Goaltender

Key focus

Stand on the line from the puck to the middle of your goal: out, square and set as the shot leaves. Then a shooter can only beat you at the edges. Rebuild your references at every whistle — skate your arc, tap both posts.

Decide how far out you are before the shot. Come out against a lone shooter with no pass available. Get back when the puck is in tight or a pass across the slot is on. Against a screened shot from distance, ask what your coach teaches.

Track the puck into the pad, the glove or the chest, because that is how you control the rebound. Move when a pass is released, not when it arrives. Know where their forwards are before the shot, and send rebounds wide and low to the corners.

Stay on your feet until going down is the answer. Drop early and you give away the top of the net and your choice of save, and it is worse the smaller you are. Get back up after the save.

Go to the post late, come off it early, and never drop there out of habit. Seal only for pucks below the goal line or on top of you, and dig the off-post pad into the ice. Some schools seal earlier, so ask yours.

Through a screen, commit to one side and see the puck cleanly there. A step off the perfect angle with a clear view beats square and blind. Call "screen" so somebody moves. Looking around or over is your coach's call.

On a rush, be the last one to move. On a breakaway, meet them well out, retreat at their speed and stay up. On a 2-on-1 your defenceman usually takes the pass and you the shooter — agree it before the game.

Kill rims behind your net, call "leave it" early, and never move the puck up the middle. ⚠️ Know how far back your book lets you go: inside the trapezoid under the NHL and IIHF, the old one in the PWHL, and anywhere under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA.

Freeze because an attacker is on you in your crease, not because you want a whistle. That freeze buys a pinned team a change. Leave it when your defenceman is arriving with time. ⚠️ Outside your crease, play it or clear it — every book restricts the freeze out there.

Talk early, short and every time: "screen", "time", "man on", "back door". Agree the words in the room — here "shot" means you have the shooter. Say "time" only when you are sure: a false one sends a defenceman into a hit unbraced. After a hard shot off your mask, say something at the next stoppage.

Overview

Key

Goaltending is not primarily about reflexes — it is about being in the right place, so that the save needs almost no reflex at all

Convention

Be out, be square, be set — Korn's three steps, which he numbers but does not rank; trading a little depth to be completely set is a coaching judgement rather than his, so ask your coach

Key

Depth is the decision you make before every save, and it always trades the shooter in front of you against the pass behind

Read

Come out at a lone shooter with no pass available; get back when the puck is in tight, or a pass across the front of the goal is on

Convention

On a screened shot from distance the coaching schools genuinely disagree — one wants you deeper, for time to find the puck; the other calls going deep a common error and wants a close gap, so ask which your coach teaches

Technique

Track the puck all the way into the pad, the glove, the chest — if you saw it hit you, you know where the rebound went, and when a pass is released move then, not when it arrives

Key

You see everything and you are the only player not deciding while sprinting — a view wasted unless you say it, early, short, every time

Mindset

You will let in bad goals — have a reset ritual, use it identically every time, and do the analysis tomorrow, not during the game

Goaltending is not primarily about reflexes — it is about being in the right place, so that the save needs almost no reflex at all.

Tracking the puck all the way in pays twice. Goalie coaches put almost every soft goal down to losing sight of it — an observation, not a count — and if you saw it hit you, you know where the rebound went. Your voice is the most valuable thing you do that is not a save. A goalie who calls only sometimes trains their defencemen to filter them out.

Three of your most frequent decisions are not reflexes, and none of them is a rule. Stay up until going down is the answer: if your answer to every situation is the same, you are not reading anything. Through traffic, commit to one side of the screen and see the puck there. And use the whistle on purpose: a frozen rebound in your crease buys a pinned team a change.

But the attacker on you earns the freeze, not the change you want. A puck you had time to play with your stick and covered anyway is a minor in every book (Hockey Canada warns once first, in your crease). Under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books, freezing a dump-in from beyond the centre red line locks your own tired five on the ice for the draw. And a puck your defenceman can reach with time is worth more left alone.

Behind your own net you are your defenceman's first option, and usually not by passing. A rim killed dead behind the goal turns a race into a pickup. When you move it, rank the outlets by your own turnover risk and keep it out of the middle. How far back you may go reverses between the rule books, so Playing the Puck below sets each book out.

If you have not started playing yet, this is the cheapest route onto the ice: goalies are scarce, so learn-to-play places are often free or discounted and clubs often loan gear. ⚠️ Borrow the pads, the blocker, the trapper and the chest protector — but buy the mask. Face protection is required under every book. Under USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, check a loaned mask's sticker: an expired one is no certification at all. In Britain no rule names a certification mark, so ask your league what it accepts. Either way, a sticker tells you nothing about how many pucks the mask has stopped or the state of its liner. Equipment owns used and borrowed head protection.

The lines, zones and named areas of the ice are in Rink Map, and the working words, the goaltending ones included, are in Language and Glossary.

Six more terms are used here constantly. Depth is how far out of your net you are, along the line from the puck to the middle of the goal. Square is your chest, hips and shoulders facing the puck, with the middle of your body on that line. Challenging is coming out toward the shooter to shrink the net they can see; its opposite is staying deep, or playing back. The five-hole is the gap between your legs, and the six-hole the gap between your stick arm and your body. When you challenge, the shooter is the front door and the space opened behind you, usually toward the far post, is the back door; every positioning decision trades one against the other.

And one thing that is not vocabulary at all, but the premise of everything below: you do not play a series of shots. You play situations, many of which never end in a shot at all.

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Stance and Depth

The ready stance

Position

Feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, weight on the inside edges of the balls of your feet

Technique

Get low with your knees, not your spine — bending at the waist drops your head and makes you fall through saves

Position

Hands out in front and visible in your own peripheral vision; hands at your hips must travel forward before they travel sideways

Technique

Stick blade flat on the ice a blade's length in front of your toes, angled so a puck deflects down and out

Key

Head still and level — your eyes are the instrument, and everything else exists to keep them steady

Rule

A goalie's paddle may not exceed 26 inches (NHL Rule 10.2); too long and you stand taller and the six-hole opens

Rule

IIHF Rule 10.2 sets the widened portion at 71 cm — about 28 inches, roughly two inches longer than the NHL's

Everything else is built on this. A stance that is wrong in a small way at the start of the play is wrong in a large way by the time the shot arrives.

• Feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, weight on the inside edges of the balls of your feet. Weight on your heels means you cannot push, and you will fall backwards on the first lateral move.
• Knees bent, chest up, back reasonably straight. Bending at the waist to get low drops your head and pushes your shoulders forward, which is what makes goalies fall through their saves. Get low with your knees, not your spine.
• Hands out in front of you and visible in your own peripheral vision. This is the single cheapest improvement most rec-league goalies can make — a startling number of pucks simply hit hands that are already where the puck is going. Hands held back at your hips are hands that must travel forward before they can travel sideways.
• Stick blade flat on the ice, roughly a stick-blade's length in front of your toes, angled so a puck hitting it deflects down and out rather than up into your body. The stick is your first line of defence against low shots and passes through the crease.
• Head still and level. Your eyes are the instrument; everything else exists to keep them steady.

Paddle length matters more than beginners think. The paddle is the thick part of the goal stick between the blade and the shaft. One that is too long makes you stand taller, pushes your stick hand away from your body and opens the six-hole. If your stance feels wrong and you cannot fix it, measure the stick before you rebuild the stance. The NHL caps the paddle at 26 inches and the IIHF book — the one you play under in Britain — at about 28, and those extra two inches are exactly the ones that cost you the six-hole. Your stick — paddle length below has the detail.

Depth is the fundamental decision

In short: Pick your depth before the shot: challenge a lone shooter from distance, get back when a pass or tight angle is on.

Key

Every save begins with a decision you made before the shot — how far out of my net am I?

Priority

The trade is always front door against back door — shot taken away against pass still covered

Risk

Depth costs you reaction time, lateral coverage on a pass, and awareness of where the net is behind you

Read

With one shooter, no pass available and the shot from distance, challenge to the top of the crease or beyond

Read

Puck below the dots or in tight, or a pass available across the slot — get back

Convention

Depth against a screened shot from distance is a genuine coaching split, not a default. Find out which your coach teaches

Never

Hide deep in the net or run at shooters — both are confidence problems, not technique problems

Every save begins with a decision you made before the shot: how far out of my net am I?

Think of it geometrically. The net is six feet wide. From the shooter's point of view, you are a wall of a certain size at a certain distance. Move a foot toward them and you cover noticeably more of the net from their perspective — the shooting angles that beat you shrink. Move a foot back and they open up again.

So why not just charge out every time? Because depth costs you three things:

1. Time. The further out you are, the less time you have to react to a shot from that distance, and the more of a deke you have to respect.
2. Lateral coverage. The further out you are, the further you have to travel to get across on a pass. A goalie two feet outside the crease facing a strong-side shooter has an enormous back door.
3. Net awareness. Out past the top of the crease it becomes genuinely hard to know where the goal is behind you, and "losing the net" is how goalies end up making a save while standing beside the post.

The trade is always front door against back door. You are choosing how much of the shooter's shot to take away versus how much of the pass you can still cover. There is no universally correct answer; there is a correct answer for each situation.

The rough defaults, which every goalie coach will adjust:

• One shooter, no pass available, shot from distance: challenge. Get to the top of the crease or beyond. Take the shot away and make them beat you with placement.
• Puck below the dots or in tight: get back. Depth buys the shooter nothing when the angle is already bad, and you need the ability to move.
• Pass available across the slot: back off. Being slightly less square to a shot you can still see beats being perfectly square to a shot that never comes while the back door is wide open.
• Screened shot from distance: a genuine coaching split, not a default — find out which one your coach teaches. The traditional answer is deeper than you would otherwise be, so you have time to find the puck through legs. A second school teaches the opposite and calls going deep an error: the BVHS goalie manual says "Goalies often fall deep in their crease when facing pressure; this is a common error. This opens too much net and does not help see more of the puck." The same passage instead asks you to "maintain a close gap to the shooter to eliminate room for the puck to move, as well as tips." Both sides are trading the same two things — net coverage against sighting time — and disagreeing about which is scarcer. See the traffic section.

What the shapes and fills mean

Two failure modes, and both are confidence problems, not technique problems. A goalie who has lost confidence goes to one extreme or the other: hiding deep in the net where the posts feel safe (and getting beaten to the corners), or running at shooters and getting beaten by the first pass or the first change of direction. Some run out as far as the hash marks, the short marks on the sides of each faceoff circle level with the faceoff dot, about twenty feet from your goal line. If you can see either pattern in your own game, treat it as a head problem before you rebuild your mechanics.

What the shapes and fills mean

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Angles and Positioning — The Core of the Position

The saves that look spectacular are usually positioning failures rescued athletically. The saves that look easy are the good ones.

Playing the angle

Position

Stand on the line from the puck to the exact centre of the goal line, facing along it, centred on it

Technique

Be out — at the depth this situation calls for

Technique

Be square — chest and hips pointed at the puck, centred on the puck-to-net line

Technique

Be set — stationary, or as close to it as the play allows, at the moment of release

Convention

Korn lists out, square, set as three steps and does not rank them — trading a little depth to be set at release is a coaching judgement, and one manual gives up depth only against a back-door or deke threat, so ask your coach

Action

Ask for the extra second in practice — if you are never set in practice, you will not be set in games

Imagine a line drawn from the puck to the exact centre of the goal line. Your job is to stand on that line, facing along it, with your body centred on it. Do that and you are covering the middle of the net by definition, and the shooter can only score by hitting the edges.

What the shapes and fills mean

Mitch Korn's three-step formulation of cutting down the angle is the clearest one in circulation, and worth memorising in order. He gives them as "(1) being out … (2) being square … (3) being set (stationary if possible)":

1. Be out — at the depth this situation calls for.
2. Be square — chest and hips pointed at the puck, centred on the puck-to-net line.
3. Be set — stationary, or as close to it as the play allows, at the moment of release.

Korn numbers those three steps but does not rank them, so what follows is a coaching judgement rather than his. Out and square but still moving when the shot leaves is worse than slightly shallow and completely set, because a goalie in motion at release cannot push in any direction — their weight is already committed to one. Not every coach trades depth away that readily. The BVHS goalie manual gives up depth for one reason only: "The only time a goaltender needs to sacrifice depth is when a shooter is a threat to get behind them. For example, a back-door play, or a breakaway deke." Ask your goalie coach which way they want it when the two pull against each other.

"Set, then shoot" is also how you should be practised. Coaches habitually let shooters fire before the goalie's feet are down. If you are never set in practice, you will not be set in games. Ask for the extra second.

Squaring up

Technique

Square is about your torso, not your feet. Rotate your shoulders and hips and take small shuffles

Never

Turn your skates and skate along an arc facing the wrong way

Never

Take the big shuffle — two large steps instead of four opens the five-hole mid-step

Key

A smaller shuffle is always better; a large one also leaves you unable to change direction

Square is about your torso, not your feet. On a puck moving laterally across the top of the zone, you stay square by rotating your shoulders and hips and taking small shuffles — not by turning your skates and skating along an arc facing the wrong way.

The common error is the big shuffle: covering the distance in two large steps rather than four small ones. A large shuffle opens the five-hole mid-step and leaves you unable to change direction. Smaller is better, always.

The post-to-post arc

Position

Move along a shallow arc — out at the middle, curving back toward the posts as the puck goes wide

Key

As the puck moves toward the boards the angle closes on its own, and depth there just means you cannot get back

Technique

End each lateral movement at the post rather than near it, so there is no gap between your pad and the post for a shooter to pick

Convention

Goalie coaches call the low short-side goal the cheapest in hockey — coaching emphasis rather than a counted ranking, and closing it does not cover the high short side over your shoulder

Key

Korn's "Y-theory" — out, back, and diagonally toward the post — is the picture of what the arc looks like

You are not moving in a straight line across the crease. You are moving along a shallow arc — out at the middle, curving back toward the posts as the puck goes wide. Two reasons:

• The geometry demands it. As the puck moves toward the boards the angle closes on its own; you do not need depth to cover a shot from the goal line, and depth there just means you cannot get back.
• The posts are your reference points. Ending each lateral movement at the post rather than near it leaves no gap between your pad and the post for a shooter to pick — the low short-side goal, which goalie coaches call the cheapest goal in hockey. Treat that ranking as coaching emphasis rather than a counted statistic. And note which half of the short side you have closed: the space over your shoulder is a separate exposure, and it is covered under post integration below.

What the shapes and fills mean

Korn calls the efficient combination of moving out, back and diagonally to the post the "Y-theory" — out, back, and diagonally toward the post — and it is a good mental picture for what the arc actually looks like when you trace a goalie's feet over a shift.

Knowing where you are without looking

Key

You cannot look at the net, so build a set of physical references instead

Technique

Tap the posts with your stick or glove when the play allows — it is a position fix, not a nervous tic

Technique

Feel where your skates are relative to the blue paint; the crease lines are painted for you

Technique

Use the crease depth marks as a depth reference where your crease carries them (NHL Rule 1.7)

Action

Look before you rely on the depth marks — check in warm-up what your own crease is painted with, because IIHF Rule 1.7 puts the geometry in an appendix and that paint need not carry the NHL's marks

Action

Reset at every stoppage — skate your arc, tap both posts, find your top-of-crease spot

You cannot look at the net. The puck is at the other end of your attention and it moves faster than your head. So you build a set of physical references:

• The posts. Reach back and tap them with your stick or your glove when the play allows. Every goalie does this. It is not a nervous tic; it is a position fix.
• The blue paint. The crease lines are painted for you. The straight side lines run from one foot outside each post out to four feet six inches; the arc is six feet from the middle of the goal line. Feel where your skates are relative to the paint.
• The depth marks. NHL creases carry a five-inch line extending into the crease from each side line, four feet out from the goal line (Rule 1.7). They exist as a depth reference. Use them — but look before you rely on them. IIHF Rule 1.7 describes the crease in a sentence and puts the geometry in Appendix VI rather than in the rule text, so the paint you get under the IIHF book is not guaranteed to carry the NHL's marks. Find out what your own crease is actually painted with in warm-up.
• The ice itself. Your own skate ruts, the goal crease edge under your blade, the feel of the post against your shoulder or shin.
• Reset at every stoppage. Skate your arc, tap both posts, find your top-of-crease spot. Rebuild the map every whistle so you do not have to think about it during play.

Angle first, or depth first?

Convention

The mainstream modern emphasis is angle before depth — get on the line first, then add depth if the situation allows

Key

Being deep but off-angle is a goal; being on-angle but a little deep is a save you have to make

Read

Stepping off the post to face a short-side shot is the documented exception to angle-before-depth — add depth first to close the near-post gap

Key

Where the danger is a gap you have just created by moving, depth is the fix

Action

Ask your own coach whether they teach angle before depth — this is a difference in coaching philosophy, not a settled fact

The mainstream modern coaching emphasis is angle before depth: get on the line first, then add depth if the situation allows. Being deep but off-angle is a goal; being on-angle but a little deep is a save you have to make.

There is at least one well-documented exception. Philadelphia Flyers goalie development coach Brady Robinson teaches that when you are stepping off the post to face a short-side shot, depth is the first thing you add — because pushing out along the short side is what closes the near-post gap that opens the instant you detach from the post. Treat that as the shape of the exception generally: when the danger is a gap you have just created by moving, depth is the fix.

Ask your own coach which they teach. This is a genuine difference in coaching philosophy, not a settled fact.

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Movement

Goalie skating is its own discipline. You almost never take a normal forward stride; you move laterally, backwards and diagonally in small controlled increments while keeping your body facing the puck.

On your feet

In short: Shuffle for short moves to stay square, T-push when you have time, and retreat on C-cuts, eyes on the puck.

Options

Shuffle for short lateral moves, T-push for longer ones, telescope in and out, C-cut backwards to retreat

Technique

Shuffle without turning your skates and arrive stopped rather than drifting — you stay square the whole way

Technique

T-push turns the lead skate to form a T and covers real ground, but you are momentarily not square, so use it when you have time

Technique

Telescope straight out and straight back along the puck-to-net line, brisk and explosive, never a stroll

Technique

C-cut backwards on your inside edges so you retreat without ever taking your eyes off the puck

Convention

What the lead skate does in a shuffle is not settled — BVHS teaches the flats and calls an outside edge a fault that anchors you

Key

Take your control from the size of the shuffle and from stopping the hips together, not from digging the lead skate in

Key

Flow is a little backward motion on a rush — too much and you retreat into your own net

• The shuffle — moving side to side without turning your skates, staying square throughout. You push off the far foot (the "drive" leg), bring it back to stance, and arrive stopped rather than drifting. This is your default for short lateral moves and for anything where the puck may be shot mid-movement, because you are square the whole way. What the lead skate should be doing is not settled. Mitch Korn's definition specifies only the motion and the size, with no edge detail at all. The BVHS goalie manual teaches the lead leg on its flats, not an edge: "When we do shuffle, we ideally want to be on our flats instead of an edge. This makes it easier to glide and stay light through your front leg." It also names the outside edge, not the inside, as the one that bites — and treats that bite as a fault rather than a braking technique: "If your front leg is on its outside edge, you will be anchored to the ice, and no matter how hard you push, you will be stuck." Practical reading: get your control from the size of the shuffle and from stopping the hips together, not from digging the lead skate in.
• The T-push — for longer lateral distances. Turn the lead skate to point where you are going so your feet form a T, push hard off the back foot, and glide. Faster than a shuffle and it covers real ground, but you are momentarily not square, so use it when you have time — post to post on a puck behind the net, or recovering across after a rebound goes wide. The T-push is also the first motion of a two-pad slide.
• Telescoping — moving straight out and straight back along the puck-to-net line, staying in your stance the whole time. This is how you add and remove depth. It should be brisk and explosive, never a stroll.
• Backward C-cuts — retreating without turning around. You carve a "C" shape with one skate's inside edge, then the other, which pushes you backwards while your chest stays facing the play. This is how you retreat on a rush, how you back off a shooter who is closing on you, and how you get from a challenged position back into the net without ever taking your eyes off the puck. It is the goalie equivalent of a defenceman's backward skating and it is just as foundational.
• Flow — a general principle rather than a specific move. On a rush or against a deke you want a little backward motion rather than being planted flat-footed; flow gives you rhythm and lets you react in either direction. Too much flow and you retreat into your own net.

On your knees

Technique

Butterfly slide — push laterally off the heel of the up leg and arrive with both pads down

Goal

Cover ground without getting back to your feet, when a pass across the slot gives you no time to stand up

Technique

Keep your head and hands at the same level throughout, and close the five-hole as you land

Convention

The recovery taught with the modern butterfly keeps the puck-side leg down and lifts the far leg first

Never

Stand up away from the puck first — that is how goalies end up out of position on the second shot

• The butterfly slide (also called a power slide; the push itself is often called the backside push, but that names the mechanic rather than the move) — from a butterfly position with one pad down, you push laterally off the heel of the up leg and slide, arriving with both pads down. It lets you cover ground without getting back to your feet, which matters when a pass across the slot gives you no time to stand up. Keep your head and hands at the same level throughout and close the five-hole as you land.
• Butterfly recovery — getting back up. The convention taught with the modern butterfly is to keep the puck-side leg down and lift the far leg first, then push toward the puck. Standing up "away" from the puck first is how goalies end up out of position on the second shot.

Post integration: VH and RVH

In short: Seal the post on a read, never out of habit; this guide's default is on late, off early.

Read

Seal the post when the puck is below the goal line or very tight to it — otherwise there is a gap at ice level

Technique

VH puts the near pad up vertical against the post and the far pad down along the ice — a wall up the post

Technique

RVH puts the near pad down along the goal line and keeps the inside leg up and vertical — a wall along the ice

Key

RVH kills the low short-side shot and the wrap-around; VH is better against a shot that can go up the post

Technique

Dig the off-post pad into the ice at 45 degrees — without that anchor the first shot drives you back into your net

Risk

You can get locked onto the post, the high short side is exposed, and an early seal encourages you to stop reading

Convention

Onto the post late and off it early is the conservative North American default; the Swedish tradition teaches an earlier, defined trigger — ask what yours is

Never

Drop to a post out of habit, without a read — that is the one thing nobody defends

When the puck goes below the goal line or very tight to the post, standing normally leaves a gap between your pad and the post at ice level, which is exactly where wrap-arounds and stuff attempts go. Post integration is how you seal that.

• VH (vertical–horizontal), also called the split butterfly or "loading the post." The pad nearest the post goes up, vertical, flat against the post; the far pad goes down, horizontal, along the ice. Named for the orientation of the two pads. It covers a quick short-side shot well while keeping you able to track a pass out front.

• RVH (reverse VH) — the same idea reversed. The pad nearest the post goes down, horizontal, along the goal line, sealing the ice at the base of the post; the inside leg stays up and vertical, ready to push out. Your upper body leans into the post, with the seal made by skate, shin or pad depending on what you have been taught.

  The load-bearing detail is the off-post leg, and it is the one most descriptions leave out: that pad has to be dug into the ice, not just held up. BVHS: "the pad off the post is dug into the ice at a 45-degree angle. It is super important that we dig this foot into the ice, as when the pad on the post faces impact, we need to be anchored into the ice to stay out of the net and in position." Without that anchor, "up and vertical, ready to push out" is the version that gets driven backwards into your own net by the first shot that hits the post-side pad.

RVH was developed in Sweden in 2010 by goaltending coaches Linda Blomquist and Daniel Henriksson at Luleå Hockey (Swedes call it "SMS"), specifically to fix three problems they had with VH: difficulty staying attached to the post, poor rebound control, and difficulty getting off the post. It is now in near-universal use at professional level — a characterisation drawn from goaltending-coaching sources rather than from any published count.

In plain terms: VH puts a wall up the post and RVH puts a wall along the ice. RVH kills the low short-side shot and the wrap-around; VH is better against a shot that can go up the post.

The honest limitations, all of which are actively debated among professional goalie coaches:

• You can get stuck. The most common criticism of RVH is that goalies get locked onto the post and cannot detach in time for a play back to the slot. Bruins goaltending coach Bob Essensa, who teaches a shin-on-post seal, describes this as the standard objection he fields from other coaches.
• The high short side is exposed. With your body low against the post, the space over your shoulder is real, and shooters at higher levels look for it.
• It encourages passivity. Blomquist and Henriksson identified this as one of the three problems they had to solve before the technique was viable: a goalie who drops to a post seal early stops reading the play.

The practical rule — and it is one school, not the only one. The version taught here is the conservative North American default: post seals are for pucks that are genuinely below the goal line or genuinely on top of you; get on the post late, get off it early, and stay on your feet as long as the puck is still in front of the goal line. Other coaches, particularly in the Swedish tradition where RVH originated, teach an earlier and more systematic seal with a defined trigger line. Both are defensible, and the trigger is a coaching choice, so ask what yours is. What nobody defends is dropping to a post out of habit, without a read. Which seal your coach teaches — skate, shin or pad — is likewise theirs to set; learn it.

The load goaltending puts on your hips, and warming up for it

In short: Get a sweat on before live shots, warm up by moving, and get groin or hip pain looked at.

