on a potential icing. Under the NHL and IIHF, merely skating toward the puck waves the icing off and hands them a live puck in your corner (81.3). If you want the icing, stay put — heading to the bench for an extra attacker with no attempt on the puck does not wave it off.
Do not casually poke a dumped puck as it goes by. Any touch by the defending team, goalie included, kills the icing — which is also the trick to use when the other team is stuck and you would rather keep playing.
Boarding note: unnecessary contact that drives a player into the boards on an obvious icing or offside play is boarding (NHL, IIHF and PWHL 41.1, Hockey Canada 7.2); USA Hockey reaches the icing half at 624(d). Icing races are not a licence to hit.

4. Penalties

The types, and what each does to your team

In short: Learn which penalties leave your team short, and find out what a major costs in your own book.

Type	Time	What it does to your team on the ice
Minor	2:00. IHUK U12: 3:00, or 4:00 in a four-line game	You play short; no substitute (Rule 16.1)
Bench minor	2:00	You play short; any player except the goalie serves it; no substitute (Rule 17.1)
Double minor	4:00	You play short; no substitute (Rule 18.1)
Major	5:00	You play short; no substitute (Rule 20.1)
Misconduct	10:00	A substitute goes straight on (Rules 22.1, 22.3), so you play short only when that player also takes a minor, major or match penalty
Game misconduct	Rest of game	A substitute replaces the player (Rule 23.1), so you play short only for a minor, major or match assessed alongside it
Match penalty	Rest of game + 5:00 served	You play short for 5:00; a teammate serves it and a substitute comes on after five minutes (Rule 21.2)
Penalty shot	—	Nobody is short and nobody is substituted: it is a restored scoring chance, not a time penalty (Rule 24.1, and Rule 24 writes no shorthanded clause)

Minor penalty (Rule 16.1) — two minutes, no substitute. Your team plays 5-on-4.

Bench minor (Rule 17.1) — two minutes served by any player except the goalie, designated by the coach through the captain, for team infractions with no single culprit: too many men, delay of game by the bench, and a second faceoff violation by the same team on the same draw.

Double minor (Rule 18.1) — four minutes, for a high stick that draws blood and for butt-ending or spearing attempts, in the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books. Other books price those higher. An injuring high stick is a major and an ejection in CARHA, and goes to head contact in Hockey Canada's minor and female hockey; USA Hockey makes a reckless high stick a major and an ejection — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (621(b), 602(a)). A forceful or deliberate spearing or butt-ending attempt reaches a match penalty under Hockey Canada and CARHA. Stick fouls has the tiers, and the rec-level list has CARHA's. A double minor behaves as two separate minors: a goal in the first two minutes washes out only that half (18.2).

Major (Rule 20.1) — five minutes, no substitute, and it does not end when the other team scores (20.2). ⚠️ Under Hockey Canada and CARHA a major is an ejection. Hockey Canada: "Any player assessed a Major penalty will also be assessed a Game Misconduct penalty", sent "to the dressing room for the remainder of the game" and "reported to the appropriate Member or league for further action" on every major (4.4, 4.4(a)); the document that says what that action costs is not held here, so no tariff is stated. CARHA: "ruled off the ice for the remainder of the game (Major penalty plus Game Misconduct)" (30(a)), bar a skater's accidental high stick that injures nobody; any major but an accidental high stick also brings at least a one-game suspension (32(d)).

USA Hockey keeps a bare major in its definition (403(a)) and almost nowhere else — every major in its Summary of Penalties comes with a game misconduct, which costs the next game too (404(b)) — and affiliates may cut a major to 3:00 or 4:00 where periods are short, outside adult play (403 Note). In the IIHF's 2025/26 book the only major listed without a game misconduct is the unwilling combatant's in a fight (Table 5, 46.6); the 2026/27 Table 5 still ticks that row "MAJOR ONLY", but its 46.12 makes the game misconduct the default, waived only at the referee's discretion. So "five minutes, then back on" is the NHL's and the PWHL's answer; find out what a major costs in your book before you take one.

When majors and misconducts eject you. NHL: a third major in one game (20.4), and a major that injures an opponent's face or head. IIHF: a second major, or a second misconduct, in the same game (20.4, 22.1). Both books also eject on one major for the fouls on their reference tables (20.4). ⚠️ The IIHF's list is unconditional — no injury needed, though calling the major is still the referee's judgement. It has twenty entries (twenty-two in the 2026/27 Table 5), among them checking from behind, cross-checking, slashing, hooking, high-sticking, slew-footing, clipping and an illegal check to the head (Table 6 in the 2025/26 book; merged into a single Table 5 in 2026/27).

The NHL's Table 5 is shorter and partly conditional: six of its thirteen non-fighting rows need an injury, and the table's own footnote flags the tension with 20.4. The NHL writes no major at all for high-sticking, slew-footing or a check to the head, but a match penalty for each — mandatory and unconditional for slew-footing (52.2), needing a deliberate or attempted injury for a high stick (60.4), and discretionary for the head (48.5), though 21.1 makes any deliberate attempt to injure a match anyway. A check to the head short of that reaches no tier above the minor on the ice. §10 has the triggers side by side.

So under the book British hockey runs on, your second major ends your game, and so do two misconducts — and a first can too. IIHF Table 7 (2025/26; merged into Table 5 in 2026/27) lists boarding (41.4), charging (42.4), elbowing (45.4), interference (56.5) and tripping (57.4) as majors where the game misconduct is "based on the Referee's judgement" — but each is written as a single major-plus-game-misconduct act, so play as though the ejection follows the major. The In-House Rules are stricter still: in women's hockey every major ejects you, at any age (Rule 101), and UK and England Rules covers their junior application of IIHF Rule 201.1, and the hedge that goes with it. ⚠️ In the Elite League a boarding, charging or elbowing major that injures a face or a head carries a mandatory game misconduct (EIHL Casebook).

Under the IIHF book majors are reviewed on-ice by video, fighting calls excepted bar the sucker punch (20.6) — ⚠️ but not in EIH or SIHA competition, where In-House Rule 37 removes on-ice video review entirely, so the call on the ice is the one that ejects you. The Elite League keeps video review and the Coach's Challenge (video review).

Misconduct (Rule 22.1) — ten minutes for the player, but a substitute goes straight on, so the team does not play shorthanded (22.3) — ⚠️ unless that player also takes a minor or a major (or, in the NHL, a match penalty). It costs you a third of the game, not your team the scoreboard. A player whose misconduct expires stays in the box until the next stoppage. A second misconduct in the same game ends your game under the IIHF (22.1), British hockey's book, and USA Hockey (404(a)); the NHL book has no such trigger.

Game misconduct (Rule 23.1) — gone for the rest of the game, a substitute replaces the player, and the team is not shorthanded. The NHL records ten minutes and reports the incident for possible supplementary discipline. The IIHF records twenty.

Match penalty (Rule 21.1) — the harshest, for a player who deliberately attempts to injure, or deliberately injures, an opponent. The player goes to the dressing room at once; a designated teammate (not the goalie) serves five minutes (21.2), and the player is suspended until the league has ruled. USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA likewise keep you out of every game — USA Hockey every practice too — until your case is dealt with (405(c), 4.10(a), 34(a)). USA Hockey's discipline policy recommends a suspension for each match except one for striking an official: six to ten games under its general Rule 602(a) and for spitting at an opponent, spectator or official, threatening an official or opponent with harm, or recklessly shooting the puck at an official or spectator (601(e.2)); four to eight for boarding, charging, checking from behind, head contact, spearing, butt-ending, head-butting and swinging a stick in an altercation; and three to five for most others. A hearing can lower or raise it. ⚠️ If you play in Britain, this penalty does not exist for you: the IIHF book writes none. Where a match penalty is named below as the ceiling, yours is the major plus automatic game misconduct in that same rule — 60.4 for high-sticking, 48.3 for a check to the head — not IIHF Rule 21, which is Dangerous Actions. Supplementary discipline can follow (28.1).

If you are IHUK-registered at a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, a game misconduct for checking from behind or a check to the head, a major for boarding, or any fight in the last five minutes, in overtime or at the end of the game costs you at least one game, in every league or age group you are registered in, and a discriminatory slur brings an immediate suspension (IHUK Department of Player Safety Rules and Procedures, Appendix C and Section 8). Under 16, a first offence may draw a written warning instead; a second or serious one is still a suspension (Appendix J). Those bans are IHUK's, not the IIHF book's, which refers the case on and sets no tariff of its own. Every major is reported (IIHF 20.7), and the In-House Rules let the IHUK Department of Player Safety or the SIHA Disciplinary Committee suspend "regardless of whether such offences were penalised by the Referee at the time." UK and England Rules has the full tariff.

Penalty shot (Rule 24) — a restored scoring chance from centre ice, not a time penalty. No rebounds (except off the post or crossbar and then off the goalie straight in), and the puck must be kept moving toward the goal. The spin-o-rama is banned in only three books — the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL; Hockey Canada expressly allows a 360° turn "if the puck continues its overall motion towards the opponent's goal line" (Note 1 to Interpretation 5 on Rule 4.11(b)), and USA Hockey (406(c)) and CARHA (35(a)) write nothing either way. Keep the puck below your shoulders in every book. A lacrosse-style "Michigan" is permitted where a book addresses it, but the NHL, IIHF, PWHL and Hockey Canada stop the shot if the puck is raised above the shoulders and allow no goal released above the crossbar. USA Hockey and CARHA stop play for a puck played above the shoulders (621(d), 62(d)), and USA Hockey adds that no goal can be scored from it. The goalie must stay in their crease until the shooter touches the puck. A shot awarded for what would have been a minor leaves no minor to serve, whatever the outcome (24.6).

Coincidental penalties (Rule 19) — equal penalties to both teams cancel for on-ice strength. One minor each at the same stoppage, with nothing else on the clock, is played 4-on-4 under the NHL and PWHL (19.1); if a team is already short, they are served with immediate substitution and the strength stays as it was. Under the IIHF it is 5-on-5, equal minors being substituted at once (19.1) — though Britain still reaches 4-on-4 by other routes.

Stick fouls

In short: Keep your feet moving and your stick on the puck; stick fouls come from reaching instead of skating.

These are the calls that come from using the stick against a player instead of the puck. As a group they are the ones to expect most in adult recreational hockey — coaching craft rather than a count, because nobody has counted recreational-league calls, and the NHL figures rank single infractions, led by tripping, which no book files as a stick foul (Body Contact and Battles). The reason is simple: they are what a tired or beaten player does instead of skating.

Hooking (NHL and IIHF Rule 55, USA Hockey 623, Hockey Canada 8.2) — using the stick to restrain an opponent. ⚠️ The two things you have probably been told are both unsafe. "Only stick-on-stick, so it cannot be hooking": the NHL and IIHF exempt stick-to-stick contact only "⁠[w]hen a player is checking another", and USA Hockey and Hockey Canada both name the opponent's stick as hookable. "No tug, no hook": the tug is the NHL's hooking signal (29.18), not its test. 55.1 asks only whether the stick is used "in a manner that enables a player to restrain an opponent", and 56.1 (NHL and IIHF) catches a player without body position who uses the stick "to impede or prevent his opponent from moving freely on the ice", with no tug at all.

The stick lift is legal — taken low. Hockey Canada allows lifting a stick "for the purpose of making a play on the puck", penalising it only where it contacts the hands and impedes the player (Interpretation 1 to 8.2(a)). USA Hockey's Casebook allows it "at any time provided they do not impede their progress" and calls it "a good defensive play" — but hooking a stick so that the carrier loses the puck is a penalty (Rule 623, Situation 1). ⚠️ So take the lift lower: blade under their shaft, below their bottom hand, lifted up rather than sideways — and lift, do not chop. USA Hockey singles out "hard slashes to the upper portion of the stick (just below the hands)" for strict enforcement. ⚠️ Lift under the shaft, not through it, because the stick you lift ends near their face.

In Hockey Canada's interpretations under Rule 9.5, a lift that accidentally contacts the head or neck and injures is a double minor, and a "pitchfork" lift or other forceful stick action that injures the head or neck is a major plus a game misconduct. That list states no division of its own; reading it as Junior and Senior is an inference from its place under the Junior/Senior rule. In minor and female hockey, Rule 7.6 Head Contact governs instead and is no softer — a major and game misconduct on the violence with nobody hurt, mandatory if it injures, and a match where the opponent could not protect themselves.

A minor is not the ceiling. The NHL needs an injury for a major; the IIHF gives a major plus an automatic game misconduct for reckless endangerment with nobody hurt. USA Hockey makes that mandatory on the same trigger, with a match above (623(b), 623(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). Hockey Canada's mandatory major turns on injury (8.2(b)); the hooking rule bars a match (8.2(c)), but for a hook meant to injure, plan on one anyway (Appendix D Note 1). See Body Contact and Battles for the stick-lift technique.
Slashing (Rule 61) — swinging the stick at an opponent, contact or not: any forceful chop on the body, on their stick, or on or near the hands that is not a play on the puck. The shin-pad carve-out is not universal. "Non-aggressive stick contact to the pant or front of the shin pads should not be penalized as slashing" is NHL and IIHF 61.1 only; USA Hockey penalises any player who "swings their stick at any opposing player (whether or not contact is made)", and Hockey Canada exempts only "⁠[t]apping the stick of the puck-carrier" to win the puck.

What it costs. The ceilings diverge sharply. The NHL makes a major mandatory on injury, always with a game misconduct, and a match available (61.3–61.5). The IIHF gives a major plus an automatic game misconduct only for reckless endangerment (61.3), with supplementary discipline above. USA Hockey makes that pair mandatory when reckless, with a match (634(b), 634(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). Hockey Canada gives a major and game misconduct on the violence with nobody hurt, mandatory on injury, and a match (9.3(b), 9.3(c)). USA Hockey also penalises stick contact on a goalie who has "covered or caught" the puck in the crease, "regardless of whether or not the Referee has stopped play" (634(e)) — the whack at a smothered puck. ⚠️ In Hockey Canada Junior and Senior, a slash that glances off the upper body into the head or neck and injures is a major plus a game misconduct (Rule 9.5's interpretations, under 7.7); in minor and female hockey the route is 7.6.
Tripping (NHL and IIHF Rule 57, USA Hockey 639, Hockey Canada 8.6) — placing your stick or body so as to trip an opponent. Get the puck, not the man. ⚠️ A stumble that never becomes a fall is still a penalty. The NHL and IIHF define tripping as "trip or fall" and write the minor for "trip and fall" — a conflict no interpretation available here settles; USA Hockey's Casebook says the player need not fall (Rule 639, Situation 1), and Hockey Canada penalises "any player who trips an opposing player". Treat the stumble as a penalty.

In the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL, touching the puck first saves you the penalty shot, not the minor. USA Hockey's, Hockey Canada's and CARHA's narrower relief is under Common Mistakes, and none reaches slew-footing — a major plus a game misconduct at the floor under USA Hockey ("A minor penalty is NOT an option for slew footing"), and a double minor up to a match under Hockey Canada (8.8).

What it costs. ⚠️ Only the NHL and the PWHL stop a plain trip at a minor. The IIHF, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA all reach a major plus a game misconduct — mandatory under USA Hockey when reckless (639(b)), with a match and a likely multi-game suspension to plan on (602(a)), and under Hockey Canada when it injures (8.6(b)) — because a player tripped at speed can go into the ice or the boards head first. Only the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL excuse an accidental trip, and only one simultaneous with a completed play, or with or after a stoppage (57.1; PWHL 58.1).
High-sticking (Rule 60) — ⚠️ Keep your stick below your shoulders, and below the head of anyone crouched or bent over near you — follow the puck up with your eyes, not your stick. The foul is contacting an opponent above the shoulders with your stick.

What it costs. Injury makes it a double minor (60.3). ⚠️ That is not the ceiling in any book. The NHL has no major, but a match penalty for a deliberate or attempted injury (60.4); the IIHF — Britain's book — a major plus an automatic game misconduct for reckless endangerment (60.4); USA Hockey makes that pair mandatory when reckless, with a match (621(b), 621(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). CARHA starts at a major for contact above the shoulders, "whether or not injury results", adds a game misconduct if it was intentional or if an accidental one injures, and gives a match for a deliberate injury (62(b), 62(c)).

Hockey Canada has no general high-sticking rule. Its 9.5 is High-Sticking – Junior/Senior; it bars a major and a match inside the rule (9.5(b), 9.5(c)) and sends those tiers to head contact — 7.7 in Junior and Senior, and in minor and female hockey 7.6, which "supersedes any other rules" bar fighting. Under 7.6, accidental contact is a minor, intentional a double minor, and a third head-contact penalty in a game an ejection (4.8(b)); a major and game misconduct is mandatory if it injures or is a cross-check above the shoulders, and a match applies where the opponent could not protect themselves or you tried to injure them (7.6(b), 7.6(c)). Under 7.7 the major and game misconduct is mandatory for a highly violent hit or a head injury from the glass, ice or boards, while minimal-violence contact can go back down to 9.5's bare minor (Interpretation 2 to 7.7(a)). Both reach a match.

Where the shoulder line is. Some books add a floor — the opponent's shoulders at waist level or higher — and which IIHF book you are under decides whether yours does. The NHL and the IIHF 2026/27 book have it (60.1, 60.3); the 2025/26 (Version 1.1) book does not. And 60.3 moved the other way: the 2025/26 double minor needs the stick carried above the shoulders and contact with the head, the 2026/27 one only the contact — so under the newer book a stick you never raised can still cost you four minutes. The Elite League is on the 2026/27 book; elsewhere in Britain ask, because the In-House Rules name both.

But the floor is in no book's 60.2, the clause that imposes the minor — "Any contact made by a stick on an opponent above the shoulders is prohibited and a minor penalty shall be imposed" — and where it applies, the waist that counts is the struck player's, not yours (IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27, Situation 60.13). USA Hockey and Hockey Canada measure against the "normal height of the shoulders", and neither says, for these rules, whether that means where their shoulders are or where they would be standing upright. Do not plan a stick on a crouching opponent on the strength of any floor: under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, head-contact law reaches that opponent whatever the stick height (620; 7.6, "at all times").

A normal windup or follow-through, and accidental contact on a centre bent over at a faceoff, are permitted only in the NHL and IIHF books; USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write neither, and Hockey Canada penalises a follow-through that hits above the shoulder (Interpretation 1 to 9.5(a)). ⚠️ A wild swing at a bouncing puck is never permitted.

Is the carry alone a foul? The books do not agree, and USA Hockey disagrees with itself. The NHL and the IIHF 2026/27 book test contact; the IIHF 2025/26 book defines a high stick as one "carried above the height of the opponent's shoulders"; Hockey Canada's 9.5 preamble allows a penalty "regardless of whether or not contact occurs", though 9.5(a), the only clause that assesses one, requires contact. USA Hockey's rule requires contact (621 Note), while its Casebook answers "No." to whether contact is needed and requires the call "⁠[w]henever a player raises their stick above their shoulders in an attempt to intimidate an opponent or is careless in their actions" (Rule 621, Situation 2). This document records that rather than picking a side. ⚠️ Play it as though the carry alone can be penalised — and under USA Hockey, a stick catching an opponent below the shoulders can still be high-sticking. In both IIHF editions the minor and double minor need contact; the major (60.4) may not.
Cross-checking (Rule 59.1) — "⁠[t]he action of using the shaft of the stick between the two hands to forcefully check an opponent." There is no blade-on-ice element in the NHL or IIHF rule; "with no portion of the stick on the ice" is USA Hockey's wording alone (609 Note). The floor is a minor — discretionary on severity in the NHL and IIHF, mandatory on its face under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada — and a cross-checking major carries an automatic game misconduct in every book here, mandatory under USA Hockey when reckless.

Above the shoulders, ⚠️ there is no minor floor under Hockey Canada or CARHA: "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" (Hockey Canada 7.6(b) and 7.7(b), with no division scope in either; CARHA 54(b)). In minor and female hockey Hockey Canada aims that at a deliberate cross-checking action rather than minimal accidental stick contact (Interpretation 2 to 7.6(b)). That accidental contact still draws a minor, a mandatory major and game misconduct if it injures, and a match if the opponent could not protect themselves; three head-contact minors or double minors in a game eject you (4.8(b)(ii)).

Below the shoulders, Hockey Canada's 9.2 runs a minor, a major and game misconduct on the violence with nobody hurt or mandatory on injury, and a match; its test is "If a pushing motion is used, a penalty may not be necessary. However, a striking motion must be penalized" (Interpretation 1 to 9.2(a)). In its Junior and Senior divisions, a cross-check that glances up into the head and injures is a major and game misconduct (Rule 9.5's interpretations, under 7.7). CARHA adds the same pair for any cross-check that injures, at any height, or on a goalie in the crease, and a match for a deliberate attempt to injure (54(c), 54(d)).

Under USA Hockey, keep the shaft off their head too: stick contact to the head while checking is Head Contact (Casebook Rule 621, Situation 1) — a minor plus a misconduct at the floor and a mandatory major and game misconduct when careless (620(a), 620(b)); plan on the match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). The NHL and USA Hockey have a match tier (59.4, 609(c)), USA Hockey's with a likely multi-game suspension; the IIHF writes none, with supplementary discipline above (59.6). Under the IHUK In-House Rules a cross-check to the head is called cross-checking, not checking to the head (Section 4): the same ladder, minor to major and game misconduct.
Spearing (Rule 62) — stabbing with the point of the blade. The NHL's and PWHL's ladder is a double minor if you miss, a major plus a game misconduct if you connect, and a match if you injure. ⚠️ The IIHF has no match tier: its ceiling on the ice is the major plus automatic game misconduct, with supplementary discipline above (62.4). ⚠️ USA Hockey has no double minor: spearing is a major plus a game misconduct, with a match available (635) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). Hockey Canada has no major: a double minor, then a match (9.4). ⚠️ CARHA starts at a match penalty for a deliberate spear or attempt (48(g)) — so a miss ends your game too — keeping a double minor only for a poke or jab with the toe of the blade.
Butt-ending (Rule 58) — jabbing or checking with the shaft above your upper hand, or the butt. In the NHL and IIHF, a double minor for the attempt and a major plus a game misconduct for contact, and in the NHL a match for injury (58.4). ⚠️ The IIHF stops at the major and game misconduct on the ice, with supplementary discipline above (58.4). ⚠️ USA Hockey makes the attempt a major plus a game misconduct — including "all cases where a 'butt-end' gesture is made regardless of whether body contact is made or not" (606(a)) — so a gesture with nobody touched ejects you, and a match is available (606(b)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). Hockey Canada bars the major and goes to a match on the violence, mandatory on injury (9.1(b), 9.1(c)), and requires a jabbing motion (Interpretation 1 to 9.1(a)).
Holding the stick (Rule 54.2) — a specific minor. ⚠️ Grab-and-release is a permission in only three books — the NHL's, the IIHF's and the PWHL's: you may defend against an opponent's stick but "must immediately release" it. Hockey Canada permits only blocking it (8.1); USA Hockey names "using a free hand to clutch, grab or hold the stick" as holding, "to be called with very strict enforcement"; CARHA writes no grace (63(a)). Even in the NHL and IIHF a free hand may "fend off" an opponent or their stick but "may not be used to hold" it (56.1). In two books holding a stick can end your night: Hockey Canada makes any holding foul that injures a mandatory major and game misconduct (8.1(b)), and under CARHA a holding major — discretionary, mandatory on injury — rules you off with at least a one-game suspension (63, 30(a), 32(d)). A hold meant to injure, or under USA Hockey a reckless one, reaches a match under the general rule (NHL and PWHL 21.1, USA Hockey 602(a), CARHA 48(a)), and under USA Hockey a likely multi-game suspension. Under Hockey Canada, plan on a match for a hold meant to injure (Appendix D Note 1).

Practically: the whole stick-foul family collapses into one habit. Stick on the puck, never stick on the player. (Not "stick on the ice" — that is USA Hockey's cross-checking wording and not a safe harbour: a stick on the ice can still trip, hook or slash.) If your stick is horizontal and touching an opponent, you are one referee's judgement away from a penalty. The defensive alternative is your feet and your body position, which is why gap control and angling are defensive skills and reaching is a defensive failure. See Body Contact and Battles and Defending the Rush.

Body fouls

In short: First find out whether you may hit at all; where you may, never hit from behind or to the head, or anyone not ready.

These are the ones you are most likely to meet — coaching craft rather than a count, and not a complete list. Two fouls are deliberately not covered here: head-butting and kicking. Every book penalises both and grades them very differently, so look them up in your own book rather than inferring anything from their absence. Check any penalty range below against your own book too.

Boarding (Rule 41) — ⚠️ If the opponent is facing the wall, has not seen you, or has just got rid of the puck, do not put them into the boards: let up, or play the puck. Boarding is checking or pushing a defenceless opponent so that they hit the boards violently or dangerously, and the onus is on the checker — though the referee may consider whether the opponent made themselves vulnerable at the last moment. Unnecessary contact that puts a player into the boards on an obvious icing or offside is boarding by definition (NHL, IIHF and PWHL 41.1, Hockey Canada 7.2; USA Hockey reaches the icing half at 624(d)). Nor is boarding scoped by division — Hockey Canada's 7.3 and USA Hockey's 604 ban hitting in some divisions, but neither scopes the boarding rule — so if you have been told the checking rules are not yours, the boarding rule still is.

What it costs. In the NHL the referee picks minor, major or match on the impact — but that ladder is the NHL's. USA Hockey has no bare minor: a minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct (603(a)), the harsher mandatory for reckless endangerment (603(b)), with a match above (603(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). Hockey Canada gives a major plus a game misconduct on the violence of the impact — nobody has to be hurt — and makes the pair mandatory where the hit injures (7.2(b), 7.2(e)). The IIHF — Britain's book — gives a major plus a game misconduct for reckless endangerment, again with nobody hurt (41.4); it has no match penalty for boarding, but supplementary discipline sits above it (41.5). In the Elite League a boarding major that injures the face or head carries a mandatory game misconduct (EIHL Casebook, Rule 41), as it does in the NHL (41.5). CARHA makes a foul that drives an opponent into the boards a double minor (49(b)), and a major there ends your game (30(a)).

USA Hockey's trigger is wider. Rule 603 reaches a player who "pushes, trips or body checks an opponent causing them to go dangerously into the boards", and any check "for the purpose of punishment or intimidation that causes the opponent to go unnecessarily and excessively into the boards" — ⚠️ so it catches a fully aware opponent too. Its 640(b) says a player who has released a shot or pass is "vulnerable or defenseless"; 640(b)'s minor is written "except Adult Male Classifications", but the definition is not, so a check into the boards on someone who has just moved the puck may be boarding there. That is an inference, not settled by the rulebook alone.

USA Hockey alone writes a permission here, and it is narrow: "'Rolling' an opponent along the boards where they are attempting to go through too small an opening is not considered boarding." ⚠️ That saves you only from a boarding call, only under that book, and only where body checking is legal at all — rolling a man along the wall is the "overt hip, shoulder, forearm or torso action" that 604 bars in 12U and below, all girls' and women's and all non-check adult classifications. (604(c)'s Note allows closing a gap you have angled, but "deliberate physical contact with an opponent, with no effort to legally play the puck, shall be penalized.") Import it into an IIHF or Hockey Canada game and you have nothing.

And the cost of a major can outlive the game — for most of the fouls in this list. NHL 23.6 groups the physical fouls so that a second game misconduct before 41 clean games is an automatic one-game suspension. USA Hockey Rule 411 counts majors across a seventeen-rule list: a third costs three further games, a fourth five, and a fifth a hearing. A USA Hockey game misconduct also costs your team's next game, on the first one (404(b)), and Hockey Canada 4.8(c) does the same for any game misconduct in the last ten minutes, in overtime or after the game — at least the next game or seven days. Under CARHA every major but an accidental high stick costs at least the next game too (32(d)).
Charging (Rule 42) — violently checking an opponent as a result of distance travelled, speed built up, or leaving your feet, into the boards, the net or open ice. ⚠️ Jumping is charging in its own right, however short the approach (NHL and IIHF 42.1; Hockey Canada's Interpretation 1 to 7.4(a) — feet off the ice before contact). ⚠️ Do not skate to a stride count. USA Hockey says "more than two strides" and CARHA "more than two steps or strides", but Hockey Canada 7.4(ii) says "two or more", the IIHF "multiple strides", and the NHL gives no number — and USA Hockey also reaches a player who "travels an excessive distance to accelerate through a body check for the purpose of punishing the opponent". Two strides is a safe harbour in no book. Hockey Canada also makes an open-ice blindside check charging outright (7.4(v)) — one from outside a 90° field of view of a vulnerable opponent (Interpretation 2 to 7.4(a)); the IIHF calls a blindside hit not a well-executed check and leaves it to the referee.