Action

Get a sweat on before you take live shots — the butterfly drops, slides and post seals of goaltending are force at the end of your hip range, and cold is where they cost you

Risk

A goalie coaching manual says jumping straight into live shots without a sweat "drastically increases the risk of pulled groin or hip flexor muscles" — its judgement, not a measured rate

Action

A goalie manual's pre-practice checklist is a routine, not a prescription — arrive 45 minutes early, mobility and stretching, hip activation, hydrate, check the gear for damage, one focus goal

Key

Warm up by moving rather than by holding stretches — Conditioning and Recovery finds the evidence favours dynamic work before play, and that pre-activity stretching is not injury prevention

Key

Among NHL goalies in a 2025 study, proximal adductor injuries were the largest injury category and cost the most days missed — Conditioning and Recovery carries its numbers and its population

Never

Take groin or hip pain to a document instead of a person — persistent or recurring pain wants a physiotherapist or sports physician, and when you play again is their call

The butterfly drops, the slides and the post seals set out in this section are all force produced at the end of your hip range, over and over, and they are the part of the position with the most obvious physical cost attached. The injury data, the warm-up structure, and an honest account of how thin the evidence for preventing any of it actually is are all in Conditioning and Recovery. Two things belong here rather than there, because they are about your ice time rather than your training.

• Do not go from the dressing room straight into live shots. The BVHS goalie manual puts it bluntly, in its warm-up chapter: "The intense butterfly drops and side-to-side pushes require loose muscles. Jumping straight into live shots without a sweat drastically increases the risk of pulled groin or hip flexor muscles." That is a coaching manual's judgement rather than a study, and it puts no number on the risk — none is given here, because the manual gives none. What it lines up with is the one measured thing in reach: in Keshen and colleagues' 2025 American Journal of Sports Medicine study of musculoskeletal injuries in NHL goalies, proximal adductor injuries were the largest single injury category and accounted for more days missed than any other. Note that population — professionals, on the ice far more than you are — and take the figures and their caveats from Conditioning and Recovery, which owns them.
• The same manual publishes a pre-practice checklist, and it is one goalie routine rather than a prescription: arrive 45 minutes early; complete a mobility and stretching routine; perform hip activation exercises; hydrate; visualise successful practice situations; check equipment for issues or damage; warm the hands and eyes up with tennis-ball work; set a focus goal for the practice. ⚠️ One qualification the checklist does not carry, and you should. It says "stretching" without saying which kind, and Conditioning and Recovery sets out evidence favouring dynamic movement before you play, together with a 2025 consensus-style paper concluding that stretch training "does not serve as an all-encompassing injury prevention strategy." So the part of that checklist doing the work is getting warm and moving through range, not holding a stretch. Stretch for range of motion at a separate time.

None of this is advice about an injury you already have. Symptoms, the red flags that mean an ambulance, and every question about when you play again belong to a qualified medical professional who has assessed you, and neither this document nor that one will give you a timeline. ⚠️ Groin and hip pain gets treated as ordinary in this position, and it should not be: get it looked at.

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Save Selection

In short: Read the play first, then pick the save that fits it and controls where the rebound goes.

Note the word: selection. You are not reacting randomly; you are choosing the save that fits the situation, and the choice is made before the shot arrives, from your read of where everyone is.

• Butterfly — dropping to your knees with both pads extended sideways and the five-hole closed. It covers the great majority of the lower net, and it is the base save of modern goaltending for that reason. (The supporting claim usually given — that most goals are scored low — is repeated widely in coaching material, but no measured source is offered for it here, so treat it as consensus rather than a figure.)
• Half butterfly — one pad extends while the other stays underneath supporting your body. Mitch Korn calls it "⁠[p]robably the most used save" in hockey. It handles a low shot to one side while leaving you balanced and able to recover, and it can be executed while stationary, moving in any direction, or turning to stay square.
• Glove save — catching cleanly with the trapper. The best possible outcome of any high shot, because it produces no rebound at all and stops play or gives you the puck.
• Blocker save — deflecting with the rectangular pad on your stick hand. A blocker save always produces a rebound, so the technique is about where you send it: angle the blocker face so the puck goes to the corner, not back into the slot.
• Pad saves — the leg pads, standing or in butterfly. Pads are big and reliable but they are also springy, so pad saves need active management (see rebound control).
• Body / chest save — smothering the puck into your upper body by "caving in" your arms around it. Excellent for rebound control, poor if you have not tracked the puck, because a puck you have not seen into your chest will squirt out somewhere you are not looking.
• Paddle down — laying the stick's paddle flat along the ice to seal the bottom of the net across a wide area. It is for wrap-arounds and scrambles in tight when you can smother the shooter, and it is heavily over-used by young goalies. It sacrifices everything above about shin height, so it only makes sense when a low play is the only play available.
• Poke check — sliding your hand up the shaft and thrusting the blade out at the puck. Effective against a shooter who has the puck out in front of them on a breakaway or a wrap-around, or to clear a loose puck in the crease. It is a commitment: if you miss, you are down a stick-length of reach and your weight is forward.

The butterfly is a tool, not a religion

In short: Stay on your feet until going down is the answer, and use the butterfly as a save you choose, not a reflex.

Never

Drop into a butterfly on every shot as a reflex — going down first and hoping the puck hits you

Risk

Dropping into a butterfly on every shot gives away the top of the net, and once you are down you cannot get back up in time

Risk

Dropping into a butterfly on every shot is worse the smaller you are — a twelve-year-old leaves a great deal of open net above them

Risk

Dropping into a butterfly on every shot removes save selection — if your answer to every situation is the same, you are not reading anything

Key

The butterfly is a save you select, not an identity — dropping to your knees does not make you a butterfly goalie

Convention

The style labels "profly", "hybrid" and "stand-up" are used inconsistently and which one dominates is not settled — what the coaching material agrees on is to read and react rather than drop by default

Action

Play the puck you can see, and stay up until going down is the answer

Dropping into a butterfly on every shot as a reflex — going down first and hoping the puck hits you — is a habit that beats you from above while you are still on your way down. Published goaltending material names it as a fault; how often it happens, and how it ranks against the other errors a young goalie makes, is not counted in any source this document draws on, so read it as coaching emphasis rather than a measured frequency. It fails for three concrete reasons:

• Dropping into a butterfly on every shot gives away the top of the net, and once you are down you cannot get back up in time.
• The reflex butterfly is worse the smaller you are. A 6'4" professional in a wide butterfly covers most of a six-foot net. A twelve-year-old does not, and there is a great deal of open net above them.
• Dropping every time removes save selection. If your answer to every situation is the same, you are not reading anything.

The butterfly is a save you select, not an identity. Mitch Korn's glossary calls it "an overused term" and warns that "⁠[j]ust because a goalie drops to his/her knees, does not mean they are butterfly goalies" — and he lists the half butterfly separately, as "⁠[p]robably the most used save".

Be careful with the style labels themselves, because they are not used consistently. You will hear goalies sorted into "profly", "hybrid" and "stand-up". On Wikipedia's Butterfly style page, the profly goalie uses the butterfly "as a base for the majority of their save selections". "Hybrid" is "commonly used to measure how far a goaltender strays from using the butterfly technique as a base save" — the opposite way round from how the two are often used casually. Which of them dominates is not settled. That same page calls the profly "the style most commonly used and taught", but the source it cites for that sentence does not say so. The BVHS goalie manual, in the edition its cover dates to May 2026, declines to sort goalies at all. It describes its aim as "not to create identical goalies or force athletes into one specific style" and lists "Forcing one style on every goalie" among the mistakes to avoid.

So take the instruction rather than the label. Corey Schwab, a former NHL goalie and San Jose Sharks goalie development coach, says of young goalies: "I want them to learn how to react and not just drop and hope they stop the puck." Stay on your feet when staying on your feet is right, and get back to them after a save where you can.

Play the puck you can see. Stay up until going down is the answer.

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Rebound Control

This is the most under-appreciated skill in goaltending. A save that produces a rebound into the slot has not really been a save; it has converted a shot from distance into a shot from six feet. Rebound control is what separates goalies who make a lot of saves from goalies who concede few goals.

Joe Bertagna's ordering of your options is the cleanest framework available, and it is a genuine priority order:

1. Prevent the rebound altogether.
2. Cover or clear the loose puck.
3. Direct the rebound somewhere safe.
4. Recover quickly for the next shot.

Preventing the rebound — absorbing

Goal

Kill the puck's energy so it drops dead in front of you or stays in your equipment

Technique

Let the stick blade give slightly on contact — a rigid stick sends the puck straight back out

Technique

Relax into the shot rather than bracing against it; a tensed goalie is a trampoline

Options

Kill a high shot by catching it cleanly, trapping it against your other equipment, or smothering it into your chest

Absorbing means killing the puck's energy so it drops dead in front of you or stays in your equipment.

• A soft stick. On a shot along the ice into your stick, let the blade give slightly on contact rather than holding it rigid. A rigid stick sends the puck straight back out; a soft stick drops it at your feet, where you can play it — or, in your crease with an attacker on you, cover it.
• Cushioning generally. The same principle applies to your body and pads: relax into the shot rather than bracing against it. A tensed goalie is a trampoline.
• Three ways to kill a high shot: catch it cleanly in the glove; trap it with the glove hand against your other equipment; or smother it into your chest by caving your arms in around it.

Directing the rebound

Targets

The corners — wide and low toward the boards, below the goal line if you can

Technique

Angle your surfaces — rotate the blocker so its face points at the corner, not back up the ice

Never

Direct a rebound into the slot, where the other team's best players are standing

Action

Look off the puck before the shot is released and register who is where

Key

Be specific — "a left shot open at the back post", not "there's a guy open"

When you cannot absorb, you must aim. The target is the corners — wide and low toward the boards, below the goal line if you can, where no attacker is standing and where the puck ends up as a battle rather than a chance.

What the shapes and fills mean

• Angle your surfaces. A pad or blocker turned even slightly changes where the puck goes. On a shot to your blocker side, rotate the blocker so its face points at the corner rather than back up the ice.
• Never direct into the slot. The area directly in front of you is where the other team's best players are standing.
• Know where they are before the shot. This is the mental half of rebound control, and it is the half that actually decides it. You must look off the puck before the shot is released and register who is where. Be specific about it: not "there's a guy open," but "there's a left shot open at the back post." That detail tells you both which save to select and where the rebound must not go.

Freezing the puck — and the rules that govern it

In short: In your crease, cover a puck you had to save with an attacker on you; otherwise put it down and play it.

Priority

Let a puck on the back of your net fall off — covering is a faceoff in NHL and IIHF 85.2, a minor in USA Hockey Casebook 610 and Hockey Canada 6.12(b); treat it as one anywhere in CARHA (58(b), 61(b))

Rule

You may hold the puck in your hands for up to three seconds unless actually being checked; longer is a minor (NHL Rule 67.3(i))

Rule

IIHF Rule 67.3(I) writes the same three seconds but says "checked / pressured" — pressure, not a check, is the UK test

Rule

Causing an unnecessary stoppage, or dropping the puck into your pads or onto the goal net, are minors (NHL and IIHF 67.3(ii), (iv); PWHL 69.3); USA Hockey Rule 610(f) writes the same pads limb, but Hockey Canada Rule 10.1(vi) names only the goal netting; 10.1's list is "not limited to" what it names

Rule

Racing out to beat an attacker to a loose puck and jumping on it is a minor, but coming out to cut down the angle, saving and covering straight off the save is legal (Note to NHL and IIHF 63.2(vi), PWHL 65.2(vi))

Rule

Outside your crease, freezing the puck to deliberately cause a stoppage is a minor — both books write the goalkeeper into that clause, and that clause alone stops at the crease line (NHL 63.2(i); IIHF 63.2(I))

Rule

The crease is no sanctuary — inside it, deliberately falling on the puck or holding it against the goal to cause a stoppage is a minor "unless he is actually being checked by an opponent" (NHL and IIHF Rule 63.2(vii))

Rule

While you are still in your net, piling snow or obstacles there is a bare minor (NHL and IIHF 67.3(v), PWHL 69.3(v); USA Hockey 610(f); CARHA 66(f)) — and under Hockey Canada a minor with no prevention test at all (8.3(a)), rising to a penalty shot where it actually prevents a goal (4.11(a)(iv))

Convention

No game is officiated on the literal reading of Rule 63.2(vii) — referees enforce it through Rule 67.3's "unnecessary stoppage" test instead; that is my reading of how the two rules interact, and the NHL publishes no interpretation of it

Freezing means covering the puck to stop play. It is a real tool, and it is regulated more tightly than most players realise.

• In your crease, cover a puck you had to save, with an attacker on you — on the ice, not pinned against the post. That is the freeze every book protects.
• If nobody is on you, get rid of it within three seconds. Drop it and play it rather than hold it.
• Let a puck on the back of your net fall off. Covering it there costs anything from a faceoff to two minutes, depending on the book.
• Never drop the puck into your pads or onto the netting to get a whistle. That is the stoppage the rules exist to stop.
• Do not race out and jump on a loose puck. Coming out to cut down the angle, making the save and then covering it is fine under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL.
• Scrape your crease; never bank snow there. It is your job to keep the area near your net clear of anything that could stop a puck.
• Outside your crease, play it or clear it. And do not treat the crease as a sanctuary: inside it too, a cover that only manufactures a stoppage can be penalised.

How strictly is the crease rule called? Read literally, NHL Rule 63.2(vii) penalises a deliberate cover in your crease "unless he is actually being checked by an opponent" — far stricter than any game you will watch. In practice referees use the "unnecessary stoppage" test of Rule 67.3: a save followed by a cover is fine, and killing play for no reason is not. That is my reading of how the two NHL rules interact; the NHL publishes no interpretation of it.

🇬🇧 The IIHF book narrows the gap, and it is the one you play under in Britain. Its three-second rule says "checked / pressured", so "nobody was on me, but I was under pressure" is an argument from the rulebook. It does not repeat the word in 63.2(VII), though, and its 67.3 still says an unnecessary stoppage "must be penalized without warning." Hockey Canada and USA Hockey both write the pressure test down: freeze in your crease under pressure, never to buy a whistle. If your league's referees are strict about it, find out early.

What it costs. Every one of these is a minor unless it says otherwise. Rules 63.2 and 67.3 carry the same subsection numbers in the NHL and IIHF books.

• Holding the puck with your hands for more than three seconds: NHL 67.3(i), unless you are being checked; IIHF 67.3(I), unless you are being "checked / pressured".
• Holding it in a way that causes an unnecessary stoppage, or dropping it into your pads or onto the goal net: NHL and IIHF 67.3(ii) and (iv), and PWHL 69.3, "penalized without warning". USA Hockey 610(f) writes both the pads and the net. Hockey Canada 10.1(vi) names only the top or back of the netting and not the pads — though 10.1's list is "not limited to" what it names, and no Hockey Canada interpretation applying it to the pads was found. Where the deliberateness sits differs: Hockey Canada writes it into the clause, the NHL and IIHF into a second rule (85.6), and USA Hockey into 614(c)(4), "intentionally drops the puck on the back of the netting".
• A puck that settles on the back of your net by itself: under NHL and IIHF 85.2 (PWHL 87.2) covering it gets a defending-zone faceoff and no penalty, and play stops anyway after three seconds. ⚠️ Under USA Hockey covering it is a minor (Casebook Rule 610 Situation 8 for the stick; the Note to 610(b) for the glove). Hockey Canada penalises deliberately making it unplayable to gain a stoppage (6.12(b)) and lets play run where it comes off without delay (6.12(c)). CARHA makes it a minor behind the goal line with your body outside the crease (58(b)), and anywhere the referee reads as an unnecessary stoppage (61(b)).
• Racing out to beat an attacker to a loose puck and jumping on it: NHL and IIHF 63.2(vi). The same rule's Note makes coming out to cut down the angle, saving and covering straight off the save legal.
• Piling snow or obstacles at your net while you are still in it: a bare minor under NHL and IIHF 67.3(v) and PWHL 69.3(v) ("would tend to prevent" a goal), USA Hockey 610(f) ("could prevent") and CARHA 66(f). ⚠️ Once you have been replaced for an extra attacker it is an awarded goal (NHL and IIHF 67.5, PWHL 69.5; CARHA 36(c)) — see 6-on-5 with your net empty. ⚠️ Hockey Canada prices it far higher: a minor for deliberately piling snow in your crease with no prevention test at all (8.3(a)), a penalty shot where it prevents a goal while you are on the ice (4.11(a)(iv)), and an awarded goal once you have been legally substituted. Its Interpretation 1 to 8.3(a) states the duty: keep the area near your net free of obstacles. USA Hockey says nearly the same (Casebook Rule 625 Situation 16).
• Freezing it outside your crease to cause a stoppage: NHL 63.2(i) and IIHF 63.2(I) name the goalkeeper in terms and apply "outside of" the goal crease, so "there were bodies around me" is no defence out there.
• A deliberate cover inside your crease that causes a stoppage: NHL and IIHF 63.2(vii), "unless he is actually being checked by an opponent". Hockey Canada (Interpretation 3 to 10.1(a)) gives a minor "after one warning" for freezing in the crease "when not under pressure"; USA Hockey 610(b) penalises a goalie who "has an opportunity to play the puck prior to being pressured" and stops play instead.

Throwing the puck forward

Rule

A forward throw toward the opponent's net is a minor under NHL and IIHF 67.3(iii) and PWHL 69.3(iii), and the IIHF reads "forward" wide: a throw to a teammate at the top of the circle along the boards is a minor for handling the puck (Situation 67.2, in both the 2025/26 and 2026/27 Handbooks)

Rule

Neither USA Hockey nor Hockey Canada penalises a goalie's forward throw, and both still stop play: USA Hockey 618(c) gives a defensive-zone draw against you once a teammate plays it, and Hockey Canada's Interpretation 6 to Rule 10.2(a) stops play on a glove throw to a teammate in any direction

Rule

USA Hockey's Casebook defines "forward" as the wedge from each post to the nearest end-zone faceoff spot (Rule 618, Situation 9) — side-or-rear is expressly permitted, but the wedge's far edge past the dots is unstated, so treat a throw landing there as still inside it

Rule

What USA Hockey's rule bars is specifically catching the puck in the glove, closing the hand, and propelling it forward to a teammate (Casebook, Rule 618 Situation 8); an open-handed bat, initiated and completed in your defending zone, is an ordinary hand pass under Rule 618(b) instead

Put the puck down and play it with your stick. Throwing it is a penalty or a whistle in most books, and the throw that feels safest — up the wall to a winger — is the one the IIHF penalises.

So do not carry USA Hockey's side-and-rear permission into another book. ⚠️ Under Hockey Canada any glove throw to a teammate costs a stoppage, and under the NHL and IIHF a throw to a teammate up the ice costs two minutes.

What it costs.

• NHL, IIHF and PWHL: throwing the puck forward toward the opponent's net is a minor (67.3(iii); PWHL 69.3(iii)). If an opponent takes the thrown puck and scores, the goal stands and there is no penalty. Nothing on file defines "forward" under the NHL book.
• 🇬🇧 The IIHF reads "forward" wide. ⚠️ Its Situation Handbook rules a blocker-hand throw to a teammate near the top of the circle along the boards a minor for handling the puck (Situation 67.2). That is the throw a British goalie is most likely to think safe. The Handbook ranks below the Rulebook, so treat it as the safe reading rather than a certainty.
• USA Hockey makes it no penalty, but stops play. A forward throw first played by a teammate gives a faceoff in your end (618(c)). Its Casebook allows a throw to the side or rear, and defines "forward" as the wedge between lines from each post to the nearest end-zone faceoff spot (Rule 618, Situation 9). ⚠️ The book never says whether the wedge stops at the dots, so treat a throw landing beyond them as inside it, and measure from the posts. An open-handed bat is an ordinary hand pass, legal when made and completed in your defending zone (Situation 8; 618(b)).
• Hockey Canada writes no forward-throw clause for a goalie, but that is no permission: any glove throw to a teammate stops play, with no penalty (Interpretation 6 to Rule 10.2(a)).

When to freeze, tactically

In short: Freeze a contested puck in your crease; outside it, or when your defenceman arrives with time, play it or clear it.

Read

In your crease, freeze a contested rebound you have clean with an attacker on you — outside it the NHL and IIHF protect only a cover straight off your own save out in front

Action

When your team is pinned, freeze a contested puck in your crease — the defensive-zone draw buys a change and a breath; the one puck it backfires on is a dump-in from their own side of the red line

Priority

Beyond your crease, play the puck or clear it rather than freeze it — every book prices some freezes out there, USA Hockey included

Rule

Outside your crease a deliberate freeze is a minor under NHL and IIHF 63.2(i), whatever the traffic; USA Hockey 614(c) prices one behind your goal line with your body out of the crease, outside the privileged area, against the frame or boards, or one you could have played unpressured

Rule

A puck shot in from their own side of the centre red line and frozen by you leaves your own five unable to change before the draw — NHL and IIHF 63.8 and PWHL 65.8, whose only exceptions in that paragraph are an injured player and a penalty that changes either team's on-ice strength

Rule

In your crease, being checked or pressured is what makes a freeze legal — a stoppage the referee reads as unnecessary is a minor without warning under NHL and IIHF 67.3 and PWHL 69.3, and USA Hockey Rule 614(c)(2) catches a puck you had the opportunity to play with your stick before being pressured

Action

A glove half over a loose puck outside your crease is not a whistle — play it or clear it, and under the NHL and IIHF cover it out there only straight off your own save out in front

Rule

Out of your crease Hockey Canada can make a freeze a minor with no warning (Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a), clause v), and USA Hockey protects a cover only in front of your goal line, inside the privileged area (Casebook 614(c), Situation 12)

Never

Freeze when your defenceman is arriving with time — it matters much less that you have the puck than that they don't

• In your crease, freeze when the rebound is contested and you have it clean. A whistle beats a scramble, and the contest is what makes it legal. Freeze because you are being pressured, not because you want a whistle.
• Freeze when your team is pinned and needs a change. The defensive-zone draw buys tired skaters a change and a breath, and it is one of the most valuable things you do that never shows up anywhere. It still has to be a puck an attacker is contesting in your crease: the change is what the freeze buys, not what earns it.
• But not a dump-in from their side of the red line. Under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL, freeze that one and your own tired five cannot change for the draw, and the attacking team picks the dot (63.8; PWHL 65.8). If your defenceman has any chance of getting to it, leave it. Risk Management covers the same rule from the attacking side, and Game Management covers shift length and changes.
• Don't freeze when your team has a clean recovery. Every stoppage is a defensive-zone faceoff you might lose. Bertagna's test: it matters much less that you have the puck than that they don't. If your defenceman is arriving with time, leave it or clear it.
• When in doubt with an attacker on you in your crease, freeze. A draw you might lose is a smaller problem than a scramble you are already losing. ⚠️ In your crease, though — not out of it.
• Outside your crease, play it or clear it — a glove on the puck is not a whistle. Half a glove over a puck out there has not stopped play until the referee judges you have control, and an attacker can still poke it in. If you can do neither, get back into your stance until the whistle. ⚠️ The instinct that is right in your crease costs two minutes out there.

What it costs.

• Freezing a dump-in shot from their side of the centre red line: under NHL and IIHF 63.8 (PWHL 65.8) your team may not change before the draw. The only exceptions are replacing an injured player and a penalty that changes either team's on-ice strength — neither is a tired line.
• An unnecessary stoppage in your crease: a minor "without warning" under NHL and IIHF 67.3 and PWHL 69.3. USA Hockey 614(c)(2) makes it a minor where you could have played it with your stick before being pressured. Hockey Canada gives a minor after one warning for freezing in your crease when not under pressure (Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a), clause iii). CARHA 61(b) makes a deliberate hold the referee reads as unnecessary a minor anywhere.
• A freeze outside your crease:
  • NHL and IIHF: a minor (63.2(i)) however many bodies are around you. The only cover protected out there is one straight off your own save when you came out to cut down the angle (the Note to 63.2(vi)). A cut-down-the-angle save is one made out in front, so don't count on the Note behind your goal line. And it has to come straight off the save: catch it, drop it to play it, then fall on it as an attacker arrives, and the IIHF calls it a minor (Situation Handbook, Situation 63.1).
  • Hockey Canada: a minor with no warning once you leave the crease (clause v of Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a)). The goaltender paragraph of Rule 10.2 also prices falling on the puck or holding it against the goal outside your crease. Clause ii of the same Interpretation permits a cover after a save, though, and the book never says which governs.
  • USA Hockey protects more, so do not carry its answer into another book. Its Casebook answers no penalty where the attackers are in a position to pressure you (Rule 614(c), Situation 11), or where you are prone outside the crease covering a puck in your privileged area in front of the goal line (Situation 12). ⚠️ But behind the goal line or outside the privileged area, that Situation says a minor "must be assessed" — 614(c) clauses 1 and 3 say the same.
  • A half-covered puck: USA Hockey's Casebook lets the referee let play run, because officials are not "an extra arm for goalkeepers" (Rule 632, Situation 2).
• Behind your goal line, the NHL and IIHF let you play the puck only inside the trapezoid. The section on the books without a trapezoid sets out each book's limit.

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Tracking the Puck

In short: Watch the puck all the way into your body with your head following it, and start moving when a pass is released.

Key

Goalie coaches put almost every soft goal down to the same root cause — at some point you stopped seeing the puck; that is the coaching account, not a counted breakdown

Technique

Follow the puck's trajectory with your head, not just your eyes, so it stays in the centre of your vision

Technique

Track it all the way into the pad, the glove, the chest — if you saw it hit you, you know where it went

Never

Look past the puck at where it is going rather than where it is

Never

Explode — flailing arms and a snapping head lose the puck at contact. Keep a quiet head and quiet hands instead

Never

Be a spectator on a pass — your movement starts when the pass is released, not when it arrives

Convention

Read the release, not the player — but on a breakaway what to read is contested; see Breakaways

Mindset

The "cone of shame" — nothing outside the puck exists

Goalie coaches put almost every soft goal down to the same root cause: at some point in the sequence, you stopped seeing the puck. Nobody has counted them, so take that as the coaching account rather than a measured breakdown — but it is what the rest of this section is built on.