What it costs. ⚠️ A minor is nobody's ceiling. Most books start at a minor; USA Hockey starts at a minor plus a misconduct (607(a)). Above that, USA Hockey has a mandatory major and game misconduct for a reckless charge (607(b)), which also costs the next game (404(b)), and a match (607(e)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). The IIHF gives a major and game misconduct for reckless endangerment at the referee's discretion, with nobody hurt (42.4). Hockey Canada gives a major and game misconduct on the violence, mandatory where it injures (7.4(b)), and a mandatory match penalty for a charge that leaves the opponent "unable to defend themselves" (7.4(c)). CARHA makes it a mandatory major and game misconduct once the charge injures or is on a goalie in their crease (52(a), 52(b)), and any charging major ends your game and at least the next one (30(a), 32(d)). Even the NHL has a match for a deliberate attempt to injure (42.4, 21.1) and a mandatory game misconduct where a major injures the face or head (42.5) — ⚠️ and so does the Elite League's Casebook, at its Rule 42. See Body Contact and Battles.
Checking from behind (Rule 43) — a check on a player who is unaware and unable to protect themselves, with contact on the back of the body. ⚠️ Every book can end your game for it, and most do at the first tier.
- NHL and PWHL: no minor at all (43.2: "There is no provision for a minor penalty for checking from behind") — a major plus an automatic game misconduct (43.3, 43.5), and the referee can make it a match for an attempt to injure or a deliberate injury (43.4).
- NHL and PWHL, if it reaches the head: the harsher of Rule 43 and Rule 48 (head contact), so there is still no minor.
- IIHF: "there is no option to award a minor penalty" (43.2), and a major plus an automatic game misconduct for a reckless one (43.3) — plan on the major and game misconduct, never on a minor. On the head, plan on the same (48.3).
- Hockey Canada: a minor plus a game misconduct at the floor, never a plain misconduct (7.5(a), 7.5(d), 7.5(e)), and a major plus a game misconduct on the violence, mandatory if the player is injured (7.5(b)). ⚠️ It is a mandatory match penalty where the player is driven into the boards or goal frame "in such a way that the player is unable to protect or defend themselves" (7.5(c)). A hit from behind that reaches the head is priced as head contact instead (Rule 7.6; 7.7 in Junior and Senior), from a minor up to a match. The major and game misconduct are mandatory in minor and female hockey if the player is hurt, in Junior and Senior if the hit is highly violent or injures their head on the glass, ice or boards, and in both for a cross-check above the shoulders. It is a match if the player could not protect themselves or you tried to injure them. A hit that drives them head first into the boards or goal frame gets the harsher of the two: at least 7.5's minor plus game misconduct, and its mandatory match if they cannot protect themselves.
- CARHA: a minor or a major, each with a game misconduct, the major mandatory if the player is injured (53(a)); ⚠️ a mandatory match penalty where the player is driven from behind into the boards or goal net unable to protect or defend themselves (53(b)).
- USA Hockey's lowest tier keeps you in the game — a minor plus a misconduct (608(a)) — but its Casebook keeps that tier for an open-ice push and a low-force "pinch" against the boards. A forceful check on a player standing along the boards, a player thrust head first into the boards or goal frame, and any check from behind that recklessly endangers, "regardless of whether or not board contact is made", must draw a major plus a game misconduct or a match (Rule 608, Situation 1; 608(b)) — plan on the match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). Rule 608(c) makes the match mandatory for reckless excessive force on a vulnerable opponent, and a multi-game suspension likely. The Casebook also tells officials to watch every check from behind within "approximately ten feet out from the boards."
Treat the onus as yours. USA Hockey (608) and Hockey Canada (7.5's preamble, "in all circumstances") say so in terms; the NHL, IIHF, PWHL and CARHA write no onus. "They turned at the last second" is no defence: the NHL, IIHF and PWHL waive the penalty only for a player who "intentionally turns his body to create contact with his back", and the others write not even that. Hockey Canada's only waiver is for marginal accidental contact while playing the puck and for low-speed pinning where checking is allowed, and a late turn is neither. See Common Mistakes.
Slew-footing (Rule 52) — sweeping an opponent's feet out from under them with your leg or foot, or pushing their upper body backward with an arm or elbow while your leg takes their skates. ⚠️ It grows straight out of an ordinary battle position, and it is an ejection at the floor in four of the six books. The NHL and the PWHL make it a match penalty with no lesser tier (NHL 52.2, PWHL 53.2); the IIHF a major plus an automatic game misconduct with no lesser tier (52.2); USA Hockey a major plus a game misconduct at the floor, with a match available (639(b), 639(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). Hockey Canada starts at a double minor but reaches a match penalty, mandatory if it injures (8.8(a), 8.8(c)), and defines it more widely — a leg that "knock[s], drag[s], or sweep[s]" the feet away. CARHA files it under tripping, with a discretionary match penalty for a kick or leg-drag from behind (86(b)). Meant to injure, plan on a match in both (CARHA 48(a); under Hockey Canada, this guide's reading of Appendix D Note 1).

The NHL and IIHF definitions end on a player made to fall "violently to the ice"; that the fall lands them backward and head-first is this guide's reading, not a sentence any rulebook writes. An arm does not make it legal either: where an arm block is permitted at all — the NHL, the IIHF, the PWHL and Hockey Canada — it needs body position and no holding, and it never pushes the upper body backward; USA Hockey and CARHA write no such permission. See Body Contact and Battles.

If someone goes down backward and is not getting up, ⚠️ nobody moves them except to keep their airway clear, nobody takes the helmet off, and somebody calls for medical help — neck pain is an ambulance call. If you went down and got up, come off and say so: a suspected concussion means off the ice, no return that day, and a medical professional before you play again. Conditioning and Recovery carries the red flags and the sources for both.
Elbowing (Rule 45) — use of an extended elbow, whether or not injury results. The NHL makes a major mandatory if it injures the face or head, with a game misconduct (45.3, 45.5), and a match for an attempt to injure (45.4). ⚠️ The IIHF ejects on an easier trigger: a major plus a game misconduct for reckless endangerment (45.4), a lower bar than intent, with no match tier above it on the ice, though supplementary discipline can follow (45.5). ⚠️ In the Elite League an elbowing major that injures the face or head carries a mandatory game misconduct (EIHL Casebook). USA Hockey runs a minor for elbowing "or an attempt to elbow", a major plus a game misconduct when reckless, and a match (611(a)–(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). Hockey Canada has no rule titled Elbowing: an elbow is head contact, roughing or checking from behind, and each of those reaches a match penalty.
Kneeing (Rule 50) — leading with the knee, sometimes extending the leg. ⚠️ Hockey Canada (7.8) and CARHA (56(a)) define it wider — contact where the knee is the principal point of contact — so under those books a check clean in every other respect is still kneeing if your knee finds theirs. The NHL puts an automatic game misconduct on a kneeing major and a match on an attempt to injure (50.4). The IIHF gives a major plus an automatic game misconduct, with no match tier on the ice (50.3), though supplementary discipline can follow (50.4). USA Hockey has a minor plus a misconduct at the floor, a mandatory major and game misconduct when reckless, which also costs the next game (404(b)), and a match (628(a)–(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). Never stick a knee out to hit or slow a player, least of all into their knee: USA Hockey's Casebook calls any check delivered with the knee extended, or any deliberate knee contact, kneeing, and wants the major and game misconduct in all instances where a knee extended to make a check meets the opponent's knee (628, Situation 1). Hockey Canada has a double minor, then a major and game misconduct on the violence with nobody hurt and mandatory if it injures, and a mandatory match for a deliberate attempt to injure (7.8(a)–(c)). CARHA has a minor or a discretionary major plus a game misconduct, mandatory when it injures (56), and that major ejects you, with at least a one-game ban (30(a), 32(d)).
Clipping (Rule 44) — throwing the body across or below the knees, or lowering your own body to hit there; Hockey Canada draws the line at the hips (Interpretation 1 to 8.7(a)), so a low hit on the thigh counts there too. Injury is not the trigger everywhere. The NHL makes a major with a game misconduct mandatory where it injures, and a match for an attempt to injure (44.3–44.5). Under the IIHF book nobody has to be hurt — a major plus an automatic game misconduct for a reckless clip (44.3). USA Hockey makes a major and game misconduct mandatory when reckless, with a match (639(b), 639(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). Hockey Canada's tiers are at 8.7(b) and 8.7(c), below. Both books that write a crouching clause put it in this rule — see the ducking passage below.
Roughing (Rule 51) — a punching or slamming motion, gloved or not, usually at the head or face. The NHL and IIHF define it as "a minor altercation that is not worthy of a major penalty to either participant" — ⚠️ but no book makes a minor your ceiling. Under the IIHF, persisting sends you to the fighting rule (51.2), and a punch on "an unsuspecting or 'unwilling combatant / opponent' (i.e., 'sucker punch')" is a major plus an automatic game misconduct (46.5) — which is what the rec-hockey glove punch at somebody not fighting actually is. Under Hockey Canada a punch to the head, face or neck is assessed as Head Contact (7.9's preamble) — a mandatory major and game misconduct if it injures, and a match under 7.6(c). Under USA Hockey anything major-worthy goes to Fighting (640(a)), whose Note counts "⁠[a] punch, or an attempted punch, thrown by any player in the direction of an opponent, regardless as to whether contact is made" — a major plus a game misconduct (615(a)). Assume ejection, not a mutual two minutes.

Helmets. In the NHL, IIHF and PWHL, removing an opponent's helmet during play is roughing (51.1–51.2), and the PWHL makes grabbing a helmet or chin strap a major with a game misconduct that "must also be imposed" (51.3, 51.5). ⚠️ In a fight it is a different rule, and two books are nowhere near a minor. USA Hockey 615(c), "(for all age classifications)": a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension for deliberately removing your own helmet before an altercation or an opponent's before or during one; a game misconduct with a two-game suspension for causing an opponent's to come off; and a game misconduct if yours comes off because you did not wear it as designed. ⚠️ Its Casebook widens that: removing your own during an altercation is a match too (Rule 615, Situation 14), and an altercation is any interaction where at least one penalty is assessed — so a post-whistle shove that draws one roughing minor is enough, with no punch thrown.

Hockey Canada 10.6(f) makes deliberately removing your own or an opponent's helmet, or undoing a chinstrap so it comes off, before or during a fight a Gross Misconduct (4.9(a)), and 10.6(d) a misconduct for undoing a chinstrap to incite. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL give removing your own before a fight an unsportsmanlike minor, and "⁠[h]elmets that come off in the course of and resulting from the altercation will not result in a penalty to either player" (46.6; IIHF 46.12, 46.6 in the 2026/27 book). CARHA 48(d) makes grabbing an opponent's helmet or chin strap a double minor, and a match where the player "uses this as an advantage or to inflict punishment or injury".

If you are the one who was hit, USA Hockey writes the plainest way out: "⁠[a] player who does not retaliate after being struck shall not be assessed a penalty for fighting" (615(a)), while one who retaliates faces a minor, a double minor or a major plus a game misconduct. ⚠️ If you threw the punch, none of that is for you. Hockey Canada and CARHA leave it to the referee — a roughing minor or "perhaps no penalty at all" (Hockey Canada Interpretation 2 to 7.10(a) and (b)), and under CARHA 59(a) the player who fights back "may then be assessed a Match penalty". The IIHF's 2025/26 book protected a player who defends with "a few punches" (46.6); the 2026/27 book lets the referee waive only the automatic game misconduct. So do not retaliate: turn away, get to an official or your bench, and let the referee sort it out — see Body Contact and Battles.

And if it landed on your head, come off and say so: a suspected concussion means off the ice, no return that day, and a medical professional before you play again. Conditioning and Recovery carries the red flags that mean an ambulance instead, and the sources.
Interference (Rule 56) — the most conceptually important body foul, and the one to study. It turns on body position: you have it when you are in front of or beside your opponent, travelling in the same direction. Beside gives you the ice you are standing on; only in front gives you the block (NHL and IIHF 56; USA Hockey's Declaration of Player Safety), so moving across into their path from beside is a pick. You do not have to move for anyone — except under CARHA, whose 49(a) penalises a player who "does not avert body contact": there, ⚠️ hold your lane, but if contact is coming, move out of it. What you may not do is move laterally into a player without position, use your stick or free hand to lengthen their route, or check a player who is not in possession (NHL 56.2(iii); IIHF 56.2(III), the "late-hit").

Where your league allows checking at all, check a player who has just lost the puck only immediately, and only if they can see you coming and are ready for it — otherwise pull up and play the puck. In the IIHF book a hit on a player no longer in control of the puck who is not aware of it or not prepared for it is "automatically considered reckless" (Appendix II). Hockey Canada 8.3 gives the only distance test you can judge from the ice: contact "within a maximum distance of an arm and stick length between the puck carrier and the player delivering the check, at the instant the puck has been released." ⚠️ Treat that as the standard, not a window the other books grant; the IIHF warns that closing the distance and adding force "risks turning a body check into a late hit".

What it costs. ⚠️ Interference is not capped at a minor. The NHL and PWHL allow a major on the violence and a game misconduct where it injures (56.4, 56.5; PWHL 57.4, 57.5), and Rule 21.1 in both makes a deliberate attempt to injure a match. The IIHF gives a major plus a game misconduct for a late hit that recklessly endangers, with nobody hurt (56.5), and says a late hit "constitutes reckless endangerment" (56.1). Hockey Canada gives a major and game misconduct on the violence with nobody hurt, mandatory where it injures, and a match for an attempt to injure (8.3(b), 8.3(c)); CARHA gives a major and game misconduct at the referee's discretion, mandatory where it injures (66(a), 66(e), 30(a)), and a match for an attempt to injure (48(a)).

USA Hockey writes no tier above the minor in Rule 625, but 640(b) makes a player who has released a shot or pass "not eligible to be body checked". Rules 640(g) and 640(h) price it at a major and game misconduct and a match for reckless endangerment, though those two reach only 640(b) to (f), so how far they carry in adult men's play is not settled by the rulebook alone (see What actually gets called). 602(a) has no such limit, and its match carries a likely multi-game suspension. Treat the minor as the floor. North American books also penalise screening for your own puck carrier (USA Hockey 625(a), Hockey Canada 8.3, CARHA 66(a) Note 2) and, under USA Hockey, a defender who changes lane or speed to hit a player no longer in control of the puck. Nor is interference scoped by division.
Holding (Rule 54) — any action that restrains or impedes an opponent; Hockey Canada's 8.1 also reaches one that stops them passing, shooting or receiving. You may use an arm in a strength move to block only with body position and no hold — and that permission is the NHL's, the IIHF's, Hockey Canada's and the PWHL's (54.2, 54.2, 8.1, 55.2), not USA Hockey's or CARHA's. USA Hockey's 622 Note calls a free arm used "to restrain or impede the opponent's progress", or arms wrapped round a player pinning them to the boards, holding — so on the wall there, win it with your feet and body position, and ⚠️ in a no-check game keep your hips and shoulders out of it too (604 Note 1).

What it costs. ⚠️ A minor is not the ceiling. Hockey Canada makes a holding foul that injures a mandatory major and game misconduct (8.1(b)). CARHA allows a major at the referee's discretion, mandatory if it injures, and that major ends your game and at least the next one (63(a), 63(b), 30(a), 32(d)). The NHL and PWHL (21.1) and USA Hockey (602(a)) reach a deliberate or reckless injury through a general match penalty, under USA Hockey with a likely multi-game suspension. The IIHF writes no tier above the minor for the hold itself (54.2), and no match penalty. But a hold that drives a defenceless player into the boards, forces their head into the glass, takes their feet or turns into a fight is called as that foul (41.4, 48.3, 52.2, 46.1), and each reaches a major and game misconduct. A severe cage or hair grab can go to Rule 21's major and game misconduct (75.2), and supplementary discipline can follow (28.1).

Never touch an opponent's cage: USA Hockey makes a facemask grab a major plus a game misconduct with a match available (622(b), 622(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)) — and puts it on Rule 411's list. Hockey Canada files it under Attempt to Injure, from a double minor to a match (7.1), and CARHA starts at a double minor (48(d)). No book here lets you count on two minutes for a facemask grab. Nor is holding scoped by division.
Illegal check to the head (Rule 48) — in the NHL, a hit where the head was the main point of contact and that contact was avoidable. ⚠️ Taking that two-part test as the whole offence is the mistake that gets a player hurt, and the IIHF book — Britain's — forbids it. IIHF 48.1 opens "There is no clean check to the head or neck" and "The Player delivering the hit must avoid hitting the opponent's head or neck", and says the rule "supersedes all similar actions regarding hits to the head and neck." The NHL writes none of the three. In the NHL this is a minor (48.3: "There is no provision for a major penalty for this rule"), with a match if the referee judges intent to injure.

That ceiling is NHL-only, and it is the most consequential rule-set difference on this page. The IIHF adds triggers the NHL does not write — a hit with any part of the body or equipment to the head or neck, driving the head into the glass or boards, extending upward or outward to reach it, and jumping to deliver it — and gives a major plus an automatic game misconduct for reckless endangerment (48.3). "Reckless" there does not require intent: the IIHF glossary defines it as acts creating "a substantial risk of serious physical injury", the player "not required to intend the resulting or potential harm". USA Hockey starts at a minor plus a misconduct and makes the major and game misconduct compulsory for anyone who "intentionally or carelessly contacts an opponent in the head, face or neck" — a lower bar than recklessness — with a match above (620(a)–(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless (602(a)). Hockey Canada 7.6 opens "There is no type of legal contact to the head, face, or neck." In every book but the NHL's a hit to the head can end your game.

The same IIHF rule does not protect a puck carrier skating head down. 48.1: "A Player who delivers a bodycheck to an opponent who is skating with the puck with their head down in the direction of the Player and does not use an upward motion or drive their body up into the opponent, shall not be penalized for an 'illegal check to the head'." The checker must still avoid your head. How that carve-out sits against the IIHF's own triggers — one of which catches a checker who "uses any part of the upper body to contact an opponent's head or neck" — the published text does not say, and no IIHF interpretation found here resolves it. The other half is in your favour: "When a Player is skating with their head up, whether they are in possession of the puck and may reasonably be expecting impending contact, an opponent does not have the right to hit them to the head or neck." The NHL writes neither sentence. ⚠️ Keep your head up.

Hockey Canada writes a wider exception, and it points at you. In Junior and Senior, a player who "ducks to avoid a check" and is hit in the head with "an otherwise legal check" draws no Head Contact penalty against the checker (Interpretation 3 to 7.7(a)). The referee "may assess a penalty to the player who ducks" under Rule 8.7, though not a player low because of "a legitimate hockey play (e.g. shooting, making or receiving a pass, etc.)". Rule 8.7 itself — "Players may not crouch down to avoid being bodychecked" — has no division scope: a minor at the floor, a major and game misconduct on the violence and mandatory if it injures, and a mandatory match for an attempt to injure (8.7(a)–(c)). ⚠️ The IIHF writes a narrower crouching clause, in the British reader's own book: a player "may not crouch down near the boards to avoid being bodychecked and as a result, causes an opponent to tumble over them" (44.1) — a minor on the violence, or a major plus an automatic game misconduct when reckless (44.2, 44.3). The NHL, USA Hockey, the PWHL and CARHA write no crouching clause.

(No checker's amnesty was found in USA Hockey's Playing Rules or its Casebook, which runs the other way — Rule 620, Situation 1: "The only thing that matters is whether there was contact made to the head, face or neck of the opponent with any part of the body or equipment.") The NHL and IIHF do weigh a last-instant change of posture in deciding whether head contact was avoidable (48.1) — a factor, not an amnesty, and neither penalises the player who ducked — and under the PWHL those factors can cut the checker's major to a minor (48.3).

So: ⚠️ never duck. Head up, chin off your chest, a wide base and knees bent; near the wall, skates parallel to it and the contact along your side — your forearm and hip meet the wall, your shoulder and hip turn toward the checker — never the point of your shoulder, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you. Keep the whole shoulder off the wall too, if you can. Caught facing the boards? Stick and gloves up and spread on the glass, head off it. See Body Contact and Battles.
Fighting (Rule 46) — a five-minute major. In the NHL it is not an automatic ejection: the instigator gets an extra minor plus a misconduct, and the aggressor who keeps punching a defenceless or unwilling opponent is ejected (46.2). Outside the periods — warm-up, intermission, after the buzzer — 46.9 makes a fight a major plus a game misconduct, except for an instigator's opponent, and removing your jersey beforehand is an unsportsmanlike minor plus a game misconduct. The IIHF takes a harder line — "'Fighting' is not part of international ice hockey's DNA" (46.1). In its 2025/26 book the rule text says a willing combatant "may be ejected" (outside the periods, a mandatory 5 + game misconduct, 46.9), but its 20.4 applies Table 6, which lists 46.1 among the majors with an automatic game misconduct. On the willing combatant the book disagrees with itself (the limb for continuing a fight does not), so assume the ejection. ⚠️ In the 2026/27 book a major plus an automatic game misconduct is "the standard penalty for a Player engaged in a fight", waived only for a player the referee judges to have defended themselves.

England Ice Hockey pins a number to it for NIHL (all leagues), the SNL and BUIHA Varsity — "Fighting shall be penalised with a 5-minute Major Penalty". In NIHL, NIHL1 and NIHL2 it adds an automatic game misconduct for a fighting major "in the last 5 minutes of regulation time (including overtime)" (In-House Rules, Section 6). That is a floor, not a ceiling — and a reading, since Section 6 names no rule it replaces.

Instigating, being the aggressor, sucker-punching, third man in, fighting off the surface or outside the periods, and persisting after being told to stop all keep their IIHF ejection, and so does the plain willing fight outside those three competitions, because 20.4 attaches the automatic game misconduct to a fighting major. ⚠️ The 2026/27 IIHF book renumbers Rule 46, so name the offence to an official rather than the clause number. Assume you are gone. See UK and England Rules.

Practically: three things. First, find out whether you are allowed to hit at all, in your own book. USA Hockey Rule 604(a) bars body checking "in the 12 & under youth age classifications and below, all Girls'/Women's age classifications and all non-check Adult classifications"; a local governing body "may prohibit body checking in any classification"; and 604(b) makes any game between one of those teams and a body-checking team a no-checking game. A check there is a minor (604(c)), a major plus a game misconduct when reckless (604(d)), and "A match penalty for reckless endangerment may also be assessed" (604(e)). Throw it hard with no attempt at the puck, or into a player already battling for it, and the referee is pointed at the top of the scale — the Casebook says the major plus game misconduct or the match "must be considered" for a check "using excessive force" with "no effort to legally play the puck". ⚠️ Plan on the match and a likely multi-game suspension: 602(a) says a match "shall be assessed" for reckless endangerment.

Put a player dangerously into the boards and it is boarding, a minor plus a misconduct at the least (603(a)); hit them from behind and it starts at the same pair (608(a)). Hockey Canada Rule 7.3 penalises body checking "only in divisions of U13 and below, in female hockey, and any other divisions approved by a Member of Hockey Canada". It is a minor for any player who "intentionally body-checks, bumps, shoves, or pushes" (7.3(a)), a major plus a game misconduct on the violence with nobody hurt, mandatory where it injures (7.3(b)), and a match (7.3(c)).

The IIHF book sets no checking age, so a British reader's answer is in the competition regulations. In IHUK competition they answer it in a table. The Junior Rules of Competition make U10 and U12 non-checking and U14, U16 and U19 “Full ice, checking, stop clock”, and the U10 Rules of Competition say “Bodychecking is NOT allowed”. The NIHL Rules of Competition — National League Divisions 1 and 2 only — give NIHL “Full ice, checking, stop clock”, and the WNIHL Rules of Competition make WNIHL U16 and senior WNIHL non-checking. Those four reach only the competitions they name. They do not settle the EIHL, NIHL National, the PNIHL, BUIHA university hockey or Scottish domestic competition outside the IHUK junior structure, and no regulations were read here for any of those — so if yours is not one of the four, read your own competition's rules, and ask your league where you cannot find them.

For women's hockey, ⚠️ the IIHF does write a body-checking rule, and it permits the hit rather than banning it where your competition allows checking at all — WNIHL does not. Rule 101.1 allows body checking "when there is a clear intention of playing the puck or attempting to 'gain possession' of the puck", but bars using the boards to eliminate, push or pin an opponent and gives a stationary player her ice. It makes "⁠[a]ny move by a Player to step or glide into an opposing Player" at least a minor, with a major plus an automatic game misconduct written into the rule. Body Contact and Battles owns it and sets out every limb.

No-check hockey. ⚠️ "No checking" is not "no contact." USA Hockey's Note to 604(c) says "Competitive Contact hockey does not mean 'no contact'" — established body position, angling and puck battles remain legal — but continues: "However, deliberate physical contact with an opponent, with no effort to legally play the puck, shall be penalized". Note 1 makes intentional contact "using overt hip, shoulder, forearm or torso action" an illegal body check. Hockey Canada's 7.3 preamble allows "incidental contact of two opposing players in pursuit of the puck on the ice in the same direction", but makes three things body checking: contact "with opposite-directional force", leaving your lane to make it, and — the trap — "when a player extends an arm, shoulder, or hip after angling an opponent." Angle legally, then extend the shoulder, and you have checked. The rest of this section assumes you are in a checking league.

In a checking league, then: second, position, contact surface and force are all part of the test — not one of them on its own — and ⚠️ treat a check on a vulnerable opponent as reckless however clean it would be on anyone else. The IIHF's Appendix II, the British reader's own book, says a body check on an opponent no longer in control of the puck who is unaware of or unprepared for the hit "is automatically considered reckless even if that bodycheck would be considered legal to a non-vulnerable opponent". Most books grade charging on the degree of violence, and USA Hockey on reckless endangerment and "accelerating through a check for the purpose of punishing the opponent"; force is never settled in advance by where your feet were.

Hit trunk on trunk, above their knees and at or below their shoulders — the IIHF's own Appendix II defines a legal body check as one delivered "only with the trunk of the body (hips and shoulders)", "above the opponent's knees and at or below the shoulders". USA Hockey adds that "⁠[t]he use of the hands, forearm, stick or elbow in delivering a body check is unacceptable". Keep your stick blade below their knees — "proper body checking technique starts with stick on puck".

Establish position and arrive while the carrier still has the puck, or do not arrive — and not into a battle. USA Hockey 640(e) makes it a minor to check "an opponent who is physically engaged for possession of the puck with one or more other players", with a major plus a game misconduct if reckless (640(g)) and a match (640(h)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension when it is reckless (602(a)).

Do not think of it as "finishing your check": "The concept of 'finishing the check' is an unacceptable action as it is one that is meant to intimidate or punish the opponent with no intent to gain possession of the puck." A check already being thrown does not become illegal in mid-air. USA Hockey's Casebook lets one be finished on four conditions, as a "general rule of thumb" rather than a distance to argue afterwards: you first tried to win the puck, you were "an arm’s length plus stick length away" when it was released, the check was already being delivered, and you "minimize the force". "It is not acceptable to skate one or two more strides after the puck is gone and then decide to deliver the check" (Standard of Play, Situation 10), and in youth hockey an avoidable one "must be penalized in every instance" (Situation 23).

One scope note: USA Hockey's ordinary late-check rule, 640(b), is written "(except Adult Male Classifications)", and 640(g) and 640(h) do not close that gap, being confined to 640(b) to (f). But 640(e), the battle rule, is unscoped, and the Declaration of Player Safety says a check on a vulnerable player must be penalised under the boarding, charging, checking-from-behind, head-contact or roughing rules. So the late hit in adult men's hockey loses one named subsection and keeps every other route.

Third, the onus rule on defenceless players is real. If a player is facing the boards, or reaching for a puck, or has just released it, the rulebook puts the responsibility for the outcome on you. Let them go.

Other infractions

In short: Keep clears inside the rink, leave the puck alone after the whistle, and put a caught puck straight down.

Delay of game — puck over the glass (Rule 63.2) — ⚠️ Never shoot or bat the puck over the glass from your own zone, never put it out of play deliberately from anywhere, and after the whistle leave the puck where it is. The rule has two limbs. The strict-liability one (63.2(iii)) is a minor for shooting or batting the puck with hand or stick, directly and non-deflected, out of the playing surface from your defending zone — meant or not. Under the IIHF a kick counts too: its Situation Handbook gives the minor for a defender's kick over the glass (Situations 63.19 and 63.34). ⚠️ The deliberate one reaches the same minor from anywhere (63.2(ii); IIHF 63.2(II)): any player who "deliberately shoots or bats (using his hand, leg, foot, arm, or stick, etc.) the puck outside the playing area (from anywhere on the ice surface) during the play or after a stoppage of play". So outside your own end you are safe only if it was an accident — unless you are a goalie under Hockey Canada or CARHA (below). Every book here writes the deliberate limb with no zone limit (PWHL 65.2(ii), USA Hockey 610(c), Hockey Canada 10.1(ii), CARHA 75(b)). Only the NHL and IIHF name the foot; the others say hand or stick, or shoot, bat or throw. That is no licence to kick it out on purpose: every book can reach it through a general delay rule (PWHL 65.2(i), Hockey Canada 10.1(a); team bench minors under CARHA 55(a) and, after a warning, USA Hockey 610(g)).

After the whistle, the amateur books go higher. The NHL and IIHF stop at the minor (NHL 63.9). ⚠️ USA Hockey runs a ladder to a match penalty. It starts at a minor for an avoidable shot after the whistle (601(a)(4)) and a misconduct for shooting the puck out of the playing area during a stoppage (601(c)(10)). It is a game misconduct if done in protest (601(d)(7)) or towards an official or a spectator (601(d)(9)), and a mandatory match for shooting it "directly at an official or spectator in a manner that recklessly endangers" them (Note to 601(d)), with a likely multi-game suspension. Which of 610(c)'s minor and 601(c)(10)'s misconduct governs the plain after-whistle clear, the book does not say and no Casebook situation decides. Assume the misconduct is available, though not necessarily ten minutes: affiliates may shorten it outside adult play (404 Note).

Hockey Canada files it under unsportsmanlike conduct — "Shooting the puck out of the playing area, after the whistle" (11.1, item (v)) — a minor or bench minor, and a misconduct or game misconduct the referee may go straight to (Notes 1 to 11.1(d) and 11.1(e)). And in every book, knocking the puck away from an official who is retrieving it can be a misconduct (NHL and IIHF 39.4, PWHL 39.4(ii), USA Hockey 601(c)(3), Hockey Canada 11.1(d)(iii), CARHA 46(b)(3)).

The strict-liability limb is the NHL's, the IIHF's and the PWHL's (65.2(iii)). Under USA Hockey an accidental clear is a last-play faceoff (631(d)), and Hockey Canada and CARHA do not penalise a skater's accidental clear. ⚠️ But both reach a goalie who shoots or bats it out with their stick, with no deliberateness word: Hockey Canada 10.1(v) says "directly out of the playing surface, with their stick", CARHA 55(a) "out of the playing surface with their stick". Whether that makes it strict liability is a reading of the rule's structure, not something either book settles, so assume the harsher reading and ask your league. Both write the goalie two escapes — no glass, or a puck that "touches the glass or deflects off a player or official" — and Hockey Canada applies the limb only where both ends of the rink are similar (Interpretation 5 to 10.1(a); CARHA 55(a) Note 1).

On the strict limb, where the puck was when you hit it decides. Over the glass behind the bench counts; into the bench does not; directly off a faceoff does not; and it does not apply where there is no glass. ⚠️ Do not aim at the bench: the IIHF Situation Handbook still calls the minor where a clear goes over the glass and lands in the bench — only a puck shot "directly into the Players' Bench (where there is no glass)" escapes (Situation 63.24, both editions). A glove scoop over the glass behind the bench is a minor too (63.28); a puck over the lower glass at the penalty box is not (63.3). The IIHF's rule says glass "surrounding" the bench where the NHL says "behind", which may reach the side glass; no source found settles it.