Tracking is what sports-vision researchers call object interception — the same task as batting in cricket or baseball, or receiving in volleyball. Your eyes and your body have to solve where a moving object will be, and get something there.

The practical version:

• Follow the puck's trajectory with your head, not just your eyes. A small head turn keeps the puck in the centre of your vision, where your acuity is best, rather than at the edge.
• Track it all the way into your body. The tracking failure to watch for is looking at where the puck is going rather than where it is — Korn calls this "looking past" the puck. Watch it into the pad, into the glove, into the chest. This is also what makes rebound control possible: if you saw the puck hit you, you know where it went.
• Don't explode. Goalies who make saves with their arms flailing and their head snapping back lose sight of the puck at the moment of contact and are then guessing about the rebound. Quiet head, quiet hands.
• Read the release, not the player. Watch the puck on the blade and the blade's angle. Body fakes are designed to move you; the puck is not. On a breakaway specifically, this is contested — one school reads the puck, another reads the shooter's chest and hips on the grounds that the puck is the thing being faked with. See Breakaways.
• Don't be a spectator. Watching the puck travel on a pass instead of moving with it is the definitive positioning error. Your movement should start when the pass is released, not when it arrives.
• The "cone of shame." John Carratu's image for this, via USA Hockey: think of a dog in a plastic cone — it can only attend to what is directly in front of it. That is what you want. Nothing outside the puck exists.

A note on how goalies actually see. Modern tracking research distinguishes two kinds of eye movement: smooth pursuit, where your eyes glide continuously along a moving object's path, and saccades, where your eyes jump ahead to a predicted point. Both are used, and which one dominates depends on the shot. This is an active area of study rather than settled coaching doctrine — the practical takeaway is unchanged: see the puck, keep seeing it, and keep your head still enough that you can.

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Screens, Tips and Traffic

A screen is an opponent standing in your line of sight. Traffic is the wider word: bodies between you and the puck, from either team — your own defenceman can be traffic without being a screen.

Handling a screen set outside your paint is a skill you own, because nobody will help you unless you make them. In the ordinary case it is legal and no whistle comes. Do not appeal every toe in your paint either — that is how you lose credibility with a referee for the night.

What the rules give you. Under NHL and IIHF Rule 69.1 (the PWHL's 71.1), contact, or a position that stops you moving freely in your crease, can cost them the goal. A screen from outside the crease with no contact keeps it: both books' tables answer "Goal is allowed" (5C, 5E). Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA, contact with you outside the crease costs the goal, and a screen without contact does not. Goaltender Interference below has the detail. In EIH or SIHA competition there is no video review and no coach's challenge, so it is whatever the referee saw live.

A body standing in your crease is a different rule, and there a whistle really can come. The IIHF's 69.1 gives the referee the "possibility to stop the game" for an attacker who will not leave. USA Hockey's 625(b) makes that stoppage a shall, but only while the puck is in the attacking zone, the attacking team has it, and you are in contact with your crease. Its Casebook says play should not stop for a stick or skate momentarily in the crease unless it interferes with you (Rule 625, Situation 10). ⚠️ But a goal scored while it is there, with you in your crease, comes off the board — the same Situation says the referee "shall have no alternative but to disallow the goal."

Fighting for a sightline

Convention

Around or over a screen is a genuine coaching split — this document's default is around, BVHS teaches over to maintain size

Key

The look-around and look-over schools agree on what matters most — commit to one side and see the puck cleanly there

Never

Half-see the puck on both sides of a screen

Action

Move to find the puck — a step or a small shuffle can open a lane through traffic

Key

Slightly off the perfect angle with a clear view beats perfectly square and blind

Action

Call "screen" loudly, early and every time — it means get out of my sightline, or get beside the man in it and hold your ground

• Around or over — a genuine coaching split, so ask your own coach. This document's default is around: trying to see over a screen means standing tall, and standing tall means you cannot move, so drop your head to one side and find the puck through legs, under arms, around a hip. The BVHS goaltending manual teaches the opposite priority — "We want to be looking over shoulders to maintain size" — on the view that sacrificing size to get a clean look is the worse trade. Both schools agree on the part that matters most: commit to one side and see the puck cleanly there, rather than half-seeing it on both. This is the same split as the depth question above, and the two tend to travel together — coaches who want you deep want you looking around, coaches who want you tall and close want you looking over.
• Move to find the puck. A step or a small shuffle to one side can open a lane through traffic. Being slightly off the perfect angle with a clear view beats being perfectly square and blind.
• Call it. "Screen" is your call and it means get out of my sightline, or get beside the man who is in it and hold your ground — not push them out, which can be called interference wherever you play, and where checking is barred an illegal check as well. This is not a request. Say it loudly, say it every time, and say it early. See On-Ice Communication.

Playing bigger and deeper through traffic

Convention

Deeper against a screened point shot is the traditional adjustment — it costs net coverage but buys time to find the puck

Convention

At least one current manual calls the deep retreat a fault and keeps a close gap, looking through the short side of the screen

Action

Ask your coach which depth they teach against a screen; do not assume deeper is settled doctrine

Technique

Play bigger — hands out and wide, stick down and active, chest up

Key

When you may not see the release you are partly blocking rather than reacting, and that is the correct trade

Two adjustments, and they pull in different directions from your normal instincts:

• Deeper — but this is the contested one. The traditional adjustment is to back off toward your goal line against a screened point shot: depth costs you net coverage but buys you the one thing you desperately need, time to find the puck. A screened shot you see late from four feet deep is savable; the same shot from the top of the crease is not. At least one current manual teaches the reverse and calls the deep retreat a fault — BVHS: "Goalies often fall deep in their crease when facing pressure; this is a common error. This opens too much net and does not help see more of the puck." The same passage instead asks you to "maintain a close gap to the shooter to eliminate room for the puck to move, as well as tips." It also asks you to solve the sightline by looking "through the short side of the screen" rather than by retreating. Ask your coach which they teach; do not assume deeper is settled doctrine.
• Bigger. Since you may not see the release, make yourself a larger obstacle: hands out and wide, stick down and active, chest up. You are partly blocking rather than reacting, and that is the correct trade when you cannot see.

Reading a tip

Key

A tip changes direction a few feet in front of you and no reflex is fast enough to follow it — so do not try

Read

A forward set up at the goalmouth with their blade in the shooting lane makes every point shot a probable tip

Technique

Stay tall and patient as long as you can — a low tip hits you if you are big and set, a high one will not if you are already down

Key

Your best chance is the right place with a wide body and a still head, not a heroic reaction

Convention

Shout for a teammate beside the net-front player — but whose job that is in the first place is a coaching choice: a defenceman's under a low zone collapse, whoever's check went there under man-on-man or a hybrid of the two, which can as easily be a forward. Find out which your team plays

A tip or deflection changes the puck's direction a few feet in front of you, and no reflex is fast enough to follow it. So you do not try.

What the shapes and fills mean

• Watch the sticks, not just the puck. If a forward is set up at the goalmouth — the immediate area directly in front of your net, at the edge of the crease — with their blade in the shooting lane, treat every point shot as a probable tip.
• Stay tall and patient for as long as you can. Dropping early on a shot that gets tipped means it goes over you. A tip that stays low will hit you if you are big and set; a tip that goes up will not if you are already down.
• Expect the puck to change direction and stay balanced. Your best chance on a tipped puck is being in the right place with a wide body and a still head, not a heroic reaction.
• Get a teammate beside the net-front player, not one pushing them out. ⚠️ Whose job that is in the first place is a coaching choice rather than a law of hockey — a defenceman's under a low zone collapse, and whoever's check went there under man-on-man or a hybrid of the two, which can as easily be a forward. Either way it is the thing to shout about, so find out which your team plays before you need to know who you are shouting at. See the skaters' section below.

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Playing the Puck

The trapezoid — the NHL and IIHF rule that defines where you may play the puck

In short: Behind your net, handle the puck only inside the trapezoid wherever one applies, and in Britain play as though it does.

Diagram from rink map · What the shapes and fills mean

Action

Find out which rules you are under before your first shift, and take the trapezoid dimensions from Rink Map, which owns them — NHL Rule 1.8, never NHL 27.8 (stale); IIHF Rules 1.8 and 27.7

Rule

Playing the puck behind the goal line outside the trapezoid is a two-minute delay-of-game minor (NHL Rules 27.8 and 63.2(viii); IIHF 27.7); the one exception — skate contact with your crease — excuses playing, never freezing: none for a teammate nearby and none for pressure

Rule

🇬🇧 Nothing in the Elite League's Casebook switches the trapezoid off, and England Ice Hockey's Rules & Regulations 22.3 call it "not currently enforced", its scope and standing unsettled — so in Britain play as though it binds you

Rule

Even if England Ice Hockey's 22.3 does leave the trapezoid unenforced, it frees only where you play the puck — IIHF 63.2(I) still bars freezing outside your crease, and 63.2(VI)'s Note still allows a save-then-cover out in front

Rule

The determining factor is the position of the puck, not of your body, and the IIHF numbers the trapezoid 27.7 not 27.8 (NHL Rule 27.8; IIHF Rules 27.7 and 63.2(VIII)) — so a puck you stop on the goal line is not behind it, and being hit by one is not playing it (Handbook Situations 27.6 and 27.9)

Rule

The PWHL's Rules 1.8 and 27.8 drop the trapezoid — "The PWHL does not apply a restricted area for goalkeepers" — but its Rule 65.2(viii) and goalkeeper-penalties table still list the offence, so the book contradicts itself: stay inside the old trapezoid until your league says otherwise

Key

Whether the KHL has a trapezoid is unverified here — no KHL rulebook was available to check; and how much rec, beer-league and youth hockey has one is a question about leagues, not about books

Rule

No trapezoid applies in front of the goal line; the bar on play past the centre red line does — NHL 27.7 and IIHF 27.6 judge it on the puck in the rule itself, while the skates test is elsewhere: USA Hockey Casebook 407(c) Situation 13, Hockey Canada Rule 8.3(a)(ii) and Interpretation 2 to 4.13(c)

Under the NHL or IIHF book the play is simple: handle the puck behind your net only inside the trapezoid, and leave anything outside it to your defenceman. The trapezoid is the marked area behind your goal, and playing the puck behind the goal line outside it is two minutes.

• What decides it is where the puck is, not where you are.
• A skate on your crease excuses playing the puck outside it — never freezing it. There is no exception for a teammate nearby, for pressure, or for the puck coming to you.
• A puck that bounces off you is not one you played. The IIHF Situation Handbook rules a puck off the glass that hits you as you retreat no penalty (Situation 27.9), and a puck you stop on the goal line is not behind it (Situation 27.6). Neither is a reason to go out there.
• In front of the goal line no trapezoid applies — but keep your skates and the puck both on your own side of the centre red line. That is legal in every book.

Which books have one. The NHL and the IIHF do. USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write no trapezoid at all, so behind your net you are a genuine third puck-handler and your retrieval game — and your defencemen's — changes. All three restrict the freeze instead, which is the next section. ⚠️ The PWHL switches the trapezoid off in its Rules 1.8 and 27.8, but still lists the minor in 65.2(viii) and its goalkeeper-penalty table — so stay inside where the old trapezoid would be, or keep a skate on your crease, until your league says otherwise. Whether the KHL has one is unverified here: no KHL rulebook was available. How much rec, beer-league and youth hockey has one is a question about leagues rather than books, and this document has no count for it.

🇬🇧 In Britain, play as though it binds. Every British level runs the IIHF book, and neither the Elite League's Casebook nor the IHUK In-House Rules amend the trapezoid. England Ice Hockey's Rules & Regulations 22.3 (the 2024-25 edition) call the restricted area "not currently enforced", and the published documents do not settle whether that still stands, or whether it reaches Scotland and Northern Ireland at all. Assume it binds, ask your league, and look behind the net to see whether the lines are painted at all.

And if the answer is "not enforced", it frees where you may play the puck, never where you may freeze it. ⚠️ IIHF Rule 63.2(I) still makes a deliberate freeze outside your crease a minor, and the whole trapezoid is outside your crease. Take the carve-outs with it, or you will stop covering pucks you should cover: coming out to cut down the angle, saving and covering straight off the save is still legal out in front (the Note to 63.2(VI)), though not behind your goal line, and so is a cover in your crease while you are being checked (63.2(VII)). Freezing the puck has both.

How big is it? Take the geometry from Rink Map, which owns it. Under the NHL book take the dimensions from Rule 1.8, never Rule 27.8: 27.8 still describes the shape from before the 2014-15 widening, two feet a side narrower than the lines you are looking at — exactly the margin you would be penalised in. The IIHF book, which British hockey plays, has no such defect: Rules 1.8 and 27.7 both give 6.80 m at the goal line and 8.60 m at the boards. An IIHF trapezoid is about two feet deeper, because its goal line sits further from the end boards. See Rules Primer for the penalty rules, and Defender for the retrieval consequences.

What it costs.

• Playing the puck behind the goal line outside the trapezoid: a minor for delay of game (NHL 27.8 and 63.2(viii); IIHF 27.7 and 63.2(VIII)). The skate-contact exception is printed in NHL 27.8 and again as the Note to 63.2(viii), and in IIHF 27.7. Quote 27.7 to a British referee: the IIHF's 27.8 is only a signpost to its goalkeeper-penalty table, and its Situation Handbook still uses the old number.
• Taking part in the play beyond the centre red line: a minor in all six books — NHL and PWHL 27.7, IIHF 27.6, USA Hockey 407(c), Hockey Canada 4.13(c) (penalised under 8.3(a)), and CARHA 37(e). "In any manner" includes checking an opponent, not only playing the puck. ⚠️ The test runs opposite ways, so keep your skates and the puck both on your own side. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL judge it on the puck, so a puck over the line is a minor even with your skates behind it (IIHF Situation 27.5). USA Hockey and Hockey Canada judge it on your skates (USA Hockey Casebook Rule 407(c), Situation 13; Hockey Canada Rule 8.3(a)(ii) and Interpretation 2 to 4.13(c)). USA Hockey's Casebook answers a goalie accidentally struck by the puck over the line on the way to the bench as no penalty (Situation 12); the other books have not been searched here for a case of their own.

No trapezoid doesn't mean no restriction — how the books without one restrict the freeze instead

In short: Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA, the ice behind your net is yours to play, but a freeze out there can cost you.

Rule

Hockey Canada draws no trapezoid, but Rule 10.2's goalie paragraph and clause v of Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a) make freezing outside your crease a Minor, clause v with no warning; clause ii permits a cover after a cut-the-angle save, but out of your crease, play it

Convention

Hockey Canada never says whether its no-freeze rules (Rule 10.2's goalie paragraph; clause v of Interpretation 3 to 10.1(a)) or clause ii, a cover after the save, govern a save-then-cover outside the crease; treating ii as the exception is a reading, not a ruling

Rule

PWHL Rules 1.8 and 27.8 switch the trapezoid off but 65.2(viii) still lists the minor, so play behind the net only inside the old trapezoid until your league says otherwise; 65.2(i) also makes a deliberate freeze outside your crease a minor

Rule

CARHA writes no trapezoid either: holding or placing the puck against the goal or boards, or deliberately falling on or gathering it, behind the goal line with your body entirely outside the crease is a minor (Rule 58(b)); it has no privileged area

Rule

58(b) is not CARHA's whole answer — Rule 61(b) is a separate minor for a goalie who deliberately holds the puck and, in the Referee's opinion, causes an unnecessary stoppage, and it has no location test at all, so it reaches a freeze in front of your own goal line

Rule

USA Hockey has no trapezoid but restricts where you may freeze the puck, on the same two minutes — and Rule 614(c) has four triggers, not one, and no skate-contact exception; that exception belongs to the trapezoid rule, printed twice (NHL 27.8’s own text and the Note to 63.2(viii))

Rule

USA Hockey Rule 614(c) makes two freezes a minor in terms — with the puck behind the goal line and your body entirely outside the crease (614(c)(1)), and outside the "goalkeeper's privileged" area, which reaches back from the faceoff-dot line but excludes the corners (614(c)(3))

Rule

Crease contact is not the test — the Casebook excuses a cover made prone and fully outside the crease if the puck is in the privileged area in front of the goal line, and penalises one you had time to play with your stick unpressured (USA Hockey Casebook, Rule 614(c) Situations 8 to 12)

Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA, go and take the retrieval behind your net — and then play the puck rather than sit on it. All three restrict the freeze instead of the play, and so does the PWHL.

• Never freeze behind your goal line with your body out of the crease, or out in a corner. That is a minor under USA Hockey and CARHA, and the PWHL and Hockey Canada price a freeze out of your crease too.
• Never freeze a puck you had time to play with your stick, and never skate out to fetch one and fall on it.
• Under Hockey Canada, once you have left your crease, play it rather than cover it — that book's own guidance pulls both ways, below.
• Under USA Hockey, in front of your goal line and inside the privileged area, with attackers coming, you may smother the puck whether or not any part of you is touching the crease. ⚠️ Do not carry that into an NHL or IIHF game, where a deliberate freeze outside your crease is a minor wherever you are.

USA Hockey's privileged area runs from the line joining the end-zone faceoff spots back to the end boards. It includes the ice behind your net and excludes the corners (Rule 614(c)'s Note; Casebook Rule 614(c), Situation 14). It is far bigger than a trapezoid — but it governs the freeze, not the play.

What decides a USA Hockey freeze is not where your skate is, but whether you were making a save or taking a stoppage you could have avoided. Its Casebook works ten goalie situations under Rule 614(c):

• Some part of your body touching the crease when you first touch the puck: no penalty, even if your dive carries you out (Situation 7). That is body contact at first touch — not a skate held on the paint while you lie on it.
• Prone outside the crease, puck in the privileged area in front of the goal line: no penalty (Situation 12). ⚠️ Behind the goal line or outside the privileged area, the same Situation says a minor "must be assessed".
• Pressure: no penalty if the attackers are in a position to pressure you; a penalty if they are not and you could have played it with your stick (Situation 11).
• Time to play it: coming out to cut the angle and catching it, or trapping it between your pads, is no penalty (Situations 8 and 10) — unless you had time to drop it and play it with nobody near you. Dropping it and then holding it against the boards, net or ice is a penalty (Situation 9), and so is beating a lone attacker to a loose puck and falling on it (Situation 6).
• Two more: a puck simply shot into you while you lie prone outside the crease is no penalty (Situation 13). One you fall on behind the goal line during a delayed penalty is no penalty either, because play stops when your team gains possession and you have three seconds (Situation 5) — a reason you cannot plan around.

What it costs.

• USA Hockey Rule 614(c) makes it a delay-of-game minor in four cases. (1) The puck is behind the goal line and your body is entirely outside the crease, wherever on that line you stand. (2) You fail to play it with your stick when you had the chance before being pressured. (3) The puck is outside the privileged area. (4) You hold or place it against the goal frame or boards, or intentionally drop it on the back of the netting. ⚠️ There is no skate-contact exception here — that belongs to the trapezoid rule — so a skate on the paint licenses nothing.
• Hockey Canada, Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a): clause v makes freezing the puck once you have left your crease a minor, "No warning will be issued." Clause ii permits coming out to cut down the angle and catching the shot or, after stopping it, covering the puck. Clause iv makes coming out to beat an attacker to a loose puck and jumping on it a penalty with no warning. The goaltender paragraph of Rule 10.2 separately makes it a minor to fall on or gather the puck, or hold or place it against the goal, outside your crease, with no save exception either, and Rule 10.1(i) counts deliberately holding the puck against the boards or goal as delay of game unless you are being checked. The book never says whether clause ii, or clause v and Rule 10.2, govern a cover after a save outside the crease, so ask your league how its referees read it.
• CARHA Rule 58(b): a minor for deliberately falling on or gathering the puck, or holding or placing it against the goal or boards, when it is behind the goal line and your body is entirely outside the crease. As printed, "deliberately" sits on falling on and gathering only, so do not count on intent excusing a puck held against the goal or boards. ⚠️ A deliberate hold the referee reads as an unnecessary stoppage is a minor in front of your goal line too: Rule 61(b) has no location in it at all. CARHA writes no save-then-cover exception, though in front of your goal line 58(b) does not reach you. Others do: 61(b); 74(b), a minor for deliberately holding the puck against the boards or goal unless you are being checked, which reaches you as a player, though the book never says whether 58(b) displaces it; and 55(a)'s bench minor for deliberate delay, whose Note 2 names a goalkeeper holding the puck.
• PWHL Rule 65.2(i): a deliberate freeze outside your crease is a minor, in the NHL's words, and 65.2(vi) carries the racing-out clause with its save-then-cover Note. The PWHL switches the trapezoid off but still lists the minor (65.2(viii)), so play inside the old lines; outside your crease, none of that ice is yours to sit on.

Stopping pucks for your defence

In short: Kill a rim dead behind the net where your book lets you, and call "leave it" early so your defenceman knows.

Action

Kill a rimmed puck dead behind the net and leave it stationary — you have converted a race into a pickup

Action

Call "leave it" early, while your defenceman is still coming back, not as they arrive

Technique

Blocking a rim with your pads is legal in front of the goal line, or behind it inside the trapezoid — and anywhere behind the net under a book with no trapezoid

Never

Body-block a puck behind the goal line and outside the trapezoid under the NHL or IIHF book — get out of the way and let your defenceman have it instead

Action

Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada or CARHA there is no trapezoid, so a loose puck behind your net is yours to go and get — play it, but do not freeze it out there

Rule

Blocking a rim or pass with your leg pads behind the goal line and outside the trapezoid is "playing" the puck under IIHF rules, and a minor — not a grey area (IIHF Situation Handbook, Situation 27.7)

Rule

The offence is playing the puck, so a puck that comes off the glass and hits you while you retreat is no penalty — "the goalkeeper must play the puck to be penalized" (IIHF Situation Handbook, Situation 27.9, 2025/26 v1.1 and 2026/27 alike)

Convention

Whether the goalie plays the puck at all is a coaching choice — ask, and then be consistent

Even with a trapezoid, you have real value behind the net. The most useful thing you do back there is often not a pass at all:

• Stop a rimmed puck and leave it. A puck rimming hard around the boards will end up in the far corner with a forechecker on it. If it comes through the trapezoid, kill it dead behind the net and leave it stationary for your defenceman. You have converted a race into a pickup. Call "leave it" so they know to come and get it, and say it early — while they are still coming, not as they arrive.
• Get your body in the way — but mind where you are. Killing a rim with your pads so it dies behind the net is often the most useful thing you can do. In front of the goal line, or behind it but inside the trapezoid, it is completely legal. Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA there is no trapezoid, so do it anywhere behind the net — what those books bar out there is freezing the puck, not blocking it. In the PWHL, stay inside the old trapezoid. ⚠️ Under the NHL and IIHF, behind the goal line and outside the trapezoid, get out of the way and let your defenceman have it.
• Know your team's convention. Whether your goalie plays the puck at all is a coaching choice. Some teams want the goalie handling everything they legally can; others want the goalie to touch nothing and stay in the net. Both are defensible. Ask, and then be consistent.

What the shapes and fills mean

What it costs. Under the IIHF book a pad in the way of a pass is playing the puck. Its Situation Handbook rules a goalie who drops to the knees and blocks a pass with the leg pads behind the goal line, outside the trapezoid, a minor for delay of game (Situation 27.7). That is the operative interpretation in Britain. Under the NHL book, whether a deliberate body block counts as playing the puck is my reading rather than a quoted interpretation: Rule 27.8 bars playing the puck out there and does not define "play" narrowly. The Handbook settles two things in your favour — a puck you stop on the goal line is not behind it (Situation 27.6), and a puck off the glass that hits you as you retreat is no penalty (Situation 27.9). One trap when you look these up: the Handbook uses "restricted area" for the ice you are barred from, where the Rulebook uses it for the trapezoid itself.

The safe outlets

Priority

Rank your options by risk before you move the puck

Options

Leave it for a defenceman with time — lowest risk, and always first when it is available

Options

A short pass to a defenceman on the wall on your strong side, where an interception means less

Options

Rim it to the far winger — concedes possession but relieves pressure; in CARHA keep the backswing under fifteen inches, or it is a slap-shot minor — if it injures, ejection and at least a one-game ban

Options

Off the glass and out — but along the glass, never over it, because under NHL and IIHF rules a puck you shoot straight out of the rink from your own end is a minor; goalies are allowed to be boring

Never

Pass up the middle — a goalie's turnover there is a shot on an empty net, and you are standing in it

When you do move the puck, rank your options by risk:

1. Leave it for a defenceman with time. Lowest risk, and it starts a controlled breakout. Always first when it's available.
2. A short pass to a defenceman on the wall on your strong side. Simple, short, and if it's intercepted it's intercepted below the goal line where it means less.
3. A rim around the boards to the far winger. Concedes possession but relieves pressure. Aim it to arrive where a teammate can meet it. In a CARHA league keep the backswing under fifteen inches: past that it is a slap shot, a minor, and if it injures an opponent a major that ends your game and sits you out at least the next one.
4. Off the glass and out. Rarely wrong when you are in trouble, and goalies are allowed to be boring — but along the glass, never over it. A clear straight out of the rink is a minor under most books, and the next section prices it book by book.
5. A pass up the middle. Almost never. A goalie's turnover in the middle of the ice is a shot on an empty net, and you are the one standing in it.