A puck off your skate. ⚠️ Under the IIHF, do not assume a skate falls outside this penalty. The strict limb names only "their hand or stick", but the Situation Handbook answers "Yes." to a defender who kicks at a shot or pass and sends it directly over the glass (Situation 63.19 — Version 1.1 of 2025/26, reversing Version 1.0's "No", and again in 2026/27). It also answers "Yes" to a defender who kicks it over from their own zone (63.34, every edition). Whether that conflicts with the rule turns on whether "deliberately" in 63.2(II) attaches to the kick or to putting the puck out, and the Handbook cites no rule. It ranks itself below the rule book, but it is what your officials are trained on — so play as though a skate can cost you two minutes, and clear it with your stick. One answer runs the goalie's way: a stick save that goes over the glass is not a penalty, the Handbook reasoning that "Rule 63.2. talks about deliberate" (63.29). The NHL's own situation handbook was not read for this. The penalty is challengeable if the puck deflected on the way out (NHL 38.2(d)), and a failed challenge adds a minor.
Delay of game — other forms (Rule 63.2) — freezing the puck unnecessarily, deliberately displacing the net, a skater falling on or gathering the puck into their body, adjusting equipment.
Delay of game — goalie outside the trapezoid (NHL Rules 27.8, 63.2(viii); IIHF Rule 27.7) — see section 7.
Goalie participating in the play beyond the centre red line (NHL Rule 27.7; IIHF Rule 27.6; USA Hockey Rule 407(c); PWHL Rule 27.7; Hockey Canada Rule 4.13(c), penalised as interference under its Rule 8.3(a); CARHA Rule 37(e)) — a minor in every book here, but the books split on whether the puck's position or the goalie's skates decide it. See section 7.
Too many men (Rule 74) — covered above.
Unsportsmanlike conduct (Rule 75) — obscene or abusive language or gestures directed at any person, hair-pulling, biting, grabbing a face mask, throwing objects onto the ice from the bench or another off-ice location, or sitting on the boards with skates exposed during play — that last one alone gets the team a warning first. (Throwing a stick on the ice is Rule 53: a match penalty for an attempt to injure (53.6), a penalty shot where a thrown object stops a shot in your own zone or a breakaway elsewhere (53.7), and a goal awarded if your goalie had been pulled (53.8).) It usually escalates minor, misconduct, game misconduct, but the book says "In general", and some limbs start higher — see Talking to officials. ⚠️ An obscene gesture is a game misconduct on the first offence (NHL 75.5(ii), PWHL 77.5(ii), USA Hockey 601(d)(2), IIHF 75.5(II), and 39.5(VIII) at an official).

Cages and hair. ⚠️ Never touch an opponent's cage, and never pull hair — no book lets you count on two minutes. The NHL's clause lets the referee go to a match penalty "If warranted, and specifically when injury results" (Rule 21, which needs only a deliberate attempt to injure). The IIHF's Note lets the referee apply Rule 21 Dangerous Actions — a major plus an automatic game misconduct — "based on the degree of force", with no injury required.

USA Hockey files the facemask under Holding: a major plus a game misconduct (622(b)) and a match for reckless endangerment (622(c)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)) — and every USA Hockey game misconduct also costs your team's next game, with "a minimum two-game suspension" where it comes from a second major in the game (404(b)).

The PWHL makes grabbing the face protection, helmet, chin strap or throat protector, or the hair, a roughing major with a mandatory game misconduct (51.3, 51.5). Hockey Canada files it as Attempt to Injure: a double minor even at minimal violence, a major and game misconduct on the violence and mandatory if it injures, and a match at moderate or high violence or where it is used "to gain an advantage or to inflict punishment or injury" (7.1). CARHA gives a double minor, and a match where the player "uses this as an advantage or to inflict punishment or injury" (48(d)). USA Hockey does not use the word hair-pulling, so do not carry 622(b) across to it.
Biting — ⚠️ no book treats it as an ordinary foul; plan on a match penalty. Hockey Canada: "Biting is an attempt to injure. A Match penalty will be assessed…" (Interpretation 2 to 7.1(e)). USA Hockey's Casebook makes a bite a match penalty under 602(a) — "The only possible purpose of this action is to endanger the opponent" — with a likely multi-game suspension, and in a fight it stacks with the fighting major and game misconduct (Rule 602, Situation 3; Rule 615, Situation 3). The PWHL makes it a roughing major with a mandatory game misconduct (51.3, 51.5), and a match if it is an attempt to injure. The NHL lists it in the unsportsmanlike clause and its index routes it to 21.1 match penalties; the IIHF says it "can also result in" a game misconduct (23.8(IV)); CARHA does not name it, but expect a match under 48(a), which reaches any attempt to injure "in any manner".
Racial slurs, taunts and sexual remarks — ⚠️ every book here reaches an ejection for this, four of the six as mandatory, and it does not have to be said on the ice or to an official. IIHF: a minor plus a game misconduct that "shall" be assessed for "obscene gestures, racial slurs or taunts or sexual remarks, during or after the game, on or off the ice and any location while in the arena and its connected premises" (75.2(I), 75.5(II), identical in both editions). Its 23.8(II) says "can", and that is not the half to rely on. At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, a discriminatory slur also brings an immediate suspension and at least a one-game ban.

USA Hockey: a match penalty for "language that is hateful or discriminatory in nature anywhere in the rink before, during or after the game", suspended until the case is dealt with, and a multi-game suspension is likely (601(e)(3)). Hockey Canada: a Gross Misconduct for "taunts, insults, or intimidation based on discriminatory grounds" (11.4), with an automatic suspension of at least the next game or seven days when it comes in the last ten minutes, in overtime or after the game (4.9(b)). CARHA: a Gross Misconduct "which may result in an indefinite suspension" (46(g)), and out until the league deals with it (33(d)) — CARHA-affiliated leagues only.

The NHL and the PWHL leave it to the referee: racial taunts or slurs "can also result in a game misconduct penalty being assessed" (23.8(ii)). Abuse aimed at an official is a separate rule again (NHL and IIHF 39, USA Hockey 601).
Diving / embellishment (Rule 64) — a minor for a player who blatantly dives, embellishes a fall or reaction, or feigns injury; a goalie who manufactures contact, or makes incidental contact look like more, can be penalised under it too. Under the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27 it costs twelve minutes, not two — "Adding a misconduct to a minor. The required call is now 2 plus 10" — new this season. ⚠️ The Elite League keeps the bare minor (EIHL Casebook), but its Department of Player Safety can fine a player for diving "⁠[r]egardless of the call at ice level", and its officials are told they would "prefer" to penalise only the diver — though "there will be times where you must take a player from each team."
Closing your hand on the puck (Rule 67.2) — you may catch the puck out of the air, but must immediately place or knock it down to the ice. It is a minor to skate with it, cover it on the ice to conceal it, or pick it up off the ice. USA Hockey makes a closed hand not immediately dropped a stoppage and last-play faceoff, but covering or picking up the puck a minor (614(a), 618(a)); Hockey Canada penalises the closed hand only where it "gain[s] an advantage" (10.2(a)(iii)). A skater who falls on or gathers a puck inside their own goal crease gives up a penalty shot (67.4) — the deciding factor is where the puck is (63.6) — and with the net empty, a goal (Hockey Canada 10.2(a)(vi)); under Hockey Canada treat a cover made from inside your crease as a possible penalty shot. This is a penalty, not a faceoff violation. ⚠️ And the two players taking a draw may not play the puck with a hand at all until a third player has touched it (the note to NHL and IIHF 67.2, printed again at 76.5). No counterpart was found in USA Hockey or Hockey Canada — see the note under Sources for what was searched.
Hand pass (Rule 79) — you may bat or push the puck with an open hand, but play is stopped if you direct it to a teammate and your team then gains possession. No hand pass is called in your own defending zone — a free tool for a defenceman under pressure. A taker who "attempts to win the face-off by batting the puck with their hand" takes a minor for delay of game — faceoff violation (67.2).
High-sticking the puck (Rule 80) — playing the puck with your stick above shoulder height. Play stops only if the puck then comes into the possession and control of the offending team, including the player who struck it; it continues if you batted it to an opponent or a defender put it into their own net. A goal cannot be scored by contacting the puck above the height of the crossbar. ⚠️ In Hockey Canada minor and female hockey a swing at a high puck that catches an opponent is head contact: a player who "high-sticks or attempts to high-stick the puck and, in doing so, contacts an opposing player with their stick, will be penalized under Rule 7.6 – Head Contact" (6.9(c)). That runs from a minor up to a mandatory major and game misconduct if it injures, and a match. No other book read here turns the puck case into a penalty, and the stick-fouls list above has what applies to adult Hockey Canada play.

Broken sticks

In short: When your stick breaks, drop it at once and play on without it until you can get a replacement.

This is a penalty, it catches beginners constantly, and almost nobody is taught it.

A broken stick is one the referee judges "unfit for normal play" (Rule 10.3) — a judgement, not a definition, so a stick you think is still usable may not be.

The player rule (Rule 10.3):

You may keep playing without a stick: "A player without a stick may participate in the game." Backcheck, block a lane or finish a check empty-handed.
You may not keep hold of the broken one: "A player whose stick is broken may participate in the game provided he drops the broken stick. A minor penalty shall be imposed for an infraction of this rule." So the instant it goes, let go of it — do not carry it to the bench while play is live, and above all do not poke at the puck with the stub. This is the version that costs beer-leaguers two minutes.
Getting a replacement. Take one handed to you from your own bench or by a teammate on the ice, or, in the NHL, IIHF and PWHL, pick up your own or a teammate's unbroken stick off the ice — Hockey Canada and CARHA allow only the bench or a teammate's hand (3.2(b); 51(b)). It is a minor to throw or shoot a stick to a teammate (the IIHF adds "toss, slide"), to play with an opponent's stick, or for a skater to use a goalie's stick. If a stick is thrown to you from the bench, the NHL penalises the thrower with a bench minor, not you — ⚠️ but under Hockey Canada and CARHA, taking a stick thrown on the ice is a minor for you (Hockey Canada 3.2(b); CARHA 51(b)). Leave it and take one handed to you.
🇬🇧 Under the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, ⚠️ you may not carry it anywhere: "Skating with a broken stick anywhere on the ice is not permitted under IHUK In-House Rules. A player whose stick is broken must drop their stick immediately. Failure to do so will incur a 2min penalty for illegal equipment". That is new this season and is not the Elite League's rule, where IIHF 10.3 governs. Hockey Canada writes the same flat drop (3.2(a)), though tossing the pieces aside out of the play is not penalised (Note 1). The In-House rule is for skaters only ("Broken Stick: Player"), so IIHF Rule 10.4 still governs a British goalie. USA Hockey alone lets you carry it — only if you are close to your bench, out of the play and go at once, and not over a great distance or near opponents (605; Casebook Situation 3). Not knowing it was broken is no defence there once you play on (Situation 2), and the Casebook gives the reason for the rule: "a broken stick can certainly be considered a safety hazard." USA Hockey also allows a replacement only from your bench or a teammate (605(b)), not off the ice.

The goalie rule is different (Rule 10.4):

Under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books a goalie may play on with a broken stick until a stoppage, or until a teammate hands them a new one. ⚠️ That permission is those three books' alone. USA Hockey writes none outside sled hockey, so on its rule as written a goalie who plays on takes the minor a skater would (605(a)); Hockey Canada and CARHA bar it outright — "A goaltender may not continue to play with a broken stick of any kind" (Hockey Canada 3.2(c); CARHA 51(c)) — a minor.
Hand the replacement over — never throw, shoot or slide it. A teammate who does takes a minor (NHL and IIHF 10.4, the NHL indexing a sliding stick there; Hockey Canada 10.5(a), a penalty shot instead if it is thrown, shot or kicked at the puck or carrier in your zone, and possibly one for a slide). Two books carve out a slide: the IIHF lets a teammate near the goalie push or slide back an intact stick the goalie dropped, if it does not interfere or distract, and USA Hockey lets a teammate slide a replacement unless it is aimed at the puck or meant to distract (Casebook, 605 Situation 12). ⚠️ Under Hockey Canada and CARHA a goalie who picks up a slid or thrown stick themselves takes a minor — leave it where it lies (Interpretation 1 to 3.2(c); CARHA 51(d)). Nor may a goalie go to the bench for one — at any time under NHL, IIHF and PWHL 10.4, and during a stoppage under CARHA 51(e) and USA Hockey 605(c). ⚠️ Hockey Canada writes no stick-specific bench bar but prices the trip anyway: if the referee sees the goalie at the bench at a stoppage, the team must put in the backup, or keep that goalie in net and take a minor, or play six skaters, or use its timeout (Interpretation 11 to 10.1(a)). Take the stick from a teammate in every book. Meanwhile a goalie may use a skater's stick in all six books until a goalie's stick reaches them.

Practically: as a skater, train the reflex — stick breaks, hand opens. Get to the bench for a new one if you can do it without leaving a hole, and play the shift stickless if you cannot. As a defenceman losing a stick in your own zone, drop it, get your body into the lane and let a forward hand you theirs. As a goalie, stay in your net: call for a stick from a teammate on the ice and play blocker, glove and body until it arrives. As a forward whose defenceman has lost a stick in front of the net, hand yours over — you can go to the bench far more cheaply than they can.

When penalties add up

Under Hockey Canada, three stick minors in one game end your night: a Game Ejection for three minors for butt-ending, cross-checking, slashing, spearing or (junior and senior) high-sticking, a double minor counting as one (4.8(b)(i) and Interpretation 2). No other book counts stick minors, but USA Hockey counts everything: a fourth penalty of any kind in one game is a game misconduct outside Adult classifications — ⚠️ which also costs the next game (404(b)) — and an Adult player is "immediately ejected" on a fifth, "with no further suspension" (401(b)).

Rule 411 adds a season-long ladder over majors for butt-ending, cross-checking, high-sticking, slashing, spearing and tripping. ⚠️ So under Hockey Canada the third stick minor is not another two minutes, and under USA Hockey the count that ends your night is not stick-specific at all. ⚠️ CARHA is stricter still: any three penalties in one game rule you off (32(a)).

The NHL counts game misconducts by category: a second in the same category within 41 regular-season games is the trigger for an automatic one-game suspension for a physical foul (23.6) or a stick foul (23.5). Its General Category takes a third, or a second in the playoffs, with no reset clock (23.3), and a third major in one game counts there, "Third major penalty in a game" being on that list.

What actually gets called at rec level

In short: In rec hockey, staying out of the box mostly means not reaching with your stick and not arriving late.

The order below is coaching craft, not a count of calls. Nobody has counted recreational-league penalties. The nearest counted data is the NHL's — 400 games of 2024-25 and 2,967 penalties, computed from the play-by-play feed in Body Contact and Battles — where, of the seven infraction types counted (71.4% of all calls between them), tripping led at 16.6%, hooking was second at 12.1% and roughing, which is not a stick foul, third at 12.0%. The NHL is not your league, so that neither confirms nor refutes the order below. The calls to expect, roughly most common first:

Hooking, slashing and tripping. The group to expect most — coaching craft, not a count — and the product of being beaten and reaching rather than of bad intent.
Holding and interference. Both are usually late-arriving players grabbing rather than skating.
High-sticking. Common where players are not used to controlling a stick in traffic, and visors are not universal in beer-league play. No book stops at the double minor for blood: the IIHF, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada can reach a major and a game misconduct, and the NHL a match for a deliberate or attempted injury (60.4). ⚠️ And do not assume a rec league is the lenient one: under CARHA Rule 62(b) a high stick above the shoulders starts at a major, “whether or not injury results”, with a game misconduct added if it was intentional or an accidental one injures — CARHA-affiliated leagues only.
Too many men. Bench discipline is worse in rec hockey than anywhere else.
Body checking, wherever your league is a non-check one — under USA Hockey that turns on which adult classification your league runs in, Adult non-check being one of four (604(a)), and no rulebook records how many leagues sit there, so ask. Officials in a non-check league call contact tightly, and inconsistently by NHL standards.
Roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct after the whistle.

Conversely, three calls you will rarely see in rec hockey. Puck over the glass: many rinks lack full glass, and the strict limb does not apply without it — though a deliberate one is still a minor. Trapezoid violations: no North American amateur book has a trapezoid — though USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA all still penalise a goalie freezing the puck in the wrong place or with no pressure on them (see §7). And diving.

The practical conclusion: in rec hockey, the entire penalty-avoidance problem reduces to stop reaching with your stick, and stop being late. Both are fixed by conditioning and gap control, not by trying harder to be careful.

5. Delayed Penalties

The rulebook's Rule 26 "Delayed Penalties" is about a third penalty to a team that already has two players in the box: the third player's clock does not start until one of the first two expires, and a substitute keeps the team at three skaters (Rule 26.1). A team never plays below three skaters plus a goalie.

What players and commentators mean by "delayed penalty" is different: it is the delayed call under Rule 15.1. That is what this section covers.

How the delayed call works

If a player of the team in control of the puck commits an infraction, the referee blows the whistle immediately.

If a player of the team not in control commits an infraction, the referee raises an arm and lets play continue (signal 29.8). Play is stopped, and the penalty imposed, when the team to be penalised gains control of the puck.

Read that condition carefully: control, not touch. A puck deflecting off a penalised-team player's skate does not end the play. Play continues until they actually have it.

Pulling the goalie

Because play cannot be stopped until the offending team gains control, the non-offending team is guaranteed possession or a stoppage. There is no risk of a goal against from open play. So the goalie skates to the bench and the team plays with a sixth attacker.

This is a tactic, not a rule, and this document has no count of how often teams do it. Where the goalie is comfortable making the trip and the bench is ready, it is the standard play. In adult rec hockey plenty of goalies stay in their net, because the trip is longer than it looks and a sixth attacker is only worth having if somebody comes off for the goalie. So agree in the room what your team does — the failure is a goalie setting off while nobody on the ice expects it.

Two rules that constrain it:

The goalie leaving the crease legitimately to be replaced by an extra attacker is not penalised for leaving the crease if an altercation then breaks out (NHL Rule 27.6; IIHF Rule 27.5, same words, different number), and does not wave off a potential icing (Rule 81.3).
In regular-season overtime, pulling the goalie forfeits the guaranteed standings point if you lose while the goalie is off — except when they were pulled for a delayed penalty (Rule 84.2).

What happens if you score

Minor penalty: if the non-offending team scores during the delay, the minor is not imposed at all (Rule 15.2). It is washed out entirely — you get the goal instead of the power play. If two or more minors were coming, the captain chooses which one is washed out.
Double minor: one half is washed out; the player serves the remaining two minutes (Rule 18.2).
Major and match penalties are imposed regardless of whether a goal is scored (Rule 15.2).

If the non-offending team, with their net empty, puts the puck into their own goal, that is a goal for the offending team and the delayed penalty is still assessed. In regular-season overtime this ends the game immediately in the offending team's favour (NHL 84.2, PWHL 86.2).

What to do as a player during a delayed penalty

Look for your bench immediately. The moment you see the referee's arm go up and you are not directly involved in the play, the extra attacker is coming and someone has to come off. If you are the closest player to the bench and not part of the immediate play, you are the one.
Keep the puck. The single rule of a delayed penalty is: do not give the offending team control. That means no risky cross-ice passes through the middle, no blind dumps that they will simply pick up.
Do not force a shot from a bad angle just to "use" the extra man. A shot that misses and rims around is exactly how the offending team gains control and ends your six-on-five for a two-minute five-on-four instead. A missed shot that they collect has cost you the better of the two options.
Regroup if the zone is not open. Take it back to your own end if you have to. You have the puck and they cannot force a whistle without taking it from you.
Six attackers changes the shape, not the principles. Where the extra skater goes is a coaching choice, and nobody has measured which shapes teams run (Special Teams). Keep the puck, no blind plays, no forced shots — and find out where your team puts the sixth attacker before you are that player. See also Offensive Zone Play.
If you are the team about to be penalised: touch the puck as fast as possible to end it. Diving on it, deflecting it out, batting it — anything that gets you control. A hand pass in your defending zone is legal (Rule 79.2) and it counts.

A delayed penalty, drawn in your own defending end — so the net in this picture is yours, and it is empty, because your goalie has already gone to the bench for a sixth attacker. Play runs on until the team to be penalised gains control of the puck under NHL Rule 15.1, and until they do they cannot score. There is one exception: under NHL Rule 78.5(xi) they can only score if your own team shoots the puck into your own net. So the one pass that can beat you is a blind defenceman-to-defenceman pass across the front of your own goal, and it is deliberately not drawn, because an arrow across your own goal mouth reads as an instruction rather than as a warning. The single route drawn is that same pass made the safe way, out and around behind your own net. Only the opponent nearest the puck is drawn. And check before the game rather than in it: not every league allows or practises pulling the goalie on a delayed call, and some officials stop play early. How many is a question about leagues rather than about rulebooks, and no count of it is given here.

Diagram from game management · What the shapes and fills mean

USA Hockey note: if a team ices the puck during a delayed penalty against their opponents, the ensuing faceoff is at a neutral-zone spot nearest the icing team's defending zone, not in their end (Rule 624(a) note). The NHL rulebook contains no equivalent provision, largely because in the NHL play would already be whistled the moment the offending team gained control.

6. Power Play and Penalty Kill Basics

This section covers only what the rules determine. The tactics — formations, entries, seam passes, what to do when the puck goes to the corner — live in Special Teams.

The strengths you will actually see

5-on-4 — one minor. The standard power play.
5-on-3 — two overlapping minors. Lasts only as long as both are on the clock.
4-on-4 — one minor to each team at the same stoppage, with nothing else on the clock (Rule 19.1). Not a power play at all; both teams have a man off. Enormous open ice. This trigger is the NHL's and the PWHL's (19.1) only. IIHF Rule 19.1 requires immediate substitution and its casebook says the teams play five a side. Britain reaches 4-on-4 by other routes — a minor against a major at the same stoppage — just not by coincidental minors.
4-on-3 — a minor to each team while one team is already down one, or a penalty during 3-on-3 overtime (Rule 84.3).
3-on-3 — regular-season overtime, or the residue of overlapping penalties in overtime.

Teams never go below three skaters (Rules 26.1, 84.3). A third penalty to an already two-men-down team is queued behind the others.

When a penalty ends early

A minor or bench minor penalty terminates immediately when the opposing team scores — but only if both conditions hold (Rule 16.2):

The team scored against is shorthanded, and
The team scored against is serving a minor on the clock.

The penalty that ends is the one with the least time remaining. Two important exceptions:

Majors do not end on a goal (Rule 20.2). Five minutes is five minutes.
No penalty expires when a goal is scored on a penalty shot (Rules 16.2, 24.6).

Coincidental minors do not make either team shorthanded, so they do not expire on a goal either.

Shorthanded teams may ice the puck — with two exceptions

In short: While you are actually below their strength you may usually ice the puck, but check whether your level allows it.

A team below its opponent's numerical strength may shoot the puck the length of the ice with no icing called (Rule 81.6). That is the core of penalty killing: a clear costs you nothing but the time it takes them to bring it back. It is not unconditional.

The test is a head count, not a clock. You are exempt while you are below the opponent's on-ice numerical strength, and every book writes it that way (NHL and IIHF 81.6 and 16.2, USA Hockey 624(b)(1), Hockey Canada 6.7(b), and CARHA 65(d), "at the instant the puck is shot"). A player whose own penalty has expired counts as back on the ice even while they are still sitting in the box (NHL and IIHF 81.6; USA Hockey 624(b)(1); Hockey Canada Note 1 to 6.7(b); CARHA Note 2 to 65(a)) — that is about that player, not about a teammate still serving a live penalty. So on a 5-on-3 the first expiry changes nothing: you are 4-on-5, still short, still exempt. Hockey Canada says it plainest — the player is on the ice "for the purpose of equal numbers (or not)" (Interpretation 3 to 6.7(b)). ⚠️ And the test runs your way at the other end: a clear released before the penalty expires is not icing even if the time runs out while the puck is travelling (NHL and IIHF 81.6; USA Hockey 624(b)(1); Hockey Canada and CARHA test the instant of the shot). So get the clear away before a kill expires.

Exception 1 — USA Hockey limits the exemption by classification. Rule 624(b)(1) opens "(For all Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult classifications only)". ⚠️ Below those levels a shorthanded team cannot ice the puck at all — a length-of-the-ice clear on the kill comes straight back for a defensive-zone draw, so a kill built on clearing just feeds the power play faceoffs. (USA Hockey does allow a line change after an icing, so the cost is not identical.)

Exception 2 — the NHL's empty penalty box (81.6, and the PWHL's 83.6 word for word). It reads: "When a team is 'short-handed' by reason of a major penalty, and they have neglected to ensure there is a player on the penalty bench to exit upon the expiry of the penalty, they will continue to play short-handed but are not permitted to ice the puck. Icing will be called. They may substitute for this penalized player at the next stoppage of play." It can bite only where the penalised player is ejected or injured and someone else must take their seat: NHL 20.3 lets that seat stay empty until "a stoppage of play prior to the expiration of the major penalty" — ⚠️ but not where minors are on the clock beside the major, when the substitute is due "immediately". (That it bites only on those facts is the two rules read side by side, not a sentence either prints.) Nothing in it touches a clear inside the five minutes. The book does not say what happens to icing if a substitute owed immediately is still missing, and that is not resolved here — put the substitute in at the first stoppage.

If the box is empty when the major expires, the NHL charges a bench minor for the failure (68.2: "Any violation of this provision shall be treated as an illegal substitution under this rule calling for a bench minor penalty"). You then play a skater short to the next stoppage with no icing, and you cannot fix it over the boards: a replacement who enters other than from the penalty box is another bench minor (20.3).

The other books handle the empty box differently, so find your own row. The IIHF's 81.6 has no third paragraph, so nothing withdraws the clear from a British team — but its 20.3 wants the substitute "immediately", and ⚠️ its bench minor (68.2, 8.1) is complete while the major is still running, so on a kill it can make a 5-on-3. The NHL's 68.2 sets its deadline at the expiry instead, and its book does not settle whether the two ever overlap — do not carry the 5-on-3 across to the NHL. The PWHL matches the NHL at every step (20.3, 70.2, 83.6).

Book	When the substitute is due	What failing to seat one costs
NHL	A stoppage before the major expires (20.3) — immediately if minors are on the clock beside it	A bench minor (68.2), and a skater short to the next stoppage with no icing (81.6, 20.3)
IIHF	Immediately (20.3, 8.1, 68.2)	A bench minor (68.2, 8.1), and nothing else — the icing exemption is untouched
USA Hockey — Youth, High School, Girls'	Immediately — 403(d); 405(a) for a match; 206(d) if the penalised player is injured	Depends which pattern. Injured player: a bench minor (206(d)). Major plus game misconduct, nobody hurt: 403(d) writes none — seat somebody anyway
USA Hockey — Adult	Not at all on a major plus game misconduct or a match (403(d), 405(a)) — 206(d) is not lifted anywhere else	Nothing on those two. Coming over the boards at the expiry is what the rule provides for (Casebook Rule 204, Situation 11)
Hockey Canada	The coach names a server — and if the coach refuses, the referee names one — but neither 4.4(a) nor 4.1(b) writes a timing word	Cannot arise. The seat is filled either way, which is why no sanction is written
CARHA	A substitute is required, but Rule 30(a) names no moment	Rule 30(a) writes none, and no separate CARHA casebook is held here. Treat this one as unsettled

Hockey Canada forecloses it: the coach must name a server for a major (4.4(a)), and if the coach will not, the referee names one (4.1(b)), so the seat is always filled. CARHA requires a substitute but names no moment (30(a)) — though where the major is the player's third penalty of the game, 32(a) wants one seated immediately; otherwise it is unsettled, so seat somebody anyway. USA Hockey splits twice. For Youth, High School and Girls' the team "shall immediately place an additional or substitute player on the penalty bench" (403(d); 405(a) for a match). 403(d) writes no sanction, but the Casebook answers "No" to waiting until the major is near expiry (Rule 403, Situation 3), and ⚠️ where the penalised player is injured, 206(d) makes an empty seat a bench minor.

For Adult classifications the team "shall not be required" to seat anybody for a major plus game misconduct or a match, and may add a player from the bench when it expires, during play (403(d), 405(a); Casebook Rule 204, Situation 11) — the very act the NHL prices as an illegal substitution. ⚠️ Do not widen that past those two penalties: an adult player injured on a plain major is still inside 206(d), and a substitute is due at once. (That is the two rules read side by side.)

One case empties the box in every book: coincidental majors carrying game misconducts. Substitutes go straight onto the ice, nobody is owed in the box, and neither team is short (NHL and IIHF 19.2; Hockey Canada Note 1 to 4.5(c) and 4.5(a); USA Hockey 403(c); CARHA 30(b), which does not say in terms that nobody is owed). ⚠️ The game misconducts are the condition — without them the players serve their own time and the box is not empty.

So no single book is "the strict one" here. The NHL has the later deadline and the heavier price; the IIHF, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey's youth classifications want somebody seated at once; USA Hockey's adults want nobody. Settle your bench routine on a major from your own book. (Read for the substitution rules and their sanctions on 14 September 2026; USA Hockey's Rule 624 mentions neither a penalty bench nor a substitute.)

Practical consequences

On the kill, the clear is the whole game. You are not trying to make a play; you are trying to make them skate 200 feet again. Get it out, get it down, change.
On the power play, the clock is your opponent as much as the killers are. Two minutes is roughly two possessions if you have to re-enter the zone each time. A failed entry is far more costly than a failed shot.
When your penalty is about to expire and you are killing, the player in the box is a breakaway waiting to happen. Somebody has to call it out. See On-Ice Communication.
4-on-4 is not a power play and should not be played like one. Both teams have space; both teams are equally exposed to a turnover.

7. Goaltender-Specific Rules

For the position itself, see Goaltender. This section is the rules layer.

The crease

The goal crease is the light-blue area in front of the net — 8 feet wide at the goal line, 6 feet deep at its deepest point — and it is a volume, not an area: it extends vertically four feet, to the height of the top of the goal frame (NHL Rule 1.7). Those figures come from Rink Map, which covers the rink's geometry and gives the full Rule 1.7 construction, the goalie's reference marks and the IIHF equivalents.

The goal crease — the blue paint — shaded here: 8 ft wide at the goal line, 6 ft deep, extending 4 ft up as a volume, not a floor. The red boundary line itself counts as crease in the rule text or glossary of the IIHF, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA; the NHL and the PWHL leave it unsaid. The books’ reference tables answer the other way, the IIHF’s own among them — a contradiction inside one book that nothing here resolves. So keep your skates off the red line, not merely out of the blue paint. No shading can draw an edge that fine.

Diagram from rink map · What the shapes and fills mean

Goaltender interference

In short: Avoid all contact with the goalie, in or out of their crease, and never block their way back to it.

The principle (NHL Rule 69.1) is not what most players think: an attacking player's position, whether inside or outside the crease, should not by itself determine whether a goal is allowed. Goals come off only if (1) an attacker, by their positioning or by contact, impairs the goalie's ability to move freely in their crease or defend their goal, or (2) an attacker initiates intentional or deliberate contact with the goalie, inside or outside the crease. That "only if" is a ceiling, not a direction: it does not say a goal comes off whenever positioning impairs the goalie. The sentence in 69.1 that actually disallows a goal is keyed to the crease — an attacker who "enters the goal crease" and, by their actions, impairs the goalie. The IIHF writes the same rule. Every book that settles the question in its rule text or glossary puts the red crease line inside the crease, though the IIHF's own Situation 5E then allows the goal to a screen planted on it; Rink Map sets that clash out.

Inside the crease (Rule 69.3): if an attacker initiates contact with the goalie — incidental or otherwise — and a goal is scored, the goal is disallowed. And if the goalie, establishing their position, makes contact with an attacker in the crease that impairs the goalie, the goal is disallowed too, even if the attacker vacates at once (NHL Reference Table 14, Situation 6C, and the IIHF the same; IIHF Situation Handbook 69.6). Whether a penalty goes with that one is stated nowhere. ⚠️ None of that makes giving ground optional. If the attacker does not immediately give ground after the goalie's contact, 69.3 disallows the goal and penalises the attacker — a minor under the NHL's text, "the appropriate penalty" under the IIHF's, with no cap. Rule 69 reaches a major in both books (69.2), though no automatic game misconduct attaches to it under the IIHF.

In Britain, ⚠️ do not plan on two minutes. The books' own tables answer the same play more leniently — "Goal is disallowed. A minor penalty is not assessed (loss of goal only)" (NHL Table 14, D; IIHF Table 14, 6D, Table 16 in 2025/26), and the IIHF Situation Handbook says "No goal – no penalty" (69.2) — so the NHL's rulebook contradicts itself here, and nothing outside it ranks one side above the other. With no goal scored, the tables leave a penalty to the referee's judgement of the contact and the resistance. A player "establishes a significant position" when their body, or a substantial part of it, is in the crease for more than an instantaneous period.

Outside the crease (Rule 69.4) the rule asks two questions. The goal: disallowed if an attacker initiates "any contact with a goalkeeper, other than incidental contact" while the goalie is outside their crease. ⚠️ The penalty: the permission is conditional, and the condition is the half that gets dropped. "A goalkeeper is not 'fair game' just because he is outside the goal crease. The appropriate penalty should be assessed in every case where an attacking player makes unnecessary contact with the goalkeeper. However, incidental contact will be permitted when the goalkeeper is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such unnecessary contact." So the permission is not "the goalie was outside the crease"; it is "outside, playing the puck, and you tried to avoid them." A goalie who has come out to challenge with the puck elsewhere is not covered. The PWHL (71.4) writes the same condition. So does the IIHF (69.4, both editions), so it holds in Britain. None of the three says how the two sentences interact where contact was incidental but the goalie was not playing the puck, and it is not resolved here.

The other three books. USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write no such permission, so do not carry it into their games. Under USA Hockey, deliberate body contact with a goalie is charging (607(d) Note 1). Checking or charging a goalie in the crease or the privileged area — the ice inside lines from the end-zone dots to the end boards, so behind the net but not the corners — is a minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct (607(c)). A reckless charge is a major plus a game misconduct with no choice (607(b)) — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension too (602(a)). Outside that area the Casebook says a goalie "can be legally checked" — only in a game where Rule 604 allows body checking at all — and you may "physically engage" them only "When the goalkeeper has possession of the puck"; once they have lost it, "any avoidable contact... must also be penalized" (Casebook Rule 607, Situation 5). The rulebook still makes any deliberate check on a goalie charging, so go after the puck with your stick, never your body.

Hockey Canada writes no permission at all: "attacking players must make an effort to avoid contact in all circumstances", the onus is "always on the attacking player", and the "not fair game" protection reaches "anywhere on the ice" (8.5). CARHA writes no permission and no privileged area: deliberate contact with a goalie, "whether in or out of the goal crease", is a minor, with a major at the referee's discretion (66(b)) — and a major there ejects you, with at least a one-game ban (30(a), 32(d)). ⚠️ What survives every book is narrower than "outside the crease is fine": a goalie not dealing with the puck is not to be contacted, and under Hockey Canada and CARHA the duty does not lift even when they are.

Standing in the way of a goalie getting back to their crease (69.4's returning-goalie paragraph) is the half that catches a net-front forward, and the instruction survives every book: ⚠️ a goalie on their way back to their crease is not an obstacle to stand in front of. NHL 69.4 reads "When a goalkeeper 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, such player may be penalized for goalkeeper interference." The PWHL writes the same paragraph at 71.4. The IIHF writes it too, in both editions, so it holds in Britain, and all three books also penalise a goalie who deliberately interferes with an attacker from outside their crease. USA Hockey's version is broader and mandatory: where the goalie is returning 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" (Casebook Rule 625, Situation 9). The rule it cites, 625(a)(8), is a contact clause, though, so how far it reaches an attacker who never touches the goalie is not settled in USA Hockey's own terms.

Hockey Canada and CARHA write no returning-goalie clause (both books searched), but their ordinary interference rules reach the play with no contact needed, because a goalie chasing a puck they have not controlled is not "in possession" (Hockey Canada 8.3(i) and its Glossary; CARHA 66(a)(1) and Note 1).

What it costs. Two minutes is the usual price, not the ceiling: a violent or reckless play can cost a major, in some books with an ejection. Under Hockey Canada, charging or hurting a goalie is a mandatory ejection (8.5(b)); under CARHA, charging one in the crease or hurting one is a mandatory ejection, with at least a one-game ban (52(b), 66(e), 30(a), 32(d)). Under USA Hockey any deliberate body contact is charging — a minor plus a misconduct at the least, a major plus a game misconduct if it is reckless, which also costs the next game, and plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (607(a), 607(b), 607(d) Note 1; 602(a), 404(b)).

Rebounds and loose pucks (NHL and IIHF Rule 69.7, PWHL 71.7). ⚠️ This rule is quoted for its permission and then stopped, and it has four limbs — two of which take the goal off the board. The permission: in a rebound, or where goalie and attacker are "simultaneously attempting to play a loose puck, whether inside or outside the crease, incidental contact with the goalkeeper will be permitted", and the goal stands. Incidental, and both of you going for the same puck — not a licence to drive the goalie backwards. Then: where a goalie "has been pushed into the net together with the puck by an attacking player after making a stop, the goal will be disallowed", with penalties "⁠[i]f applicable" — all three conditions needed. It runs your way once: if a defender pushed or fouled you into causing that push, "the goal can be permitted." And where the puck is under a player in or around the crease, "a goal cannot be scored by pushing this player together with the puck into the goal", with a penalty shot if it was covered in the crease deliberately. The IIHF and PWHL print all four; the disallowed-goal lists (NHL and IIHF 78.5, PWHL 80.5) point back to the same rule.

Neither USA Hockey nor Hockey Canada writes a rebound carve-out, and Hockey Canada runs the other way: "Any goal scored on a play where an attacking player initiates contact with the goaltender will be disallowed, regardless of whether the contact occurs inside or outside of the goal crease" (Interpretation 1 to 8.5(a)). Its only exception is an attacker fouled by a defender so that they cannot avoid the contact. USA Hockey's nearest equivalent is the possession permission above, and ⚠️ even that is not a licence to hit the goalie — a check "delivered with the intent to intimidate or punish the goalkeeper" is charging, and "Any deliberate body contact or check that is delivered to the goalkeeper shall be penalized as charging" (607(d) Note 1).

(Both negatives are a search by concept as well as phrase — rebound, loose puck, simultaneous, incidental contact — across USA Hockey's playing rules and Casebook and Hockey Canada's rules with their interpretations.) USA Hockey's Casebook also answers a rebound in the crease the opposite way: a goal shot back in within a second of the puck being cleared, with an attacker still in the crease, is disallowed (Rule 625, Situation 12) — a ruling on the position bar, not on contact.

Being pushed into the goalie (Rule 69.1): if a defender pushes you into the goalie, that is not contact initiated by you, provided you made a reasonable effort to avoid it. If you push a defender into their own goalie, that is treated as contact initiated by you.

The practical instruction is the same in every book: get out of the crease, and off the red line around it. The goal rules differ by book, so find out which one your league runs.

69.1's premise and 69.3's crease test are the NHL's, the PWHL's and the IIHF's. The PWHL numbers it 71 (its 69 is Handling Puck) in the NHL's words, but its 71.5 reads "Coach's Challenge — Not applicable", so a goal disallowed on you there goes to a Central Situation Room Review, not a challenge.

USA Hockey and Hockey Canada do not run 69.1 at all, and they disagree with each other. USA Hockey bars the goal on position alone — "No goal may be scored with an attacking player in the goal crease unless the puck has preceded the player(s) into the goal crease or the goalkeeper is out of the goal crease area" (625(b)), with no contact or impairment needed and whoever scored. Its Casebook takes back the goalie-out carve-out while the goalie is skating back (Situation 9, above). The same clause costs you a neutral-zone faceoff for standing, holding your stick or skating through the crease while your team has the puck in the zone and the goalie is in their crease.

Hockey Canada says "Unless the puck is in the goal crease area, a player of the attacking team may not stand in the goal crease". It lets a teammate's goal from outside stand, though, "provided that the player who was in the goal crease does not attempt to play the puck, interfere with the play or obstruct the Goaltender's view or movements" (8.5; Interpretation 3). ⚠️ So with your body in the paint and a teammate scoring from outside it, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada give opposite answers.

Pushed into the crease, or into the goalie. USA Hockey and CARHA give the goal back, with no reasonable-effort proviso, where a defender's foul put you in the crease. That covers your position only: USA Hockey's 625(a)(8) stays a minor for contact that interferes with the goalie, ⚠️ and CARHA's 66(b) takes the goal back and books you if you were fouled but made no attempt to avoid the goalie. The NHL and IIHF tables give the pushed-in attacker the goal only if they "made a reasonable effort to avoid contact"; if not, a penalty — under the IIHF one the referee "must" assess (NHL Table 14; IIHF Table 14, Table 16 in 2025/26, Situations 3B and 3C). So do not lean on 69.2's "intentional or deliberate" wording here — this play turns on reasonable effort. Hockey Canada's relief is the narrowest — an attacker "fouled by a defending player and, as a result, is unable to avoid contact" — and one who makes no effort to avoid the goalie "must be penalized" (Interpretations 1 and 2 to 8.5(a)). Being fouled into the goalie is a defence in every book and a complete one in none.

What it costs. ⚠️ Contact with a goalie can end your game. Hockey Canada: a minor (8.5(a)); a major plus a game misconduct on the violence of the impact, and mandatory for a player who "charges the goaltender" or "injures an opponent" by goaltender interference (8.5(b)); a match penalty for an attempt to injure (8.5(c)); and no ten-minute misconduct rung (8.5(d)) — so two minutes, ejection or match. If the charge reaches the goalie's head, plan on the harsher of 8.5(b) and head contact (7.6; 7.7 in Junior and Senior): the major and game misconduct, and a match if the goalie could not protect themselves (7.6(c), 7.7(c)). CARHA: a mandatory major and game misconduct for charging a goalie in the crease or for any charge that injures (52(b)), a mandatory major for injuring an opponent by interference (66(e)), and either major ejects (30(a)) — price an injurious collision with a goalie there at your game and at least a one-game suspension (32(d)).

NHL: Rule 69 reaches a major (69.2) and a game misconduct with supplementary discipline (69.8); charging a goalie in their crease is "A minor, major or a major and a game misconduct" (42.1), and the game misconduct is mandatory where a charging major injures the face or head (42.5; the PWHL the same). IIHF: a major and game misconduct for charging needs both reckless endangerment and a major being insufficient (42.4). USA Hockey: no bare minor anywhere in Rule 607, a mandatory major and game misconduct for a reckless charge (607(b)), and a match the book leaves between "may" (607(e)) and 602(a)'s "shall" without saying which governs; either match carries a likely multi-game suspension. (The IIHF's Rule 69 was read for its tiers only.)

Screening is legal outside the crease

In short: Screen the goalie from outside the crease, without contact, and keep your skates off the blue paint and its red line.

Standing in the goalie's line of sight, without contact and outside the crease, is normally legal. The part of 69.3 that reaches a screen needs three things at once — a "significant position within the goal crease", obstructing their vision and impairing their ability to defend — and a significant position means your body, "or a substantial portion thereof, is within the goal crease for more than an instantaneous period of time". ⚠️ That is the screen paragraph, not the whole rule: any contact with a goalie in their crease costs the goal on its own (69.3's first paragraph). So what makes a screen illegal is being in the crease and what your position does there — screening itself is not the offence.

69.1's positioning clause names no location, but it is a ceiling, not a direction: the sentences that actually disallow a goal for position name the crease (69.1, 69.3), and 69.4 takes the goal outside it for contact only. ⚠️ That is about the goal, not the penalty — 69.4's returning-goalie clause still reaches where you stand.

That reading of the rule's structure is not something either book states in terms, but both books' Rule 69 tables apply it. NHL Table 14, IIHF Table 14 (Table 16 in 2025/26) and the PWHL's Table 14 answer "Goal is allowed" at Situation 5C, an attacker outside the crease who impairs the goalie, and at 5E, one who "plants himself on the crease line or outside the goal crease" to obstruct their vision. The two rows they disallow, 5B and 5D, put the attacker inside it. Those tables are appendix interpretation rather than operative rule text, and enforcement is "exclusively in accordance with the on-ice judgement of the Referee(s)". So a clean screen from outside the paint is legal and referees allow it constantly, but it is not something you will get to argue from the ice. ⚠️ And do not take 5E as covering the crease line itself: the IIHF's own Rule 1.7 says "⁠[t]he marked line belongs to the Goal Crease". This document does not resolve that collision (Rink Map sets it out); the instruction is to keep off the line as well as the paint.

Here the North American amateur books are more permissive than the NHL — the opposite of how they run inside the crease. USA Hockey writes no screening or goalie-vision provision at all. Hockey Canada's vision ground begins "if while standing in the crease", and its Note 1 says "No penalty would be assessed unless the attacking player's body or stick makes actual physical contact with the goaltender" (Interpretation 3 to 8.5(a)), and CARHA's 66(b) takes the goal only for standing in the crease or for contact. Under those three a screen from outside the paint is simply legal. (All three negatives are a search of the three playing-rule books and of USA Hockey's Casebook.)

This is the single most valuable rules fact for a forward. Get in the goalie's eyes; keep your skates out of the blue paint and off the red line around it. See Offensive Zone Play and Winger.

One instance of a relationship, not a place to stand. The shaded wedge is the line between the puck at the right point and the goalie, and the screen stands inside it with both feet outside the crease. The wedge swings as the puck moves: stand where the goalie’s eyes are, not where the puck is going. Keep your stick on the ice too, because a screen is also a tip and rebound threat, and move late. The picture cannot show what is legal. Outside the crease and touching nobody, a screen is normally legal, but contact, or a position that stops the goalie moving freely in their crease, can still cost the goal (NHL and IIHF 69.1). So keep both feet out of the blue paint and off its red line, and touch nobody. Here "screen" means the goalie’s sightline and nothing else. ⚠️ Never meet a goal post head first, and never duck. Head up, chin off your chest instead. A head-down, head-first hit on a goal post is the same injury as one on the boards, and can happen at walking speed.

Diagram from playing without the puck · What the shapes and fills mean

The trapezoid (goalkeeper's restricted area)

In short: As a goalie, play pucks behind your net only inside the trapezoid if your league has one, and never smother them in the corners.

This section is the penalty; the geometry — the NHL figures, the IIHF metric equivalents and where the lines run — belongs to Rink Map.

The goalie may not play the puck behind the goal line outside the marked trapezoid behind their net. It is a two-minute minor for delay of game (NHL Rules 27.8 and 63.2(viii); IIHF Rule 27.7), and the position of the puck decides, not the position of the goalie.

The trapezoid: the goaltender’s restricted area behind the net — 22 ft wide at the goal line, widening to 28 ft at the boards, shaded here at NHL dimensions. Playing the puck behind the goal line outside it is a two-minute delay-of-game minor. The rule text’s one exception is a goalie keeping skate contact with the crease, which excuses playing the puck and never freezing it. The IIHF’s Situation Handbook adds two more: a puck stopped on the goal line, and one that only deflects into you. USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA mark no trapezoid, but all three still stop the goalie at the centre red line and limit where the puck may be frozen. The PWHL switches the trapezoid off yet still writes the minor, and in Britain the standing and reach of England Ice Hockey’s suspension of the trapezoid are unsettled: in both, play as if the trapezoid binds, and ask your league. That suspension never touched where a goalie may freeze the puck. One thing stays legal either way: coming out to cut down the angle, making the save and covering the puck (IIHF 63.2(VI)). Being checked excuses a freeze only inside the crease (63.2(VII)); out of it, falling on a loose puck as an attacker bears down is still a minor. Cover the rebound.

Diagram from rink map · What the shapes and fills mean

The rule writes exactly one exception, and it is not the one people think: playing the puck while keeping skate contact with the crease. There is no teammate exception. ⚠️ The IIHF's Situation Handbook adds two boundary rulings, both the goalie's way: a puck stopped on the goal line is not in the restricted area (Situation 27.6), and a puck that comes off the glass and hits a retreating goalie is no penalty, because "the goalkeeper must play the puck to be penalized" (27.9). Those are the IIHF's answers only; the NHL's situation handbook is not publicly obtainable and none of it has been read.

Cite 27.8 for the penalty and never for the dimensions — it still describes the pre-2014 shape, "six feet (6') from either goal post". Rule 1.8 is the geometry.

Who has the trapezoid: the NHL and IIHF play (Rules 1.8 and 27.8; 1.8 and 27.7). The KHL is commonly said to have one as well, but that is unverified here — no KHL rulebook was available. The IIHF's own 2021 announcement dates its adoption to the 2021-22 season; the NHL's commonly given 2005-06 date is in no rulebook held here.

USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA have no trapezoid — but all three limit where a goalie may freeze the puck. USA Hockey 614(c) ⚠️ is a minor for a goalie who falls on or gathers the puck when "⁠[t]he puck is behind the goal line and their body is entirely outside of the goal crease" or when it is outside the privileged area — from the end-zone dots to the end boards, behind the net but not the corners. It is also a minor anywhere for failing "to play the puck with their stick when provided the opportunity to do so prior to being pressured by an attacking player" or holding it "against any part of the goal frame or boards". CARHA 58(b) has the same behind-the-goal-line limit, and 61(b) a minor for any hold that causes an unnecessary stoppage. Hockey Canada bars freezing outside the crease — "If they do, they will be assessed a Minor penalty. No warning will be issued" (Interpretation 3 to 10.1(a), clause v), though its second guideline lets the goalie come out to cut down the angle and cover after the save; how far that reaches is a reading, not a ruling. Nobody has counted how much rec, beer-league and youth hockey those books cover.

🇬🇧 In most British hockey the trapezoid's status is unsettled — the one place on this page where "the IIHF column is yours" is not the whole answer. IIHF 27.7 carries it, but England Ice Hockey's Rules & Regulations 22.3 say the "Goalkeepers' Restricted Area is not currently enforced to allow ice rinks the necessary time to make the changes to implement this rule" — that is the 2024-25 edition, and whether the suspension still stands is not settled by anything published here. England Ice Hockey describes itself as the governing body "in England and Wales" (Rules & Regulations 1.1), so 22.3 reads as written for those two nations; whether it now reaches Scotland and Northern Ireland is unsettled too, so wherever you play in Britain, England and Wales included, play as though the trapezoid binds. The In-House Rules neither mention the restricted area nor amend Rule 27 in either edition, so in BUIHA hockey IIHF 27.7 reads as live. The EIHL Casebook amends no Rule 27, so nothing in the Elite League's Casebook switches it off, and whether 22.3 reaches an Elite League fixture is unsettled.

Play it safe both ways: assume your own goalie is bound and keep them out of the corners; assume theirs may come for the puck anyway, and do not build a dump-in on the trapezoid holding. Ask your league — painted lines are a hint, not a ruling, since 27.7 turns on where the puck is. UK and England Rules has the amendment list.

Under USA Hockey the privileged area also protects the goalie, and that half is not two minutes. ⚠️ Checking or charging a goalie in the crease or privileged area is a minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct — there is no bare minor (607(c)) — with a match available (607(e)), and if it is reckless, plan on the match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)). The Casebook gives the minor plus misconduct to an attacker who "makes an honest attempt to avoid the goalkeeper once it is realized contact is unavoidable". It gives the major or the match to one who "makes no attempt to avoid the goalkeeper and recklessly endangers the goalkeeper by accelerating through the contact, or by extending the arms or dropping the shoulder to deliver the hit". It gives nothing where a defender forced the attacker in after they "clearly made every attempt to avoid the contact" (Rule 607, Situation 4). Outside the area the goalie is still not "fair game" (607(d)); Goaltender interference has how that turns on whether they have the puck.

The goalkeeper’s privileged area, shaded: USA Hockey’s term and shape, and the NHL, IIHF, PWHL, Hockey Canada and CARHA books draw no such area. Rule 607(d) Note 2 builds it from the end-zone face-off spots, with a line from each spot straight back to the end boards, so it takes in the net front, the goal line and all the ice directly behind the net, but not the corners. ⚠️ The two red dashed lines behind the net are not part of it. That is the trapezoid, a much smaller shape, drawn because these diagrams use the NHL rink, and USA Hockey marks it nowhere. Read the shading as a boundary, not a licence. When the puck is outside it, a goalie who freezes it takes a delay-of-game minor (614(c)). Inside it, so does one who freezes it behind the goal line with their body entirely outside the crease, who had time to play it with the stick, or who pins it against the frame or boards. Outside it they are still not fair game (607(d)). And a goalie anywhere in it, behind their own net included, is not somebody to finish a check on: 607(c) writes no bare minor for it.

What the shapes and fills mean

Practical consequence: without a trapezoid your goalie is a third defenceman on every dump-in, retrieving pucks in the corners — but under USA Hockey the goalie must play those corner pucks, not smother them, ⚠️ and move them quickly, because the corners are outside the privileged area. There an opponent may "physically engage" a goalie who has the puck "in an effort to gain possession of the puck" (Casebook Rule 607, Situation 5; only where Rule 604 allows body checking), though any deliberate body contact is still charging (607(d) Note 1). Skaters: take the puck, not the body, and never treat a goalie in the corner as fair game. With a trapezoid, your defencemen retrieve everything wide and the goalie stops the puck behind the net and leaves it. Confirm which before your first game — it changes your breakout. See Breakouts.

Beyond the centre red line, a goalie who participates in the play takes a minor in every book (NHL 27.7; IIHF 27.6; PWHL 27.7; USA Hockey 407(c); Hockey Canada 4.13(c), penalised as interference under 8.3(a); CARHA 37(e)) — "in any manner", which is broader than playing the puck.

The red-line test. ⚠️ What decides it is the opposite way round in two books. Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL "⁠[t]he position of the puck is the determining factor"; under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada it is the position of the goalie's skates (USA Hockey Casebook Rule 407, Situation 13; Hockey Canada Interpretation 2 to 4.13(c), and 8.3(a) itself). So a goalie who steps over the line to reach back for a puck still on their own side is legal under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL, and takes two minutes under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada; CARHA does not say which decides, so read it strictly. If you do not know your book, keep the skates behind the line — legal everywhere. (USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write the act as "deliberate" or "intentional" in the rule itself, and USA Hockey's Casebook gives no penalty for a goalie on their way to the bench "accidentally struck by the puck" (Situation 12); the NHL and IIHF carry the intent word only in a parenthetical.)

Freezing the puck

In short: As a goalie, freeze the puck only under real pressure; a soft freeze on a routine dump-in can cost you like an icing.

The goalie may cause a stoppage, but only in defined circumstances. Under the NHL and IIHF books each of these is a minor (Rules 63.2, 67.3):

holding the puck with the hands for more than three seconds unless actually being checked;
throwing it forward towards the other team's net (if an opponent picks it up, play goes on until that attack ends, and a goal by them replaces the minor), or dropping it into their pads or onto the goal net;
racing out of the crease to beat an attacker to a loose puck and then jumping on it;
piling snow or obstacles near the net, which becomes an awarded goal once the goalie has been replaced for an extra attacker (67.5).

Coming out in front of the net to cut down the angle, making the save and covering straight off it is legal (the Note to 63.2(vi)) — but play it and then fall back on it because an attacker is bearing down, and it is a minor (IIHF Situation 63.1).

Under USA Hockey, a goalie outside their crease may cover as part of a save or when attackers are on them, but not with the puck outside their privileged area or behind the goal line (614(c), Casebook Situations 5 to 13). The privileged area is the box from the end-zone dots back to the end boards. The Casebook excuses it where a penalty is already signalled against their team, because their team touching the puck stops play anyway (Situation 5), and where the puck is shot into a goalie already lying outside the crease (Situation 13). With time and nobody near, the goalie must play it with their stick. Racing an attacker to a loose puck and falling on it is a minor (Situation 6), and so is catching it, dropping it and then pinning it to the ice, their body, the boards or the net (Situation 9).

One of these reads far stricter than it is enforced. NHL 63.2(vii) penalises a goalie who deliberately falls on or gathers the puck in their own crease "unless he is actually being checked by an opponent"; read literally, that would outlaw the routine freezes you see in every game, and no game is officiated that way. Goaltender sets out how it interacts with the "unnecessary stoppage" standard of 67.3(ii) and with the published pressure tests in Hockey Canada (Interpretation 3 to 10.1(a)) and USA Hockey (610(b)). ⚠️ The IIHF publishes one too, and it is Britain's book: a goalie who covers with no pressure on them, "in an obvious attempt to get a stoppage of play" while the other team changes, should take the delay-of-game minor (Situation 67.8). ⚠️ Do not act on the bare literal reading — and if your league's referees are strict about it, find out early.

A frozen shoot-in costs more than a penalty under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL. If the attacking team shoots the puck in from beyond the centre red line and the goalie freezes it, the faceoff is in their own end, the attackers choose the dot, and their team may not change or take a timeout (NHL and IIHF 63.8 and 87.1; PWHL 65.8, 89.1). The exceptions are replacing an injured player and a penalty that changes on-ice strength. So a soft freeze on a routine dump-in is punished like an icing. ⚠️ USA Hockey and Hockey Canada write no such consequence — but do not read that as a free freeze: both make an unpressured one a penalty. USA Hockey gives a minor to a goalie who "has an opportunity to play the puck prior to being pressured by an attacking player, but instead intentionally causes a stoppage of play" (610(b)). Hockey Canada gives one "after one warning" to a goalie who "freezes the puck in the crease when not under pressure from attacking players" (Interpretation 3 to 10.1(a), clause iii).

The goalie playing the puck

In short: Pass and rim the puck like a skater, but stay off your bench at a stoppage unless replaced; three books allow it with permission, never for a stick.

Beyond the trapezoid and the red line, the goalie is a skater with the puck — they can pass, rim and set up a breakout. The rules that constrain them:

Hand passes by the goalie in the defending zone are legal, like anyone else's (Rule 79.2).
The goalie cannot take a faceoff (Rule 76.1).
The goalie's minor is served by a teammate who was on the ice at the stoppage, designated by the coach through the captain, and that substitute may not be changed; a penalised player may not serve it (Rule 27.1).
At a stoppage, stay at your net. Never go to the bench for a stick — a teammate hands you one (see Broken sticks). For anything else, the NHL, IIHF and PWHL let you go only with the referee's permission, or you are replaced at once or your team takes a bench minor (NHL 27.6; IIHF 27.5; PWHL 27.6) — and permission does not reliably buy time to repair your gear: their 14.1 starts from no delay for a goalie, so expect the backup to go in (the PWHL's 14.1 adds a fifteen-second window for a quick fix such as a pad strap, at the referee's discretion, though its minor repeats "No delay", and the IIHF Handbook leaves a short repair to the referee, Situations 14.1 and 65.1). Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA, asking is not enough: go only if you are replaced (USA Hockey 205(c) and Casebook 309, Situation 2, bar a time-out or an unusual delay such as a rink repair; Hockey Canada Interpretations 10 and 11 to 10.1(a); CARHA 47(c) Note).
The goalie takes a minor for leaving the immediate vicinity of the crease during an altercation (NHL 27.6; IIHF 27.5). The exceptions are a fight "in or near the goalkeeper's crease", when the referee "should direct the goalkeeper to a neutral location and not assess a penalty", and a goalie already heading to the bench for an extra attacker. That is why goalies stay in their net during scrums.

When a fight breaks out

In short: Stay in your crease, never join in to fight or break it up, and move only where the referee sends you.

When a fight breaks out beside the crease, stay in your net, and if you must move, go only where the referee sends you. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL have the referee send the goalie to a neutral location with no penalty. USA Hockey's minor is for failing to go straight to your crease when the referee tells you to (615(e)). Its Casebook lets a goalie leave "to remain out of the altercation" — ⚠️ but "if the Referee does not give their permission and the goalkeeper gets involved in the altercation outside of the crease, the minor penalty must be assessed" (Rule 615, Situation 26). Hockey Canada lets you go to the bench with the referee's permission, makes going "on their own accord" a minor, and otherwise has you stay in your crease or go to a neutral zone the referee designates (7.10(a) and its Interpretation 1; 7.10(d)). CARHA puts a minor on any goalie who "leaves the goal crease during a fight" (37(c)). USA Hockey's Casebook also answers "Yes" to the bench for a fight beside the crease (Situation 27). Never go to the bench on your own: every book prices an unpermitted trip (USA Hockey 205(c)), and under CARHA you may not go to the bench at a stoppage at all unless you are replaced (47(c) Note).

And never join in — to fight or to break it up. ⚠️ Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA the first one in is ejected, goalies included. USA Hockey 615(d) gives a game misconduct to "any player or goalkeeper who is the first to intervene in an altercation then in progress", from anywhere on the ice. Hockey Canada 7.10(e)(ii) gives one to a player who "joins in a fight or acts as a peacemaker", its Glossary counting the goalie as a player, and CARHA's 37(d) and 59(b) do the same, peacemaker included. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL leave that game misconduct to the referee (NHL 46.16, IIHF 46.7 — 46.14 in 2026/27 — PWHL 46.15). The extra-attacker carve-out above was found only in the NHL, IIHF and PWHL texts — a limit of this search, not a finding that the others lack one.

8. Faceoffs

Faceoffs covers this material in full — procedure, stick-down order, restraining lines, every violation, the ejection rules and the technique. This section keeps the location table and the two things you must not leave without.

The nine spots

Every faceoff is taken at one of nine marked spots — one at centre ice, four in the neutral zone, four in the end zones — and never within 15 feet of the goal or the side boards (Rule 76.2). What is painted at each is Rule 1.9, in Rink Map.

Why the draw is where it is

In short: The draw usually goes into the zone of whoever caused the stoppage; when your team gets to pick the dot, pick deliberately.

Four common stoppages and the faceoff spot each one sends the draw to — four separate situations, not one play. Your own end is at the left. At centre ice: the start of every period, and every draw after a goal. In your own end: an icing you caused, or a penalty you took. Only one of the two spots there is boxed, because the rule names the END, not the dot. Under the NHL and the IIHF the attacking team — your opponents here — picks which dot. USA Hockey gives no choice of dot at all, and Hockey Canada gives it to the attacking team in Junior and Senior only, and they lose it unless they tell the referee before the line change procedure starts. Outside the blue line you were attacking: an offside where the puck was carried over. A puck SHOT or PASSED over the line offside goes back to the zone it came from instead, which can be your own end. In the end you are attacking: a goalie freeze, or any other stoppage between the end-zone dots and the end boards, which under the NHL and the IIHF draws at the spot on the side it happened. USA Hockey differs on that one: it takes the nearest spot only on its own last-play faceoff, and sends a stoppage you, the attackers, caused in that zone out to the neutral zone. These four are the common ones, not the whole rule.