What the shapes and fills mean

Putting the puck out of play — the minor that is yours too, and the tier above it after a whistle

In short: Clear along the glass, never over it, and once the whistle has gone, put the puck down.

Action

Clear along the glass rather than up it, and if the puck is not settled on your blade put it down the boards instead of lifting it

Rule

Deliberately shooting or batting the puck out of the playing area, from anywhere on the ice, is a minor — and both books print it against goalkeepers by name (NHL Rule 63.2(ii), at Reference Table 11; IIHF Rule 63.2(II), at Table 11, Table 13 in 2025/26)

Rule

Shooting or batting the puck directly and undeflected out of the playing surface from your defending zone is a second, separate minor with no deliberateness element — except where there is no glass (NHL Rule 63.2(iii); IIHF 63.2(III), wider at the bench in its own words; PWHL 65.2(iii))

Rule

Rules 63.2(ii) and 63.2(iii) both say "any player", and NHL and IIHF Rule 5.1 define that word as "both skaters and goalkeepers"; where a limb means to leave you out it says so, as Rule 63.2(v) does — but only 63.2(ii) is in the goalkeeper tables, so 63.2(iii) rests on that definition alone

Key

The defending-zone clause turns on where the puck was, not where you were — and almost every puck you play is inside your own zone when you play it, so you are in its fact pattern nearly every time

Rule

The minor reaches your clear, not your save — a stick save deflected over the glass is no penalty because you did not "shoot" the puck out (IIHF Situation Handbook, Situation 63.29); its reasoning that "Rule 63.2. talks about deliberate" is absent from 63.2(III), so it is no general defence

Rule

The rebound relief is USA Hockey's alone — batting a rebound out of the rink before you have control is no penalty there (Casebook, Rule 610 Situation 5, on Rule 610(c)'s "deliberately"), but NHL and IIHF Rule 63.2(iii) has no such word and reaches it

Rule

USA Hockey writes no defending-zone limb at all — Rule 610's puck-out-of-the-rink clause is 610(c), which turns on "deliberately" not on where the puck was, and names goalkeepers in terms; but Rule 610 has other limbs that reach you, 610(b) for manufacturing a stoppage among them

Rule

USA Hockey goes past a minor for a puck put out in a stoppage — 610(c) a minor, 601(c)(10) a misconduct, which governs unstated; 601(d)(7) a game misconduct done "in protest of an official's decision"; a match and a likely multi-game ban (601(e.2)) for one shot directly at an official or spectator

Rule

Hockey Canada writes a goalie limb of its own, with no zone restriction, for shooting or batting the puck directly out of the playing surface with your stick (Rule 10.1(v)) — but Interpretation 5 to Rule 10.1(a) excuses a puck that touches the glass or deflects off a player or official

Rule

A fifth book has no zone limit at all — CARHA Rule 55 is a minor for a goalie who shoots or bats the puck out of the playing surface with their stick, from anywhere on the ice, though its Note 1 excuses a puck that touches the glass or deflects (CARHA-affiliated adult leagues only)

Rule

You do not serve a goalie's minor yourself — a teammate on the ice, designated by your coach, serves it (NHL and IIHF 27.1; USA Hockey 407(a) adds misconducts) — but a game misconduct takes your place in the net (USA Hockey 407(b))

Rule

A USA Hockey game misconduct is not only tonight — 404(b) also suspends you for your team's next game, and for at least two where it comes from a second major in the same game (403(b))

If the puck is not settled on your blade, put it down the boards instead of lifting it. A rim that dies in the corner is worse than a clean exit and far better than a minor. And never lift a puck out of the rink to buy a whistle: that is the deliberate offence, in front of a referee who can see exactly what you did.

Two things to know, so you do not start flinching at pucks you should stop. A stick save that deflects over the glass is not a clear — the IIHF Situation Handbook says you did not "shoot" it out (Situation 63.29). ⚠️ But do not stretch that into a deliberateness defence: the NHL's and IIHF's defending-zone clause has no "deliberately" in it, so a rebound you bat out of the rink from your crease is still a minor there. Only USA Hockey excuses a rebound batted away before you have control of it (Casebook Rule 610, Situation 5).

What it costs.

• NHL and IIHF, the deliberate one, from anywhere: a minor for deliberately shooting or batting the puck out of the playing area, during play or after a stoppage (63.2(ii)). Both books list it in their goalkeeper-penalty tables.
• NHL, IIHF and PWHL, the one with no deliberateness, from your own end: a minor for shooting or batting the puck directly, undeflected, out of the playing surface from your defending zone, except where there is no glass (63.2(iii); PWHL 65.2(iii)). Where the puck was when you played it decides it — and almost every puck you play is in your own zone. It reaches you through Rule 5.1, which makes "player" include goalies; no table or published situation says so of a goalkeeper in terms. The IIHF's version, the one British hockey plays, catches a puck over the glass surrounding the bench where the NHL's says behind it, so on its words it is the wider clause. A puck shot into the bench is no penalty, and nor is one that leaves directly off a faceoff — though whether that reaches one put out on purpose is unsettled. Never aim it out.
• USA Hockey: no defending-zone limb. Rule 610(c) is a minor for deliberately shooting or batting it out, and names goalkeepers, so an accidental clear is no penalty. ⚠️ After a whistle it can climb. Rule 601(c)(10) makes the same act during a stoppage a misconduct, and the book does not say which of the two governs. Doing it in protest of a call, or toward an official or a spectator, is a game misconduct (601(d)(7) and (9)), and shooting it directly at one recklessly is a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension (the Note to 601(d)). An avoidable shot after the whistle is an unsportsmanlike minor, then a misconduct and a game misconduct for persisting (601(a)(4)).
• Hockey Canada: Rule 10.1(v) is a minor for shooting or batting the puck directly out with your stick, with no zone restriction; the book does not settle whether it must be deliberate, so do not assume that saves you. Interpretation 5 to 10.1(a) excuses a puck that touches the glass or deflects off a player or official, or leaves where there is no glass — and the limb does not apply at all unless both ends of the rink are similar. ⚠️ After the whistle it becomes unsportsmanlike conduct (Rule 11.1, preamble item (v)): a minor, a misconduct for persisting, and a game misconduct above that. The referee need not give the lower penalty first, though the game misconduct still needs you to have persisted.
• CARHA Rule 55: a minor for shooting or batting the puck out of the playing surface with your stick, from anywhere on the ice, so a neutral-zone clear is caught. Its Note 1 excuses a glass touch, a deflection and a rink with no glass. CARHA-affiliated adult leagues only.
• No tier above the minor in the NHL and IIHF books for this act (63.9 lists no misconduct, and Rule 75 has no puck limb). Two other rules can reach you: a misconduct for knocking the puck out of reach of an official retrieving it (39.4(ii)), and the persisting-after-a-minor misconduct (IIHF 75.4(I), with a game misconduct at 75.5(I); NHL 75.4(v)) — neither book says whether a repeated puck-over-the-glass minor counts.
• Who serves it: a teammate on the ice, chosen by your coach, serves your minor (NHL and IIHF 27.1), so your team kills the power play you created. USA Hockey extends that to misconducts (407(a)). ⚠️ A game misconduct or a match penalty takes you out of the net (USA Hockey 407(b)). Under USA Hockey a match also brings a likely multi-game suspension. Under USA Hockey a game misconduct also suspends you for the team's next scheduled game (404(b)), and a second major in the same game makes it two games at least (403(b)). A misconduct is ten minutes or the designated time, which affiliates may shorten outside adult play (404(a) and its Note).

The discipline of not playing it

In short: Stay in your net for a 50-50 puck, and if you do play the puck, commit and call "I've got it".

Key

The best puck-handling decision a goalie makes is usually to leave the puck alone

Never

Leave your net for a 50-50 puck — if you lose the race the net is empty with you behind the play

Rule

Racing out and jumping on a loose puck is a minor — covering straight off a cut-the-angle save is legal (NHL and IIHF 63.2(vi)); under Hockey Canada, out of your crease, play it

Never

Handle it because you can — every touch is a chance to make a turnover you are out of position to save, because playing the puck takes you out of your net

Action

If you commit, commit — call "I've got it" and mean it

Never

Head first into the boards or the post is the injury — USA Hockey's Heads Up Hockey guide ties almost all on-ice cervical spine injuries to a head-down, head-on impact with the boards or a goal post

Risk

No source here gives a goalie a board-contact posture — the skater's skates-parallel, forearm-and-hip version is written for taking a check, so ask your goalie coach before assuming it transfers

Mindset

A goalie who handles the puck well is an asset; one who believes they handle it well is a liability

The best puck-handling decision a goalie makes is usually to leave the puck alone.

What the shapes and fills mean

• Don't leave your net for a 50-50 puck. If you lose the race, the net is empty and you are behind the play. Racing out and jumping on a loose puck instead of playing it is also a minor (NHL and IIHF 63.2(vi)). ⚠️ That is not a reason to hesitate over a puck you have already stopped: under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL, coming out to cut down the angle, making the save and then covering straight off it is legal under the Note to that same clause (PWHL 65.2(vi)). Under Hockey Canada, out of your crease, play it rather than cover it: clause ii of Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a) permits the cover, but clause v and the goaltender paragraph of Rule 10.2 bar freezing outside the crease, and the book never says which governs.
• Don't handle it because you can. Every touch is a chance to make a turnover you are out of position to save, because playing the puck takes you out of your net.
• If you commit, commit. The worst outcome is starting to play the puck, changing your mind, and leaving both you and your defenceman out of position. Call "I've got it" and mean it.
• If you win the race, arrive head up, chin off your chest — and anything but your head into the wall first. You arrive facing the end boards with a forechecker behind you. That instruction is USA Hockey's Rule One of Heads Up Hockey. It is written for every player on the ice and names the goal post as well as the boards, because almost all on-ice neck injuries come from a head-down, head-on hit into one or the other. ⚠️ No source held here gives a goalie a board-contact posture. The skater's version — skates parallel to the wall, take it on forearm and hip — is written for a skater taking a check, and nobody says how it transfers to a goalie in pads. Ask your goalie coach. Body Contact and Battles carries the skater's version and the study underneath it. The rules on boarding, charging and checking from behind price the hit after it happens (Goaltender Interference, From Your Side of It below); none of them is a posture.
• Watch the clock and the pressure, not your ego. A goalie who handles the puck well is a real asset. A goalie who believes they handle the puck well is a liability.

Icing — you are the one who can wave it off

In short: Usually you want the icing whistle; decide before the puck arrives, and call "leave it" or "I've got it".

Action

Usually you want the whistle, so do nothing, deliberately — drifting toward the corner hands them a live puck in your end

Action

Decide before the puck arrives, not halfway through it — two strides is the whole action — and talk either way, "leave it" or "I've got it", because silence produces two players and one puck

Rule

Under NHL and IIHF Rule 81.3 and PWHL 83.3 skating toward the puck, feigning at it or attempting to play it waves off an icing where your defencemen cannot — but that is those three books' rule and not a law of the game

Rule

Under NHL and IIHF 81.4 and PWHL 83.4 the team that iced the puck cannot change — the exceptions are an injured player, a pulled goalie returning and a strength-changing penalty, plus a fourth for a broken skate in IIHF 81.4 alone; under USA Hockey Rule 624 they can change anyway

Rule

Do not plan a change around that fourth one — the same IIHF book states the bar again at Rule 82.1, whose trigger names Rule 63.8 and Rule 81, and that copy lists only the NHL's three. Neither rule says which governs, in either edition

Read

Wave the icing off only when your defenceman is arriving with time and their forwards have already turned for the bench

Rule

Going to the bench for an extra attacker does not wave off an icing, provided you make no attempt on the puck (NHL and IIHF Rule 81.3, PWHL 83.3)

Rule

Under USA Hockey only an actual touch waves an icing off — Rule 624(b) does not wave off for goalie movement — and CARHA Rule 65 (CARHA-affiliated leagues only) writes no goalie-movement limb either

Rule

Hockey Canada rules the other way in minor and female hockey outside hybrid icing — you come out, you do not play the puck, the ruling is icing; only preventing an attacker from playing it washes the icing out (Interpretation 8 to Rule 6.7(c)(iii))

Rule

You can cause an icing too — play stops when "any player" shoots the puck from their own half beyond the far goal line, and Rule 5.1 makes that word include you (NHL and IIHF 81.1, PWHL 83.1)

Rule

Knocking your own net off locks your bench too — a goal post accidentally displaced by you or a teammate bars changes before the draw, though an injured player can still be replaced (NHL and IIHF 63.8, PWHL 65.8; Hockey Canada 6.1(g) in U18AAA, Junior and opted-in Senior)

On a puck iced at you, decide before it arrives whether you want the whistle — and under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books, where moving toward the puck waves the icing off, stand still if you do. Then say which, "leave it" or "I've got it", so your defenceman is not guessing.

Under those three books you can kill an icing without touching anything. Skating toward the puck, feigning at it or attempting to play it waves the icing off, and so does any touch. Your defencemen cannot do that; only you can. The IIHF Situation Handbook shows how little it takes: a goalie who extends the stick toward the puck with both feet still in the crease, then pulls it back, has already waved it off (Situation 81.5). The icing rule itself is in Rules Primer.

Diagram from rules primer · What the shapes and fills mean

So the decision behind your net on every dumped puck is a real one, and it has to be made before it arrives:

• Usually you want the whistle, so stay put. An icing against them means a draw in their end, and under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books they cannot change — you have turned a dump-in into an offensive-zone faceoff against five tired players. Drifting toward the corner "just in case" throws that away and hands them a live puck in your end with a forechecker arriving. Do nothing, deliberately.
• Wave it off only when the counterattack beats the whistle. If your defenceman is arriving with time and their forwards have already turned for the bench, a live puck with numbers is worth more than a stoppage. Two strides toward the puck is the whole action — but decide before it arrives, not halfway through it.
• Talk either way. Your defenceman is skating back with their head down and has no idea which you have chosen. "Leave it" or "I've got it" settles it; silence produces two players and one puck.
• Going to the bench for an extra attacker does not wave it off, provided you make no attempt on the puck. Nor does simply retreating to your crease if you were already out of it. You can leave without giving them a live puck.
• Freezing a dumped puck can lock your own team on the ice, and so can knocking your own net off. Backing into your net in a scramble is a whistle nobody gets to rest on.
• And you can cause an icing yourself. A hard rim or a stretch pass from your own half that carries the length of the ice untouched is icing like anybody else's, and then it is your five stuck on the ice for the draw.

So find out which rule set you are under, because the same two strides mean opposite things: a live puck in your corner under three books, nothing at all under USA Hockey and CARHA, and under Hockey Canada's minor and female hockey a whistle you left your net to prevent.

What it costs.

• The wave-off. NHL and IIHF 81.3 and PWHL 83.3: skating toward, feigning at or attempting to play the puck waves it off; going to the bench for an extra attacker does not. USA Hockey 624(b) and CARHA 65 wave it off for an actual touch only (CARHA 65(g)(2)).
• Hockey Canada rules your exact play the other way. Its general wave-off list (6.7(c)) has no goalie limb, and in minor and female hockey outside hybrid icing, a goalie who comes out and does not play the puck gets the ruling "ICING" — washed out only if you got in an attacker's way (Interpretation 8 to 6.7(c)(iii)). You are not obliged to play it (Interpretation 9). Under hybrid icing (6.7(e)(vi)), leaving the crease with both skates and moving toward the puck waves it off, with no feigning limb, so an extended stick from inside the crease does nothing. Hybrid icing applies in U18AAA, Junior and, at the Member's option, Senior.
• Who may change after an icing. Under NHL and IIHF 81.4 and PWHL 83.4 the icing team may not, except to replace an injured player, for a pulled goalie returning, or after a penalty that changes either team's on-ice strength. IIHF 81.4 adds a fourth, for a broken skate, but its own Rule 82.1 lists only three and neither says which governs, so do not plan a change around it. IIHF Situation 81.7 reads as withdrawing the injury exception; the Handbook ranks below the Rulebook, so 81.4 wins, but be ready to say so to a linesperson. ⚠️ Under USA Hockey the icing team can change (624 restricts no substitution). Hockey Canada applies the no-change rule only in U18AAA, Junior and, at the Member's option, Senior (6.7(d), 6.1(f)), so below that an icing costs the faceoff and nothing else — and where it applies, any penalty to either team reopens the bench, with no strength test.
• Freezing a dump-in from their side of the centre red line: your five may not change for the draw (NHL and IIHF 63.8), bar an injured player or a strength-changing penalty.
• Knocking your own net off: NHL 63.8 names a goal post displaced accidentally by a "defending skater or goalkeeper", and the IIHF's "defending Player" includes you through Rule 5.1. The draw is in your end, at the dot they pick, and your team may not change — except for a pulled goalie returning, an injured player, or a strength-changing penalty. PWHL 65.8 says the same, and Hockey Canada 6.1(g) applies its icing no-change rule in U18AAA, Junior and, at the Member's option, Senior.
• Icing it yourself: Rule 81.1 (PWHL 83.1) reaches "any player", which Rule 5.1 makes include you, and none of 81.5's goalie exceptions (PWHL 83.5) covers the goalie who shot it. Then your five are stuck for the draw (81.4; PWHL 83.4), though an injured player can still be replaced.

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Communicating with Your Defence

This is the most valuable thing you do that is not a save. Read this section twice.

You see everything. You are stationary and facing the play, while your defenceman retrieving a puck in your corner is facing the end boards with a forechecker arriving behind them — the exact view you have and they do not. If that information doesn't travel from you to them, they guess, and a guess in the defensive zone is a turnover in the highest-danger area on the ice. That back-to-the-play moment is also what the checking-from-behind rules exist for, so your call is the warning that keeps a teammate off the boards as well as the one that saves the puck.

A call converts a blind decision into an informed one, and it costs you nothing. The information was already sitting in your eyes, useless.

Diagram from on ice communication · What the shapes and fills mean

The core calls

In short: Agree your calls in the room, and make "screen" your first call, because only you know you cannot see.

Convention

Goalie calls have a standard vocabulary, but the words vary by team — agree yours in the room, not on the ice

Options

Pressure — "time" means lift your head and make the good play; "man on" means get rid of it now; call "time" only when sure

Options

Direction — "over", "reverse", "up", "wheel". Over means behind the net, never through the slot

Options

Ownership — "leave it" means I will stop it and leave it for you; "I've got it" means go to your breakout position

Key

"Screen" means get out of my sightline, or get beside the man in it — make it your first call, because nobody else can know you cannot see; that it is also the most ignored is observation, not a count

Key

"Back door" means an unmarked opponent at the far post, and the nearest player takes them right now

Key

"Shot" means you have the shooter, so your defenceman takes away the pass — not a warning that a shot is coming

Action

If your team already uses "shot" as a warning, pick a different word for the warning

These are the standard vocabulary. Words vary by team — agree yours in the room, not on the ice.

Pressure information — the category to get right first:

• "Time" or "You've got time" — nobody is near you. Lift your head and make the good play instead of the safe one. This call is exactly as valuable as its opposite, because a defenceman who fears pressure that isn't there throws the puck away. Say it only when you are sure — a false "time" sends your defenceman into a hit unbraced.
• "Man on" — someone is on you right now, get rid of it. Some goalies use "one on" / "two on" to give the count, which is more useful still: one forechecker can be beaten with a reverse, two means you are being sealed and the puck has to leave.

Direction:

• "Over" — move it to the other side, behind the net, below the goal line. Never through the slot.
• "Reverse" — send it back the way it came, against the flow. The call for a forechecker who has over-committed and skated past your defenceman. Distinct from a rim, which goes onward around the boards and beats a forechecker who is sealing rather than over-running.
• "Up" — to the winger on the boards on the strong side.
• "Wheel" — skate it yourself, around behind the net and up the far side. You are telling them the route is clear, so they should commit.

Two of those four calls have a picture below, and the first of them is captioned under a different name. The "over" is the diagram captioned D-to-D, because a pass behind your own net to your partner is what a D-to-D is. The reverse is drawn under its own name. "Up" and "wheel" have no picture here; Breakouts owns the breakout options and draws them, the rim included.

Diagram from breakouts · What the shapes and fills mean

Diagram from breakouts · What the shapes and fills mean

Puck ownership:

• "Leave it" — I will stop it and leave it behind the net for you. Two syllables, distinguishable from "up" and "over" in a loud rink at speed, which is why it beats one-word alternatives.
• "I've got it" — I am playing this puck myself. Get to your breakout position, not to the puck.

Danger:

• "Screen" — I cannot see. Get out of my sightline, or get beside the man in it and hold your ground. Make it your first call: it is the only one that reports something nobody else on the ice can know, which is that you cannot see the puck. That it is also the one most often left unmade is an observation, not a count.
• "Back door" — there is an unmarked opponent at the far post. The nearest player takes them, right now. That is a tap-in from the slot, the most dangerous ice on the rink — Shooting owns the shot-location values behind that and the limits on them. How it ranks against every other unmarked position is not something anyone has counted; what makes the call necessary is that the person who can see it is almost never the person who can cover it.
• "Shot" — not a warning that a shot is coming. It means you have the shooter, so your defenceman should take away the pass. This is documented word for word in published goaltending material: "When the puck is at the point, or when the opposing team has a two-on-one, it can be difficult for your defense to know what you want them to do. If you'd prefer that they take away the pass or guard the open man, call for 'shot!'... If you want the shot, call for it!" (Sportmentary — Ice Hockey Goalie: Communication Tips). Use it in that sense, because "a shot is coming" tells a skater nothing they can act on while "I have the shooter" tells them exactly where to put their stick. If your team already uses "shot" as a warning, pick a different word for the warning — the two meanings are incompatible and a defenceman has half a second to decode it. On-Ice Communication covers the same split from the defenceman's side.

How to call well

Action

Early beats loud — call while the play is still developing, not as the puck arrives

Action

Short beats descriptive — one or two syllables; nobody parses a sentence at full speed

Never

Call sometimes — a goalie who calls intermittently trains their defencemen to filter them out

Action

Say the same thing every time; consistency is what makes a call fast to act on

Action

Get answered — tell your defencemen you need an acknowledgement

• Early beats loud. A call that arrives as the puck does is decoration. Call while the play is still developing.
• Short beats descriptive. One or two syllables. Nobody parses a sentence at full speed.
• Every time, or not at all. A goalie who calls sometimes trains their defencemen to ignore them, which is worse than silence, because the one time you shout something urgent it gets filtered out with the rest.
• Say the same thing every time. Consistency is what makes a call fast to act on.
• Get answered. A call with no response gets made quieter next time and then not at all. Tell your defencemen you need an acknowledgement.

Full treatment, including the whole team's vocabulary and who owns which call: On-Ice Communication.

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Situational Goaltending

Breakaways

In short: Meet the shooter well out, retreat with them on C-cuts, and stay on your feet: the last one to move wins.

Key

One attacker, you, and a lot of time to think — which is the actual difficulty

Technique

Meet them well out, then retreat on C-cuts, matching their speed so the angle stays closed the whole way

Technique

Keep a little backward flow so you can react either way; flat-footed means you can react to nothing

Never

Move first — their whole plan is to make you commit, and the last one to move wins

Convention

What to watch is a genuine coaching split — the puck, or the shooter's chest and hips. Ask your goalie coach and be consistent

Read

Puck out in front and winding up, respect the shot and stay big; pulled to the forehand with the head up, respect the deke

Risk

The poke check works when the puck gets too far in front of them — miss and you have neither reach nor balance

Rule

Deliberately removing your mask to force a stoppage is a delay-of-game minor in all six books (NHL, IIHF and PWHL Rule 9.6, USA Hockey 304(e), Hockey Canada 3.6(d), CARHA 24(f)) — do it on a breakaway, penalty shot or shootout and the NHL, the IIHF and the PWHL award the goal outright

Rule

Under USA Hockey 610(e) (a penalty shot or optional minor), Hockey Canada 4.11(a)(iii) (your blocker and trapper too) and CARHA 24(f), deliberately removing your mask on a breakaway concedes a penalty shot, and all three add a last-two-minutes-and-overtime limb the NHL, IIHF and PWHL do not write

One attacker, you, and a lot of time to think — which is the actual difficulty.

• Come out and retreat with them. Meet them well out, then back in on C-cuts, matching their speed so the angle stays closed the whole way. Standing still at the top of the crease lets them pick a corner; charging out lets them go around you.
• Keep flow. A little backward motion means you can react either way. Flat-footed means you can react to nothing.
• Stay on your feet as long as you possibly can. The shooter's whole plan is to make you commit. The last one to move wins.
• What to watch is a genuine coaching split. One school says watch the puck, not the body — everything above the puck is theatre, and a body fake exists only to move you. The other says the puck is exactly what the shooter controls and fakes with, so read the part of them that cannot lie: the BVHS goalie manual's breakaway checklist step 3 is "Read the play: Watch the shooter's chest and hips, not their stick or eyes. Hold your ground and wait for them to make the first move." Note that the two schools agree on what they are against — the stick, the eyes and the shoulders — and disagree only on whether the puck or the torso is the honest signal. Ask your goalie coach which they teach, and be consistent about it, because switching mid-play is how you end up reading neither.
• Take away what they are showing you. If they have the puck out in front and are winding up, respect the shot and stay big. If they're pulling it to their forehand with their head up, respect the deke and stay patient.
• The poke check is available but expensive. It works when the puck gets too far in front of them. If you miss, you have neither reach nor balance.

What the shapes and fills mean

Do not knock your own mask off to kill the play. ⚠️ Against a breakaway, under three of the six books it is not a penalty at all — it is a goal. And if your mask comes off by itself, the whistle you were tempted to buy usually comes anyway.

If it comes off by itself, it is no penalty, and the books stop play on three different tests. Under NHL, IIHF and PWHL Rule 9.6, play stops at once if your team has the puck, and if theirs only when there is no immediate and impending scoring opportunity — with the faceoff in your end. USA Hockey (304(e)) and CARHA (24(f)) stop play immediately, with no condition, and USA Hockey keeps you on the ice for the faceoff. Hockey Canada (3.6(d)) stops play immediately for a lost helmet, facial protector, blocker, trapper or skate blade, unless there is an imminent scoring chance that poses no safety risk to you. A mask that stays on and takes the shot is a different question — see If you take one off the mask.

What it costs.

• Removing your helmet or mask on purpose to stop play: a minor for delay of game in all six books — NHL, IIHF and PWHL 9.6; USA Hockey 304(e), which covers skaters too; Hockey Canada 3.6(d); CARHA 24(f).
• On a breakaway, a penalty shot or a shootout attempt, the NHL, IIHF and PWHL award the goal (9.6). The IIHF limits the breakaway to one meeting the penalty-shot criteria "except for a foul from behind", and repeats the penalty-shot half in its Rule 25.4; the NHL's 25.4 omits it, but its 9.6 reaches the same facts. There is no shot to save at the end of this one.
• The three amateur books give a penalty shot instead, and reach further. USA Hockey 610(e) awards a penalty shot or optional minor for removal during a breakaway — goalies in every classification, skaters in every one except Adults — plus a separate limb for the last two minutes and overtime, no breakaway needed. ⚠️ Hockey Canada 4.11(a)(iii) puts your blocker and trapper in the same clause as your mask: pulling any of them off during a breakaway in the neutral or attacking zone, or in your defending zone in the last two minutes or overtime, concedes a penalty shot. CARHA 24(f) writes both limbs for the helmet. The NHL and IIHF write no last-two-minutes limb, and USA Hockey publishes no interpretation of 610(e). In USA Hockey's sled hockey the shot is re-awarded instead, which is a sled rule and not a stand-up one.

Penalty shots

In short: Stay in your crease until the shooter touches the puck, be patient, and play the shot once.

Key

There is no clock on it, so be patient and let them run out of ideas

Rule

You must remain in your crease until the shooter has touched the puck, or the shot is retaken (NHL Rule 24)

Rule

A second violation adds a misconduct and a third a game misconduct, the third retake being against the alternate goalie (NHL Rule 24.4)

Rule

Under IIHF Rule 24.4 the third violation is a game misconduct and "a goal shall be awarded" — no retake, no alternate goalie

Rule

No goal can be scored on a rebound, with one exception — off the post or crossbar, then off you, then in (NHL Rule 24)

Rule

The NHL, IIHF and PWHL ban the spin-o-rama — a full 360° turn on the approach — and stop the shot dead (Rule 24.2); Hockey Canada expressly allows it while the puck keeps moving toward your goal line (Note 1, Interpretation 5 to Rule 4.11(b))

Rule

Under USA Hockey and CARHA, do not wait for a whistle on a spin-o-rama — a full 360° turn on the approach: neither book writes a provision on it, though both still require the puck be kept in motion towards your goal line (USA Hockey 406(c), CARHA 35(a)). Stay with the puck

Rule

The lacrosse-style move is permitted — the NHL, IIHF, PWHL and Hockey Canada require it below shoulder height and released no higher than the crossbar (NHL Rule 24.2; Hockey Canada Interpretation 6 to Rule 4.11(b))

Rule

USA Hockey and CARHA write no lacrosse-style-move rule, but their high-stick rules reach it: a puck played above the shoulder scores no goal and play stops immediately (USA Hockey 621(d), CARHA 62(d)) — only CARHA adds "No penalty is assessed to the player"; USA Hockey 621(a)-(c) are untouched

Rule

Only a designated goalie or alternate goalie may defend a penalty shot (NHL Rule 24.2)

Rule

The team a penalty shot was awarded against may swap goalies to face it, and that substitute "is required to remain in the game until the next stoppage of play" — the NHL and the IIHF write that sentence in the same words (NHL and IIHF Rule 24.2)

Same as a breakaway, plus a few rules to know precisely.

They get one attempt, from centre ice, with a long approach and no rebound, and the pressure is all on them. There is no clock on it — neither the NHL's Rule 24 and 84.4 nor the IIHF's Rule 24 sets a time limit — so any "you have N seconds" figure you hear is folklore. Be patient and let them run out of ideas.

• Stay in your crease until the shooter has touched the puck. Leave early and the shot is retaken, and the price climbs each time.
• Play the shot once. No goal can be scored on a rebound — but off the post or crossbar, then off you, then in, counts in every book except, on its text, CARHA.
• Under Hockey Canada, USA Hockey and CARHA, expect the spin-o-rama — a full 360° turn on the approach — and stay with the puck rather than waiting for a whistle.
• Against a lacrosse-style move — the puck picked up on the blade and whipped — play the height. A puck carried above the shooter's shoulder kills the goal in all six books, but the official judges it, so play the puck until you hear the whistle.

What it costs.

• Leaving your crease early: under NHL 24.4 the shot is retaken; a second violation adds a misconduct, and a third a game misconduct, the third retake being against the alternate goalie. ⚠️ Under IIHF 24.4, the book British hockey plays, the third violation is a game misconduct and "a goal shall be awarded" — no retake and no chance to save it.
• The spin-o-rama: the NHL, IIHF and PWHL bar it (24.2), so the shot is stopped and never yours to save. Hockey Canada expressly allows it while the puck keeps moving toward your goal line (Note 1 to Interpretation 5 on Rule 4.11(b)). USA Hockey (406(c)) and CARHA (35(a)) say nothing about it beyond keeping the puck moving, so do not count on it being called off.
• The lacrosse-style move: the NHL, IIHF, PWHL and Hockey Canada permit it below the shoulders and released no higher than the crossbar (NHL 24.2; Hockey Canada Interpretation 6 to 4.11(b)). USA Hockey and CARHA never mention it, but their high-stick rules score no goal and stop play for a puck played above the shoulder (USA Hockey 621(d); CARHA 62(d)). USA Hockey's whistle has two exceptions — play goes on if the puck is batted to an opponent who gains possession, and a defender batting it into their own goal counts. Only CARHA adds "No penalty is assessed to the player"; USA Hockey's high-sticking penalties still apply, contact or not (Casebook Rule 621, Situation 2).
• Who may face it: only a designated goalie or alternate (NHL and IIHF 24.2). The team it was awarded against may swap goalies to face it, and the substitute must stay in until the next stoppage — in both books.

Everything else above holds under the IIHF's Rule 24, with the same numbering. Only the violation ladder differs.

2-on-1s — and what you want from your defenceman

Convention

The standard convention is that your defenceman takes away the pass and you take the shot — a convention, not a law

Action

Play the puck carrier as if it were a one-on-none — square up, come out to your normal depth, make the save

Key

The cross-ice pass to an open forward is the chance you cannot stop; the shot is the one you can

Action

Get it said out loud — your defenceman's "I've got the pass" / "take the shooter", or your "shot" — it only works if you both know which half is yours

Never

Let your defenceman slide or dive before the pass is released where your team plays the passing lane; that opens both options at once

Options

Some teams instead coach a timed slide across the lane to kill the pass and force the shot — there the slide is the plan, so expect it and play the shooter the same way

Action

Ask your defencemen and your coach what your team does — some take away the shooting lane instead, and what must not happen is the two of you holding different answers

The standard convention is that the defenceman takes away the pass and you take the shot. Your defenceman positions in the passing lane with their stick flat on the ice, and you play the puck carrier as if it were a one-on-none: square up, come out to your normal depth, and make the save. The cross-ice pass to an open forward is the chance you cannot stop; the shot is the one you can.

Diagram from defending the rush · What the shapes and fills mean

The call for it is your defenceman's "I've got the pass" / "take the shooter" — or yours, "shot", which on this page means you have the shooter. Say it out loud rather than assuming it — this only works if both of you know which half is yours.

Name it as a convention, because it is one. Some coaches vary it: against a strong shooter with a weak trailer, or when a backchecker has picked up the second attacker, the defenceman may instead take away the shooting lane. And some teams play the alternative system outright — the defenceman times a slide flat across the passing lane to remove the pass and force the carrier to shoot. Where that is your team's method the slide is the plan, not an error, and it does not change your job: you still have the shooter, square and set. What must not happen is the defenceman sliding when your team plays the passing lane, because there it opens both options at once — and, more than either, the two of you arriving at the rush with different answers. Ask your defencemen and your coach what your team does, before the game rather than during it. The full treatment of every numerical situation, from the skaters' side, is in Defending the Rush.

3-on-2s

Convention

The common default is each defenceman taking an outside attacker, the middle man left to whoever backchecks that lane

Read

A 3-on-2 is the same read as a 2-on-1, but with a wider back door

Action

Don't over-challenge. Stay a little deeper instead and prioritise lateral movement over the last foot of angle

Action

Call "odd man" to tell everyone to stop thinking about the puck and start counting

Action

Find out which 3-on-2 version your team plays, because the two fail in different directions

The common default is each defenceman taking an outside attacker and neither chasing the carrier, with the middle attacker left to whoever is backchecking that lane — usually the centre, though some teams instead have the strong-side defenceman take the puck carrier and the weak-side defenceman split the middle and far man. Both are coaching choices and they fail in different directions, and two defencemen playing different ones on the same rush is worse than either, so find out which one your team plays (Defending the Rush sets out both). From your side, the read is the same as a 2-on-1 but with a wider back door: don't over-challenge, stay a little deeper, and prioritise the ability to move laterally over the last foot of angle. Talk — "odd man" tells everyone to stop thinking about the puck and start counting. (An odd-man rush is any attack where the attackers outnumber the defenders who got back: a 2-on-1, a 3-on-2, a breakaway.)

Diagram from defending the rush · What the shapes and fills mean

Diagram from defending the rush · What the shapes and fills mean

Shootouts

Key

Each shooter gets a long, slow approach — patience is the whole thing

Never

Commit first — a shootout move is built to make you go early, so make the shooter decide

Rule

Shootout attempts are governed by the penalty-shot rules, including staying in your crease until the shooter touches the puck (NHL and IIHF Rule 84.4)

Rule

Once the shootout begins you cannot be replaced unless injured, and a substitute goalie gets no warm-up shots (NHL Rule 84.4)

Rule

Unlike the NHL, the IIHF book, which British hockey plays, lets a shootout goalie be replaced — "The goalkeepers from each team may be changed after each shot" (IIHF Rule 84.4(VI))

Rule

NHL shootouts run three shooters a side; IIHF championship shootouts run five (IIHF Rule 84.4(II))

Rule

Under the IHUK In-House Rules the shootout count is three, not the IIHF’s five, and overtime runs only in NIHL fixtures and those SNL fixtures their competition regulations provide for; the NIHL Playoff Final has no shootout at all (In-House Rules 2026-27, Rule 84 and Appendix 1)

Rule

In the Elite League the shootout is five shooters, not three — EIHL Casebook 84.4 — and 84.1 gives a 5-minute 3-on-3 overtime in the regular season and Challenge Cup group stage, 20-minute 5-on-5 periods in elimination games

A shootout attempt follows the penalty-shot rules, including staying in your crease until the shooter touches the puck. Patience is the whole thing: each shooter gets a long, slow approach, and their move is built to make you go first, so make them commit before you do.

Know whether you can be rescued. Under the NHL book, once the shootout begins you cannot be replaced unless you are injured, and a substitute goalie gets no warm-up shots. The IIHF book, which British hockey plays, says the opposite — "The goalkeepers from each team may be changed after each shot" (84.4(VI)) — so a coach under it can pull you after a single goal against.

Know how many shooters you face, because three is a different night's work from five. The NHL runs three; the IIHF championship procedure runs five before sudden death. In Britain the format is a competition question. The IHUK In-House Rules play overtime only in NIHL fixtures and those SNL fixtures their regulations provide for, and every NIHL and SNL shootout runs three shooters (Rule 84 and Appendix 1) — but the NIHL Playoff Final has no shootout at all, only sudden-death overtime until a goal. The Elite League runs five (EIHL Casebook 84.4), after a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime in the regular season and Challenge Cup group stage, and in most knockout games a 20-minute 5-on-5 period, then 3-on-3 (84.1; finals repeat 20-minute periods, and the third-place game is a shootout only). UK and England Rules has the formats; check your league's regulations rather than assuming either the NHL or the IIHF procedure.

🇬🇧 In the Elite League, while your own team shoots you may stay on the ice at your end — and you must do nothing to distract the other goalie. The EIHL Casebook amends IIHF 84.4(V) to let the shooting team's goalie remain on the ice. ⚠️ If anyone from the shooting team distracts or interferes with the goalie being shot on and the shot scores, the referee rules no goal and imposes a misconduct — the Casebook does not say on whom, so do not assume it is you. That amendment reaches no other British competition.

Power play (your team is up a man)

Read

On your own power play, very few shots — and then occasionally a rush the other way against tired defencemen

Risk

The failure mode on a long power play is being cold and mentally elsewhere when that rush arrives

Action

Stay engaged — track the puck at the far end and move your feet at every stoppage

Action

Talk more, not less — your point men have their backs to the neutral zone and you have the clearest view of what is coming

Read

Be ready for the shorthanded rush, usually a 2-on-1 or a breakaway, because your team has committed bodies

Quiet. You will see very few shots and then, occasionally, a rush the other way against tired defencemen. The failure mode is being cold and mentally elsewhere when it arrives.

• Stay engaged. Track the puck at the far end. Move your feet at every stoppage.
• Talk more, not less. Your point men — the teammates stationed at the opposition blue line — have their backs to the neutral zone; you have the clearest view of a shorthanded break developing.
• Be ready for the shorthanded rush, which is usually a 2-on-1 or a breakaway, because your team has committed bodies.

Penalty kill (your team is down a man)

In short: Know your kill's shape, fight to see the puck, and freeze only pucks you are entitled to freeze, to buy whistles.

Read

On the penalty kill expect a lot of traffic, a lot of shots you cannot see, and lateral puck movement designed to make you move

Action

Know whether your team runs a box, a diamond or wedge+1 — it tells you which lanes are conceded

Convention

In wedge+1 the +1's route is a coaching choice published descriptions differ on — straight out from the goal, sweeping across the top of the zone, or roaming; ask which one your team runs

Priority

Prioritise seeing the puck; whether that means playing deeper is the depth-against-a-screen coaching split, so follow your goalie coach

Goal

Use freezes to buy whistles, not seconds — fresh legs, a reset and a draw — but only a freeze you were entitled to make

Rule

Manufacturing a stoppage is itself the offence — a minor to a goalie who could have played the puck before being pressured and stopped play instead (USA Hockey 610(b), whose Casebook answers that exact act "must be penalized" at Rule 610 Situation 3)

Rule

Hockey Canada warns you first only inside the crease — Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a) clause iii gives a Minor "after one warning" for freezing "in the crease when not under pressure"; clause v, once you have left the crease, is a Minor with "No warning will be issued"

Key

A freeze takes no time off the penalty, because play is stopped and the clock stops with it

Rule

Shorthanded icing is allowed only if your rule set grants it — USA Hockey Rule 624(b)(1) grants it to Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult only, so below those levels your killers can be iced

Rule

NHL 81.6 and PWHL 83.6 (20.3 in both) claw the shorthanded icing exemption back only where a major expires with nobody on the penalty box to exit, and then only until the next stoppage — but the exemption itself runs on the count, so a penalty to them mid-major makes it 4-on-4 and you can be iced

Rule

IIHF Rule 81.6 carries no major-penalty clawback, but it judges icing "at the instant the penalty expires", counting the returning player back in, so "ice it" holds only while you stay below their numbers — on a 5-on-3 you do — and a puck released before that draws no icing however late it lands

The opposite: a lot of traffic, a lot of shots you cannot see, and a lot of lateral puck movement designed to make you move.

• The default shapes are the box, the diamond and wedge+1. The box is two forwards high, two defencemen low. The diamond has a single apex, used against a 1-3-1 because a box leaves the bumper in the middle of the slot unmarked. Wedge+1 is a tight triangle around the net plus a fourth player, the "+1", who pressures whoever has the puck rather than following it around the perimeter; when the puck moves, the nearest triangle player steps out in their place. The route that +1 takes — straight out from the goal, sweeping across the top of the zone, or roaming — is a coaching choice that published descriptions differ on. Know which shape and which version of it your team runs, because it tells you which lanes are being conceded and therefore where the shots will come from. See Special Teams.
• Expect shots from the point through traffic, so prioritise seeing the puck. Whether that means playing deeper than usual is the coaching split flagged under Playing bigger and deeper through traffic — follow whichever your goalie coach teaches.
• Use freezes to buy whistles — not seconds — but only a freeze you were entitled to make. A freeze on the kill gets exhausted killers a change and makes the power play set up again from a faceoff. It takes no time off the penalty, because the clock stops with play; fresh legs, a reset and a draw are plenty. ⚠️ Never manufacture the stoppage — that is the offence itself, and being on the kill is no defence to it. And remember the dump-in from their side of the centre red line: freezing that one stops your team changing too.
• Shout "ice it" — if your rule set allows it, and only while you are still below their numbers. Killers under pressure sometimes try to make a play they don't need to. On a 5-on-3, the first penalty running out leaves you 4-on-5, still below them, so "ice it" is still on. On a 5-on-4, the common case, the shout dies with the clock. A puck released before the penalty expires is not icing even if the penalty runs out while it travels, and the exemption covers your own clear too. Special Teams has the full rule, and Faceoffs sets the books side by side.

What it costs.

• Manufacturing a stoppage: USA Hockey 610(b) is a minor for 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". Its Casebook says a goalie who comes out, waits for the chaser to get close and then freezes "must be penalized" (Rule 610, Situation 3). Neither writes a warning step, where the same rule writes one elsewhere (610(g)) — but reading that silence as "no warning" is a reading, not a published ruling. Hockey Canada warns you once, and only in your crease (Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a), clause iii); once you have left it, clause v is a minor with no warning.
• Shorthanded icing. USA Hockey grants the exemption only to "Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult" classifications (624(b)(1)), so below those levels "ice it" buys your killers a defensive-zone draw instead of a rest. NHL 81.6 and PWHL 83.6 withdraw it from a team killing a major only where nobody is on the penalty box to come out when the major expires, and then only until the next stoppage. Rule 20.3 lets a team wait for a stoppage to seat the substitute for a removed or injured player, unless that player is also serving minors. IIHF 81.6 has no classification limit and no major clawback, and the IHUK In-House Rules do not amend it, so across the Home Countries it reaches a killer at every level.
• The head count. In no book is the exemption unconditional. All six books, where they grant it, ask whether your side is below the other's numerical strength when the puck is shot; the NHL, IIHF and PWHL judge it "at the instant the penalty expires", counting the released player back in, and Hockey Canada (Interpretation 3 to 6.7(b)) and CARHA (65(a), Note 2) say the same. The relief for a puck already released is in NHL and IIHF 81.6, PWHL 83.6, USA Hockey 624(b)(1) and Hockey Canada's Interpretation 2 to 6.7(b), and CARHA reaches it by taking the count "at the instant the puck is shot" (65(d)).

6-on-5 with your net empty

In short: Leave fast with your stick when pulled; facing an extra attacker, play a little deeper and watch the back door.

Action

Go hard and go early when called — a slow change risks a too-many-men penalty or a goal with you halfway up the ice

Rule

Leaving your stick or equipment near the net, or piling snow there, awards a goal — but only once you have been replaced for an extra attacker; otherwise it is a minor (NHL and IIHF 67.5, PWHL 69.5); CARHA does the same for piled snow or any other obstacle (36(c), 66(f))

Rule

USA Hockey reaches you before you are replaced — 625(c) awards the goal once you are "in the act of leaving the ice" (Casebook, Rule 625, Situation 14), and Situation 15 needs no intent: a stick you were bumped out of, left in front of the goal, is a minor or the goal

Rule

Hockey Canada answers a stick left across your crease with a penalty shot while you are still on the ice, and an awarded goal once a legal change has substituted you — which counts even if you are physically still on the ice (Rule 4.12(b), Interpretation 4) — so take your stick with you

Rule

Shoot at their empty net with your stick — a forward throw is a minor under NHL and IIHF 67.3(iii) and PWHL 69.3(iii), and playing past the centre red line is a minor in every book (NHL and PWHL 27.7; IIHF 27.6; USA Hockey 407(c); Hockey Canada 4.13(c); CARHA 37(e))

Rule

NHL 27.7 and IIHF 27.6 judge play past the red line on the puck, in the rule itself; the skates test is elsewhere — USA Hockey Casebook 407(c) Situation 13, Hockey Canada Rule 8.3(a)(ii) and Interpretation 2 to 4.13(c) — so keep skates and puck both on your own side

Action

Coming back into your net after an empty-net shift, reset your references — posts, paint, depth — before the faceoff

Read

Defending a 6-on-5, play a little deeper and expect low-to-high plays and back-door passes rather than clean shots

Key

A whistle against a 6-on-5 does not run their clock down; what it destroys is the possession they spent thirty seconds building

Rule

Freeze a puck you had to save in your crease — even there one that only manufactures a stoppage is a minor unless you are being checked (63.2(vii)); outside it the NHL and IIHF protect only a cover straight off your save out in front (63.2(i); 63.2(vi) Note)

When your coach pulls you for an extra attacker, your job changes completely.

• Go hard and go early when called. A slow change to the bench is how you end up with a too-many-men penalty or a goal against with you halfway up the ice.
• Take your stick with you, and leave nothing near the net. ⚠️ A stick, equipment or snow left there can hand them an awarded goal or a penalty shot — and under one book you do not even need to have meant it.
• If you get the chance to score, shoot it with your stick. Never throw it forward, and keep your skates and the puck on your own side of the centre red line.
• Coming back in. When play stops, get in fast and reset your references — posts, paint, depth — before the faceoff.

Defending against a 6-on-5 (their net empty, you facing an extra attacker): play a little deeper, expect low-to-high plays and back-door passes rather than clean shots, and freeze every puck you are entitled to freeze. ⚠️ Wanting the whistle is exactly the motive these rules are written against, and this is when you will want it most. In your crease, a cover after a save you had to make is yours. Outside it, the NHL and IIHF protect only a cover straight off your own save out in front, and USA Hockey protects more, but only in front of your goal line inside its privileged area — When to freeze, tactically has each book. A minor here is about as expensive as a minor gets.

A whistle does not run their clock down, because the clock stops with play. What it destroys is the possession they spent thirty seconds building, with their empty net exposed to any clearance. If they dumped it in from their own side of the red line, freezing it stops your five changing too.

What it costs.

• Something left near your net. Under NHL and IIHF 67.5 (PWHL 69.5), a stick or equipment left there intentionally, or snow piled there, that would tend to prevent a goal is an awarded goal once you have been replaced for an extra attacker, and a minor while you are still in the net. The IIHF Situation Handbook gives the minor where you are still on the ice on your way to the bench (Situation 67.5). CARHA draws the same line: a goal once you are off the ice (36(c)), a minor while you are in it (66(f)). ⚠️ USA Hockey awards the goal while you are still leaving the ice (625(c)'s text reaches you even in your net; its Casebook says leaving or off, Rule 625 Situation 14). And it does not care whether you meant it: a stick you were bumped off and left in front of the goal is still a minor or a goal (Situation 15). Hockey Canada gives a penalty shot while you are on the ice, and an awarded goal once a legal change has substituted you — even if you are still physically on the ice (4.12(b) and Interpretation 4).
• Throwing the puck forward: a minor under NHL and IIHF 67.3(iii) and PWHL 69.3(iii); a stoppage and a faceoff in your end under USA Hockey (618(c)); a whistle under Hockey Canada. The stoppage is no licence — it kills the play you were trying to make. Throwing the puck forward has the detail.
• Playing beyond the centre red line: a minor in every book, and "participating" includes checking an opponent. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL judge it on the puck, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada on your skates — The trapezoid has the citations.

A delayed penalty — your trip to the bench

Action

When the referee's arm goes up against them and your bench wants the extra skater, go once your team has the puck — shortest route, eyes on the play

Convention

Whether you go at all is the bench's call, and plenty of recreational goalies stay in their net — find out what your team does before the arm goes up

Risk

While you are off, the goal to fear is your own team's pass sliding back into your empty net, so agree that nothing goes back toward it

Action

When play stops, get back in fast and rebuild your references — posts, paint, depth — before the faceoff

The other team cannot score from open play while the referee's arm is up, because play stops as soon as they gain control of the puck, so the usual move is for you to skate to the bench and give your team a sixth attacker. It is the bench's call rather than yours, and it is not automatic — plenty of recreational goalies stay in their net, because the trip is longer than it looks and the extra skater is only worth having if somebody is ready to come on. Find out what your team does before the arm goes up.