Diagram from faceoffs · What the shapes and fills mean

Faceoff location is a penalty and reward system. Under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL the wronged team usually picks the dot in the offender's end: the power-play team after a penalty, and the attackers after an icing, a frozen shoot-in from their own half, or a net knocked off. Hockey Canada gives that choice only in Junior and Senior, after an icing or a time penalty, and only if you name the dot before the change (6.4(b)); USA Hockey and CARHA give none. Somebody on your team should be making that choice deliberately — Faceoffs covers how. The full list:

Situation	Where the draw goes
Start of a period, after a goal, or a penalty assessed after a goal or at the end or start of a period	Centre ice
Penalty assessed	An end-zone spot in the offending team's zone (CARHA: the dot nearest the incident, toward that zone); under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL the power-play team chooses which (Rule 76.2)
Icing	End zone of the offending team; under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL the attacking team chooses the dot (Rule 81.2)
Offside — carried in	Neutral-zone spot nearest that attacking zone
Offside — passed or shot in	The faceoff spot in the zone closest to where the pass or shot came from — a spot, not the patch of ice it left
Intentional offside	End-zone spot in the offending team's defending zone
Goalie freezes a shoot-in from beyond the red line	Goalie's own end zone; attacking team chooses the dot (NHL, IIHF, PWHL)
Defender accidentally dislodges the net	Defender's own end zone; attacking team chooses the dot (NHL, IIHF, PWHL)
Puck out of bounds	Nearest spot in the zone from where it was shot or deflected out
Hand pass in the attacking zone	Neutral zone, outside the defending team's blue line
High-sticking the puck	The spot giving the offending team least territorial advantage
Goal disallowed for goalie interference	Nearest neutral-zone spot outside the offending team's attacking zone
Officials erred on an icing or offside	Centre ice (icing) or nearest neutral-zone spot (offside, USA Hockey)
Two violations at once	The spot giving the offending team least territorial advantage

The rest of that list in words — the NHL and IIHF write all of these the same way unless noted, so a British reader takes them as they stand:

Intentional offside — deliberately putting the puck offside to buy a whistle — sends the draw to your own end (NHL 83.7 and 83.6(iv); IIHF 83.6(IV); USA Hockey 630(c)).
Puck out of bounds goes back to "the nearest face-off spot in the zone from where it was shot or deflected out of play" (NHL 85.1; IIHF 85.5). Flipping it over the glass from your own end gains you nothing, and from there it is a minor as well — see section 4.
A hand pass in your attacking zone sends the draw outside the defending team's blue line (NHL and IIHF 79.3). You lose the zone for it.
High-sticking the puck goes to the spot giving the team that struck it the least territorial advantage (NHL and IIHF 80.2) — ⚠️ and if the attacking team is at fault while the puck is in the attacking zone, the draw "must be moved to the nearest face-off spot in the neutral zone". Bat a puck down above your shoulders in the offensive zone and you are out of the zone.
A goal disallowed for goaltender interference takes the draw to "the nearest neutral zone face-off spot outside the attacking zone of the offending team" (NHL 69.6; IIHF 69.6; PWHL 71.6).
Two violations at the same stoppage go to the spot giving the offending team least territorial advantage (NHL and IIHF 76.2). ⚠️ Hockey Canada answers a stoppage with infringements by both teams on a different test: the spot "in the same zone that is nearest to where stoppage of play occurred, excluding centre ice" (6.3(b)).
Officials erred. A wrongly called icing goes to centre ice (NHL 81.2; Hockey Canada 6.3(a)). ⚠️ On a wrongly called offside only USA Hockey answers: the nearest neutral-zone spot to where play was stopped (630(e)); no counterpart was found in the NHL's, the IIHF's or Hockey Canada's books.

"Least territorial advantage" is defined in neither book; read it as the official picking, from the spots the rule allows, the one that helps the team at fault least.

One more location rule costs you the zone you have just earned: if a point man or a player off the bench from the attacking team goes past the outer edge of the end-zone circle during a scrum, the draw is moved out to the neutral zone (Rule 76.2). If your team has just earned a draw in the other end, do not go and join the scrum.

The two things you must not leave without

In short: Wingers: keep your skates outside the circle and hash marks until the puck drops, or your centre is usually thrown out.

1. A winger encroaching usually gets the centre thrown out of the draw. Keep both skates outside the circle and the hash marks until the puck is down. Stay off the line too: the NHL, IIHF and PWHL let a skate touch it, but Hockey Canada and CARHA count a skate on the circle as encroachment. Your stick may be inside the circle if it touches neither an opponent nor their stick, but under Hockey Canada, CARHA and USA Hockey keep it out of the gap between the hash marks.

If any player other than the taker moves into the circle before the drop, "the offending team's player taking the face-off shall be ejected from the face-off circle" (Rule 76.6). USA Hockey 613(d), Hockey Canada 6.2(d) and CARHA 57(a) eject the taker too. After an icing the NHL, the 2026/27 IIHF and the PWHL warn on the first violation instead (76.4; PWHL 78.4), as Hockey Canada does on a Junior draw (6.5(a)). A second violation by the same team on the same draw is a bench minor (76.7). Under USA Hockey it is a minor on the player who commits it (613(d)). Under Hockey Canada it is a minor the referee may give (6.2(e)), but must give if the player who committed it then contacts the linesperson, or on a repeat violation on a Junior draw after an icing (6.5(b)). Losing your best faceoff man because a winger leaned in early is the most consequential rules mistake a winger makes, and it is entirely avoidable.

2. ⚠️ The IIHF now agrees, but one IIHF difference survives, and it deletes a technique. The 2025/26 IIHF book only warned the team; the 2026/27 edition ejects the centre in the NHL's words (76.6), and replaces the centre where the older book warned (76.3, 76.4). The IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27 settle it anyway: "With the exception of face-offs following icings, the linesperson shall immediately replace the centre for all violations" — though they do not name the Elite League, whose Casebook writes no Rule 76, so an Elite League draw runs under IIHF Rule 76 unamended.

The same In-House amendment lets either centre put their stick down first, and requires "the whole of their stick blades (not toe or heel) in the white portion of the face-off circle", where IIHF 76.7 asks for "at least the toe". What has not changed is a violation the NHL does not have: a centre who "wins the face-off by using the skates" (IIHF 76.3(VI), both editions). Kicking the puck back with your feet is legal in the NHL and a violation internationally — under the 2026/27 book it gets your centre replaced. Faceoffs sets it all out, with the USA Hockey differences — there the attacking centre puts their stick down first, and the visitor at centre ice (613(a)).

Two further distinctions, both treated fully in Faceoffs. First: closing your hand on the puck is never a faceoff violation — it is a penalty, and worse near your own net. Under the NHL and IIHF it is a minor (67.2), and "When this is done in his team's goal crease area, a penalty shot shall be assessed (67.4) or a goal awarded (67.5)." Under USA Hockey a closed hand not dropped at once is only a stoppage, but covering a loose puck with your hand is a minor (614(a), 618(a)). In the crease it is a penalty shot or optional minor — ⚠️ and an awarded goal on an empty net, which USA Hockey conditions on an "obvious and imminent goal" (614(b)) and CARHA writes both ways (58(c) Note 1, 36(b)). Play to the strict answer: with your net empty, any cover in your own crease is the goal.

Hockey Canada (10.2(a)(iii)) and CARHA (61(a)) penalise the closed hand only where it gains an advantage, but both give a penalty shot for a cover in your crease (Hockey Canada 4.11(a)(v), 10.2(a)(v); CARHA 58(c)). Batting the puck with your hand to win a draw is a minor for delay of game — faceoff violation (67.2), and the two takers may not play the puck with a hand at all until a third player has touched it (76.5; PWHL 78.5) — no counterpart was found in USA Hockey or Hockey Canada.

Second: no timeout is granted after a faceoff violation (87.1). (Accidental stick contact on a centre bent over at a faceoff is not a penalty under the NHL and IIHF books (60.1); USA Hockey and Hockey Canada write no such exception, and a wild swing at a bouncing puck is a penalty everywhere.)

9. Officials and Signals

Who is on the ice

The NHL uses four officials: two referees (orange armbands) and two linespersons.

Referees (Rule 31) supervise the game and have the final word. They impose penalties, decide disputed goals, and drop the puck to start each period, consulting the linespersons if they wish. Referees do not call offside or icing — that is the linespersons' job unless one cannot act (31.4).

Linespersons (Rule 32) call offside and icing and conduct every faceoff except the one that starts each period (32.2). They also:

may stop play and report too many men, thrown objects, interference with an official, an illegally received stick or bench interference;
must stop play for premature goalie substitution, a serious injury the referees missed, faceoff encroachment, a hand pass, a high-sticked puck, icing, offside, a puck out of bounds or unplayable, a goal the referees did not see, and spectator interference;
must report majors, match penalties, misconducts, game misconducts and abuse of officials — and if one saw such a foul by an attacker before a goal the referees missed, the goal is disallowed and the penalty assessed;
may call too many men (Rule 74.2).

In a CARHA-affiliated league the on-ice crew is two Referees and no linespersons (40(a), 40(d) and the Glossary), and those two stop play for "icing the puck, offsides, etc." too (41(d)). ⚠️ The book contradicts itself once: its icing signal (p. 82) mentions a "Linesman", the only time the word appears, naming a position Rule 40 never appoints, and nothing says which governs — so expect two Referees. Elsewhere the size of the crew is set by the league, and this document has no count of how many leagues run which crew. Where it is two, they see less — adjust your expectations.

The signals you should recognise

In short: Watch the raised arm: from a linesperson at the blue line it means tag up, from a referee a delayed penalty.

From Rule 29 — the ones with immediate consequences for what you do next:

Signal	What it looks like	What it means for you
Delayed offside	Non-whistle arm fully extended straight above the head (29.7)	Get out of the zone and tag up. Do not touch the puck or chase the D.
Delayed penalty	Non-whistle arm fully extended above the head (29.8) — same as delayed offside	Look at who is doing it. Linesperson at the blue line = offside. Referee = penalty. Head to the bench for the extra attacker.
Icing (pending)	Back linesperson raises either arm fully overhead, holds it until the whistle or the wave-off (29.19)	Puck is going down; if you are chasing, the race is to the puck, and it will be judged by the time someone reaches the dot.
Icing (completed)	The back linesperson points to the faceoff spot, skates there, turns backwards near the blue line and crosses their arms on their chest (29.19)	Icing confirmed. No change for the offending team.
Wash out	Sweeping sideways motion of both arms across the body at shoulder level, palms down (29.35)	No goal (referee), or no icing / no offside (linesperson), or hand pass / high-stick washed out. Play on.
Time-out / unsportsmanlike conduct	Both hands forming a "T" in front of the chest (29.31, 29.34)	Identical signals — context decides.
Misconduct	Both hands on hips (29.25)	Ten minutes for the player. Your team is short only if that player also took a minor, major or match.
Penalty shot	Non-whistle arm fully extended, pointing to the centre-ice faceoff spot (29.26)	—

Infraction signals worth knowing on sight. Hooking: tugging both arms toward the stomach. Slashing: chopping one hand across the opposite forearm. Tripping: striking the leg below the knee. Holding: clasping one wrist. Cross-checking: both fists pushed forward from the chest. Interference: arms crossed on the chest. Elbowing: tapping an elbow. Boarding: fist into the open palm. Charging: fists rotating round each other. High-sticking: both fists, one above the other, at forehead height. Roughing: fist extended to the side. Hand pass: open palm pushing forward. Checking from behind: both arms pushed forward from the chest, palms out.

Signals. ⚠️ A signal announces the call; it is not the definition of the offence. The NHL's hooking signal is a tugging motion (29.18), but NHL 55.1 asks only whether the stick was used "in a manner that enables a player to restrain an opponent" — no tug required.

The NHL prints "No signal" for a match penalty (29.24), throwing equipment (29.30), too many men (29.32), head-butting (29.14) and kicking (29.22), so none is described here.

Talking to officials

In short: Never touch an official, and speak only when invited, at a natural break, by asking rather than telling.

Never put a hand on an official. ⚠️ Deliberate force against one is a match penalty under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA, and a game misconduct with a suspension under the NHL, the PWHL and the IIHF (Rule 40; USA Hockey 601(e)(1); Hockey Canada 11.5(c), even "without causing injury"; CARHA 71(a), for any player who "intentionally touches, holds, or pushes" a Referee). In the NHL and the PWHL the suspension is automatic: at least ten and four games respectively for force without intent to injure.

Under Rule 39 (Abuse of Officials) and Rule 75 (Unsportsmanlike Conduct) the ladder is usually minor, then misconduct, then game misconduct — but the books say "In general" (NHL 39.4(ix), 39.5(vii), 75.4(v), 75.5(vi); IIHF 39.4(IX), 39.5(VII), 75.4(V)), ⚠️ so do not count on a free minor first.

Some limbs start higher. A misconduct is for not going straight to the penalty box when told (39.4(vi)), for entering or staying in the referee's crease while the referee reports (39.4(v)), or for disputing a call from the penalty box after play has resumed (75.4(iv)). A game misconduct on the first offence is for an obscene gesture (75.5(ii)), for physical force on an official (39.5(iii)), or for leaving the penalty box to challenge a ruling (39.5(iv)) — ⚠️ which in the NHL also carries an automatic three-game suspension, though the IIHF leaves the suspension discretionary (39.5(IV), 70.4). And 39.5(ii)'s game misconduct, which normally follows a bench minor, needs none once the game is over.

Practically:

Your standing is much narrower than you think. "Only the Captain, when invited to do so by the Referee, shall have the privilege of discussing any point relating to the interpretation of rules" (Rule 6.1), with an alternate standing in only when the captain is off the ice (6.2). You have no standing until you are invited.
Complaining about a penalty is not "rule interpretation", and is itself a minor: any player who "comes off the bench and makes any protest or intervention with the officials for any purpose shall be assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct" (6.1).
Speak at the next natural break, and only if the official opens the door. Ask; never tell. A calm question about interpretation may get an answer; "that's terrible" gets ten minutes.
Complaining never gets a call reversed. The only route is the Coach's Challenge, which is the coach's, and in EIH and SIHA competition does not exist (see Video review). CARHA puts it flatly: "The Referee's decision shall be final on all questions of fact and not subject to appeal" (40(c)). What a good captain can occasionally influence is what the officials watch for — everyone else should keep quiet.
The rec-league crew is smaller and doing more jobs. With two officials covering offside, icing, the puck and everything behind the play, things are missed constantly in both directions, and complaining about it is worse than pointless.

See Team Play and Culture and Mental Game.

10. Rule Set Differences That Actually Matter

In short: Before your first game, find out which rule book your league plays and ask whether checking is allowed in your division.

The differences below are the ones that change what you should do on the ice. Everything else is trivia.

Read the Home Countries column against the IIHF one beside it. IHUK and the BUIHA run the IIHF book across "England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (the Home Countries)" and in university hockey, amending it in writing, so "As IIHF" is a positive statement, not a blank: the In-House Rules make no amendment there and the IIHF cell is your rule. Only the cells marked Amended are British departures. The Elite League is the exception: its EIHL Casebook leaves "the official 2026 - 2027 IIHF Rulebook and IIHF Situation Handbook" ruling "⁠[f]or all rules not mentioned" in it, and it names no Rule 27, 43, 48, 60, 74, 76, 81 or 83, so the "As IIHF" cells hold there too. But it keeps video review and the Coach's Challenge, writes no faceoff or broken-stick amendment, treats a missing neck guard with a warning first, runs its own fighting scheme, and plays its own overtime: 3-on-3 then a five-shooter shootout in the regular season, 20-minute sudden-death periods in most knockout games. ⚠️ Some In-House amendments scope themselves to "EIH or SIHA competition" rather than all four nations; where a cell quotes that wording, it is the source's.

	NHL	IIHF	Home Countries	USA Hockey	Typical rec / beer league
Trapezoid	Yes (1.8, 27.8) — minor; only exception is skate contact with the crease	Yes (27.7)	Unsettled in England and Wales (EIH R&R 22.3: "not currently enforced"), and in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which 22.3 may now reach; live in BUIHA; unsettled in the Elite League. Assume it binds your goalie, not theirs	None — but freezing outside the crease behind the goal line, or outside the privileged area, is a minor (614(c))	Usually none (check)
Goalie beyond the centre red line	Minor (27.7) — the puck's position decides	Minor (27.6) — same	As IIHF	Minor (407(c)) — the goalie's skates decide (Casebook 407, Sit. 13)	Follows its book; Hockey Canada also uses the skates (4.13(c), 8.3(a))
Icing type	Hybrid — race to the puck, decided by the time a skate reaches the dot	Hybrid	As IIHF — ⚠️ but no icing at all at IHUK U12 (Junior RoC, Appendix D)	Automatic	Usually automatic; Hockey Canada hybrid only in U18AAA, Junior and optional Senior (6.7(e))
Icing: "gaining the line"	Puck on the stick touches the red line (81.1)	Same (81.1)	As IIHF	Point of last contact (624 Note)	Hockey Canada: last contact (Interp. 5); CARHA: any contact over the line (65(a)), or a blue line in some leagues (65(b)) — ask
Icing: line change	No change for the offending team; three exceptions	No change — 81.4 adds a broken skate, but 82.1 does not, and nothing settles which governs: do not count on it	As IIHF	Change allowed, but only inside the window that closes at every stoppage; late is a minor or bench minor after a warning (204(a), 610(g))	Hockey Canada: no change in U18AAA, Junior and optional Senior (6.7(d)) — assume none in adult play; CARHA: one change per stoppage (19(d))
Knocking your own net off: line change	No change (63.8), same three exceptions	No change (63.8)	As IIHF	No bar found (610(d))	Hockey Canada: no change in U18 AAA, Junior and optional Senior (6.1(g)); CARHA: none written
Change on the fly: distance from the bench	5 ft, out of the play (74.1)	1.50 m (74.1)	As IIHF	At the bench, no distance — and ⚠️ a change that gains an advantage while both players are on is too many men (204(b); Casebook 204, Sit. 8)	Hockey Canada and CARHA: 10 ft (6.1(a), 19(b))
Icing: shorthanded exemption	Yes — lost once a major expires with nobody in the box to come out (81.6)	Yes, no carve-out — but an empty box is a bench minor at once (20.3, 68.2)	As IIHF	Only at Youth 15-Only+, Girls 16U+, High School and Adult (624(b)(1))	Usually yes
Icing: goalie waves it off	Yes — feinting, attempting or skating toward the puck	Yes	As IIHF	No — only actual contact	Hockey Canada: only inside hybrid icing, both skates out (6.7(e)(vi)), otherwise ICING; CARHA: only a touch
Icing: timeout	None for the defending team (87.1)	None (87.1)	As IIHF	Allowed (636(f)) — no timeout at all in a curfew game	Hockey Canada allows it where its no-change bar runs (6.7(d)(iii))
Body checking	Legal (men's)	Legal (men's); women's only with clear intent to play the puck, no boards to pin, and a step or glide into a player at least a minor (101.1)	Set by your Rules of Competition: non-checking at U10 and U12, checking from U14 in IHUK junior; WNIHL non-checking at U16 and senior; NIHL checking. See Body Contact and Battles	Banned at 12U and below, all girls' and women's, and non-check adult (604)	Ask your league
Illegal check to the head	Minor (48.2), no major (48.3); match for an attempt to injure (48.5, 21.1)	Head or neck; major + automatic game misconduct for reckless endangerment (48.3). A square hit with no upward motion on a carrier skating head down toward the checker is not penalised under 48, though the checker must still avoid the head	As IIHF	Minor + misconduct at the floor; major + game misconduct compulsory when careless or reckless (620(b)); plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if reckless (602(a))	Assume ejection. Hockey Canada: "There is no type of legal contact to the head, face, or neck" (7.6); crouching to avoid a check is penalised in every division (8.7)
Checking from behind	No minor; major + game misconduct (43.2–43.5); match for intent to injure	No minor; major + automatic game misconduct (43.3) — plan on it	As IIHF — major + game misconduct; it ends your game	Minor + misconduct only for an open-ice push or low-force pinch; forceful along the boards, head first, or reckless = major + game misconduct or match (608; Casebook 608, Sit. 1); plan on the match and a likely multi-game suspension if reckless (608(c), 602(a))	Assume ejection: CARHA, and Hockey Canada while the hit stays off the head or drives the player head first into the boards or goal frame, eject at every tier and make a hit into the boards or goal frame on a defenceless player a mandatory match (7.5(c), 53(b))
High-sticking	Double minor for injury; no major; match for an attempted or deliberate injury (60.3, 60.4)	Major + automatic game misconduct when reckless (60.4); waist floor only in the 2026/27 book, and never in 60.2	As IIHF, except no on-ice video review in EIH or SIHA competition (the Elite League keeps it)	Major + game misconduct when reckless (621(b)); plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)); the Casebook says contact is not needed	Assume a major and an ejection — and a match if the struck player could not protect themselves or it was deliberate. CARHA starts at a major (62(b)); Hockey Canada routes it to head contact (7.6, 7.7)
Broken stick (skater)	Drop it; a minor if you keep it and play on (10.3)	Same (10.3)	Amended: drop it at once, "anywhere on the ice", or take a 2-minute penalty (In-House 10.3; not the Elite League)	Drop it — a short carry to the bench is allowed only if close and out of the play (605; Casebook 605)	Hockey Canada: drop it at once (3.2(a))
Fighting	5-minute major; the aggressor is ejected (46.2)	Assume you are gone: major + automatic game misconduct is "the standard penalty" in the 2026/27 book (46.1)	Amended for NIHL, SNL and BUIHA Varsity: a 5-minute major, plus a game misconduct in the last five minutes or overtime in NIHL (Section 6); the rest of Rule 46 stands. Elite League: ⚠️ a game misconduct on a "2nd Major Penalty", harsher instigator tariffs, and suspensions from the 10th season major (EIHL Casebook 46)	Major + game misconduct; a second fighting major in a season = 3-game suspension (615(f))	Ejection and suspension, nearly always — CARHA: a match for the instigator or aggressor (59(a))
When majors and misconducts eject you	A third major; one major for the fouls on Table 5 — some outright, some only if they injure; no second-misconduct trigger (20.4)	A second major or second misconduct; one major for twenty listed fouls outright (twenty-two in 2026/27), and five more at the referee's judgement (20.4, 22.1, Tables 6 and 7; Table 5 in 2026/27)	⚠️ Women's hockey: every major ejects (Section 11, Rule 101). And kit can eject you: a missing neck guard is an immediate misconduct, so two kit misconducts are a game misconduct (9.12; IIHF 22.1)	Any game misconduct costs the next game (404(b)); a second major in a game, at least two (403(b), 404(b)); a second misconduct is a game misconduct (404(a))	⚠️ CARHA and Hockey Canada: every major ejects (30(a) bar a skater's harmless accidental high stick; 4.4), CARHA's, bar an accidental high stick, with at least a one-game suspension (32(d))
Offside review	Coach's Challenge (38.2(a)); a failed one is a minor, then a double minor	Same (83.5, 38.7)	Amended — none in EIH or SIHA competition (In-House 37, 38); the Elite League keeps both	None	Usually none; CARHA: the Referee decides on the ice (41(e))
Airborne trail skate at the blue line	Onside (83.1)	Onside (83.1)	As IIHF	Offside — skate contact required (630(a))	Assume contact is required: Hockey Canada requires it (6.11); CARHA does not settle it (72(c))
Faceoff violation	Centre ejected from the draw, only warned after an icing; second violation a bench minor; a skate win is legal	Centre ejected (2026/27), only warned after an icing, then a bench minor; a skate win is a violation (76.3(VI))	Amended: the centre is replaced for every violation except after an icing, and either centre may put their stick down first (not the Elite League)	Centre ejected; second violation a minor on the player (613(d)); the attacking centre puts their stick down first, the visitor at centre ice (613(a))	Often not called, or re-dropped; Hockey Canada ejects the taker for any violation (6.2(d)), bar a warning first on a Junior draw after an icing (6.5(a)); CARHA ejects the taker (57(a))
Tagging up on a delayed offside	Yes	Yes	As IIHF — but no stoppage at all at U12 (Appendix D)	Only at Youth 15-Only+, Girls 16U+, High School and Adult (630(d))	Usually yes; Hockey Canada in every division
Overtime	Regular season 5 min 3-on-3, then a shootout; playoffs 20-min sudden-death periods	5 or 10 min 3-on-3 then a shootout; gold-medal games unlimited 3-on-3	Amended, often none — NIHL 5 min 3-on-3 then a 3-shooter GWS; finals weekend 5-on-5 (Rule 84, Appendix 1). Elite League: ⚠️ 5 min 3-on-3 then a 5-shooter shootout in the regular season; knockouts play sudden-death overtime, two-leg ties only if level on aggregate, and the bronze game is a shootout only (EIHL Casebook 84.1)	Recommended 10-min sudden victory; affiliates decide (638)	Varies; CARHA league ties stand (85(a)), its tournaments run 4-on-4 then 5-on-5 — never 3-on-3
Period length	3 × 20, stop time; 18-min intermissions	3 × 20; 15-min intermissions	Adult 3 × 20; ⚠️ junior and women's set by Rules of Competition — U12 runs 18 or 20 on a running clock	Max 3 × 20; minors pro-rated for shorter periods except for adults, and longer penalties where an affiliate chooses (402–405)	Often shorter and running clock; curfews common

The short version, for anyone who cannot see that table: every row is also set out in words on this page — in sections 1 to 8, in the Elite League paragraph just above, in the points below or in Common Mistakes — except a few details. USA Hockey writes no video review, and CARHA's Referee settles a disputed goal on the ice (41(e)). And in the Elite League a two-leg tie goes to overtime only if it is level on aggregate, and the bronze game is a shootout with no overtime (EIHL Casebook 84.1).

Two USA Hockey consequences live only here. ⚠️ A second major to the same player in one game adds a suspension for "their team's next two games" (403(b)) — at least two, because 404(b) writes "a minimum two-game suspension" — on top of any other suspension from the same incident. A second fighting major with the same team in a season is a three-game suspension, and a third means suspension "until a hearing is conducted by the proper authorities" (615(f)) — a ladder separate from Rule 411's, which leaves fighting out.

British kit. ⚠️ Two In-House kit rules can end your game without your fouling anybody. Under the In-House Rules 2026-27 a missing neck laceration protector draws "an immediate 10-minute Misconduct Penalty" with no warning, and a second "automatically escalates to a Game Misconduct" (9.12). A jersey tucked into your shorts, a jersey not covering your elbow pads (9.3) and a chin-strap gap over 2.5 cm (9.8) are each a warning and then a misconduct — and IIHF 22.1 ejects you on a second misconduct of any kind. The Elite League instead gives a minor after a warning (EIHL Casebook 9.12), escalating if you keep going out without it (9.5). UK and England Rules and Equipment have the rest, and the In-House Rules are revised in-season, so check for a later revision. (The British faceoff and broken-stick answers here are the 2026-27 edition's; the junior and women's age categories were not re-compared, so read those from the current In-House Rules.)

The Elite League's main fighting tariff: willing combatants get "at least a Major Penalty ('Fighting')". ⚠️ A second major brings "an Automatic Game misconduct", which ends your game — and the Casebook does not say whether it counts the game or the season, so count the season, and ask the League. An instigator gets 2 + 5 + 10, rising to 2 + 5 + 20 in the last five minutes, in overtime or on a second instigation; instigator and aggressor, 2 + 5 + 10 + 20. A fighting major after the original altercation has started brings a game misconduct, and losing your jersey 2 + a game misconduct. A 10th fighting major in a regular season is a one-game suspension, and a 14th two games for each further one. Outside the periods, expect all appropriate penalties plus automatic supplementary discipline, and at least one game for an instigator — and plan on IIHF 46.8's major and game misconduct if a referee sees it (EIHL Casebook 46).

A note on the rec column: it is not one book. "Usually", "often" and "varies" describe how leagues tend to write their rules, and this document has no count of how many fall either side. Where a cell names a book and a rule, that part is checkable.

Published rec rulebooks do exist. CARHA Hockey publishes a full Official Rule Book for CARHA-affiliated leagues — not a general standard, and this document has no count of how much Canadian adult hockey runs on it. Where it applies:

No trapezoid, but no smothering behind the goal line outside the crease (58(b)), and a minor for any unnecessary hold anywhere (61(b), 74(b)).
Automatic icing, nullified by "⁠[a]ny contact with the puck over the centre red line" (65(a)); some leagues use the blue lines instead (65(b), 65(c)), without saying whose — ask. A team below the other's strength cannot ice it (65(d)), and a player sitting in the box after their penalty expires counts as back (Note 2 to 65(a)).
Body contact is itself the penalty (49(a)): a minor or major for any player who "intentionally bodies, pushes, shoves, stands in front of an opponent for the purpose of making contact, and/or does not avert body contact", the major mandatory if it injures and ejecting you either way, with at least a one-game ban (30(a), 32(d)). A foul that puts an opponent into the boards is a double minor (49(b)), which counts as two of the three penalties that eject you (32(a)). Accidental contact is no penalty (49(c)) — ⚠️ unless it reaches the head (50(a)) or puts a player from behind into the boards or net, a match penalty (53(b)). Read "does not avert body contact" as a duty to get out of the way — that is the clause's grammar, not something the book says. Deliberate contact after the whistle is a minor or major too (49(d)).
Faceoff violations cost you the draw: a teammate encroaching gets the taker ejected (57(a)), and a second violation can be a minor (57(d)).
Fighting means the dressing room: a match penalty for the instigator or aggressor (59(a)), and no further games until the case is dealt with (34(a)).
Two twenty-minute periods (84(a)), though local committees may vary it, with a mercy rule — running time at a five-goal spread with 10 minutes left, penalties lengthened to compensate (84(f)).
High sticks. ⚠️ A high stick above the shoulders is a major from the first contact, injury or not (62(b)) — no minor rung, no route back down through Rule 50, and a game misconduct if intentional or if an accidental one injures; a match for a deliberate injury (62(c)); and no windup or follow-through carve-out. Its minor (62(a)) is a different act: checking or intimidating with the stick above the opponent's waist, no contact needed.
The slap shot is banned outright — a minor; if it injures, a major that ejects you with at least a one-game ban (79(a), 30(a), 32(d)) — defined as a backswing "more than fifteen inches either on or off the ice"; a fake slap shot used to intimidate is a minor too (79(b)). (USA Hockey bans the slap shot only in blind hockey; the NHL, IIHF and Hockey Canada have no slap-shot rule.)

The ASHL publishes a rulebook too, but as an overlay: "the current rules issued by Hockey Canada (Canadian ASHL locations) and USA Hockey (USA-based ASHL locations) provides the foundation for game rules in the ASHL." Neither book governs you unless your league says it does.

So here is what to ask. In Britain the rule book is the IIHF's plus the IHUK In-House Rules, or the EIHL Casebook in the Elite League — ⚠️ but period length and whether you may check are set by your competition's Rules of Competition, so ask for those too. In North American adult rec hockey, ask whether your league is CARHA-affiliated, whether checking is allowed in your division, and which of USA Hockey or Hockey Canada it otherwise adopts. ⚠️ Do not assume the answer: many adult leagues are not affiliated, and this document has no count of how many — but the answer decides whether the automatic icing, the major-from-first-contact high stick, the slap-shot ban, body contact as an offence and checking from behind with no rung that leaves you on the ice are your rules. Ask before your first shift, and ask for it in writing.

Common Mistakes

These are rules misconceptions players genuinely hold, and what each one costs.

"I have to be behind the blue line." No — one skate on or behind the plane keeps you onside, and the line is a foot wide. Coasting behind the line to be safe kills your entry. Drag a trail skate and enter at speed.
"High-sticking is a double minor." Keep the blade below an opponent's shoulders — follow the puck up with your eyes, not with your stick. A double minor is the NHL's and the PWHL's ceiling only for an injury that was not deliberate or attempted; everywhere else a high stick can reach a major and a game misconduct. ⚠️ In a CARHA-affiliated adult league, contact above the shoulders starts at a major, accidental or not. And "they were crouching" is no defence: where a book has a waist floor it is measured at the struck player's waist, and no book's minor clause repeats it.
"I never touched them, so it cannot be high-sticking." Keep the blade below your own shoulders in traffic and the question never arises. ⚠️ It can be high-sticking without contact. USA Hockey's Casebook says contact is not required, the 2025/26 IIHF book defines a high stick without it, and Hockey Canada's 9.5 preamble allows a penalty "regardless of whether or not contact occurs" — though each book's own rule text also requires contact somewhere, so none of them settles it. Assume it can.
"My skate was in the air, so I was offside." Know which book you are in, and if you do not, keep the blade down. A raised skate held wholly back over the neutral zone is onside under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL, offside under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, which require the skate on the ice, and unsettled under CARHA. Under the 2025/26 IIHF book, do not reach a toe across the line either. A dragged blade is onside everywhere.
"During a delayed offside I just can't touch the puck." Retreat to the line and do not chase, whichever book you are under. Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL, forcing the carrier deeper or being about to make contact with the carrier also stops play. ⚠️ Elsewhere, do not close on the carrier expecting a whistle to arrive before you do — USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write no contact trigger, so the carrier is still playing the puck and is not braced for you.
"We tagged up, so the goal counts." Treat the shot that caused the delayed offside as a dump-in, not a scoring chance: tag up, then go and win the puck back. If that same shot goes in, the goal does not count in any book here, and clearing the zone afterwards has no bearing (Rule 83.4).
"Icing is a race to the dot." Race the puck, not the dot. The dot is only where the linesperson's decision is locked in, and a race too close to call there is icing (Rule 81.1). Under USA Hockey's automatic icing there is no race at all.
"I got the puck over the red line with my skate, so no icing." Get the puck past the red line on your stick. Under the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL the puck must be on your stick when it reaches the line; USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA judge where you last touched it instead. The stick works in every book.
"My blade snapped, so I can come off after our icing." Stay on, tell the official, and let them send you off if they will — never send a replacement over the boards on the assumption. Only the IIHF book names a broken skate as an exception, and only in one of its two clauses barring the change — it does not say which governs. The NHL and Hockey Canada write no such exception. A replacement who goes over anyway is sent back with a warning under IIHF Rule 82.2(V) — a bench minor straight away if your team has already used its one warning — and under the NHL may be a bench minor with no warning at all.
"USA Hockey doesn't bar the change after an icing, so I can go over the boards whenever I like." You may change after your own icing under USA Hockey, but not late — late is the part that is penalised. ⚠️ The change window closes at every stoppage (Rule 204(a)), and a late change draws a warning and then a minor or a bench minor for delay (Rules 204(a), 610(g)).
"I'll knock the net off — we get a whistle and I get a change." Never knock the net off to buy a rest. ⚠️ You get the whistle and you do not get the change. Under NHL and IIHF Rule 63.8 the draw comes to your end, the other team picks the dot and you may not substitute; Hockey Canada writes the same bar in U18 AAA, Junior and, at the Member's option, Senior. If the referee reads it as deliberate it is a delay-of-game minor — or a penalty shot late in regulation or in overtime — and if it stops a goal on an open net the referee can award the goal.
"I'll hop off the ice to kill the delayed offside." That works — into your own bench (NHL and IIHF Rule 83.3). The wrong door is a bench minor under USA Hockey if you are replaced, and your replacement has to clear the zone as well if they come on while the arm is still up.
"A cross-check to the chest that rides up is a two-minute hockey play." Control their stick instead of their body — a stick lift taken below their bottom hand, lifted up rather than sideways. ⚠️ A cross-check above the shoulders is a mandatory major and game misconduct under Hockey Canada and CARHA, "whether or not injury results", and under USA Hockey a stick to the head is Head Contact — a mandatory major and game misconduct when careless, and plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if reckless (602(a)). The NHL and IIHF referee can go to a major and game misconduct as well. Below the shoulders, a push is still a cross-check. And lift, do not chop: USA Hockey singles out hard slashes to the top of an opponent's stick for strict enforcement.
"It was only stick-on-stick, so it cannot be hooking." Stick on the puck, not on the opponent's stick. ⚠️ USA Hockey and Hockey Canada name the opponent's stick as something you can hook, and the NHL and IIHF exemption covers stick contact only "⁠[w]hen a player is checking another". "No tug, no hooking" is not safe in any book — the tug is the NHL referee's signal, not the test, and a stick that impedes the opponent without one can still be hooking, or holding.
"I got the puck first, so it is not a trip." Beating the opponent to the puck is the defence; beating them to it and then taking their feet is not. ⚠️ In the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL, touching the puck first saves you the penalty shot, not the two minutes. USA Hockey excuses only a clear hook- or poke-check made to win the puck; Hockey Canada and CARHA also excuse a sliding player who reaches the puck first — though under Hockey Canada, plan on a low slide into an opponent's legs being called clipping (8.7), which has no puck-first exception. Neither USA Hockey's relief nor Hockey Canada's reaches slew-footing.
"I can grab their stick as long as I let go." Block it with your body and do not close your fingers on it. Only the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL let you grab it to defend yourself and release it at once. Hockey Canada permits only blocking it, CARHA penalises holding it, and USA Hockey lists grabbing the stick as holding, "to be called with very strict enforcement" — its Casebook lets a puck carrier fend off the opponent with a free arm, never their stick. This document has no count of which North American leagues run which book, so find out which yours runs.
"Grabbing their cage is just two minutes." Never touch an opponent's cage. No book lets you count on two minutes. USA Hockey and the PWHL make it a major and game misconduct; Hockey Canada and CARHA start at a double minor and reach a match penalty; and the NHL and IIHF minor can be escalated — under the IIHF on the force alone, with nobody hurt, to a major and automatic game misconduct.
"A punch with the glove on is just roughing — a mutual two." Do not throw one, and do not answer one: turn away, get to an official or your bench, and let the referee sort it out — see Body Contact and Battles. No book makes roughing your ceiling: a sucker punch that injures (in the 2025/26 book, one that could) is a major and automatic game misconduct under the IIHF, a punch to the head is Head Contact under Hockey Canada, and USA Hockey counts any punch thrown at an opponent as fighting — a major and game misconduct. Assume ejection.

If you were hit and did not retaliate, four of the six books can spare you — USA Hockey plainly; Hockey Canada, CARHA and the IIHF at the referee's discretion, the IIHF's 2026/27 book waiving only the ejection, not the major. No such relief was found in the NHL or PWHL book; no NHL casebook was available to search, so read that as not found rather than absent. And if it landed on your head, come off and say so: a suspected concussion means off the ice, no return that day, and a medical professional before you play again. Conditioning and Recovery carries the red flags that mean an ambulance instead, and the sources.
"Helmets come off in fights all the time — that is nothing." Do your chin strap up properly, and keep your hands away from anybody's helmet — yours included. ⚠️ It is nothing only in the NHL, the PWHL and the IIHF. Under USA Hockey, deliberately removing your own or an opponent's helmet in an altercation is a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension at every age; causing an opponent's to come off is a game misconduct with a two-game suspension; and losing your own because the strap was loose — more than one finger's gap under the jaw — is a game misconduct too. None of that needs a fight, only an altercation in which somebody is penalised. Hockey Canada makes deliberate removal a Gross Misconduct, and CARHA pulling an opponent's helmet a double minor up to a match penalty. Body fouls has the detail.
"A ten-minute misconduct puts us on the kill." Once you are given one, add nothing to it — no word to the referee and no shove on the way to the box. A misconduct on its own is replaced at once and your team plays full strength (NHL and IIHF Rule 22.3). ⚠️ But add a minor to it and a substitute serves the minor — you are shorthanded for those two minutes.
"The other team scored, so my major is over." Keep killing — they scored, but your major is still running. Majors do not expire on a goal (NHL and IIHF Rule 20.2). Only minors and bench minors do, and only if the team is genuinely shorthanded and serving one.
"I only took two strides, so it cannot be charging." Count nothing: arrive under control, or do not arrive. ⚠️ No book settles charging on the count alone — two strides is already a charge under Hockey Canada, and the NHL and USA Hockey also judge the distance travelled. Leaving your feet to make the hit is a trigger on its own. ⚠️ A minor is nobody's ceiling: a reckless charge is a major and game misconduct under USA Hockey (plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension too) and the IIHF, with nobody hurt. Hockey Canada makes one that leaves the opponent unable to defend themselves a mandatory match penalty, and in CARHA a charge that injures, or one on a goalie in their crease, ends your game. Under USA Hockey and CARHA, an ejection for charging also costs at least the next game.
"A hit to the head is two minutes." Keep your hits below the shoulders, your head up and your chin off your chest. ⚠️ Two minutes is the whole answer only in the NHL, and only short of an attempt to injure. Everywhere else a head hit can end your game — under the IIHF without intent, and under USA Hockey it must, even if careless, with a match and a likely multi-game suspension if reckless. Never duck to avoid one: it is dangerous, and some books penalise it. Body fouls has the detail.
"They turned at the last second, so the check from behind is on them." If you can see their numbers, pull up and play the puck. ⚠️ It is not on them: the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL waive only a deliberate turn to draw the contact, and USA Hockey and Hockey Canada put the onus on the checker. Most books eject at the first tier — a Hockey Canada head-first drive into the boards or goal frame included, and under the IIHF plan on it — and both Canadian books make driving a defenceless player into the boards or net a mandatory match penalty. USA Hockey must eject a forceful or head-first check at the boards — plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension if it is reckless. Body fouls has the tiers.
"Three majors before I'm thrown out." Play as though one is enough, because it very often is. Every major ejects you under Hockey Canada, and almost every one under CARHA; under USA Hockey every major in its table carries a game misconduct and costs your next game (404(b)). The IIHF ejects on a second major or a second misconduct, and the IIHF and NHL on one major for listed fouls. The types of penalty has the lists.
"I can't screen the goalie." A screen set from outside the crease, without contact, is legal, and referees allow it constantly — though it is the referee's call, and contact, or any part of you in the crease, can still cost the goal. What is illegal is contact, or a significant position inside the crease that both blocks their view and impairs their ability to defend (Rule 69.3). ⚠️ An empty crease is not a free crease, though: deliberately keeping a goalie who has played the puck outside from getting back can still be interference (Rule 69.4). Stand in the goalie's eyes; keep your feet out of the blue paint — and off the red line around it, which every book that settles the question counts as part of the crease. USA Hockey and Hockey Canada judge only where you stand inside the crease, and USA Hockey takes the goal off on your position there alone.
"Any contact with the goalie is interference." Make a visible effort to go around the goalie, and treat any contact you had time to avoid as a penalty you have bought. ⚠️ The permission is narrower than it is usually quoted. In the NHL, the PWHL and the IIHF, incidental contact outside the crease is allowed only while the goalie is playing the puck and you tried to avoid it, or on a rebound or loose puck you are both going for. USA Hockey lets you engage the goalie for the puck only while they have it, and still calls a deliberate check on them charging; Hockey Canada puts the onus on you to avoid the goalie in every case and disallows any goal where an attacker starts the contact; CARHA allows no deliberate contact at all. ⚠️ And it can end your game. A reckless charge on the goalie is a major and game misconduct under USA Hockey (plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension too), and Hockey Canada makes charging or injuring a goalie a mandatory major and game misconduct. In CARHA a major for it — mandatory if you hurt the goalie or charge them in their crease — ejects you and costs at least your next game.
"Our goalie can go get it as long as a defenceman is coming." Where your book has a trapezoid, play the puck behind your goal line only inside it or with a skate still on your crease — otherwise leave it for your defenceman, however close they are. There is no teammate exception: the only exception the rule writes is the goalie keeping skate contact with their crease (NHL Rule 27.8; IIHF Rule 27.7). See §7.
"The puck was still on our side of the red line, so our goalie was allowed to play it." Keep both your skates and the puck on your own side of the red line and you are legal everywhere. ⚠️ The NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL judge by the puck; USA Hockey and Hockey Canada judge by the goalie's skates and penalise a goalie whose skates are over the line even if the puck is not. CARHA does not say, so play it the strict way. This document has no count of which North American leagues run which book, so find out which yours runs.
"Closing my hand on the puck at the draw is a faceoff violation." At the dot your hand is simply out of it — win the draw with your stick. It is a penalty, not a violation: a minor in the NHL and IIHF, and under USA Hockey covering or picking up the puck is a minor too; Hockey Canada and CARHA penalise a closed hand only where it gains an advantage. Every book gets harsher in your own crease — a penalty shot, or with your net empty possibly an awarded goal. Batting the puck with your hand to win the draw is a minor for delay of game. And under the NHL and IIHF the two players taking the draw may not catch the puck and knock it down until a third player has touched it (the note to Rule 67.2).
"Only the centre can cause a faceoff violation." If you are not taking the draw, keep both skates outside the circle and off its line, stay onside, and at an end-zone dot stay on your own side of the hash marks until the puck drops. A winger encroaching gets the centre thrown out of the draw under the NHL and the 2026/27 IIHF book alike (Rule 76.6; after an icing the first one is a warning, 76.4), and a second violation by the same team is a bench minor — under USA Hockey a minor on the player who did it, and under Hockey Canada and CARHA a minor the referee may give. Hockey Canada makes it mandatory when the player then contacts the linesperson (6.2(e)), and on a Junior draw after an icing, where the first violation draws a warning and the next a minor (6.5). ⚠️ Under the IIHF, winning the draw with your skate is itself a violation (Rule 76.3(VI)).
"Every puck over the glass is a penalty." Never put it over the glass from your own zone, and never put it out deliberately from anywhere — chip it off the glass and keep it in play. Under the NHL and IIHF, a puck shot or batted directly over the glass from your own zone is a minor whether you meant it or not, and a deliberate one from anywhere is a minor too (Rule 63.2). ⚠️ Aiming at the bench does not save you: only a puck shot directly into an open bench escapes, and the IIHF Situation Handbook counts a puck kicked over while blocking a shot. USA Hockey penalises only a deliberate clear, and Hockey Canada and CARHA also catch a goalie who shoots it directly out with their stick. Other infractions has the detail.
"The whistle has gone, so I can just fire it into the corner." After the whistle, leave the puck where it is or pass it gently to the official — never shoot it away. ⚠️ Firing it out is two minutes in the NHL and the IIHF, and the bottom rung of a ladder in the amateur books. Under USA Hockey it can be a misconduct, a game misconduct if done in protest or towards an official or a spectator, and a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension if it recklessly endangers one; Hockey Canada can go straight to a misconduct or game misconduct.
"The referee blows the whistle as soon as the offending team touches the puck on a delayed penalty." Keep playing until they control it — a deflection off their skate does not end it. The condition is control, not touch (NHL and IIHF Rule 15.1).
"We're on a delayed penalty, so let's shoot." Keep the puck, and regroup if you must. A missed shot they recover ends your six-on-five and downgrades you to a five-on-four.
"We're killing, we can't ice it." Use the clear while you are below their numbers — but find out first where your book takes it back. ⚠️ USA Hockey withholds it below Youth 15-Only, Girls 16U, High School and Adult, and the NHL and the PWHL withdraw it from a team that has left nobody on the penalty box to come out when a major expires. The test is a head count, not a clock: a player whose penalty has expired counts as back on the ice even while still in the box, so on a 5-on-3 the first expiry changes nothing, and a clear released before an expiry is not icing. ⚠️ An empty penalty box past the deadline is a bench minor (NHL and IIHF Rule 68.2). That not using the clear is a common error is coaching craft, not a count.
"My stick broke, so I'll just play it out." Open your hand the moment it breaks — playing on with a broken stick is a minor (Rule 10.3). Under the IHUK In-House Rules, do not carry it to the bench either: drop it at once or take a two-minute penalty, wherever you are on the ice. Hockey Canada is the same. Take a replacement handed to you, never one thrown or slid to you; picking one up off the ice is allowed only in the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL. Your goalie may play on with a broken stick until a stoppage in the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL — not under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada or CARHA, where it is a minor.
"It's beer league — there is no rulebook." Ask whether your league is CARHA-affiliated, and which of USA Hockey or Hockey Canada it otherwise adopts. ⚠️ There may well be one, and it may be harsher than the book you have watched on television. In a CARHA-affiliated league a high stick above the shoulders starts at a major, the slap shot is banned outright, deliberate body contact is itself the offence, and every major ejects you bar a skater's accidental high stick that injures nobody. Any major but an accidental high stick also bans you for at least the next game (32(d)). Many adult leagues are not affiliated, so ask. Section 10 sets out what turns on the answer.
"It's just chirping." Nothing about it has to be said on the ice. ⚠️ A racial slur or taunt is an ejection under the IIHF, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA (the last three for any discriminatory one), and under the IIHF so is a sexual remark. Discriminatory language is a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension under USA Hockey, and a Gross Misconduct under Hockey Canada and CARHA, and the NHL and the PWHL can eject for a racial one.
"I'll just tell the ref what I think." Leave it to your captain — only the captain and alternates have standing at all. Disputing a call from the penalty box after play has resumed is an automatic misconduct (NHL and IIHF Rule 75.4).
"The rules are the rules." They are not. Trapezoid, icing, body checking, tagging up, overtime, penalty length, the penalty for a high stick and the penalty for a hit to the head all vary between books and leagues. Read your league's sheet before your first game.

Check yourself

Optional — nothing on this page depends on them. Try each before checking the section it names: getting an answer wrong and then checking is worth more than recognising a right one.

A hit catches an opponent's head. What is the most the NHL gives for it short of an attempt to injure, and why should a British player learn the rule from the IIHF book instead? (§Body fouls)
You have already taken one major tonight. Could that one have ended your game already — and does a ten-minute misconduct on its own put your team short? (§Penalties, and §When penalties add up)
You are carrying through the neutral zone and want to fire it in. What has to reach the centre red line, and on what, to be safe from icing in every book? (§"Gaining the line")
Your trail skate is in the air over the neutral zone as the puck crosses the blue line. What would you have to do differently to be onside in every book? (§2. Offside — Rule-set differences)
The linesperson's arm is up for a delayed offside and you are still in the zone. Under the NHL and IIHF, what can bring the whistle without your touching the puck? (§Delayed offside and tagging up)
Your winger leans over the hash marks before the drop. What does that cost your centre, and what does a second violation cost your team? (§8. Faceoffs — the two things you must not leave without)
Your goalie wants to go for a puck outside the trapezoid because a defenceman is on the way. What is the one exception the rule actually carries? (§The trapezoid, and §Common Mistakes)
Your stick snaps in the corner with the puck at your feet. What must you do in that instant, and how may a replacement reach you? If you play in Britain, why can you not carry the broken one to the bench? (§Broken sticks)

Key Takeaways

Drag a trail skate on the blue line and enter at speed. On a delayed offside, everyone tags up; leave the puck. ⚠️ Do not close on the carrier expecting a whistle: in several books they are still playing the puck, unbraced. USA Hockey has tag-up only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult.
Get the puck past the red line, on your stick, before you send it away — then it is not icing in any book. Under hybrid icing, race to the puck, not the dot. Find out which icing you play: USA Hockey and most Hockey Canada levels run automatic icing. IHUK U12 hockey has none at all.
Do not ice the puck to buy a rest — the NHL and IIHF, so Britain too, bar the change. USA Hockey allows it, but its change window closes at every stoppage. On the kill, clear it only while shorthanded — under USA Hockey, only at Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult.
Keep killing a major after they score — a goal ends only a minor you are short for. ⚠️ Play as though one major ends your game: it always does under Hockey Canada and in IHUK women's hockey, almost always under CARHA, and for many fouls under the IIHF and NHL. Never throw a punch, even gloved: USA Hockey calls it fighting and ejects you.
Keep your hits below the shoulders. Outside the NHL a head hit can end your game without any intent to injure, and under USA Hockey even a careless one must. ⚠️ Hit in the head? Come off and say so: a suspected concussion means no return that day and a medical professional before you play again.
Never duck or crouch to avoid a check — take it head up, knees bent, chin off your chest — a tucked chin can break your neck in a hit into the boards. ⚠️ At the wall, take contact along your side, never on the point of your shoulder, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you. Caught facing the boards? Stick and gloves up and spread on the glass, head off it.
If you can see an opponent's numbers, pull up and play the puck. A hit from behind ends your game in the NHL, PWHL and CARHA, and under the IIHF plan on it. Hockey Canada ejects at every tier, a head-first drive into the boards or goal frame included, and prices a hit that reaches the head as head contact instead. Both Canadian books make driving a defenceless player into the boards or net a mandatory match. USA Hockey must eject a forceful or head-first one at the boards; if reckless, plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension.
Keep your stick on the puck and your feet out of the opponent's. ⚠️ Two acts are never safely two minutes: a cross-check above the shoulders — a mandatory ejection under CARHA and Hockey Canada (in its minor and female hockey, a deliberate one) — and slew-footing, an ejection in most books. USA Hockey ejects for a reckless hook, slash, trip, cross-check or high stick: plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension.
Screen the goalie from outside the crease, without contact, and never stand in their road back. Keep off the blue paint and its red line. ⚠️ Contact with the goalie can end your game, and a charge on them must — always under Hockey Canada, under CARHA in their crease or if they are hurt, under USA Hockey if reckless.
Before your first shift, learn your rulebook and whether body checking is allowed — if it is not, the check itself is the penalty. ⚠️ In Britain, wear your neck guard every shift. In North American adult rec, ask whether your league is CARHA-affiliated: there almost every major ejects you, and any but an accidental high stick also bans you for at least the next game.

Sources — retrieved 27 July 2026, except the In-House Rules: the 2025-26 edition 29 July 2026, the 2026-27 edition 29 August 2026