• Go when your team has the puck, not before. Take the shortest route, keep your eyes on the play as you skate, and take your stick with you — leave nothing near the net, for the reasons under 6-on-5 with your net empty above.
• The one goal you can concede is one your own team scores. The NHL's rule says it in terms: on a delayed call the offending team cannot score "unless the non-offending team shoots the puck into their own net" (Rule 78.5(xi)). A pass back toward your end that slides past everyone is heading for an empty goal, so tell your defencemen before the game that nothing goes back toward the net while you are off.
• Coming back is the same as after an empty-net shift: get in fast and rebuild your references before the faceoff.

Rules Primer has the delayed call itself and what your skaters do with the extra man.

Faceoffs in your own end

Action

Be set before the puck drops — on your angle to the dot, square and at your normal depth — because a draw won straight back can be a shot before you move

Action

Before the drop, check the net front is covered and every attacker has someone, and say so if not — the draw is the one play that comes to you on a schedule

Read

A draw lost cleanly back to the circle or the high slot means a quick shot and then a tip; one won to the wall means get ready to stop a rim behind your net

A faceoff in your end is the one moment the play comes to you on a schedule, so use it. Get set before the puck drops — on your angle to the dot, square and at your normal depth — because a centre who loses it straight back to a shooter in the circle or the high slot is shooting before you have moved. Talk before the drop, not after it: check that the net front is covered and that every attacker has someone, and if your team lets the goalie call the draw, tell your centre where you want it. The usual default is to win it to the wall or back to a defenceman and never into the middle, but your team's set plays are your coach's call — Faceoffs sets out the options. If it is lost cleanly, expect the quick shot first and a tip second; if it is won to the wall, be ready to stop the rim behind your net for your defenceman.

When a fight or a scrum breaks out

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

Key

Stay in your net during a fight; if you must move, go only where the referee sends you

Never

Go in, to fight or to break it up — a fight ejects you under the IIHF, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, and can under CARHA and PWHL; Hockey Canada and CARHA eject a peacemaker, USA Hockey the first in

Rule

A goalie who leaves the immediate vicinity of their crease during an altercation takes a minor penalty (NHL Rule 27.6; IIHF Rule 27.5) — this is why goalies stay in the net during a scrum

Rule

Where the altercation is at your own crease the referee "should direct the goalkeeper to a neutral location and not assess a penalty" — that is an instruction to the referee, so wait to be directed out (NHL Rule 27.6; IIHF Rule 27.5)

Rule

NHL Rule 27.6 and IIHF Rule 27.5 also excuse you if you were already legitimately on your way to the bench to be replaced by an extra attacker when the altercation started (NHL Rule 27.6; IIHF Rule 27.5)

Rule

USA Hockey Rule 615(e) is a minor for failing to move immediately to your crease when the referee instructs you to during an altercation; its Casebook applies the same minor to a goalie who leaves and gets involved without permission (Casebook Rule 615, Situation 26)

Rule

Hockey Canada Rule 7.10(a) puts a minor on a goalie who leaves their crease during a fight; Interpretation 1 lets you go to the bench "⁠[w]ith the permission of the Referee" and gives the minor to a goalie who goes "on their own accord"

Never

Go to the bench on your own during a fight — every book prices it, USA Hockey as a bench minor (205(c)); under CARHA, not at a stoppage at all unless replaced (47(c) Note)

Rule

Hockey Canada has a neutral-location route of its own — Rule 7.10(d) requires that "The goaltenders must stay in their goal creases or proceed to a neutral zone designated by the Referee", and CARHA's Note 2 to 59(a) matches bar one word (CARHA-affiliated adult leagues only)

Rule

USA Hockey Rule 615(d) ejects "any player or goalkeeper who is the first to intervene in an altercation then in progress" — it names goalkeepers and sets no crease condition, so it reaches you wherever you came from

Rule

Hockey Canada Rule 7.10(e)(ii) ejects a player who "joins in a fight or acts as a peacemaker", and its Glossary settles that this reaches you — "The goaltender is considered a player, except where explicitly stated"

Rule

CARHA 37(c) is a minor for leaving your crease during a fight, with no permission clause written in; refusing to go to a neutral zone the referee designates is a game misconduct (Note 2 to 59(a)), and so is leaving to act as a peacemaker (37(d)) (CARHA-affiliated adult leagues only)

Rule

At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, any fight in the last five minutes, in overtime or at the end of the game is at least a one-game ban, in every league or age group you are registered in (IHUK DOPS C.1, C.2, s.11)

Gloves come off in front of you and the instinct is to go. Don't.

Stay in your net. If you must move, go only where the referee sends you — in USA Hockey and Hockey Canada that can be your bench. If the fight lands on your doorstep, wait to be sent: the rule tells the referee to send you, not you to go. 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).

Never go in, to fight or to break it up. ⚠️ A fight ejects you under the IIHF, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, and can under CARHA and the PWHL; breaking one up ejects you under Hockey Canada and CARHA, and under USA Hockey if you are first in. Whichever book you are under, your team is then short a goalie and a player, and you are watching from the dressing room.

What it costs.

• Leaving your crease during an altercation: a minor (NHL and PWHL 27.6; IIHF 27.5). Two carve-outs are written in. Where the fight is in or near your crease, the referee "should direct the goalkeeper to a neutral location and not assess a penalty" — an instruction to the referee, not permission for you. And you are excused if you were already on your way to the bench for an extra attacker.
• The North American amateur books: USA Hockey 615(e) is a minor for failing to move immediately to your crease when the referee tells you to. Its Casebook answers leaving a crease-side fight to stay out of it as no penalty, but getting involved outside the crease without permission as a minor (Rule 615, Situation 26) — but going to the bench at a stoppage without the referee's permission is a bench minor (205(c)). Hockey Canada 7.10(a) is a minor for leaving your crease during a fight; Interpretation 1 lets you go to the bench with the referee's permission and gives the minor if you go "on their own accord"; 7.10(d) has you stay in your crease or go to a neutral zone the referee designates. CARHA 37(c) is a minor for leaving during a fight with no permission clause written in — but its Note 2 to 59(a) carries Hockey Canada's neutral-zone sentence, and refusing to go when told is a game misconduct.
• Fighting is a major plus a game misconduct under the IIHF (46.1), USA Hockey (615(a)) and Hockey Canada (7.10(b)); the PWHL may eject a willing combatant (46.1). Under CARHA a fight's instigator or aggressor takes a match and the other fighter can (59(a)), and any goalie given fighting penalties is suspended until dealt with by the Chairman (59(d)). At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, any fight in the last five minutes, in overtime or at the end of the game also costs at least one game, in every league or age group you are registered in (UK and England Rules).
• Going in. 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", with no crease condition, on top of anything else (its Casebook, Rule 615 Situation 10, adds the minor for leaving the crease). Hockey Canada 7.10(e)(ii) gives a game misconduct to a player who "joins in a fight or acts as a peacemaker", and its Glossary makes you a player. CARHA 37(d) does the same for a goalie who leaves the crease to join a fight, act as a peacemaker or take part in another one, and 59(b) for everyone else; 32(b) sends you to the dressing room and reports you to the Chairman. For joining in or peacemaking, whether a further suspension follows is not settled by the text. CARHA governs CARHA-affiliated adult leagues only.

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Goaltender Interference, From Your Side of It

The protection you have — and how it differs by book

In short: Get to your spot in the paint early, play through traffic rather than appealing it, and say what happened while it is happening.

Key

On a body in your paint when the puck goes in, the books do not give the same answer, and CARHA writes a crease rule of its own, so find out which your league runs before you rely on any of this

Rule

In your paint, attacker-initiated contact voids the goal (NHL and IIHF 69.3), bar incidental contact in a rebound or loose-puck scramble (69.7), a carve-out USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA lack. Only IIHF 69.1 gives the referee "the possibility to stop the game" for an attacker who will not move

Rule

IIHF Rule 69 shares the NHL's numbers, so every NHL Rule 69 citation is yours in Britain; the Elite League keeps video review, limited to the technology on hand, and the coach's challenge (EIHL Casebook 37, 37.3, 38); in EIH and SIHA competition the referee's call stands (In-House 37, 38, 69.1)

Rule

NHL 69.3 caps at a minor the penalty on an attacker who will not vacate your crease after your contact establishing position; IIHF 69.3 writes no ceiling on that clause, so in Britain do not assume two minutes — and both books' tables, status unstated, assess none where a goal is scored

Rule

USA Hockey Rule 625(b) is a flat position bar — no goal with an attacking player in your crease whoever scored, unless the puck got there first, you are out of the crease area, or a defender put them in there; Casebook Situation 9 takes that middle one back if they stopped you returning

Rule

USA Hockey 625(b)'s push-in relief excuses the attacker's position and nothing more — 617(c)(4) still voids a goal for interfering with you; 625(b) also makes a neutral-zone faceoff a duty, but only with the puck in the attacking zone, their team in possession and you in contact with the crease

Rule

Hockey Canada Rule 8.5 is not flat — a teammate's goal from outside your crease stands if the crease player stays passive, and is disallowed if they play the puck, interfere with the play or obstruct your view or movements

Rule

Hockey Canada Rule 8.5 protects you outside the paint too — a goalie is not "fair game" just because they are outside their crease, and unnecessary contact is a penalty anywhere on the ice

Rule

Neither USA Hockey nor Hockey Canada reaches a screen set from outside your crease — USA Hockey writes no goalie-vision provision at all, its grounds being position in the crease and 625(a)(8) contact, and Hockey Canada's two references to your view reach only a player in the crease

Rule

Hockey Canada penalises an attacker fouled into you who makes no effort to avoid you (Interpretation 2 to Rule 8.5(a)); the NHL's and the IIHF's Rule 69.1 relieves that attacker only while they are making a reasonable effort to avoid you

Rule

🇬🇧 The Elite League's Rule 69 (EIHL Casebook) asks whether you could play your position and recover, who initiated the contact, and where: "Contact in the blue paint area calls for disallowing a goal" — an addition, so IIHF 69.7's scramble allowance is not repealed; ask your officials

Rule

CARHA's crease rule is flat like USA Hockey's — no goal while an attacker stands in your crease unless the puck is in it, but it stands if a defender put them there and they tried to avoid you; any physical interference with you also takes it off and draws at least a minor (66(b))

Rule

CARHA can make contact on you a major — 66(b) at the referee's discretion for deliberate contact in or out of the crease, 66(e) mandatorily for interference that injures you, 52(b) mandatorily for a charge in your crease or one that injures; each ejects with at least a one-game ban (30(a), 32(d))

Rule

Hockey Canada is not capped at a minor — 8.5(b) reaches a major plus game misconduct at the referee's discretion on the degree of violence of impact, and mandatorily for charging you and for any interference-with-goaltender foul that injures; 8.5(c) is a match penalty

Know what protection you actually have, because a lot of goalies believe they have more than they do and play accordingly.

• Inside your crease the paint is yours. An attacker who initiates contact with you there voids the goal under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books, except for incidental contact in a rebound or loose-puck scramble.
• Outside your crease you are not fair game — but a screen is not a foul. Contact out there can still cost them the goal in every book. A screen set outside your paint almost never will.
• If you played a puck out and somebody stood in your road home, say so. That is a penalty to ask for, not bad luck to wear.
• Find out which book your league runs before you rely on any of this. On a body in your paint as the puck goes in, the books do not give the same answer.

Rules Primer covers Rule 69 from the attacker's side — its premise, the two grounds for disallowing a goal, and the strict inside-the-crease standard. This section is the rule read from behind the goal line.

Under the NHL and IIHF books (and the PWHL's Rule 71). The IIHF's Rule 69 uses the NHL's numbers, so every 69 citation here is yours in Britain. A goal is disallowed when an attacker initiates contact with you in your crease (69.3), or establishes a significant position in it that obstructs your vision and impairs your defence (69.3), or makes more than incidental contact with you outside it (69.4). Incidental contact in a scramble for a loose puck is permitted (69.7). Intentional or deliberate contact with you, in or out of the crease, goal or no goal, is a minor or a major (69.2) — what was done to you counts for more than where you stood.

Where your own contact claims the position and the attacker will not move, the goal comes off — but the NHL's 69.3 names a minor for the attacker where the IIHF's says "the appropriate penalty", and both books' tables say at row 6D that no penalty is assessed, without saying which governs. So do not be surprised by a disallowed goal with nobody in the box. The IIHF's 69.1 alone lets the referee stop the game for an attacker in your crease who will not leave — a possibility, not a duty, and only for a player in the crease. No published IIHF interpretation of it is held here.

A screen outside the crease. Rule 69.1 names positioning as well as contact, but under a "should be disallowed only if" ceiling, and every sentence that actually takes a goal off for where an attacker stood is keyed to your crease — that is a reading of the rule's structure, not something either book states. Both books' worked situations answer "Goal is allowed" for an attacker outside the crease who is moving (5C) or planted on the line (5E) and impairing you, and neither book says what status those tables have. The call is the referee's on-ice judgement.

Your way home. An attacker whose "deliberate actions" stop you getting back to your crease after you played the puck outside it "may be penalized", with no contact needed (69.4, in both books). ⚠️ It runs both ways: the same rule says a goalie who deliberately interferes outside the crease with an attacker "attempting to play the puck or an opponent" may be penalised too.

Push-ins. Contact by an attacker who was pushed or fouled into you by a defender is not counted as theirs — provided they made a reasonable effort to avoid you (69.1). Neither book writes a penalty for the defender who caused it.

USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA start from an attacker's position in your crease rather than from whether you were impaired.

• USA Hockey 625(b) is flat: no goal with an attacker in your crease unless the puck got there first, you were out of the crease area, or a defender put them there. It also makes a neutral-zone faceoff a duty for an attacker in your crease — but only with the puck in the attacking zone, their team in possession, and you in contact with your crease. If you were out and the attacker stopped you getting back, the goal is disallowed and the attacker takes an interference penalty (Casebook Rule 625, Situation 9). The push-in relief excuses only their position: Rule 617(c)(4) still disallows a goal scored while an attacker was interfering with you, its Casebook applies that outside the crease too (Situation 13), and 625(a)(8) is a minor for physical contact that interferes with your movement.
• Hockey Canada 8.5 is not flat. A body in your crease while a teammate scores from outside it does not by itself cost the goal; it does if that player plays the puck, interferes with the play, or obstructs your view or movements (Interpretation 3 to 8.5(a)). Any contact an attacker initiates, inside or outside the crease, disallows the goal, unless a defender fouled them into you (Interpretation 1). "A Goaltender is not 'fair game' just because they are outside their goal crease", and unnecessary contact anywhere on the ice is a penalty. "The onus is always on the attacking player": one fouled into you who makes no effort to avoid you must be penalised, and the referee should also penalise the defender who fouled them (Interpretation 2).
• CARHA 66(b) is flat like USA Hockey's: no goal while an attacker stands in your crease unless the puck is in it, and the goal stands if a defender put them there. Any physical interference with you before or during the goal takes it off and draws a penalty. An attacker who is fouled or tripped into you and makes no attempt to avoid you takes a minor, whether you are in or out of the crease — and if the attacker's team had the puck, any goal comes off as well. CARHA-affiliated adult leagues only.

Outside your crease, neither USA Hockey nor Hockey Canada disallows a goal for anything short of contact or blocking your way back. USA Hockey writes no goalie-vision provision at all — its Rules and its Casebook were both searched — and Hockey Canada's two references to your view reach only a player in your crease. So a screen set outside your paint without contact has nothing to call it under, and your defencemen are the whole answer. On contact, though, both protect you more than the NHL does.

The tier for running you — and which books price it highest

In short: If someone runs you, get set again and tell the referee what happened, not what to call.

Key

Everything above decides whether a goal counts; this decides whether the player who ran you is still in the game, and it is a protection you have rather than a restriction on you

Rule

USA Hockey has no bare minor for it — 607(c) assesses "⁠[a] minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct" for checking or charging a goalie in the crease or privileged area, 607(b) makes that major mandatory if reckless, then expect a match and a likely multi-game ban (607(e), 602(a))

Rule

Your protected area there is bigger than your crease — USA Hockey 607(d) Note 2 runs the privileged area from the end-zone faceoff spots perpendicular to the end boards, and Casebook 607 Situation 6 confirms it "extends to the closer end boards"

Rule

Outside the privileged area USA Hockey Casebook 607 Situation 5 says you "can be legally checked" in a checking game but are not "fair game": they may "physically engage" you only while you have the puck, to win it, never to intimidate or punish (charging); other avoidable contact is penalised

Rule

Do not ask for the top tier on every bump — USA Hockey 607(d) Note 1 sends accidental or unavoidable contact to the Interference rule, a 625(a)(8) minor, and only deliberate body contact or a check to charging

Rule

In your crease or privileged area, USA Hockey Casebook 607 Sit. 4: no penalty only if one of yours forced them in and they clearly did everything to avoid you; honest try, minor and misconduct; driving through, major and game misconduct or match — expect a match and a likely multi-game ban (602(a))

Rule

NHL and IIHF let the referee grade a crease charge: NHL 42.2–42.4 minor, major, match (21.1: a must if meant to injure), 42.5 a mandatory game misconduct on a major injuring face or head; IIHF minor, major, major and game misconduct. From behind (43) they and the PWHL have no minor; the major ejects

Rule

Across the Home Countries the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27 leave Rule 42 alone, so the IIHF ladder prices charging you — except in women's hockey, where their Rule 101 ejects on any major; no IHUK Rule Bulletin has been obtained here

Rule

The Elite League does amend charging — where a Rule 42 major is imposed for a foul injuring an opponent’s face or head, the EIHL Casebook makes a game misconduct mandatory, while IIHF 42.4 leaves it to the referee. From behind (IIHF 43.3) or to your head (IIHF 48.3) it is automatic on the major

Rule

Charging you mandates major and game misconduct under Hockey Canada 8.5(b) anywhere; USA Hockey 607(b) if reckless, CARHA 52(b) in the crease or on injury, both banning at least a game; NHL, PWHL 42.5, EIHL 42 mandate a game misconduct only on a major injuring face or head; IIHF 42.4: discretionary

Rule

Read both limbs of CARHA 52(b): the first prices a charge on you "within the goal crease", the second, "or who injures an opponent as a result of a charge", carries no crease condition and reaches a charge anywhere, as 52(a) does for any player if injury results

Rule

CARHA Rule 66(b) makes "deliberate contact with a goalkeeper whether in or out of the goal crease" a Minor, or a Major at the Referee's discretion that ejects with at least a one-game ban (30(a), 32(d)) — it does not soften 52(b) (CARHA-affiliated leagues)

Rule

CARHA prices a cross-check on you like a charge — 54(c) "shall" assess a Major and Game Misconduct for crosschecking you in your crease or injuring anyone with one, 54(b) the same above the shoulders "whether or not injury results"; each adds at least a one-game ban (32(d)) (CARHA leagues)

Action

Say what happened, not what you want — "they drove through me" gets you the charging rule; "that's a penalty" gets you nothing

If someone runs you, get back to your net, get set again, and tell the referee what happened — whether it was deliberate and which way they came — rather than what to call. The tier is the referee's; the facts are yours to give. "They drove through me" and "nobody pushed them" are the facts the charging rules turn on. In a corner, "they hit me from behind" or "they put me into the boards" hands the referee a different rule. "That's a penalty" is not information. In EIH and SIHA competition there is no review of any of it, so say it while it is happening.

Do not ask for the top tier on every bump. A goalie who asks for a match penalty on every collision stops being listened to. Under USA Hockey, accidental or unavoidable contact with you is interference, a minor; only deliberate contact is charging (607(d) Note 1).

What it costs the player who ran you. No book is simply "the strongest" — each keys its top tier to something different, so find out which one you are under.

• USA Hockey writes no bare minor anywhere in its charging rule. Body checking or charging you in your crease or privileged area is a minor plus a misconduct, or a major plus a game misconduct (607(c)). A reckless charge on anyone is a mandatory major plus game misconduct (607(b)), and a match penalty is to be planned on (607(e), with 602(a)'s "shall be assessed"). A match suspends the player until their case is heard (405(c)), the review is compulsory (410(c)), and with a 607(e) or 602(a) match, plan on a likely multi-game suspension. The misconduct is ten minutes, or less outside adult play where an affiliate has shortened it (404(a)).
  • Your privileged area runs from the line joining the end-zone faceoff spots back to the end boards, behind your net included and the corners excluded (607(d) Note 2; Casebook Rule 607, Situation 6). Outside it you are still not "fair game": unnecessary contact should be penalised in every case (607(d)). In a body-checking game an attacker may engage you while you have the puck, to win it — never to intimidate or punish you, which is charging — and once you lose control, avoidable contact must be penalised (Situation 5). Whether any body check is legal in your game is a classification question (604(a) and (b)).
  • The Casebook's three rungs (Rule 607, Situation 4). No penalty only where one of your own forced the attacker into you and they clearly made every attempt to avoid you. A minor plus a misconduct where they were going hard to the net but honestly tried to avoid you. A major plus a game misconduct, or a match, where they accelerated through, or extended their arms or dropped a shoulder — and expect the match and a likely multi-game suspension (602(a)).
  • In a corner: a forceful check from behind on a player along the boards is a major plus game misconduct or a match whether or not the referee calls it reckless (Casebook Rule 608, Situation 1), and the match is mandatory with excessive force on a defenceless player (608(c)), with a likely multi-game suspension. Boarding (603) runs on the same ladder as charging.
• Hockey Canada: 8.5(a) is the minor. 8.5(b) is a major and game misconduct at the referee's discretion on the violence of the impact — and mandatory for charging you, anywhere on the ice, and for any interference with you that injures. 8.5(c) is a match penalty for attempting to injure or deliberately injuring you. There is no misconduct rung in between (8.5(d)), and the game misconduct comes automatically with any 8.5(b) major (8.5(e)). If a charge reaches your head, plan on the harsher of 8.5(b) and head contact (7.6, or 7.7 in Junior and Senior), which can be a match.
• CARHA: 52(b) is a mandatory major and game misconduct for charging you in your crease, or for any charge that injures, anywhere on the ice. More than two strides is a charge (the Note to 52(a)), so an ordinary hard drive to the net is enough. Outside your crease and short of injury it is a minor or major at the referee's discretion (the Note to Rule 52), and 66(b) makes deliberate contact with you, in or out of the crease, a minor or a discretionary major. A charge meant to injure you is a match under the general Rule 48(a). Each of these majors ejects, 66(e)'s for interference that injures included, with at least a one-game suspension (30(a), 32(d)). CARHA-affiliated leagues only.
• CARHA's other limbs reach the net front too. A cross-check on you in your crease, or one that injures anyone, is a mandatory major and game misconduct (54(c)); one above the shoulders, anywhere, is the same whether or not anyone is hurt (54(b)); a deliberate attempt to injure is a match (54(d)). Each of those majors also brings at least a one-game ban (32(d)). Intentional head contact without a stick is a double minor or a major and game misconduct (50(b)), a match if meant to injure (50(c)), and a player driven from behind into the boards or goal net, unable to protect themselves, is a match (53(b)).
• A cross-check to your head elsewhere: USA Hockey makes intentional or careless contact to the head a mandatory major plus game misconduct (620(b)). Hockey Canada does the same for a cross-check above the shoulders, injury or not (Interpretation 2 to 9.2(b); 7.6(b), and 7.7(b) in Junior and Senior) — in minor and female hockey minimal, accidental contact is excused from that tier but is still at least a minor.
• NHL, PWHL and IIHF leave a charge to the referee, minor upward. NHL 42.1–42.4 run minor, major and a match for an attempt to injure — mandatory under the general Rule 21.1 — and 42.5 makes a game misconduct mandatory on a major for an injury to the face or head; the PWHL's Rule 42 matches clause for clause. IIHF 42.2–42.4 run minor, major, and major plus game misconduct for reckless endangerment, outside the crease too (Situation 42.2). Neither book has a privileged area. The IHUK In-House Rules leave Rule 42 alone — no IHUK Rule Bulletin is held here — and in women's hockey their Rule 101 ejects on any major. The Elite League makes the game misconduct mandatory on a charging major for a face or head injury (EIHL Casebook, Rule 42).
• A hit on your back is checking from behind, and while it stays off your head no book prices it at a bare minor. The NHL, PWHL and IIHF write no minor for it (43.2). IIHF 43.3 makes the game misconduct automatic once the major is given; NHL and PWHL 43.4 add a discretionary match, mandatory for a deliberate attempt to injure (21.1). If it reaches your head, the NHL and PWHL price it at the harsher of Rule 43 and Rule 48; under the IIHF, plan on the major and game misconduct, never on a minor (43.3, 48.3).
  • USA Hockey 608 prices a hit from behind at a minor plus a misconduct at the floor, a mandatory major and game misconduct where it is reckless or sends you head first into the boards or goal frame (608(b)), and a match, with a likely multi-game suspension, for excessive force on a defenceless player (608(c)).
  • Hockey Canada prices a hit from behind on you at the harsher of 7.5 and 8.5, so a hit that is also a charge is 8.5(b)'s mandatory major and game misconduct. Rule 7.5 alone is a minor and game misconduct at the floor, a major and game misconduct on a violent hit — mandatory if you are hurt — and a match into the boards or goal frame when you cannot protect yourself, or for a deliberate attempt to injure. If it reaches your head, plan on the harsher of head contact (7.6, or 7.7 in Junior and Senior, up to a match) and 8.5 — and of 7.5 too where it drove you head first into the boards or goal frame.
  • CARHA prices it under 53. 53(a) is a game misconduct with either a minor or a major, the major mandatory if you are injured and bringing at least a one-game ban (32(d)). 53(a) can also be a match, and must be if meant to injure (48(a)). 53(b) is a mandatory match where you are driven into the boards or goal net unable to protect yourself.
• 🇬🇧 The IIHF ceiling: plan on a hit from behind that reaches your head being a major plus an automatic game misconduct (43.3, 48.3), and never plan on a minor. The EIHL Casebook writes nothing on Rules 43 or 48. The IIHF book writes no match penalty, so a game misconduct is the most it can do inside the game, with supplementary discipline beyond it. At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, a game misconduct for checking from behind or a check to the head also brings the hitter at least a one-game ban (UK and England Rules). That Rule 43 reaches a goalie is a reading of how the book is assembled (Rule 5.1), not a sentence the IIHF prints.