Primary rulebooks: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rules 1, 5, 10, 14, 15–29, 31–32, 34, 38, 41–64, 74.1 and 74.3 (read 31 August 2026: 74.1's "within five feet (5') of his players' bench and out of the play before the change is made", its two triggers, and its bar on leaving by "any other exit leading from the rink"; 74.3's same five feet for a player leaving the penalty bench) (including 48.1's avoidability factors, which the IIHF carries as 48.1(V)–(VII) in the plural: whether the opponent "materially changed the position of his body or head immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit" (iii) and whether the player "put himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full body check unavoidable" (ii) — circumstances weighed in deciding whether the head contact was avoidable, not exemptions, and neither book penalises the player who ducked), 67, 69 — including 69.4's second paragraph, which carries both the "not fair game" restriction and the permission conditioned on the goalkeeper being "in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease", and 69.4's third paragraph, the returning-goalkeeper protection ("When a goalkeeper 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, such player may be penalized for goalkeeper interference") and its reciprocal, in the same paragraph, which penalises the goalkeeper who deliberately interferes from outside the crease, and 69.7 read in full for all four of its limbs — the rebound and loose-puck permission; the disallowed goal where a goalkeeper "has been pushed into the net together with the puck by an attacking player after making a stop", with "⁠[i]f applicable, appropriate penalties will be assessed"; the sentence after it permitting the goal where the attacking player "was pushed or otherwise fouled by a defending player" causing that push; and the fourth, under which "a goal cannot be scored by pushing this player together with the puck into the goal" where the puck is under a player in or around the crease area, up to a penalty shot if deemed covered deliberately — 74–87, including 78.5(ix), cited only as a cross-reference: it states the push-in in a shorter form, dropping "by an attacking player" and writing "after making a save", and refers back to 69.7 for the rule; and Reference Table 14 (Interference on the Goalkeeper Situations) · IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (PDF) — Rules 5 (5.1, whose interpretive sentence — "any reference to 'Player' shall refer to both skaters and goalkeepers" — is the NHL's own sentence at its own 5.1, the IIHF capitalising the term it is defining where the NHL does not, and identical in the 2026/27 edition), 9, 10, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56 (56.1's Body Position, Free Hand and Stick paragraphs, read 31 August 2026 against the NHL's — the same sentences in the IIHF's pronouns and house quotation marks), 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 (63.2(II), the deliberate limb reaching a "hand, leg, foot, arm, stick etc." from anywhere on the ice and after a stoppage; 63.2(III), the strict-liability limb, which reaches only a player who shoots or bats the puck "(using their hand or stick)" directly out of their defending zone, carves out "except where there is no protective glass" where the NHL writes "no glass", and assesses the penalty "⁠[w]hen the puck is shot over the protective glass surrounding the Players' bench" where the NHL writes "'behind'"), 67 (67.2, read 31 August 2026 — the crease escalation the NHL prints as a NOTE under 67.2(ii) is written into the body of the IIHF's 67.2(II) instead), 69 — whose 69.4 carries the same returning-goalkeeper paragraph and its reciprocal in the IIHF's own wording, unchanged across the 2025/26 v1.0 and v1.1 books and the 2026/27 book, and whose 69.7 carries all four of the NHL's limbs at the same number and in the same order, differing only in its capitalised Player, its "goal crease" for the NHL's "crease", quotation marks of its own around "incidental contact" and "Penalty Shot", and its opening "In the event" for the NHL's "In the event that", read 31 August 2026 — 78 (78.5(IX), the disallowed-goal entry for a goalkeeper pushed into the net with the puck "after making a save", which refers back to 69.7), 76, 77, 81, 82 (81.4 and 82.1 read against each other and against their NHL counterparts: 81.4's exception list has four items and 82.1's, restating the same bar, three), 83, 84, 87, 101, and Appendix IV Table 16 (Interference on the Goalkeeper situations) — that is the 2025/26 book's number; the same table is Table 14 in the 2026/27 book · IIHF Situation Handbook 2025/26 (Version 1.1, August 2025) (PDF) — its Foreword, Situations 57.1 to 57.4, the whole of what it publishes on tripping — all four are penalty-shot questions, and none of them reaches the "trip or fall" against "trip and fall" conflict in the rule itself — and Situations 69.1 to 69.6, the whole of what it publishes on Interference on the Goalkeeper, together with Situation 83.34, the airborne clearing case for a delayed off-side — all of those read in what was then the current edition, which gives its own version as 1.0, June 2025. Version 1.1, August 2025 is the current version of that season's book, and it was read here for its Foreword — "in case of any contradictions, the valid IIHF Rulebook is always the basis" — and for Situation 63.19, the puck kicked over the glass while blocking a shot, which v1.1 answers "Yes." with no rule cited where v1.0 answered "No. Rule 63.2 (III) states that the player must have shot or batted the puck using the hand or the stick." Also read in v1.1 for the bench: Situation 63.24, which still assesses the minor where a clear goes over the glass and lands in the Players' Bench, exempting only a puck "shot directly into the Players' Bench (where there is no glass)"; Situation 63.28, the glove scoop over the glass behind the players' bench, "considered shooting or batting the puck with the hand resulting in the puck leaving the playing surface"; and Situation 63.3, exempting a puck that "clears the glass at a point in the Penalty Bench where the glass is lower than the normal height around the rink". Read in both v1.0 and v1.1 for two further answers on the same rule, identical in each: Situation 63.34, the puck kicked over the glass from the defending zone, answered "Yes" with no rule cited, and Situation 63.29, the goalkeeper's stick save that goes over the glass, answered "No … Rule 63.2. talks about deliberate". The two editions were compared in full and differ substantively in four answers; the other three are not cited by this document — Situation 10.7 (nudging a teammate's lost stick along the ice, legal in both editions, v1.1 adding the conditions that the stick be intact and that the nudge not interfere with an opponent), Situation 20.4 (a goal now disallowed where v1.0 allowed it after video review reduced the infraction to a minor) and Situation 46.1 (the on-ice strength after a third-man-in fight). Situations 57.1 to 57.4, 69.1 to 69.6 and 83.34 are unchanged between the editions · IHUK In-House Rules 2025-26, Revision 1 (published 27/10/25) (PDF) — Introduction and Rules 1, 37, 38, 84, 100.1, 200, Section 6 and Appendix 1; the source for the England Ice Hockey amendments above, except the trapezoid suspension, which is in the Rules & Regulations below, and except the face-off and embellishment amendments, which are in the 2026-27 edition beside it · IHUK Department of Player Safety Rules and Procedures 2026-2027 — in force from 1 September 2026; §5 (jurisdiction: IHUK-registered participants whose club is based in England or Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland running their own discipline policies), §11 (a suspension also costs one game in every other league or age group you are registered in) and Appendix C.1 (the mandatory one-game bans, "enforced at all levels the player plays at"), read in the primary text on 25 October 2026, with §8 and Appendix G (a discriminatory slur triggers an automatic provisional suspension) and Appendix J (a first offence under 16 may draw an official warning; a second or serious one is a suspension). The document does not say what penalty triggers the one-game bans; the game-misconduct and boarding-major trigger above is this guide's reading of Appendices D, G and H. The Elite League's Casebook names its own Department of Player Safety; whether IHUK's rules also reach Elite League fixtures is not stated · IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, Revision 1 (published 25 July 2026) — the current British document. Read for its cover page and Introduction, for the new Section 10 – Game Flow amendment to Rule 76 (the immediate replacement of the centre for all violations bar those on post-icing draws, and the free choice of which centre places their stick first), for the new Section 9 amendment to Rule 64 ("Adding a misconduct to a minor. The required call is now 2 plus 10"), for the new Section 3 – Equipment amendment to Rule 10.3 ("Skating with a broken stick anywhere on the ice is not permitted under IHUK In-House Rules. A player whose stick is broken must drop their stick immediately. Failure to do so will incur a 2min penalty for illegal equipment" — a skater rule only, with no goalkeeper counterpart in the document), and for the carry-forward of Rules 18, 37, 38, 69.1 and 84 with Appendix 1 and the Section 6 fighting provision. It contains no amendment to Rule 81, Rule 83 or Rule 26, and no mention of the trapezoid or the Elite League · IHUK Junior Ice Hockey Leagues Rules of Competition 2026-2027 (PDF) — read 14 September 2026 for the Game Length & Format table cited in section 10 and for Appendix D, U12 Competition Format & Administration: "No icing calls at U12", the running clock, the 60-second buzzer line change with the puck "left where it is", and the offside limb — "Play does not stop", "Officials call e.g., 'Reds OUT!'", "Failure to retreat quickly = delay of game penalty." A competition regulation rather than a rule book, and this one governs the IHUK junior structure only — it does not settle the EIHL, NIHL National, the PNIHL, the SNL, BUIHA or Scottish domestic competitions outside that structure, and no regulation for any of those was read here · IHUK National League Division 1 and 2 Rules of Competition (PDF, the revision England Ice Hockey links; it differs from the earlier revision read on 22 September 2026 in registration eligibility only, and both quotations below are in it) — the NIHL Rules of Competition above, titled for those two divisions on its own first page. Read 22 September 2026 for the Game Length & Format row giving NIHL "3 x 20 minute periods" and "Full ice, checking, stop clock". It reaches Divisions 1 and 2 only, not NIHL National; the PNIHL is named in it and its own regulations were not read here · IHUK Woman’s National Ice Hockey League Rules of Competition 2026-2027 (PDF) — the WNIHL Rules of Competition above; the cover page spells it Woman’s. Read 22 September 2026 for the format table’s two rows — WNIHL U16 "3 x 15 minute periods" and senior WNIHL "3 x 20 minute periods", both "Full ice, non-checking, stop clock" — and for the prose above them making the senior figure compulsory: "All WNIHL league games must be played over 3 x 20-minute periods", with 3 × 15 available only on application to IHUK "⁠[i]n extraordinary circumstances" · IHUK Junior Section- U10 Rules of Competition 2026-2027 (PDF) — the U10 Rules of Competition above; that title, hyphen and all, is its own cover page’s. Read 22 September 2026 for "Bodychecking is NOT allowed in U10 matches" — the only one of the four stating it as a rule rather than as a format label — and for "All Under 10 games must be played on a reduced area ice surface. This is either cross ice or half ice." It publishes an ice-slot length rather than a period length · England Ice Hockey Rules & Regulations 2024-2025 — Rule 22.3, the suspension of the Goalkeepers' Restricted Area · USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 (PDF) — Rules 201–205 (including 204(b), read 31 August 2026 — "shall always be at the players' bench and out of the play before any change is made", which writes no distance at all, and which adds the trigger "or causes their team to gain a competitive advantage" that no other book here writes — 204(c) and its exception "when a major or match penalty is imposed in Adult Classifications under Rule 403(d) or 405(a)", 205(a), whose premature goalkeeper substitution carries "no time penalty", and 204(a), read in full on 31 August 2026 for the line-change procedure, the close of the change window and its warn-then-minor delay paragraph — the sentence is split by a page header between "the Referee shall warn" and "the offending team"), 401, 402–405, 407(c) (the goalkeeper beyond the centre red line — "If a goalkeeper deliberately participates in the play in any manner when they are beyond the center red line, a minor penalty shall be assessed"; the rule prints no determining-factor sentence of its own, which is why the Casebook is cited for it below), 411, 607 (Charging) — read in full for the goalkeeper clauses: 607(c), the minor-plus-misconduct or major-plus-game-misconduct for body checking or charging a goalkeeper "within the goal crease or privileged area", 607(d)'s "not fair game" protection outside it, and its Note 1 (accidental or unavoidable contact routed to the Interference rule, deliberate contact to charging) and Note 2 (the privileged-area construction) — 411, 615 (Fighting) — read in full for a counterpart to the NHL's minor for leaving the immediate vicinity of the crease during an altercation, and it carries one at 615(e): a minor on a player who "fails to move immediately and directly to their players' bench (or goal crease for a goalkeeper) when instructed to do so by the Referee during an altercation", with 615(d) adding a game misconduct on "any player or goalkeeper who is the first to intervene in an altercation then in progress." The book names that clause too: its Summary of Penalties lists "615(e) Leaving crease area during altercation" under Goalkeeper Infractions, and "615(e) Players not going to bench after warning during altercation" under Minor Penalty Personal Fouls. What USA Hockey does not use is the NHL's phrasing — "leaving the crease", "leaving their crease" and "leaving the immediate vicinity" appear nowhere in the playing rules, searched in full, including across line breaks, and its own goalkeeper-penalty rule 407 has only its three clauses — but that is a difference of wording and construction, not of whether the offence exists. The Casebook situations cited below apply 615(e); they do not supply it. Also Rules 603 (Boarding, and its (a), (b) and (c) severity limbs), 604 (body checking by classification, read with the Glossary entry Age Classifications, Note 3, read 10 September 2026 — "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" — the only place the book names the adult classifications. ⚠️ It records no share: 604(a) says only that a local governing body "is encouraged to provide Competitive Contact options at all levels of recreational play", and does not record which ones did), 605, 606, 607, 608, 609, 610 (Delaying the Game — 610(b), the goalkeeper who "has an opportunity to play the puck prior to being pressured … but instead intentionally causes a stoppage of play", and 610(c), a minor on any player or goalkeeper who "delays the game by deliberately shooting or batting the puck outside the playing area, including after a stoppage of play", and 610(g), the bench minor against a team causing delay by making additional substitutions, read 31 August 2026 — and note the lettering, because the Casebook cites this provision as "610(h)" at Situation 15 and elsewhere, and both volumes' Summary of Penalties uses "610(e)" for what the body prints as 610(d): the printed rule runs (a) to (g) and the citations above are the body's lettering), 611, 613, 614, 615, 617 (including 617(c)(4), the two limbs on which a goal is disallowed), 618 (Handling Puck with Hands — 618(a), the closed hand not immediately dropped, which is a stoppage and a last-play face-off; the minor attached instead to picking the puck up off the ice; and the penalty shot, optional minor and awarded goal where a defending player does it in the goal crease), 620, 621, 622, 623, 624, 625 (625(b), the flat crease bar, its neutral-zone face-off and its push-in relief; 625(a)(8), the minor, which requires physical contact), 628, 630, 631 (631(d), "⁠[i]f the puck is accidentally shot or deflected out of play … a last play face-off will occur in the zone where the puck was shot or the deflection occurred"), 634, 635, 636, 638, 639, 640, the Declaration of Player Safety and Standard of Play front matter — read 1 September 2026 for the charging bullet under Standard of Play and Rule Emphasis – Body Checking, whose Enforcement Standard reads "A player cannot take more than two strides or travel an excessive distance to accelerate through a body check for the purpose of punishing the opponent" and then lists among its examples "⁠[a]ccelerating through a check for the purpose of punishing the opponent" and "⁠[s]kating a great distance for the purpose of delivering a check with excessive force", neither of which carries a stride count — and Appendix V, the Glossary, read in full — for the entries "Time-Out (Curfew Definition)" and "Altercation", and to establish that it carries no entry for "player" and none for "skater". The Casebook was searched alongside it for an interpretive provision on whether a bare "player" reaches a goalkeeper; neither volume has one · Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) — Rules 4.8 (and Interpretation 2), 4.13(c) and its Interpretation 2, 6.1 — read 31 August 2026 for 6.1(a)'s "at the Players' Bench (within 3.05m (10 ft.)) and out of play before any change is made" and 6.1(b)'s penalty-bench change, which 6.1(b) prices as "a Minor penalty under Rule 10.4 (a) – Leaving the Players' or Penalty Bench" rather than as a bench minor — with 10.7(a) and its Interpretation 3, which assesses too many players where the goaltender or their replacement plays the puck "regardless of whether or not the goaltender is within the 3.05 m (10 ft.) area", 6.3(e)(i) and its Note 1 — "Referees must penalize any player of either team who deliberately shoots, bats, or throws the puck outside the playing surface, as per Rule 10.1 (ii) – Delay of Game", the book's own cross-reference to that limb, carrying no goaltender exclusion — and 6.4(a), which does carry one for a materially similar act; the five express exclusions were located by searching the whole book, including across line breaks, for "excluding the goaltender" and "excluding goaltenders", and they sit at 2.4(b) Note 2, 6.2, 6.4(a), 6.7(e)(i) and 10.2. Then 6.7 (including 6.7(c)(iv), the face-off nullification, and Interpretations 1, 5 and 8), 6.11 (and its thirteen Interpretations), and Rule 7.10(a), 7.10(d), 7.10(e)(ii), 7.10(f) and Interpretation 1 to Rule 7.10(a), which between them are Hockey Canada's answer on the goaltender and a crease-side fight. The offence is in the rule text: 7.10(a) reads "A Minor penalty will be assessed to a goaltender who leaves their crease during a fight. This should be recorded on the Official Game Report as 'Leaving the Crease'." 7.10(d) supplies the neutral-location route — "The goaltenders must stay in their goal creases or proceed to a neutral zone designated by the Referee." 7.10(e)(ii) assesses a game misconduct to a player who "joins in a fight or acts as a peacemaker", which the Glossary definition of "PLAYERS" carries to a goaltender — "The goaltender is considered a player, except where explicitly stated because special rules or privileges apply to them" — 7.10(e) stating no such exception. Interpretation 1 then answers the crease-side fight only: asked whether the goaltender may go to the Players' Bench where "a fight occurs in the immediate vicinity of the goal crease", it answers "With the permission of the Referee, the goaltender may proceed to their bench. If they do so on their own accord, they are to be assessed a Minor penalty for leaving their crease during a fight" — with CARHA's Rule 37(c), the strictest on the narrow question of moving before being told to, where the NHL and IIHF direct the referee to assess no penalty, and USA Hockey's Casebook Situation 26 penalises only a goalkeeper who both lacked permission and "gets involved in the altercation outside of the crease", its Situation 27 answering a flat "Yes." Rule 4.13(c) is the goaltender beyond the centre red line, and it is the one book here that carries no penalty in its own text: a goaltender who "intentionally participates in the play in any manner when they are beyond the centre red line" "will be penalized under Rule 8.3 (a) – Interference", which was read too and assesses "A Minor penalty … to any player who interferes with an opposing player." Interpretation 2 to Rule 4.13(c) supplies the determining factor and reverses the NHL's: on a goaltender whose skates are over the line playing a puck still on their own side, "⁠[t]he determining factor is the position of the goaltender's skates and not the position of the puck. Assess the goaltender a Minor penalty for Rule 8.3 (a) – Interference." ⚠️ Rule 6.11(b) carries two separate i./ii. lists, so "6.11(b)(ii)" names two different rules: the tag-up clause sits under "The Linesperson will drop their arm to nullify the off-side violation and allow play to continue if" and requires that "all attacking players clear the attacking zone by making skate contact with the blue-line, so that the attacking zone is completely clear of attacking players"; the stop-play clause sits under "During a delayed offside, if" and reaches only an attacker who "touches the puck or attempts to gain possession of a loose puck while the puck is still in the attacking zone", with no pressure limb and no contact limb. The disallowed goal is the first item of that second list, with its Note 1; the intentional off-side is 6.11(d). Rule 6.11 carries no category or division clause anywhere. Then 6.17, 7.1 (and Interpretations 1 and 2), 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 (and Interpretations 1 and 2), 7.5 (and Interpretations 1, 2 and 3), 7.6 (and Interpretation 2), 7.7 (and Interpretations 1 and 3), 7.8, 7.9, 8.1, 8.2 (and Interpretation 1), 8.5 (Interference with the Goaltender, and its Interpretations 1, 2 and 3 with Note 1; its opening paragraph, which acknowledges that "incidental contact with the goaltender may occur" and puts the onus on the attacking player; its Protection of the Goaltender paragraph, which reaches unnecessary contact "anywhere on the ice"; and its penalty limbs 8.5(a)–(e) — the minor at (a); at (b) a major and game misconduct at the referee's discretion "based on the degree of violence of impact" and mandatorily — "will be assessed" — for a player who "charges the goaltender" (Note 1 referring the definition to Rule 7.4(b) Interpretation 2 — Interpretation 3 in the 2026-28 book) and for one who "injures an opponent by an Interference with the Goaltender infraction that would otherwise call for a Minor penalty"; at (c) a match penalty; at (d) the bar on any misconduct; at (e) the automatic game misconduct on any 8.5(b) major), 8.6 (and Interpretations 1 and 2), 8.7 (and Interpretation 1), 8.8 (and Interpretation 1), 9.1 (and Interpretation 1), 9.2 (and Interpretations 1 and 2), 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 (and its Interpretations), 3.2 (Lost or Broken Sticks, and Interpretation 1 to 3.2(c)), 10.1 (Delay of Game — its preamble, which reaches a player or team who "deliberately causes a stoppage of play or delays the restart of play"; 10.1(ii), a player who "deliberately shoots, bats, or throws the puck outside the playing surface"; 10.1(v), a goaltender "who shoots or bats the puck directly out of the playing surface, with their stick", which carries no deliberateness word of its own; and 10.1(vi), "A goaltender who deliberately drops or throws the puck onto the top or back of the goal netting causing a stoppage of play" — all thirteen numbered limbs and the unnumbered Players' Bench paragraph were read, and (ii) and (vi) are the only two that say "throws", (ii) alone reaching a puck thrown out of the playing surface; and 10.1(a), the minor on a player who "in the opinion of the Referee, is deliberately delaying the game". All twelve of its Interpretations were read — every one of them written to 10.1(a) — and none of them is on the question whether 10.1(v) reaches a goaltender who puts the puck out without meaning to; Interpretation 3 is about freezing the puck, and Interpretation 5, the only one whose subject is this limb — "Clarifications as it pertains to goaltenders shooting or batting the puck directly out of play" — gives the goaltender's escapes as the absence of glass, a puck that "touches the glass or deflects off a player or official", and a rink whose two ends are not similar, and not the absence of intent), 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 11.1, and the Glossary definition of "altercation" (also at Rule 7.10); read for the offside, icing, checking-from-behind, head-contact, goaltender-interference and tripping comparisons above. Both the USA Hockey and Hockey Canada books were also searched in full for a provision on screening the goaltender or obstructing the goaltender's vision: USA Hockey has none — its 625(a)(1) screen is one set on a skater — and Hockey Canada's only two, in Rule 8.5's crease paragraph and in Interpretation 3, both reach a player in the crease · USA Hockey Official Rules and Casebook 2025-29 (PDF) — Casebook situations for Rule 204, Situations 7, 8, 10 and 11, read 31 August 2026 — 7 binds goalkeepers to the same "at the bench" test as everyone else; 8 penalises a change in which neither player played the puck or made contact because "Team A gained a territorial or positional advantage as a result of the change"; 10 keeps a youth team short-handed until the penalised player has left the penalty bench by way of the ice; 11 lets an adult team send a player straight from the players' bench after a major or match — and Rule 205, Situation 1, which calls the goalkeeper who turns back to defend after their replacement is in the play "too many players on the ice" rather than premature substitution; and situations for Rules 301, 407, 601, 602, 604, 605, 607, 608 — including Situation 5, which allows that a goalkeeper outside the privileged area "can be legally checked" — only where Rule 604 permits body checking at all — while permitting an attacker to "physically engage" only "When the goalkeeper has possession of the puck" and requiring a penalty for "any avoidable contact" once they are no longer in control of it, and Situation 6, which puts the privileged area as extending "to the closer end boards" — and Rule 608, Situation 1, read 31 August 2026, which names two situations in which the minor plus misconduct "must be assessed" and lists the three instances in which the major plus game misconduct or the match penalty "must be called" — 613, 615, 620, 623, 624, 625, 630 and 639 — including Rule 613, Situations 13 and 15, the line-change violations, read 31 August 2026 — including all seventeen under Rule 625, read in full for a screening or goaltender-vision provision, of which they have none, and among them Situation 9, which supplies the limit on 625(b)'s goalkeeper-out carve-out: the goal stands where the goalkeeper is "completely out of their crease", "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", and Situation 12, read 31 August 2026, which disallows a goal scored on a one-second rebound with a teammate still in the crease — "⁠[a]t the time the shot was taken, an attacking player was illegally in the crease" — and is the nearest thing either amateur book has to an answer on a rebound, though it answers the position bar rather than a contact question — including Rule 407, Situation 13, which supplies the determining-factor test the playing rule itself omits: asked whether it is legal for a goalkeeper "whose skates are beyond the center red line to play the puck which is still on the same side of center red line as the goal they are defending", it answers "No" and rules that "⁠[i]n this situation the determining factor is the position of the goalkeeper's skates and not the puck", the opposite of the NHL's and the IIHF's express test; and Rule 407, Situation 12, the accidental case — a goalkeeper on the way to the bench, beyond the red line, "accidentally struck by the puck" — answered "No", because "⁠[t]he goalkeeper is not considered to be participating in the play if the puck contact was accidental." Those are the only two situations the Casebook prints under 407(c). Also Rule 615, Situations 10, 26 and 27, which are where USA Hockey works out how 615(e) applies to a goalkeeper during an altercation: Situation 10 assesses "⁠[a] minor penalty for leaving the crease, plus a game misconduct for being the first to intervene in an altercation" (Rule References 615(a, d and e)); Situation 26 answers "No" to a penalty where an altercation occurs in the vicinity of the crease and the goalkeeper leaves "to remain out of the altercation", directing the referee to send them "to their players' bench or at least away from the altercation" but adding that "if the Referee does not give their permission and the goalkeeper gets involved in the altercation outside of the crease, the minor penalty must be assessed"; and Situation 27 answers "Yes" to whether a goalkeeper may go to their own players' bench when a fight occurs in the immediate vicinity of the crease. Also read: Appendix VI, the Standard of Play Casebook, and Rule 630, Situation 41, which disallows any goal during a delayed off-side, own goals included and tag-up notwithstanding, and gives its rule reference as 630(d.3), a sub-clause the printed Rule 630(d) does not contain, and Rule 630, Situation 39, which directs the linesperson to stop play immediately where offside players "continue in pursuit of the puck" because "⁠[t]he potential for unnecessary body contact should not be allowed in a situation where an infraction (offside) has already occurred" — the reason the negative above is stated about the rules and not about the books — and which carries its own exception where a defender will plainly reach a loose puck first and can advance it out of the zone — together with Rule 601, Situation 23 (biting a Linesperson), Rule 602, Situation 3 and Rule 615, Situation 3 (biting an opponent — a match penalty under 602(a), and during a fight stacked with the fighting major and game misconduct under 615(a)), Rule 604, Situation 2 (the competitive-contact test), Rule 605, Situations 1, 2, 3 and 5 with Rule 301, Situation 6 (the broken stick, the safety purpose the Casebook gives the drop-it rule, and which stick a goalkeeper may take once theirs has gone), Rule 607, Situation 2 (the charge on an unsuspecting opponent), Rule 620, Situation 1 (the force needed for head contact), Rule 639, Situations 1 and 5 (the stumble that never becomes a fall; ducking as clipping, and the floor for slew footing), and — for the stick lift — Appendix VI, Standard of Play Casebook, Situation 2, which permits it "at any time provided they do not impede their progress" and calls it "a good defensive play", read with Rule 623, Situation 1, which first rules that a player who "hooks the stick of another player causing them to lose possession of the puck" has committed a penalty. Read in full for a screening or goaltender-vision provision, for a checker's amnesty against an opponent with their head down, and for a crouching clause: it contains none of the three. Where it speaks to the second of those it runs the other way, at Rule 620, Situation 1 and Rule 607, Situation 2. ⚠️ And it is where USA Hockey's fend-off permission is written, at Casebook – Standard of Play, Situation 6, read 31 August 2026 — "⁠[a] player who is in control of the puck is allowed to use a free hand to maintain body position that they legally established… the player with the puck uses the free arm to fend off the opponent and maintain their body position. Naturally, though, if they grab the stick, sweater or arm of the opponent, or use the free arm to push off and create space, a penalty should be assessed." An anchored search of the playing-rules volume returns no occurrence of "fend" at all, so searching the playing rules for the NHL's phrase finds nothing in a book that grants the same thing on conditions — search it by concept, or in the Casebook. Rule 621, Situations 1 to 15 were read in full on 1 September 2026: Situation 2 answers "No." to "Must contact with an opponent occur in order for the Referee to assess a penalty for high sticking?" and adds that "⁠[i]t is not a requirement that a stick make contact above shoulder height for high sticking to be called", neither of which the playing rule's 621 Note says; Situation 1 routes a stick to the head "during the process of delivering a check" to Rule 620 Head Contact; Situation 3 confirms the 621(b) and 621(c) tiers; and Situations 4 to 15 are all 621(d), high-sticking the puck.

Helmet removal in an altercation — the four books, read 1 September 2026, and the PWHL and CARHA read 17 October 2026: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 — Rule 46.6 Helmets (the minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, and "Helmets that come off in the course of and resulting from the altercation will not result in a penalty to either player"), with 9.6 and 51.1–51.2, which are where the roughing minor for removing an opponent's helmet "during play" is written · IIHF Official Rulebook 2025/26 (Version 1.1) — Rule 46.12 Helmets, and 51.1–51.2 · IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27 (Version 1.0) — Rule 46.6 Helmets, the same clause renumbered and reading "a two minute minor penalty" where the 2025/26 text reads "a minor penalty"; Rule 51 is word for word identical in the two editions, compared 1 September 2026 · USA Hockey 2025-29 Official Playing Rules — Rule 615(c), read in full: its four paragraphs are the two match penalties (own helmet "prior to", opponent's "prior to or during"), the game misconduct with the two-game suspension, and the game misconduct for a helmet not worn as designed. Rule 640 was searched for a helmet clause and has none, so USA Hockey's roughing rule carries no counterpart to NHL and IIHF 51.1 · USA Hockey Official Rules and Casebook 2025-29 — Rule 615, Situations 12 to 21 and the Note applying to Situations 14-20, read in full. Note the lettering, because Rule 610's does not hold here: the Casebook's printed Rule 615 runs (a) to (f) exactly as the Playing Rules volume does, and its situations cite 615(a), (c), (d) and (e) consistently with it, so the one-letter offset disclosed above for 610 does not affect 615. Two of the book's own Summary of Penalties entries do disagree with each other — 615(c) is printed under "Match Penalty Option" as "Deliberately removing helmet during altercation" and again under "Match Penalty (only)" as "Removing helmet prior to or during an altercation" — so nothing here rests on the summary tables; the tiers above are taken from the rule text and the situations · Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 — Rule 10.6 Illegal Equipment: 10.6(d)'s misconduct for undoing a chinstrap to incite, 10.6(f)(iii) and (iv)'s Gross Misconducts, and Interpretation 15 to Rule 10.6(f)(iii)(iv), which handles the case where nobody removed anything deliberately — no further penalty for an incidental removal, a double minor under 7.1 for grabbing a helmet without gaining an advantage, and a match penalty under 7.1(c)(iv) where it is used "to gain an advantage or to inflict punishment". Rule 4.9(a) supplies what a Gross Misconduct is. Rules 7.9 (Roughing) and 7.10 (Fighting) were read for a helmet clause and have none. · PWHL Official Rule Book 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rule 46.6 Helmets (the NHL's clause: a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, nothing for a helmet that comes off in the altercation), 51.1–51.2 (the roughing minor for removing an opponent's helmet "during play"), and 51.3 and 51.5, which make grabbing an opponent's "facial protection, helmet, chin strap, or throat protector" a roughing major with a game misconduct that "must also be imposed" · CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF) — Rule 48(d): a double minor for grabbing or pulling an opponent's helmet or chin strap, and a match penalty where the player "uses this as an advantage or to inflict punishment or injury"; Rule 59 (Fighting and Roughing) was read for a helmet clause and has none.

Rule change history: Scouting The Refs – NHL Rule Book Updates for 2025-26 · USA Hockey – 2025-29 Playing Rule Change Summary (PDF) — "Effective August 1, 2025"; the former usahockey.com/2025-29-usah-rule-changes page returned 404 on 21 August 2026 · USA Hockey – Rule Book & Resources · 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 of the trapezoid, 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

Icing rule variants and adoption dates: Icing (ice hockey) — Wikipedia

Why ducking is dangerous (the anatomy behind every "never duck" above): USA Hockey — Heads Up Hockey Program Guide (PDF) — "How spinal injuries happen in hockey", refetched and the quoted strings located in the guide on 29 August 2026. The finding beneath the mechanism is a restatement, not USA Hockey's own research: the page credits "research done among a wide range of hockey players" and prints the citation under it — Charles H. Tator et al., Spinal Injuries Due To Hockey, Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences 11:34–41 — which has not been read in the original here, only the USA Hockey page reproducing it. Body Contact and Battles carries the fuller treatment.

Rec-league rules: CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF) — Rules 19(b) — "at the players' bench (within 10 ft (3.05 m)) and out of play before any change is made", read 31 August 2026 — 34, 40 (Appointment of Officials, read 1 September 2026 — 40(a)'s crew of two Referees, one Official Scorer, one Game Timekeeper, one Penalty Timekeeper and two Goal Judges, and 40(d)'s equal authority and closest-Referee tiebreak; with Rule 41(d), which has the Referees stop play "for any other infractions of the rules. (e.g. icing the puck, offsides, etc.)", and the Glossary entries "On-Ice Officials" — "⁠[t]he Referees", no linesperson among them — and "Off-Ice Officials", which between them put five of those seven off the ice. The whole book was searched for "Linesman", "Linesmen", "linesman" and "linesperson", including across line breaks: exactly one hit, the icing signal on p.82 of the Referee's Signals section, which Rule 40 does not provide for), 41(e) (the Referee's final decision on a disputed goal, which is the book's only goal adjudication — it writes no video review and no coach's challenge), 49, 51, read 23 September 2026 — 51(b)'s minor on a player who receives a stick “thrown on the ice from any part of the rink”, and 51(c)'s “A goalkeeper may not continue to play with a broken stick of any kind”, 50 (Head Contact) and 62 (High Sticks), read 2 September 2026 — 62 read as a window, because a page banner splits the rule between 62(b) and the Note that escalates it: 62(a)'s minor for a player who "checks an opponent or intimidates an opponent while carrying their stick above the waist height of their opponent", which requires no contact at all and is not a lower rung of (b); 62(b)'s major for contact above the shoulders "whether or not injury results"; its Note adding "a Game Misconduct under Rule 30" where the contact was intentional and withholding it for an accidental high stick "except when injury results"; 62(c)'s match penalty; and 62(d), the puck rule. Rule 30(a), read the same day, is what that Note points at — any major is "ruled off the ice for the remainder of the game (Major penalty plus Game Misconduct)", and its own Note names the accidental high stick as "⁠[t]he only exception to this rule" in the book, 57 (Face-offs, read 1 September 2026 — 57(a)'s ejection of the draw-taker for a teammate's encroachment, and 57(d)'s discretionary minor for a second violation in the same face-off), 58(b) (the goalkeeper's freezing limit, read 1 September 2026 across a page break; the book carries no trapezoid and no goalkeeper restricted area — searched for "trapezoid", "restricted area" and "privileged", all zero, and by concept for any limit on where the goalkeeper may play the puck — so 58(b) limits freezing the puck, not playing it), 59, 65 (including 65(d), the shorthanded nullification, unqualified by classification, 65(e), the face-off nullification, and Note 2 to 65(a)), 52 and 66 (Charging, and Interference/Protection of the Goalkeeper, read 23 September 2026 — 52(b) and its Note, 66(a)(1) with Note 1, 66(b) in full and 66(e). The book was searched in full for a returning-goalkeeper clause, a privileged area, and a rebound or loose-puck carve-out to the goalkeeper-contact rule: none is written, and the book's own Case Situations section does not settle any of them — its two situations under Rule 66, read 23 September 2026, cover slashing a stick out of an opponent's hands and disallowing a goal for an attacker who interferes in the crease. No separate CARHA casebook or interpretation volume is held here), 72 (Off-sides, read 22 September 2026 — 72(c) and its Note 1, quoted above. The whole book was searched for "plane", including across line breaks: zero hits, and the book's own Case Situations section carries one situation under Rule 72, read 23 September 2026 — a player propelling the puck who skates backwards over the attacking blue line, ruled legal with possession and control — which does not reach the airborne skate. No separate CARHA casebook or interpretation volume is held or cited here, so its silence on the airborne skate is reported as silence and resolved neither way), 73, 79, 52(a) and its Note, 49(b) and its Note, 63 and 71, read 1 October 2026 — with Rule 32(a), the three-penalty ejection toward which 49(b)'s Note counts a double minor as two, 84 (including 84(f), the mercy rule), 85 (Tied Game, read 3 September 2026 — 85(a)'s tie with the points shared, 85(b)'s unexpired penalties carrying into overtime and 85(c)'s shoot-out eligibility, which the 2026 book reverses — a player still serving a penalty when the shoot-out starts may not shoot) 19(b), 37(c)–(e), 51(e) (the goalkeeper's bench bar for a stick), 53, 54, 59(a) and 62(b)–(d), read again on 15 October 2026 for the six-book comparisons · Section Seven (Tournament General Rules) items 16 and 21, together with that section's Scoring & Tie Breakers tie-break paragraphs (read 3 September 2026 — the 5-minute 4-on-4 sudden-victory round-robin period and the 5-minute 5-on-5 semi-final and final period with its best-of-3 and then sudden-death shoot-out) and the Glossary entry Game, quoted from the rulebook text. Read in the 2020 printing; apart from that 85(c) reversal and the matching sentence the 2026 book adds to Section Seven, every rule cited here is unchanged in the 2026 book · ASHL (Adult Safe Hockey League) Rule Book, Fall 2025 update (PDF) and ASHL — Rule Book

Women's professional — offside and goalkeeper interference, read 22 and 23 September 2026: PWHL Official Rule Book 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rule 85.1, quoted above for the plane test and the "blade of the skate only" definition. The PWHL renumbers heavily against the NHL (offside 83→85, icing 81→83, handling the puck 67→69, diving 64→66), so searching it by an NHL rule number finds nothing. Goalkeeper interference is Rule 71, not 69: 71.1 to 71.7 carry the NHL's Rule 69 in the feminine, and its own Table 14 prints the same five screening situations, all read on 23 September 2026. Its departures from the NHL are 71.5, "Coach's Challenge — Not applicable", the "Central Situation Room Review" in 71.1, and 71.7's cross-reference to "Rule 65.7 – Awarded Goal" where the NHL points at Rule 63. Also read in it on 23 September 2026, for the exclusivity claims on this page: 10.3 and 10.4 (broken stick — the same three replacement routes as the NHL, but no penalty sentence for a stick thrown or shot to a teammate, and none for one thrown to the goalkeeper), 58.1 (the accidental-trip exemption in the NHL's two sentences), 65.2(iii) (the strict-liability puck-over-the-glass limb), 65.8 and 89.1 (no line change and no time-out after a goalkeeper freezes a shoot-in from beyond the centre red line), 78.5 (the face-off hand bar), 83.1 (“Gaining the line”), 83.3 and 83.5 (the goalkeeper wave-off, the “before or after crossing the goal line” touch and the dislodge-from-the-net limb, read 30 September 2026), 85.3 (the delayed-offside triggers, “about to make physical contact with the defending puck carrier” among them) and 85.4 (the delayed-offside own-goal exception). Read on 15 October 2026 against the six-book comparisons: 5.1 ("player" includes the goalkeeper), 10.4 (the goalkeeper's bench bar, a minor), 27.6 and 27.7 (leaving the crease in an altercation; the red-line minor), 41.1–41.3 (boarding, including the icing-or-offside clause), 42.2–42.5, 43.1–43.4, 46.3, 53.2, 59.2, 60.5, 61.3, 64.2, 65.2 and 76.1 ("within five feet (5') of her players' bench"). PWHL rule numbers cited elsewhere on this page and not listed here are not recorded in this note, and it is a single league's book rather than a general standard. ⚠️ Dating caution recorded with the source: eleven pages of the PDF carry the prior season's running header; the edition is taken from the title page, and the offside rule sits on p.132, which is not one of them.