What it changes about what you do

In short: Hold your crease early, play through a legal screen, keep your stick and blocker to yourself, and never embellish.

Action

Establish and hold your crease position early, and shout for the net front rather than dropping to the ice

Rule

Outside your crease you are not "fair game": NHL and IIHF 69.4 call for a penalty "in every case" of unnecessary contact, and permit an attacker's incidental contact as you play the puck after a "reasonable effort" to avoid it; USA Hockey 607(d) Note 1 files even accidental contact as interference

Rule

Rule 69.4 runs both ways: an attacker whose "deliberate actions" stop you returning after you played the puck out "may be penalized", no contact needed — and so may you, for deliberately interfering outside your crease with one "attempting to play the puck or an opponent" (NHL and IIHF)

Rule

On rebounds and loose pucks incidental contact — and only incidental contact — is permitted and the goal counts under the NHL and IIHF (69.7) and the PWHL (71.7); USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write no such carve-out, and the Hockey Canada clauses in its place bind the attacker, not you

Rule

A screen from outside your crease without contact is normally legal; inside the crease only a significant position voids the goal — a substantial part of a body there for more than an instantaneous period, obstructing your vision and impairing your ability to defend (NHL and IIHF Rule 69.3)

Rule

An attacker who pushes you into the net together with the puck after you made the stop kills the goal and may take a penalty with it — unless one of your own players fouled them into you, when it can be allowed (NHL and IIHF Rule 69.7; disallowed-goal lists 78.5(ix))

Rule

You can be penalised too: NHL and IIHF Rule 64.1 make diving/embellishment a minor if you deliberately initiate contact other than to establish position in the crease, or otherwise act to create the appearance of other than incidental contact; IHUK's In-House Rules add a misconduct

Rule

🇬🇧 A dive is not two minutes under the IHUK In-House Rules: Rule 64, new for 2026-27, requires "2 plus 10" — a minor plus a 10-minute misconduct. A teammate serves both for you (IIHF 27.1 and 27.3), but a second misconduct in the game is an automatic game misconduct (IIHF 20.4)

Rule

Rule 64.1's "other than to establish position" carve-out is not immunity — it is scoped to "diving / embellishment" and nothing else, and four crowding rows price your own contact against you at 6E to 6H, 6E without needing any force at all (NHL Table 14; IIHF Table 14, 16 in 2025/26)

Convention

Who you are shouting at for the net front is a coaching choice rather than a law — the weak-side defenceman under a low zone collapse, whoever's check went there under man-on-man or a hybrid of the two, which can as easily be a forward. Find out which your team plays

Never

Embellish — referees see everything you do all night, and a goalie who sells contact gets fewer calls when it matters

Rule

The stick and body fouls bind you like a skater — slashing, cross-checking, roughing and the rest apply to "a player", which NHL and IIHF 5.1 define to include goalies; a blocker punch meant to injure is a match (NHL 51.3, 21.1); likely to injure, IIHF 51.3 allows a major and game misconduct

Rule

Your slash is not capped at two minutes — NHL 61.3 makes a major discretionary and mandatory "⁠[w]hen injury occurs", 61.5 adds a game misconduct with any major, 61.4 a match for attempting or deliberately injuring; IIHF 61.3 is a discretionary major plus game misconduct, with no match limb

• Leaving the paint costs you some protection, not all of it. Outside your crease, an attacker's incidental contact while you are playing the puck is permitted, provided they made a reasonable effort to avoid you (NHL and IIHF 69.4). Know that before you go. What it does not cost you is the way back: somebody standing in your road home is inside the rule.
• In a rebound scramble, win the puck — no whistle is coming. Under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books incidental contact while you and an attacker both go for a loose puck is permitted, and the goal counts. That is a carve-out for a scramble, not a licence to run you. USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA write no such carve-out, and Hockey Canada's clauses in its place bind the attacker, not you.
• A screen set from outside your crease, without contact, is legal — deal with it. What voids it is contact, or a body in your crease — under the NHL and IIHF a significant position, a substantial part of a body in it for more than an instant, obstructing your vision and impairing your defence. Say so out loud at the time. A body that crosses your paint and is gone is not a significant position. Screens, Tips and Traffic is where the skill lives.
• Pushed into your own net with the puck after a save, the goal comes off — unless your own defenceman pushed or fouled the attacker into you, when it can stand. So your defenceman shoving an opponent into you can cost your team the goal. The same goes for a puck under a player in front of you: it cannot be pushed in with them (NHL and IIHF 69.7).
• Keep your stick, blocker and body to yourself, in your crease and out of it. A chop at an attacker's stick in your paint, or a cross-check to move a body off your doorstep, costs what it would anywhere else on the ice — two minutes at the least, up to a major or a match — and a teammate serves your minor, so your retaliation is your team's penalty kill.
• Don't embellish. Selling contact is a named penalty, and a goalie with a reputation for it gets fewer calls in the games where it matters.

Practically: establish and hold your crease position early. If someone is standing in it, make it visible and shout for the player whose job the net front is, rather than dropping to the ice. Whose job that is, is a coaching choice — the weak-side defenceman's under a low zone collapse, and whoever's check went there under man-on-man or a hybrid, which can be a forward. Find out which your team plays; Defensive Zone Coverage sets out each.

A glove or stick held in front of your face is not a screen. Under the IIHF it is unsportsmanlike conduct, a minor — but only "if witnessed by the Referee(s)" (Situation Handbook, Situation 69.3). With no video review in EIH or SIHA competition, that is the whole rule, so call it loudly while it is happening.

What it costs you.

• Your own interference outside the crease: you "may be penalized" if you deliberately interfere with an attacker "attempting to play the puck or an opponent" (NHL and IIHF 69.4). The referee's judgement, and no contact is named.
• The stick and body fouls bind you like a skater. NHL and IIHF Rule 5.1 make "player" include goalies; Hockey Canada's Glossary and CARHA's 30(a) say the same. Two minutes is the floor. A slash or a cross-check reaches a major and game misconduct in every book where the referee judges it severe or reckless; a reckless hook, trip or high stick reaches it under USA Hockey, the IIHF and CARHA (a trip, 86(a)), and a CARHA high stick above the shoulders is a major outright (62(b)). A major must be called where the foul injures — under Hockey Canada for each of these but the high stick, which it prices as head contact; under CARHA for a slash, cross-check, hook or hold; under the NHL and PWHL for a slash or a hook — and in all four that major ends your game. NHL 61.3 makes a slash that injures a major, 61.5 adds the game misconduct, and 61.4 is a match for an attempt to injure, as is CARHA 80(d); IIHF 61.3 is a discretionary major and game misconduct, with no match limb.
• High sticks and cross-checks to the head. CARHA makes a high stick above the shoulders a major whether or not anyone is hurt, with a game misconduct unless it was accidental and nobody was hurt, and a match if meant to injure (62(b), (c)); an intentional one also brings at least a one-game ban (32(d)). A cross-check above the shoulders is a mandatory major and game misconduct under CARHA, with at least a one-game ban (54(b), 32(d)). Under Hockey Canada it is the same, flat, in Junior and Senior (7.7(b)), and in minor and female hockey for a deliberate cross-check; there, minimal accidental contact is still at least a minor (7.6(a); Interpretation 2 to 7.6(b)). Under USA Hockey it is the same wherever the head contact is intentional or careless (620(b)), and at least a minor plus a misconduct (620(a)). Every book except the IIHF adds a match for a cross-check meant to injure — mandatory under Hockey Canada, CARHA, USA Hockey (602(a)) and, through Rule 21.1, the NHL and PWHL — and under USA Hockey one to plan on, with a likely multi-game suspension, for reckless endangerment alone. Body Contact and Battles sets these fouls out in full.
• Punching with the blocker is written about you, and it is not a minor. ⚠️ NHL 51.3 allows a match penalty where you punch an opponent "in an attempt to or to deliberately injure", and Rule 21.1 makes it mandatory for a deliberate attempt, so plan on it. Under CARHA any attempt to injure is a match too (48(a)). IIHF 51.3 gives a major and an automatic game misconduct where the punch is likely to injure — likely, not intended. At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, a suspension panel can add games on top.
• Embellishment: NHL and IIHF 64.1 make it a minor for a goalie who deliberately initiates contact with an attacker "other than to establish position in the crease", or acts to create the appearance of more than incidental contact. That carve-out takes establishing position out of the diving rule and nothing else — your contact while establishing position is priced in the next section. Under the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27 a dive is "2 plus 10" (Rule 64, new for 2026-27), across all four Home Countries and in university hockey. A teammate serves both (IIHF 27.1 and 27.3), but the misconduct is recorded against you, a second misconduct in the game is an automatic game misconduct (20.4), and Rule 27.4 then takes you out of the net. So one sold fall plus one equipment misconduct ends your night. UK Rules carries the amendment.
• 🇬🇧 The Elite League keeps the plain minor, but its Casebook warns officials about goalies who fall as if hit when they were not touched, or come up shaking a hand as if slashed. Its Department of Player Safety can fine for diving whatever the on-ice call — though a diving penalty does not automatically mean a fine.

When you initiate the contact, and which rows price it against you

In short: Claim your crease position early, by getting there first, not by moving an attacker off it.

Key

Rows 6E to 6H penalise you for your own unnecessary contact or excessive force, whether or not the attacker gives ground; only 6F reaches them too (NHL Table 14; IIHF Table 14, 16 in 2025/26)

Rule

Your crease position is yours to claim — the IIHF Situation Handbook's Situation 69.2 says "The attacking player must give ground to the goalkeeper to play its position within the goal crease", and NHL and IIHF Rule 69.3 void the goal if your establishing contact impairs your defence of it

Rule

An attacker need not refuse to move for your contact to void the goal — at 6C both books disallow it even if they vacate immediately, because "the contact impairs the goalkeeper's ability to defend" (NHL Table 14; IIHF Table 14, 16 in 2025/26), and neither 6C row settles whether anyone is penalised

Rule

An attacker who refuses to give ground after your contact may still be penalised — at 6D, NHL Table 14 and IIHF Table 14 (16 in 2025/26) both answer "A minor penalty is not assessed (loss of goal only)", but Rule 69.3 says they "will receive" one: a minor (NHL), "the appropriate penalty" (IIHF)

Rule

Situation 6E needs no excessive force — deliberate contact "other than to establish position in the crease", or "unnecessary contact", is "Minor penalty to the goalkeeper (slashing, etc.)" at NHL Table 14, "the appropriate penalty" at IIHF Table 14 (16 in 2025/26); status unstated in both

Rule

At 6F your excessive force meets an attacker refusing to give ground — both books answer "there is no goal", and penalties with it: NHL Table 14 "Coincidental minors", two minutes to each of you; IIHF Table 14 (16 in 2025/26) "the appropriate penalty" to you, them or both; status unstated in both

Rule

Where you establish your crease position "by using excessive force or acting in a manner which would otherwise warrant a penalty", the penalty is yours at 6G and 6H — a minor at NHL Table 14, "the appropriate penalty" at IIHF Table 14 (16 in 2025/26), and neither book states those tables' status

Rule

The PWHL prices a goalie's own crease contact in the same words — its Reference Table 14, under Rule 71, answers deliberate contact by a goalie "other than to establish position in the crease" with a "Minor penalty to the goalkeeper (slashing, etc.)"

Rule

The IIHF's own Situation Handbook caps 6G where its table does not — on 6G's facts at Situation 69.5 it answers "A minor penalty to the goalkeeper and the goal is disallowed"; it reaches neither 6H nor 6F, and neither book states what status any of these tables have

Rule

In USA Hockey a minor "shall be assessed to any goalkeeper who body checks an opponent" — 640(f), no exception; its Casebook carves out "competitive contact" to gain the puck (Situation 7); if reckless, major and game misconduct (640(g)); plan on a match and a likely multi-game ban (640(h), 602(a))

Rule

Hockey Canada's minor for deliberate contact at 8.3(a)(i) is not your ceiling — 8.3(b) may be a major plus game misconduct on "the degree of violence of the impact" alone, and must where it injures; 8.3(c) a match penalty for attempts to injure; its Glossary makes you a player except as stated

Never

Tell an opponent who will not give ground after your contact that the rules give them a free one — under the NHL's own 69.3 they take a minor, under the IIHF's "the appropriate penalty"

In the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books, what prices your own contact against you is the manner you took the position in, not the taking of it. ⚠️ And unnecessary contact is enough — no force is needed. Take your ground by getting there first, not by moving an opponent off it.

Do not tell an opponent who will not give ground after your contact that the rules give them a free one. Under both books' rule text that opponent is penalised; what the referee judges is the tier, not whether.

What it costs. These rows are worked situations printed in the NHL's Reference Table 14 and the IIHF's Appendix IV Table 14 (Table 16 in 2025/26). Neither book says what status they have against its own rule text, so they show how the rule is meant to be applied rather than repealing it. The PWHL prints the same rows, without the letters, under its Rule 71, and its 66.1 matches NHL 64.1.

• 6E — deliberate contact other than to establish position, or any unnecessary contact, with no force needed: the NHL answers "Minor penalty to the goalkeeper (slashing, etc.)"; the IIHF "the appropriate penalty", with no cap, and no Situation Handbook answer reaches this row. It is the row most likely to catch you.
• 6G and 6H — establishing position with excessive force, or in a way that would otherwise warrant a penalty: the penalty is yours alone. The NHL gives a minor, and at 6G the goal comes off too; the IIHF gives "the appropriate penalty", with the goal off at 6G. The IIHF Situation Handbook answers 6G's facts with "A minor penalty to the goalkeeper and the goal is disallowed" (Situation 69.5) — though its own reference points at the wrong row, 6C.
• 6F — your excessive force plus an attacker who refuses to give ground: no goal in either book. The NHL gives coincidental minors, two minutes each; the IIHF "the appropriate penalty" to you, the attacker, or both — so in Britain it may land on you alone.
• 7B — contact you initiate to draw a penalty on an attacker already leaving the crease: a minor to you for diving, in both tables.
• 6D — clean contact to establish your position, and an attacker who will not give ground: the goal comes off. Both tables say "A minor penalty is not assessed (loss of goal only)", but the NHL's 69.3 says the attacker "will receive a minor penalty" and the IIHF's that they "will receive the appropriate penalty". Nothing reconciles the NHL's two answers, and this document does not pick a side. The IIHF Handbook gives the no-goal, no-penalty answer on similar facts: "The attacking player must give ground to the goalkeeper to play its position within the goal crease" (Situation 69.2).
• 6C — the attacker vacates immediately: the goal still comes off if your contact impaired your defence (69.3's second paragraph; Handbook Situation 69.6). Neither says anything about a penalty either way, so do not read that silence as immunity.
• 6B — a genuine attempt to establish position: any penalty there is the attacker's, judged on the degree of contact and resistance and whether you were truly trying to establish position.

USA Hockey and Hockey Canada write no matrix, and neither stops at two minutes.

• USA Hockey's word is "body checks", not "initiates contact". Rule 640(f): "A minor penalty shall be assessed to any goalkeeper who body checks an opponent" — shall, not may. Recklessly endangering an opponent that way is a major plus a game misconduct (640(g)), and plan on a match and a likely multi-game suspension (640(h), with 602(a)'s "shall"). Its Casebook allows "competitive contact" in an effort to gain possession of the puck, but a goalie's body check with no effort to gain it "must" draw a minor, a major plus game misconduct or a match for roughing (Rule 640, Situation 7). So what buys the exception is playing the puck, not claiming the paint.
• Hockey Canada routes a goalie's deliberate contact, "except in the course of playing their position", to Rule 8.3(a)(i), a minor (4.13(c)). The book never defines that phrase, but Interpretation 2 to 8.3(a)(i) says an otherwise legal body check by a goalie "must be penalized as Interference". ⚠️ The minor is the floor: 8.3(b) is a major and game misconduct at the referee's discretion on the violence of the impact, and mandatory where it injures; 8.3(c) is a match for an attempt to injure; and 8.3(e) adds the game misconduct to any interference major. Both say "any player", and the Glossary makes you one. Whether being routed to 8.3(a) shuts out 8.3(b) and (c) is unsettled — hold the reading that costs you nothing: the minor is the floor.

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What a Goalie Needs From Their Skaters

This section is written for the other five players. Many net-front goals against are not goalie errors at all — they are skater habits that make the goalie's job impossible. That is a coaching judgement rather than a measured share: no goaltending source here counts goals by cause. Game Management and Offensive Zone Play count narrower tip, deflection and rebound shares, but the play-by-play feed both use has no marker for a screen, so the cause this section leans on hardest stays uncounted.

In front of your own net

In short: Win the net front by position, not by moving the screener; if a battle moves a body, never let it cross your goalmouth, and keep their skates on the ice.

Action

Win the net front by position, never by moving the screener — inside shoulder ahead of theirs, no lean, and lift their stick up, not sideways, well below the hands as the puck arrives, then let go

Convention

Whose job the net front is in the first place is a coaching choice — the weak-side defenceman's under a low zone collapse, whoever's check went there under man-on-man or a hybrid of the two, which can as easily be a forward. Find out which your team plays

Never

Screen your own goalie, or back into the crease when you are being pushed. You arrive backwards onto a goalie who is down, square to the shot and unable to see you coming

Never

Block a shot from a screening position. Get to the shooter and block from close instead, head up and out of the shot lane, or get out of the lane entirely

Action

Box out on rebounds — inside position between them and the puck, held, no lean, never used to hit them. Never walk them off their spot: that can be called interference wherever you play

Never

Let a battle or a legal check carry a body across the front of your net — the goal frame is at one edge and your own goalie at the other. The corner side is the safe one

Never

Lift a net-front opponent off their edges, even in a legal check on a forward who has the puck — a player whose skates are off the ice cannot brace or choose what meets the post first

Risk

A tucked chin straightens the cervical spine, and the injury from that head-down, head-first collision with the boards or a goal post can occur at walking speed. Head up, chin off your chest

Rule

Never put a turned back head-first into boards or goal frame. USA Hockey 608(b), Hockey Canada 7.5, CARHA 53, NHL and PWHL 43 eject hurt or not — plan on IIHF 43.3 too; a match if they cannot protect themselves (7.5(c), 53(b)) or with excessive force (USA Hockey 608(c), and a likely multi-game ban)

Rule

At a club in England or Wales, outside the Elite League, a game misconduct for checking from behind or a head check, or a boarding major, is at least a one-game ban, in every league or age group you are registered in (IHUK DOPS C.1, s.11)

Rule

Never hit a turned back. Hockey Canada prices a hit to the head as head contact — minor and female hockey, Rule 7.6: a minor, double if intentional, the third ejects; a major and game misconduct, mandatory if injured or a deliberate cross-check lands high; a match if they cannot protect themselves

Rule

Never hit a turned back. Hockey Canada Junior and Senior head contact, Rule 7.7: a minor plus ten-minute misconduct at moderate violence; a major and game misconduct at high violence, for a cross-check to the head, or a head injury off glass, ice or boards; a match if they cannot protect themselves

Rule

Driving a turned back head first into the boards or goal frame is, under Hockey Canada 7.5, at least a minor and game misconduct, a major and game misconduct if they are hurt, and a match if they cannot protect themselves; if it reaches the head, the harsher of that and head contact applies

Rule

USA Hockey 604(b): "Any time a team from a Competitive Contact category … plays a team from a Body Checking category, body checking shall be prohibited under this rule" — so your league being full-checking does not settle what tonight's game allows

• Win the net front by position, never by moving the screener. Whose job that is in the first place is a coaching choice rather than a law of hockey — under a low zone collapse it is the weak-side defenceman's, and under man-on-man or a hybrid it belongs to whoever's check went there, which can as easily be a forward. Find out which your team plays; Defensive Zone Coverage sets out each. Get your inside shoulder ahead of theirs and hold it beside them, no lean and no push. ⚠️ Never walk them off their spot — that can be called interference wherever you play, and where checking is barred an illegal check as well. Lift their stick as the puck arrives, then let go — up rather than sideways, low on the shaft and well below their bottom hand. That takes away the tip and the rebound without giving up your position. Position usually beats strength — coaching consensus rather than a measured law, and a large enough strength gap wins anyway; Body Contact and Battles has the detail.
• Do not screen your own goalie. Standing in front of your own net with your back to the shooter, in your goalie's sightline, is a cause of goals against that goalies raise constantly and skaters almost never think about — coaching observation, not a counted ranking. If you are the one blocking the view, move. ⚠️ And do not back into the crease when you are being pushed. You arrive backwards, onto a goalie who is usually down, square to the shooter and unable to see you, with the post beside the pair of you — so it is a collision as well as a screen. Fight the shove early rather than ride it into the paint. That second half is coaching caution: no source here counts injuries from it. Body Contact and Battles → Defending the net front is the same collision written for the skater doing the backing.
• Do not block a shot from a screening position. Half-blocking a puck your goalie cannot see is worse than not blocking it, because you have just deflected an unseen puck. Get to the shooter and block from close, head up and out of the shot lane, or get out of the lane entirely. There is no useful middle. Body Contact and Battles has the rest, and when not to block at all.
• Box out on rebounds. After the save the goalie is on the ice recovering, and the most dangerous player is the one arriving unmarked at the second puck. Take the inside position between that player and the puck and hold it — no lean, and never used to hit them. Never walk them off a spot they have already established: that can be called interference wherever you play, and where checking is barred an illegal check as well. In a CARHA game hold the position without putting a body on them at all (49(a)).
• Whenever a body moves at your goalmouth — a battle for a loose puck, a legal check on a forward who has it — never let it cross the front of your own net. The corner side is the safe one, with their skates on the ice. The route across has a steel goal frame at one edge and your goalie at the other, and the player being moved travels it sideways or backwards and can see neither. USA Hockey writes the goal post into the head-first neck-injury mechanism alongside the boards, and that injury "can occur at walking speed" (Heads Up Hockey Program Guide). Keeping it on the corner side is coaching caution drawn from that hazard, not a written rule. ⚠️ If you are the one being moved, in any league: head up, chin off your chest. Receiving a Hit Safely has the technique.

The picture shows the other net-front case, the screener with no puck: hold the inside beside them and move nobody into or across the shaded goal frame and goalie.

Diagram from body contact and battles · What the shapes and fills mean

What it costs.

• The stick lift: held, it is a penalty. At or near the hands it is hooking under the IIHF's 55.1, on the location alone — though 55.1's next sentence exempts stick-to-stick contact "⁠[w]hen a Player is checking another", and no IIHF interpretation reconciling the two is held here, so the caution may be stricter than the rule. Under USA Hockey (623) and Hockey Canada (Interpretation 1 to 8.2(a)) it is hooking where it impedes the opponent's play on the puck. The NHL, PWHL (56.1) and CARHA (64) write no hands limb. Repeated cross-checks to the back put your team down a man.
• Holding a position you have established is legal under NHL and IIHF 56.1, PWHL 57.1 and USA Hockey's Standard of Play, with Hockey Canada silent rather than against it. Moving laterally into a non-puck-carrier without establishing position is interference (56.1; PWHL 57.1), and the entitlement has three conditions: no stick, no free hand, and ⚠️ never using the position to deliver a check you would not otherwise be allowed to throw. USA Hockey 625(a)(4) also penalises a defender who changes skating lane or speed to play the body of an opponent no longer controlling the puck.
• Where body checking is barred, walking a body off is an illegal check too, and not only a minor. USA Hockey's Note to 604(c) covers deliberate contact with no effort to play the puck in every Competitive Contact classification — 12U and below, all girls' and women's, and non-check adult, which is a floor, since a local body may bar checking in any classification (604(a)). ⚠️ A reckless body check there is a major plus a game misconduct (604(d)), with a match and a likely multi-game suspension to plan on (604(e); 602(a)). Hockey Canada 7.3(a) reaches anyone who "intentionally body-checks, bumps, shoves, or pushes" at U13 and below, in female hockey and in Member-approved divisions. Its 7.3(b) is a major and game misconduct at the referee's discretion, compulsory where it injures, and 7.3(c) a match for any attempt to injure. CARHA 49(a) penalises intentional body contact, or failing to avert it, in every game: a minor or a major, the major mandatory if intentional contact injures, and that major ejects (30(a)); any attempt to injure is a match (48(a)).
• It is the game, not the age group, that decides. ⚠️ USA Hockey bars body checking whenever a Competitive Contact team plays a Body Checking team (604(b)), and in every Blind Hockey game. In women's hockey under the IIHF book British hockey plays, 101.1 lets a player hold their ground, and stepping or gliding into an opponent is at least a minor, up to a major and automatic game misconduct. In the Women's NIHL, which is non-checking, plan no hit at all.
• Never send a body head first into the boards or the goal frame from behind — plan on it ending your game in every book. It becomes a match with excessive force on a vulnerable or defenceless player under USA Hockey (608(c), with 602(a)'s match and a likely multi-game suspension to plan on for any reckless endangerment), and where the player cannot protect themselves under Hockey Canada (7.5(c)) and CARHA (53(b)). Under Hockey Canada, if it also reaches the head, the harsher of 7.5 and head contact (7.6, or 7.7 in Junior and Senior) governs. The tier for running you has every book's ladder.
• Lifting a player off their edges: no book prices it on its own. The reason to keep their skates on the ice is the collision — a player whose edges are gone cannot brace or choose what meets the post first.