The wave-off list in section 3 — its scope, read in the primary texts on 15 September 2026. The list is the NHL's Rule 81, and it is presented as the NHL's. Each item carries the books it was read in. The shorthanded item is set out book by book in the paragraphs under the list and quoted in full in section 6. The face-off item is NHL Rule 81.5 and IIHF Rule 81.5 — the same sentence, and word for word in the IIHF's 2025/26 Version 1.1 and 2026/27 editions — with Hockey Canada Rule 6.7(c)(iv), USA Hockey Rule 624(b)(3) and CARHA Rule 65(e), each quoted in the body. ⚠️ Four of those five print the limiting word directly; USA Hockey does not. The whole of its Rule 624 was read on 15 September 2026 and the word appears nowhere in it — 624(b)(3) ties the carve-out to the puck travelling the length of the ice "as a result of" a taker instead — which is why the body names the split rather than claiming a word all five share. USA Hockey's own Official Rules and Casebook 2025-29, at Rule 624 Situation 15, read the same day, supplies the reading its rule text leaves open: icing is nullified only where "the puck must receive its impetus from the initial stick contact on the face-off", and a centre who touches the puck on the draw, gains possession an instant later and shoots the length of the ice is iced. ⚠️ What no book of the five settles in terms is a puck that clips a stick after leaving the draw; the body tells the reader to treat any other touch as ending the carve-out, which is the strict reading and the one that cannot cost them, and does not claim the point is decided. Hockey Canada prints face-off hyphenated there, broken across a line — the hyphen is the book's. The other items were read across the five books on 15 September 2026, and each prints what was found. Items 6 and 7 are in all five — NHL and IIHF Rule 81.5, USA Hockey 624(b)(5) and 624(b)(2), Hockey Canada 6.7(c)(iii) and 6.7(c)(v), CARHA 65(f) and Note 3 to 65(a) — with Hockey Canada's line-change half in Interpretation 7 to 6.7(c)(iii) rather than in the rule. Items 3 and 4 turn on a timing word: "at any time before or after crossing the goal line" is NHL and IIHF 81.5 and PWHL 83.5 alone, against USA Hockey 624(b)(4)'s "prior to" (with the Rule 624 Note completing the icing at the goal line), Hockey Canada 6.7(c)(i)'s "at any time prior to", and CARHA 65(g)(1), which writes no moment while its 65(g)(2) writes "at any time before" for the goalkeeper. Item 5 is NHL and IIHF 81.3, and PWHL 83.3; Hockey Canada 6.7(c) has no goalkeeper limb, 6.7(e)(vi) supplies a narrower one inside hybrid icing "⁠[i]n categories of U18AAA, Junior, and at the option of the Member in Senior", and Interpretation 8 to 6.7(c)(iii) rules ICING on the same facts outside those categories; CARHA 65 has none. Item 8 adds Hockey Canada's Rule 6.7 preamble and CARHA 65(a)'s hand-bat/kick carve-out. Item 9 was found in NHL and IIHF 81.5 (and PWHL 83.5) only: USA Hockey Rule 624, Hockey Canada Rule 6.7 and CARHA Rule 65 were each read end to end the same day and none contains a counterpart. Item 10 adds CARHA 65(a)'s "⁠[a]ny contact with the puck over the centre red line" and 65(b)'s blue-line variant. ⚠️ What has not been done is a clause-by-clause reading of all five icing rules against one another, so an item that does not name a book means the provision was not found, not that the book lacks one. Faceoffs is the owner of the face-off item and carries it in full.

The check finished after the puck is gone — the five books, read in the primary text on 24 September 2026. The window is quoted from Hockey Canada Rule 8.3, whose opening list makes a "late hit" limb (ii) and whose preamble then defines it, IIHF 56.1 with its Appendix II Late-hit entry, NHL 56.1 and PWHL 57.1 (the same sentence in the feminine), and the USA Hockey Official Rules and Casebook 2025-29, Standard of Play Situations 10 and 23, Playing Rules Situation 3, and the Declaration of Player Safety in the same volume’s preface. ⚠️ Situation 10 cites no rule of its own, and what decides whether the permitted check exists at all is Rule 604 — 604(a) bars body checking at 12 & under and below, in all Girls’/Women’s classifications and all non-check adult ones, and 604(b) bars it for the fixture whenever a Competitive Contact team meets a Body Checking team. CARHA Hockey writes no late-hit rule and no window, and that is the opposite of a permission. Its Rule 66(a) Note 1 makes the last player to touch the puck the player in possession, and 66(a)(1) reaches only an opponent "who is not in possession of the puck" — but what the NHL and the PWHL add there — that the player deemed in possession "may be checked legally, provided the check is rendered immediately following his loss of possession", the IIHF granting the same check in its own words — CARHA simply omits, so what is missing is the authorisation and not the limit. The book prices the body check itself instead: Rule 49(a), a minor or major at the Referee’s discretion for intentional body contact with no possession, timing or vulnerability condition in it and a mandatory major where injury results, its only carve-out 49(c) being "accidental contact"; the Case Situation under Rule 49 answers a bodycheck "at centre ice" with "A Minor or Major Penalty" and states nothing about the puck. 52(a)’s Note makes more than two strides a charge, 53(a) puts a game misconduct in both of its limbs for a hit from behind "anywhere on the ice" and 53(b) a match penalty where the player is driven from behind "into the boards or goal net", 49(b) makes a hit into the boards a double minor at the floor, and 27(b) assesses penalties "regardless of whether or not play is in progress". Rule 46 was read in full on 24 September 2026, preamble and clauses (a) to (i), and not one of them names physical contact, so it does not reach the act on its terms — though its bare term "unsportsmanlike conduct" is undefined in the book, which is not the same as saying no referee would ever use it.

The crease line — the §Goaltender interference and §Screening is legal outside the crease passages, the Common Mistakes bullet on screening and Key Takeaway 9: read in the primary texts on 18 September 2026 and quoted from them. IIHF Rule 1.7 — "In front of each goal frame, one goal crease shall be marked by a red line. The marked line belongs to the Goal Crease." USA Hockey, the Note to Rule 625(b) — "The goal crease area shall include all the space outlined by the semi-circular crease lines (including crease lines) and extending vertically to the level of the top of the goal frame" — with its separate Official Rules and Casebook answering the question in terms at Rule 103, Situation 4: "Is the two inch red line outlining the goal crease considered to be a part of the goal crease? Yes. Rule Reference 103(b)." Hockey Canada, its Glossary entry for GOAL CREASE — "The lines of the crease are considered part of the crease." CARHA Hockey, its Glossary entry for CREASES — "The lines which designate these areas are to be considered as part of the creases." ⚠️ The NHL writes no such sentence, and neither do the two books that copy its crease wording — the PWHL's and CARHA's Rule 5(c). CARHA settles it in its Glossary instead; the NHL and the PWHL leave it unsaid. Its Rule 1.7 says only that the goal crease area "shall include all the space outlined by the crease lines and extending vertically four feet (4') to the level of the top of the goal frame", and its Reference Table 14, Situation 5 E allows the goal where an attacking player "plants himself on the crease line or outside the goal crease, as to obstruct the goalkeeper's vision and impair his ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored" — as does IIHF Appendix IV, Table 16, Situation 5 E in its own pronouns ("plants themself", "their ability"), numbered Table 16 in the 2025/26 book and Table 14 in the 2026/27 one. The PWHL reproduces the same row in the feminine — "An attacking player plants herself on the crease line or outside the goal crease", answered "Goal is allowed." — and its crease rule copies the NHL’s wording, so it lands with the NHL on both counts. So the IIHF book answers the same play in two directions, and the instruction above to stay off the line rests on the other three books' wording — it is deliberately more conservative than the NHL's own table.

Elite League — Motorpoint EIHL Casebook 26-27, Version 1.1 (8 September 2026) (PDF), linked from the EIHL Casebook page — read 22 September 2026 for its scope paragraph (“For all rules not mentioned in the EIHL Casebook, the official 2026 - 2027 IIHF Rulebook and IIHF Situation Handbook will serve as the official ruling”) and its Rule 41 Boarding, Rule 42 Charging and Rule 42 Elbowing entries — the last of those headed “RULE 42 – ELBOWING” in the Casebook’s own numbering, which is its slip and not this document’s. Its Rule 64 Diving / Embellishment entry was added to that reading on 22 September 2026, in full, and the whole document was read on 22 September 2026 for the comparison table in section 10: its Preamble, its Rule 9.5 and 9.12 equipment escalations, its Rule 10.5–10.7 stick-measurement entries, its Rule 37 and 38 video-review and Coach's Challenge entries, its Rule 46 fighting scheme with the Fines and Suspensions and Automatic Supplementary Discipline ladders, its Rule 77.2, its Rule 84.1 and 84.4, and its Section 11, which reads “Not applicable to EIHL Competition”. Every claim above about what it does not contain rests on that full read: the document carries twenty-two rule numbers and no Rule 27, 43, 48, 60, 74, 76, 81 or 83, searched both by heading and by concept with spacing stripped. ⚠️ The file the League serves under that “Version 1.1” link carries “SECTION D VERSION 1.0 010826” on every page of its own footer, so the version stamp on the download and the one inside it do not agree; the quoted text above is what the served file says. ⚠️ The same Preamble also says interpretations are issued during the season — “Each rule update will be sent by email, on the EIHL web site and in print” — so the copy read here may since have been added to, and the edition answer it supplies is the answer as that copy states it. Equipment and neck protection are in Equipment.

Competition-regulation note — the four IHUK Rules of Competition cited above are competition regulations rather than rule books, and ⚠️ each binds only the competitions it names. The Junior Ice Hockey Leagues Rules of Competition 2026-2027 was read in the primary text on 16 September 2026; the National League Division 1 and 2, Woman’s National Ice Hockey League and U10 regulations on 22 September 2026. The U12 provisions quoted above are its Appendix D – U12 Competition Format & Administration, together with the format table that sends the U12 game there; nothing else in the document is reproduced here. ⚠️ IHUK revises these regulations in place, at unchanged web addresses, so a copy saved from a previous season may no longer be what that address serves — and the later date is not reliably the current one, because this publisher has rolled revisions of these documents backwards. All four addresses were re-fetched on 22 September 2026 and checked by SHA-256 against the copies read for this document: the Junior and U10 regulations are identical, while the NIHL and WNIHL addresses served an earlier revision than the copy read here. Both revisions of both were compared, and every sentence quoted above appears word for word in each, so no quotation here turns on which one you open. UK and England Rules carries the link, the U12 and U10 formats in full, and the other three Rules of Competition read for this corpus.

The empty penalty box on a major — the five books and their sanctions, read in the primary text on 14 September 2026. NHL Rules 19.2, 19.4, 20.2, 20.3, 21.2, 22.3, 81.6 and 68.1 with 68.2 — 68.2 being the NHL's own bench minor for the same failure, "⁠[a]ny violation of this provision shall be treated as an illegal substitution under this rule calling for a bench minor penalty", and its index entry "failure to put substitute in for major penalty", which points at 68.2 and also at 20.2, a rule about being short-handed that does not touch substitution. IIHF (2025/26 Version 1.1 and 2026/27 alike) Rules 8.1, 19.2, 20.3, 68.1 and 68.2 — whose closing sentence is the NHL's word for word, the two 68.2s differing on the deadline and on penalty box for penalty bench and nothing else material; the identity was tested by searching that sentence, including across line breaks, in all three books. With the IIHF Situation Handbook 2025/26 (Version 1.1) Situation 68.5. USA Hockey Rules 204(c), 206(d), 403(c), 403(d), 404(a) and 405(a), its Summary of Penalties (which files 204(c) and 206(d) under Bench Minor Penalty, files nothing against 403(d), and omits 404(a) although 404(a) writes a bench minor for illegal substitution in its own text — which is why that list is used above as a finding aid and not as the scope of a rule), and its Casebook at Rule 204, Situations 10 and 11 and Rule 403, Situation 3. Hockey Canada Rules 4.1(b), 4.4(a) and 4.5(a) with Note 1 to 4.5(c), and Rules 4.7(a) and 4.7(b) and Interpretation 12 to Rule 10.6(a), read 15 September 2026, which are where that book does write "immediately", so the absence above belongs to 4.4(a) and 4.1(b) and not to the book. CARHA Rules 27(d), 29(b), 30(a) and 30(b) — read for a sanction and a timing word, and neither is written in them — with Rules 31(a) and 32(a), read the same day, both of which do write "immediately" on other penalties, so again the silence is Rule 30(a)'s and not the book's; whether either reaches 30(a)'s Major-plus-Game-Misconduct facts is not resolved here. No separate CARHA casebook or interpretation volume is held here — the book's own Case Situations section, read 23 September 2026, prints situations under Rules 19(f), 28(d), 49, 51, 61, 62, 65, 66, 72, 84, 85 and 86(b), and nothing under Rule 30 — which is why that book is left unsettled above rather than resolved either way. ⚠️ Three further NHL rules were read the same day — 19.4, 21.2 and 22.3: 22.3 repeats 68.2's deadline for a major taken with a misconduct ("before the major penalty expires") and attaches no sanction of its own; 21.2 puts a designated match-penalty server in the box "immediately"; and 19.4 — scoped to the last five minutes of regulation and to overtime, on a coincidental-penalty differential — has the replacement seated "prior to expiration of the penalty" on a major and "immediately" "⁠[i]n the case of a match penalty". None of the three changes the deadline stated above for the ordinary case.

Verification notes

Unverified: the "typical rec / beer league" column in section 10 remains a generalisation — CARHA Hockey and the ASHL publish real rulebooks and are cited above, but no document governs rec hockey as a whole, and neither book applies to a league that has not adopted it. The length of each overtime period in an IIHF gold-medal game is not stated in IIHF Rule 84.6: the rule specifies the numerical strength (three skaters and a goalkeeper), the 15-minute intermissions and the changing of ends, but gives no period duration, in contrast to Rule 84.5, which sets the playoff, relegation-round, classification-round and bronze-medal overtime at "not more than 10 minutes" and has the clock "reset to 10:00 minutes". The figure is simply not in the book, so none is given.

Scope of two negatives about the NHL book, read 14 September 2026. The NHL rulebook writes neither "reckless" nor "careless" anywhere — zero hits for both, case-insensitively, in the 2025-2026 book and in the superseded 2024-2025 one, searched in full and in the printed layout — the same searches do find "penalty" 1,306 times and "deliberat" 103 times. That is why nothing above glosses the NHL's Rule 48 minor as a "merely reckless" hit: the contrast the book itself draws is with a player who "attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent", and that is the wording used. The word belongs to the other three books, where it runs the other way — the IIHF glossary defines Reckless Endangerment as acts creating "a substantial risk of serious physical injury", the accused "not required to intend the resulting or potential harm, but must have acted in a way that showed a disregard for the foreseeable consequences of the actions", identically in its 2025/26 v1.1 and 2026/27 editions; USA Hockey groups "dangerous, careless or reckless (unacceptable)" as one band in its Standard of Play. Second, the shorthanded icing exemption above was re-derived against all five books on the same day, and the 5-on-3 case is stated because none of the five makes the expiry of one penalty end an exemption that a second penalty is still earning: the test each book writes is the on-ice count (NHL 81.6 and 16.2, IIHF 81.6 and its glossary entries Numerical Strength and Short-handed, USA Hockey 624(b)(1), Hockey Canada 6.7(b) with Interpretations 2 and 3 and its glossary, CARHA 65(d)), and the box-sitting limb is singular in every one of them — the penalized player in NHL and IIHF 81.6, USA Hockey 624(b)(1) and Hockey Canada's Note 1 to 6.7(b), and a penalized player "after their penalty has expired" in CARHA's Note 2 to 65(a). Each is about the player whose own time is up, and none of them reaches a teammate serving a live penalty. ⚠️ CARHA writes the head count and the box-sitting limb but no instant-of-judgement sentence, and no release-before-expiry relief clause — "instant the penalty" appears nowhere in the book, where "instant the puck is shot" appears at 65(d). So 65(d) is cited above for the test and Note 2 to 65(a) for who counts in it, and neither is cited for timing. Note 2 prints "numer-ical" hyphenated across a line.

Scope of one negative — the face-off hand bar, 28 August 2026. The note to NHL and IIHF Rule 67.2, printed again at Rule 76.5, suspends the catch-and-knock-it-down permission for the two players taking a draw until a third player has touched the puck. No counterpart to it was found in USA Hockey or Hockey Canada — but that is a search result, not an established absence. What was searched: USA Hockey Rule 613 (Face-Off Procedures) and Rule 618 (Handling Puck with Hands), and Hockey Canada Rule 6.2 (Face-off Procedure) with its Interpretation 1, each read in full; then both books searched in full, including across line breaks, for "third player", "has at least touched", "until such time" and "players involved in the actual"; for every sentence containing both a face-off term and "hand", "bat" or "glove"; for every sentence pairing "centre" or "center" with "hand" or "bat"; and for every sentence naming the players "taking the face-off" or "facing off". Nothing in either book restricts the takers' hands. Re-run 2 September 2026 with the USA Hockey Casebook added, which the search above did not cover: the same terms over all three volumes return the Casebook's Rule 613 face-off situations, its hand-pass situations at Rule 618 and a "third player" entering an altercation, and no counterpart. The negative now rests on three volumes rather than two, and remains a search result. A counterpart worded without any of those terms would still have escaped, so what is claimed here is that none was found — not that none exists.

Edition note — the IIHF 2026/27 Rule Book, 29 August 2026. Every IIHF citation above was read in the IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (Version 1.1), which the IIHF has since superseded with the IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27 (Version 1.0, June 2026). The rules named here and the whole of Appendix IV have been compared between the two editions for this document — 20.4, 20.5, 20.6, the whole of Rule 44, the whole of Rule 46, the whole of Rule 48, 60.1, 60.2, 60.3, 60.4, 60.5, the whole of 63.2, 69.4, 69.7, 76.3, 76.4, 76.6, 76.7, 78.5(IX), 81.4, 82.1, 82.2, 83.1 and 87.1 — ⚠️ and nothing else in the new book has been read. Rules 44 and 48 were added to that comparison on 2 September 2026 and are word for word the same in both editions — every sentence of 44.1 to 44.4 and of 48.1 to 48.4, the crouching clause, the "no clean check" and "must avoid" sentences, the supersession sentence, the head-up entitlement, the head-down carve-out and all seven enumerated items — and both are identical in the 2025/26 Version 1.0 book as well; the only differences are where words hyphenate and where a page number falls. Note that the IIHF Rule 48 has no 48.5: its 48.4 is Disciplinary Measures, where the NHL's 48.4 is the no-game-misconduct provision and the NHL's 48.5 is the match penalty. 69.4 is word for word the same in both editions, its conditional permission included, and so are 69.7, all four of its paragraphs, and the 78.5(IX) cross-reference to it. Rule 76 has changed substantially, and section 8 and the face-off row of the section 10 table are written to the new edition: 76.6 now ejects the offending team's draw-taker from the circle for a teammate's encroachment and has the linesperson order the centre replaced on the establish-position-first violation, 76.4 has the player ordered replaced for improper position and has gained the NHL's post-icing carve-out that the older edition had no need of, 76.3(VI) now has the offending centre replaced for a skate win rather than warned, and 76.7 has dropped its warning sentence. The skate-win violation itself, the stick-placement order in 76.4 and the two-violation bench minor in 76.7 are unchanged. Rule 60 has changed too, and the high-sticking material in section 8, the section 10 row and the Common Mistakes list is written to both editions rather than one: the new 60.1 defines a high stick by contact above the shoulders "provided their shoulders are at waist level or higher" where the older one defines it by a stick "carried above the height of the opponent's shoulders", and the new 60.3 carries "(above the height of the opponent's waist)" where the older one requires that the Player "carries or holds any part of their stick above the shoulders and" makes contact. 60.2 and 60.4 are word-for-word identical between the editions; 60.5 gains a Note on the penalty shot that the NHL book also carries. The word "waist" appears once in the 2025/26 book and four times in the 2026/27 one, both counts taken including words hyphenated across a line. Rule 46 and Appendix IV are renumbered, and the Rule 46 numbers above are the 2025/26 book's. The 2026/27 book reorders Rule 46's clauses and eleven numbers move: instigator 46.3 becomes 46.10, aggressor 46.4 becomes 46.2, sucker punch 46.5 becomes 46.13, third player in 46.7 becomes 46.14, fighting other than during the periods 46.9 becomes 46.8, fighting off the playing surface 46.11 becomes 46.7, altercation 46.2 becomes 46.3, clearing the area of a fight 46.8 becomes 46.4, helmets 46.12 becomes 46.6, fighting prior to the drop of the puck 46.10 becomes 46.9, and jerseys 46.13 becomes 46.11. The new order is roughly alphabetical by clause heading but breaks at least three times — helmets at 46.6 between continuing and fighting off the playing surface, dangerous punch at 46.13 after major penalty, and disciplinary measures last at 46.15 — so a number cannot be predicted from a heading. ⚠️ 46.1 also changed in substance, and it inverts the default: the 2025/26 clause says a willing combatant "may be ejected from the game", where the 2026/27 clause makes a major plus an automatic game misconduct "the standard penalty for a Player engaged in a fight" and a new 46.12 repeats it. The standalone unwilling-combatant clause at 46.6 is gone, carried in the new book as that discretionary waiver note inside four other clauses — and with it the 2025/26 sentence that a player "who retaliates to being punched will be assessed at least a minor penalty ('Roughing') or a major penalty ('Fighting', without a game misconduct penalty)", the new book carrying no retaliation ladder at all; the sucker-punch injury test narrowed from a punch "that could cause an injury" (46.5) to one that "causes an injury" (46.13), though the penalty is a major plus an automatic game misconduct either way; Rule 20.6's video-review exception follows the move and now names 46.13 rather than 46.5; and the third-player-in waiver is narrower in the new book, keyed to an aggressor penalty plus a purpose test rather than to any game misconduct being imposed in the original altercation. The Appendix tables move with it: the 2026/27 book has no Table 6. Its predecessor's Tables 5, 6 and 7 are merged into a single Table 5 with "MAJOR ONLY" and "MAJOR + GMP" columns, carrying every entry the old three did plus two fighting rows they did not; but the new book's own 20.4 still ends "refer to… Table 6" and its 20.5 still says "Tables 5, 6 and 7", and "Table 6" appears exactly once in the whole book — in that dead cross-reference. The text of 20.4 itself is word-for-word identical between the editions. The merge shifts every table below it down by two, so the numbers cited above are lookups into the older book: misconduct penalties 9 becomes 7, game misconducts 10 becomes 8, penalty shot 11 becomes 9, awarded goals 12 and 12.1 become 10 and 10.1, the goalkeeper's penalties 13 becomes 11, Rule 16 minors 14 becomes 12, coincidental penalties 15 becomes 13, interference on the goalkeeper 16 becomes 14, and the two overtime tables 17 and 18 become 15 and 16. So Table 16 in the current book is Rule 84 Overtime, not the goalkeeper table this document cites at Table 16. The goalkeeper table itself is unchanged in substance: set side by side, the two differ only in the running header, so Situations 5C, 6C and 6D read identically in both editions. Rules 81.4, 82.1, 82.2 and 87.1 are word-for-word identical between the editions, broken-skate exception and time-out bans included, so the icing rows of the section 10 table are current — including the mismatch between 81.4's four substitution exceptions and 82.1's three, which both editions carry unchanged. ⚠️ 83.1 is the rule compared here that changed most in what it asks of a player, and it changed toward the NHL. The 2026/27 edition adds "For the purposes of this rule, a 'skate' is to be considered the blade of the skate only", which the 2025/26 book does not carry, and rewrites the puck-carrier clause from "provided they have 'possession and control' of the puck prior to their skates crossing the leading edge" to "…of the puck with their stick prior to both skates completely crossing the leading edge" — the NHL 2025-2026 wording in both places. Counting words hyphenated across a line, "blade of the skate" appears 0 times in the 2025/26 book and once in the 2026/27 one, and "prior to their skates crossing the leading edge" once and 0. Only 83.1 was compared in full; inside 83.3 just the "'3D' judgement is not used" clearing sentence was checked, and it is unchanged. So is the whole of 63.2, bench clause included: (III) still names only "their hand or stick" and (II) still reaches a "hand, leg, foot, arm, stick etc." from anywhere on the ice — while the Situation Handbook answers the kicked puck "Yes" at 63.19 in both of its last two editions and at 63.34 in all three, as above. No claim is made here about the rest of this document's IIHF layer — Rules 9, 10, the rest of 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 37, 38, 40 to 43, 45, 47, 49 to 59, 61, 62, the rest of 63, the rest of 69, the rest of 83 and 84 have not been re-read in the new edition, and the 2026/27 Situation Handbook has been read for Situations 60.13, 63.3, 63.19, 63.24, 63.28, 63.29 and 63.34 only: IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27 (Version 1.0, June 2026), which puts 63.19 in the same facts and answers "Yes." again, and words 63.3, 63.24, 63.28, 63.29 and 63.34 as the 2025/26 edition does. Situation 60.13, the stick lift that misses and catches a bent-over opponent in the face, has no counterpart in the 2025/26 Handbook, whose Rule 60 section ends at Situation 60.12. Faceoffs carries the full face-off comparison.

In-House note — the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, 29 August 2026. IHUK has published a new edition of the In-House Rules since 2025-26, and it settles the British face-off answer in its own text. IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, Revision 1 was published on 25 July 2026 and has been read. ⚠️ Three amendments in it are new — none has any counterpart in the 2025-26 edition, which was re-searched — and all three are quoted in full above: the Section 10 Rule 76 face-off amendment (immediate replacement of the centre for all violations except on post-icing draws, and "Either centre can now put their stick down first for a face-off"), the Section 9 Rule 64 embellishment amendment ("The required call is now 2 plus 10"), and the Section 3 – Equipment Rule 10.3 broken-stick amendment ("Skating with a broken stick anywhere on the ice is not permitted under IHUK In-House Rules", a "2min penalty for illegal equipment"). The word "broken" does not appear at all in the 2025-26 edition. The broken-stick amendment is headed "Broken Stick: Player" and IHUK writes no goalkeeper counterpart to it, so nothing above reads it onto a goalkeeper. The stick-order change is IHUK's own departure, not an IIHF change: IIHF Rule 76.4's defending-player-first sentence is word-for-word identical in the 2025/26 and 2026/27 editions, and both were checked. ⚠️ What this does not settle is which IIHF edition British hockey outside the Elite League sits on — the Elite League being settled by its own Casebook, below, and not by this document. The 2026-27 cover page reads "the Current IIHF Rule Book" where its predecessor named the 2025–26 book, but its Introduction still adopts "the latest IIHF Official Rule Book (Version 1.1, published July 2025)" — Version 1.1 of July 2025 being the 2025/26 book, the 2026/27 one giving its own version as 1.0, June 2026. The document contradicts itself, so nothing here treats it as evidence either way, and the face-off answer above does not depend on it. Scope: the In-House Rules govern the game "in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (the Home Countries)"; the Rule 76, Rule 64 and Rule 10.3 amendments carry no league restriction of their own, where the Section 6 fighting provision is headed "Applicable Leagues: NIHL (all leagues), SNL, and BUIHA Varsity"; and ⚠️ the Elite League is not mentioned anywhere in the document, so nothing above speaks to an EIHL game. One further provision was read and is deliberately not carried into the text above: the 2026-27 Section 4 preamble instructs officials to label penalties precisely, including that a cross-check to the head or neck "be called Cross Checking, not Checking to the Head." That is a direction about which label an official writes down; it changes nothing about what is illegal, and it is left out rather than summarised because a one-sentence version of it read aloud would be dangerous.

Rules Primer

Hockey has more than one rule book

Key focus

Overview

If you play in Britain, the IIHF column is yours

1. How a Game Is Structured

The teams on the ice

When a rule says "a player", does that include the goalie?

Periods and the clock

Stoppages

Changing on the fly

Too many men on the ice

Line changes at a stoppage

Overtime

Timeouts

2. Offside

Offside: The rule

The technique consequence: drag a trail skate

Delayed offside and tagging up

Disallowed goals on a delayed offside

Where the faceoff goes

Video review

Rule-set differences

3. Icing

Icing: The rule

"Gaining the line"

Hybrid, no-touch and touch icing

The full wave-off list

The consequences

What this means for how you play

4. Penalties

The types, and what each does to your team

Stick fouls

Body fouls

Other infractions

Broken sticks

When penalties add up

What actually gets called at rec level

5. Delayed Penalties

Two different things share this name

How the delayed call works

Pulling the goalie

What happens if you score

What to do as a player during a delayed penalty

6. Power Play and Penalty Kill Basics

The strengths you will actually see

When a penalty ends early

Shorthanded teams may ice the puck — with two exceptions

Practical consequences

7. Goaltender-Specific Rules

The crease

Goaltender interference

Screening is legal outside the crease

The trapezoid (goalkeeper's restricted area)

Freezing the puck

The goalie playing the puck

When a fight breaks out

8. Faceoffs

The nine spots

Why the draw is where it is

The two things you must not leave without

9. Officials and Signals

Who is on the ice

The signals you should recognise

Talking to officials

10. Rule Set Differences That Actually Matter

Common Mistakes

Check yourself

Key Takeaways

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