The puck, the calls and their stick

In short: Take the pass on a 2-on-1, answer your goalie's calls, and put a stick in their hand when theirs breaks.

Action

On a 2-on-1 take the pass and give your goalie the shot, and don't slide before the pass is released unless the timed slide is your team's system

Action

Let your goalie play the puck when they call for it — "I've got it" means get to your breakout position — and tell them what you want while you are still coming back, not as you arrive

Rule

If your goalie's stick breaks, carry the replacement and put it in their hand — NHL Rule 10.4 bars throwing or shooting it and IIHF 10.4 requires the stick be "passed from hand to hand", a minor to you either way

Rule

Hockey Canada does not cap it at a minor: 10.5(a) is a minor, or a penalty shot instead if you throw, shoot or kick it at the puck or puck carrier in your defending zone (10.5(a)(ii)), and possibly if you slide it (Interpretation 1 to 3.2(c)); a goalie who picks it up takes a minor (10.6(a))

Never

Shoot at your goalie's head in warm-ups, or fire at them from ten feet in drills — in stand-up hockey only two books stop play for the hit itself; the rest need a referee to judge them hurt first

Rule

Warm-up is inside the rules — every book keeps each team in its own half (NHL and IIHF 86.6); USA Hockey 502(b) and Hockey Canada 2.2(j) penalise there, the NHL and IIHF report a breach, the Elite League adds a suspension or fine — and a warm-up fight is a major and game misconduct (46.9; IIHF 46.8)

Never

Blame the goalie out loud. Answer their calls instead, because one word back is enough

• On a 2-on-1, take the pass and give your goalie the shot — and do not slide or dive before the pass is released, unless your team plays the timed slide as its method, in which case the slide is the plan. Say which half you are taking, and make sure your defenceman has the same answer you do.
• Let your goalie play the puck when they call for it. "I've got it" means get to your breakout position, not to the puck. Two players arriving at the same puck behind your own net is how goals get scored on empty nets.
• Tell your goalie what you want before you need it. If you want the puck stopped and left behind the net, say so while you are still coming back for it — a defenceman who calls "leave it" from the neutral zone gets a dead puck waiting; the same call as they arrive gets a collision.
• If their stick breaks, carry yours over and put it in their hand — never throw, shoot or slide it. A goalie may not go to the bench for one — at any time in the NHL, IIHF and PWHL, at a stoppage under USA Hockey and CARHA, and under Hockey Canada a stoppage trip costs your team the backup going in, a minor, an empty net or its timeout — so they need it from a teammate on the ice. You can play a shift without a stick far more cheaply than they can.
• Answer their calls. A goalie whose calls get no response stops making them, and then you have lost the only player with a full view of the ice. One word back is enough.
• Don't shoot at your goalie's head in warm-ups, and don't fire pucks at them from ten feet in drills. Both are more common than they should be. That is coaching caution rather than a rule, and there are two reasons to take it seriously. A shot off the mask may bring no whistle at all — see If you take one off the mask. And the warm-up is inside the rules: shooting at the other team's goalie there breaks a rule in every book.
• Never blame the goalie out loud. They already know. The only thing your comment changes is their next twenty minutes.

What it costs.

• The stick handoff. NHL 10.4 puts a minor on a teammate who throws or shoots the stick — and its index routes "sliding stick" to that rule, so do not read the gap as permission. IIHF 10.4 requires the stick be "passed from hand to hand". ⚠️ Hockey Canada does not stop at two minutes: Interpretation 1 to 3.2(c) puts a minor on you under 10.5(a) for throwing, shooting, kicking or sliding it. Rule 10.5(a)(ii) makes it a penalty shot instead if you throw, shoot or kick it at the puck or puck carrier in your defending zone, and the Interpretation says one may be awarded if you slide it there. Your goalie takes a second minor if they pick it up off the ice (10.6(a)). CARHA lets a goalie take a stick only if it is handed to them, and receiving one illegally is a minor (51(d)). USA Hockey 605(c) is a minor on a goalie who goes to the bench for one at a stoppage.
• The IIHF's one exception: an intact stick your goalie dropped — not a replacement for a broken one — may be passed, moved, pushed or slid back by a teammate near them, provided it does not interfere with play or distract opponents, and a minor or a penalty shot if it does (10.4). The NHL bars throwing or shooting it even to return a lost stick. Put it in their hand and you are right in every book.
• Warm-up. Every book keeps each team in its own half (NHL and IIHF 86.6; PWHL 88.6; USA Hockey 636(c); Hockey Canada 2.2(i); CARHA 16(h)). Hockey Canada and CARHA report a half-ice breach; USA Hockey (502(b)), Hockey Canada (2.2(j)) and CARHA (27(b)) let the referee penalise rule violations in warm-up. The NHL and IIHF report it instead — to the Commissioner or the Proper Authorities, under 86.6 — which is no licence: reporting routes it to the people who decide whether you play next week. In the Elite League its Casebook goes further: a breach can bring a suspension and/or fine (86.6; 5.6). A standby referee handles contact and crossing the red line, a referee who sees an offence can call it, and what the officials miss is reviewed after the game (86.6). IIHF 5.6's "No penalties are to be assessed" is about other things and does not govern a half-ice breach. A warm-up fight is different: a major plus a game misconduct on the night under NHL 46.9 and IIHF 46.8 (46.9 in 2025/26).

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Equipment Notes

Brief here — full treatment in Equipment.

Protection, and the neck laceration protector

In short: Buy your own mask even if you borrow the rest, and wear a neck laceration protector at every age.

Action

Borrow the pads, blocker, trapper and chest protector; buy the mask — an in-date sticker is a certification clock, not a condition report, and tells you nothing about a loaned mask's impact history

Action

Replace gear you have outgrown — gear that hurts you teaches you to flinch, and that cannot be coached out; fit and comfort beat brand and looks, and dull edges destroy lateral movement first

Rule

Everything except your skates and stick must be built solely for protection, with no undue assistance in keeping goal (NHL and IIHF Rule 11.1)

Rule

Your mask is required equipment and it is not a skater's helmet — IIHF Rule 11.8 (same words in both editions), USA Hockey 303(b) required at every age, with only its HECC certification (304(d)) stopping below Adults, Hockey Canada 3.6(b) a CSA helmet with a CSA facial protector attached

Rule

An expired certification sticker is no certification — USA Hockey Rule 304(c); and Hockey Canada 3.6(b) says any alteration to a certified helmet or facial protector "automatically destroys the certification"

Rule

Across the Home Countries outside the Elite League — England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — a neck laceration protector is mandatory for everyone, adults included, with no warning and an immediate 10-minute misconduct (IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, Rule 9.12)

Rule

If it comes off in play you must leave the ice and may not retrieve it, and a second offence escalates to a game misconduct (IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, Rule 9.12)

Rule

Nothing exempts university hockey — the BUIHA adopts the In-House Rules alongside IHUK and they are "the overriding interpretation" domestically, but Rule 9.12's own competition list names IHUK, EIH and SIH and not the BUIHA, so wear it and ask your league (IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27)

Rule

IIHF Rule 9.12 is the base — mandatory in all categories, minor penalty after a warning; the In-House Rules remove the warning

Rule

🇬🇧 The In-House tariff does not reach the Elite League — the EIHL Casebook writes its own 9.12, mandatory in every EIHL category and in warm-ups and practice too, but with the IIHF penalty of a minor after a warning (Motorpoint EIHL Casebook 26-27)

Rule

Neck laceration protection is mandatory and a dangler does not satisfy it — Hockey Canada Rule 3.6(c) requires a BNQ-certified throat protector for players registered in minor and female hockey

Rule

USA Hockey Rule 304(g) requires a HECC-certified neck laceration protector in every age classification except Adults

• Everything except your skates and stick must be built solely for protection (NHL Rule 11.1, and IIHF Rule 11.1 in near-identical words). You may not wear anything that gives "undue assistance in keeping goal." At professional level, pad width, pad height, chest protector and pant dimensions are all regulated and inspected. The pad specifics are in Rule 11.2: NHL leg pads may not exceed eleven inches in width, and each goalie's maximum pad height is set individually by the League. IIHF Rule 11.2 sets the same width in metric, 28 cm, but no individual height entitlement, so the NHL's per-goalie calculation is a League scheme, not something to expect anywhere else.
• Buy your own mask, even if you borrow everything else. An expiry date is a certification clock, not a condition report: it says nothing about how many pucks that shell has taken or what state the liner is in, and crushed foam does not un-crush. A club's spare mask has been on more heads and stopped more pucks than any hand-me-down, and nobody has logged them. Ask a loaned mask's age and history by all means — but a mask nobody can account for is one you do not put your head in. (That is a reading of the certification rules below, not a sentence any rule book writes: no book distinguishes a loaned mask from an owned one.) Equipment lands on the same answer.
• 🇬🇧 Wear a neck laceration protector at every age. This is the signature catastrophic injury in your position, and the rule most likely to catch out a British goalie who learned the game from North American material. ⚠️ A throat dangler on your mask is an addition, not a substitute, under every book that addresses it.
• Equipment confidence is a real thing, and old gear destroys it. Knowing your arm pads will handle a high shot, and that your pads will not be overpowered when you close the five-hole, is what lets you stay in the shot instead of turning away from it. Gear that hurts you teaches you to flinch, and flinching is a technique problem you cannot coach out — so if you are an adult returning in equipment you bought as a teenager, replacing it is probably the single largest available improvement to your game. Fit and comfort beat brand and looks, and a properly sharpened, correctly profiled skate matters more than either: dull goalie edges destroy lateral movement first.

What it costs.

• The mask. IIHF 11.8 requires an IIHF-approved mask at all times during game action, built so a puck cannot get through the openings. USA Hockey makes a full facemask compulsory for every goalie at every age (303(b)), HECC-certified below Adults (304(d)), and an expired helmet sticker is no certification at all (304(c)). Hockey Canada requires a CSA-certified helmet with a CSA-certified facial protector attached, and any alteration "automatically destroys the certification" (3.6(b)). There may be no sticker for a British goalie to look at: neither the IIHF book nor any British rule names a certification mark, so ask your league what it accepts.
• 🇬🇧 Neck laceration protection, across the Home Countries outside the Elite League: the IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27 make it mandatory for all players in all IIHF categories and IHUK, EIH and SIH competitions, adults included, with no warning and an immediate 10-minute misconduct. If it comes off in play you must leave the ice, and a second offence is a game misconduct (Rule 9.12). That reaches England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. University hockey is not named in 9.12's list, but the BUIHA adopts the In-House Rules and nothing exempts it, so wear it.
• 🇬🇧 In the Elite League the EIHL Casebook writes its own 9.12: mandatory in every EIHL category, in warm-ups and practice too, with the IIHF's penalty of a minor after a warning. The base IIHF 9.12 is mandatory in all categories, a minor after a warning. Across Britain the mandate is the same and only the penalty differs.
• North America: Hockey Canada 3.6(c) requires a BNQ-certified throat protector in minor and female hockey, still required with a mask attachment. USA Hockey 304(g) requires a HECC-certified neck laceration protector in every classification except Adults (BNQ also satisfies it through 2026-27, and adults are strongly recommended to wear one) — an adult exemption that is not yours in Britain. Equipment has the standards, and UK and England Rules the In-House amendments.

If you take one off the mask

In short: If a puck hits your mask, say so at the next stoppage; do not wait for a whistle.

Action

Say it at the next stoppage — to the nearest official, to your bench, to your captain. You are the only player on the ice whose face nobody can see

Never

Play on to find out how it feels. A concussion needs no knock-out and no body check, and judgement is one of the things it impairs

Rule

🇬🇧 The IIHF is the book that writes you a stoppage for this — hit on the face mask by a hard shot and believed dazed, the referee "may stop play for safety reasons if there is no immediate scoring chance for the attacking team" (IIHF Rule 9.6, 2025/26 v1.1 and 2026/27 alike)

Rule

Read both of IIHF Rule 9.6's limits — it is "may" and not shall, and an immediate scoring chance for the attacking team defeats it outright, so the whistle you need may never come

Rule

Hockey Canada writes the stronger version for a narrower group — a goalie struck in the head by the puck means the referee "shall stop play as soon as it is safe to do so", but only "In categories of U13 and below" (Rule 6.18(a))

Rule

Hockey Canada 6.18(a) also tells the officials what the stoppage is for — "always allow team staff to evaluate the goaltender during a stoppage under this rule … to allow for concussion protocols be applied"

Rule

The NHL, the PWHL, CARHA and USA Hockey's stand-up rules write no mask-specific counterpart — none covers a mask that stays on and takes the shot, and USA Hockey's only version of it is a Sled Hockey rule

Rule

Every book stops play for an injured goalie, but NHL, IIHF and PWHL 8.1, USA Hockey 206(a) and Hockey Canada 2.4(b) wait for your team to gain the puck unless the injury is obviously serious; only CARHA 20(d) stops at once — and each needs an official to see you are hurt

Rule

NHL 8.2's "must be ready to resume play immediately" is a rule against delaying the game, not a verdict on your head — and the same rule lets you stay in where the Trainer comes on and there is no undue delay

Action

After a knock to the head, red flags such as neck pain, a seizure, a severe or worsening headache or repeated vomiting mean an ambulance; Conditioning and Recovery lists them all

Key

A suspected concussion means off the ice and no return that day; Conditioning and Recovery has the symptoms and red flags, and when you play again is a qualified medical professional's call, not yours

A puck off your mask is the one impact in this position nobody else can assess for you, because your face is behind a cage and the rest of you looks fine. So the part that is genuinely yours is small, and it is not optional: say something. At the next stoppage, tell the nearest official, your bench and your captain. The position rewards toughness in a way that makes this hard, so be blunt about the arithmetic: a goalie who comes off and turns out to be fine has cost their team a goalie change, and a goalie who stays on and is not fine has taken a second impact on an injured brain. ⚠️ A concussion does not require being knocked out and does not require a body check, and it impairs the judgement you would use to decide. Conditioning and Recovery has the symptoms, the red flags that mean an ambulance, and why nobody returns the same day. When you play again is a decision for a qualified medical professional who has assessed you — neither document gives you a timeline.

Do not wait for a whistle. It may never come, for three reasons.

• Only two stand-up books stop play for the hit itself, and both are narrow. IIHF 9.6, the book you play under in Britain: where a goalie is hit on the mask by a hard shot and the referee believes they are, or may be, dazed, the referee "may stop play for safety reasons if there is no immediate scoring chance for the attacking team". It is may, not shall, it turns on a referee's belief about a face they cannot see, and a scoring chance defeats it outright. Neither the IHUK In-House Rules nor the EIHL Casebook amends it. Hockey Canada 6.18(a) is a shall — the referee stops play "as soon as it is safe to do so" when a goalie is struck in the head by the puck, unless it deflects straight in — but only "In categories of U13 and below", and it tells officials to let team staff evaluate you for concussion protocols. A fourteen-year-old under the same book gets nothing.
• The NHL, the PWHL, CARHA and USA Hockey's stand-up rules write no stoppage for a mask that stays on and takes the shot. ⚠️ Their mask rules cover only a mask that comes off, so the shot that rattles you brings no whistle of its own. USA Hockey's one version of the IIHF clause is in its Sled Hockey rules, which do not govern you unless you play sled hockey.
• The injured-player rule is slower than you think. Every book writes a stoppage for an injured player, goalies included. But under NHL, IIHF and PWHL 8.1, USA Hockey 206(a) and Hockey Canada 2.4(b), if the other team has the puck the whistle waits until your team gains it — unless the injury is obviously serious. Only CARHA stops play immediately, and lets the referee stop it on mere suspicion of an injury (20(d) and its Note 1). Every one of them needs an official to see that you are hurt, which a cage hides.

And do not read the "ready to resume" rules as a verdict on your head. NHL 8.2's "must be ready to resume play immediately or be replaced by a substitute goalkeeper" is about delaying the game. The same rule substitutes you only if you have to go to the bench for medical attention, lets you stay where the Trainer comes on with no undue delay, and allows a replacement a brief warm-up after a mandatory medical evaluation. IIHF 8.2 reads the same way and lets a team doctor on without the referee's consent. Hockey Canada 2.4(c) gives an injured goalie with no alternate dressed ten minutes to recuperate, fifteen if a replacement is needed. ⚠️ None of that is a clearance to carry on — it is the books declining to rush you, and it is still an official's judgement, not a medical one.

Your stick — paddle length

Rule

Paddle length is capped at 26 inches (NHL Rule 10.2), and only players 6'6" or taller may apply for the exemption

Rule

IIHF Rule 10.2 allows 71 cm, about 28 inches, with no exemption process

Key

Too long a paddle makes you stand taller, drifts your stick hand from your body and opens the six-hole

• Paddle length is capped at 26 inches under the NHL book (Rule 10.2 — the widened portion may not extend more than 26 inches from the heel, nor exceed three and a half inches in width). Players 6'6" or taller may apply in writing for a longer paddle. (Oddly, the 2025-26 rulebook sets the exempted maximum at 26 inches too, which makes the exemption as written do nothing — read it as probably stale, not something to plan equipment around.)
• 🇬🇧 Under IIHF Rule 10.2 the limit is 71 cm — about 28 inches — with no exemption process, and a 9.0 cm width cap that is the NHL's three and a half inches for practical purposes. So a stick that is illegal in the NHL is legal in Britain. That is a licence rather than an instruction: the extra two inches are exactly the ones that make you stand taller, drift your stick hand from your body and open the six-hole. Get this right before you rework your technique.

If your stick breaks

In short: When your stick breaks, the safe default under any book is to drop it and get a stick from a teammate's hand.

Never

Assume the NHL and IIHF play-on allowance travels to USA Hockey play — under its rules that is a question for your league

Rule

In stand-up hockey, playing on with a broken stick is a goalie's permission under NHL, IIHF and PWHL Rule 10.4 — you are not required to drop it there, and neither USA Hockey's stand-up rules, nor Hockey Canada, nor CARHA writes you that allowance

Rule

Hockey Canada bars it in terms — "A goaltender may not continue to play with a broken stick of any kind" (Rule 3.2(c)), penalised as a minor for illegal equipment under 3.2(d) and 10.6(a)

Rule

CARHA bars it in the same words and adds the drop duty — a goalie whose stick breaks "must drop the broken stick to the ice immediately", a minor for not doing so (51(a)), and "may not continue to play with a broken stick of any kind" (51(c)) — in CARHA-affiliated adult leagues

Rule

USA Hockey's stand-up rules write a goalie no play-on allowance — 605(a) names you once, only to grant "reasonable time to be aware that the stick is broken", so on the rule as written you take the minor a skater would; its sled hockey rules do grant it, and they do not govern stand-up play

Rule

Never go to the bench for a replacement stick — a teammate hands you one on the ice (at any time under NHL, IIHF and PWHL 10.4; during a stoppage under USA Hockey 605(c) and CARHA 51(e), as delay of game; Hockey Canada makes a stoppage trip cost you, Interpretation 11 to 10.1(a))

Rule

At a stoppage, stay at your net: NHL and PWHL 27.6 and IIHF 27.5 need the referee's permission for any bench trip not for a stick, which 10.4 bars, and their 14.1 allows little or no delay to repair your gear — the backup goes in, or you take a minor (NHL and IIHF 63.2(x); PWHL 65.2)

Rule

In USA Hockey, CARHA and Hockey Canada asking is not enough: at the bench at a stoppage you are replaced or the team pays — a bench minor (USA Hockey 205(c) and its Casebook), delay of game (CARHA 47(c) Note), or under Hockey Canada a minor, six skaters or a timeout (Interpretation 11 to 10.1(a))

Rule

A skater's stick is legal for you until a goalie's stick reaches you, in all six books — NHL, IIHF and PWHL 10.4, USA Hockey Casebook Rule 605 Situation 5 within goalkeeper stick measurements, Hockey Canada 3.2(c) and CARHA 51(c) until the next stoppage

Rule

Under Hockey Canada leave a slid stick where it lies — Interpretation 1 to Rule 3.2(c) assesses the goalie a minor under 10.6(a) for picking it up, and none at all if they do not

Rule

Tell your skaters not to slide it either — Hockey Canada's Interpretation 1 to 3.2(c) puts a minor on them under 10.5(a) and reaches a penalty shot where the stick is slid at the puck or puck carrier in your defending zone

Whether you may play on with the broken one depends on the book.

• Drop it unless you know your book lets you play on. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL do; USA Hockey's stand-up rules, Hockey Canada and CARHA do not.
• Take a replacement from a teammate's hand on the ice — never off the ice, and never from the bench. A skater's stick is legal in your hands meanwhile. Until one reaches you, you have a blocker, a glove and your body.
• A whistle does not release you, and this is the limb most goalies never hear. ⚠️ At a stoppage, stay at your net and wait for a stick to be handed to you; don't fetch one from the bench. For anything else, ask the referee first, and know that the trip can still cost a goalie change, a penalty or your timeout even when you asked.

What it costs.

• Playing on with it. NHL, IIHF and PWHL 10.4 let a goalie play on until a stoppage or until a stick is legally provided — the opposite of the skater rule. USA Hockey 605(a) makes any player drop a broken stick, a minor for playing on, and gives you only "reasonable time to be aware that the stick is broken"; only its Sled Hockey rules let a goalie play on. Hockey Canada: "A goaltender may not continue to play with a broken stick of any kind", a minor (3.2(c), 3.2(d), 10.6(a)). CARHA: drop it "immediately", a minor if you do not (51(a)), and the same bar (51(c)).
• Getting another. No bench trip 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), where it is delay of game; Hockey Canada writes no stick-specific bar but makes a stoppage trip cost you the backup going in, a minor, an empty net or your timeout (Interpretation 11 to 10.1(a)). A skater's stick is legal in your hands until a goalie stick reaches you or the next stoppage (NHL 10.4; USA Hockey Casebook Rule 605, Situation 5, if within goalie-stick measurements; Hockey Canada 3.2(c); CARHA 51(c)). ⚠️ Under Hockey Canada and CARHA, take it from a hand, not off the ice: a goalie who picks up a slid stick takes a minor under Hockey Canada (Interpretation 1 to 3.2(c); 10.6(a)), and none if they leave it, and CARHA allows a stick only if it is handed to you, a minor otherwise (51(d)). The teammate who slid it takes a minor too under Hockey Canada (10.5(a)), and a penalty shot is possible if it was slid at the puck or puck carrier in your defending zone.
• Going to the bench at a whistle. NHL and PWHL 27.6 and IIHF 27.5: at a stoppage a goalie may not go to the bench for a stick, equipment, repairs, an injury or instructions "without first obtaining permission to do so from the Referee", or the backup goes in at once or the team takes a bench minor. For a stick, 10.4 bars the trip too (the IIHF Handbook applies the 27.5 remedy, Situation 27.15), so wait on the ice. Permission does not reliably buy a repair: 14.1 starts from no delay for equipment, so the backup goes in or you take a minor (NHL and IIHF 63.2(x); PWHL 65.2). The PWHL's 14.1 adds a fifteen-second window for a quick fix such as a pad strap, at the referee's discretion, but its minor (65.2) repeats "No delay", so do not count on it; and the IIHF Handbook leaves a short repair to the referee (Situations 14.1 and 65.1). ⚠️ In USA Hockey, CARHA and Hockey Canada, asking does not make the trip free. You are replaced or the team pays: a bench minor under USA Hockey (Casebook Rule 309, Situation 2, bar a time-out or an unusual delay such as a rink repair), delay of game under CARHA (Note to 47(c)), and under Hockey Canada the backup, a minor, six skaters or the timeout (Interpretations 10 and 11 to 10.1(a)). Rules Primer has the full treatment.

A stick loose on your ice, and the goal that goes in off it

Rule

A goal is disallowed if an attacker deliberately propels a lost or broken stick, glove or other object at the puck to direct it into the net — new in the IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27 at Situation 10.26, with no counterpart in the 2025/26 book the In-House Rules name

Rule

The Elite League runs the 2026/27 book — the EIHL Casebook’s Preamble makes the 2026-27 IIHF Rulebook and Situation Handbook the official ruling for every rule it does not itself mention, so Situation 10.26 reaches an Elite League game

Rule

Intent is the key at Situation 10.26: the IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27 lets a goal stand where a lost or broken stick, glove or object accidentally deflects the puck in, and it ranks itself below the rulebook — ask your referee rather than assume it settles a goal in your league

Key

Play the puck, not the argument — the call is made after the fact, so if you saw a deliberate kick say so while the picture is fresh

Play the puck, not the argument — and if you saw an opponent deliberately kick a loose stick at the puck, say so while the picture is fresh. A puck that went in off a loose stick has not necessarily counted. Nothing about the save changes; only the aftermath does.

What it costs. The IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27 disallows a goal where, in the referee's judgement, an attacker propels a lost or broken stick, glove or any other object at the puck "with intent to deliberately direct the puck into the net"; if it contacts the puck accidentally, the goal may stand (Situation 10.26). It turns on intent, and it is decided after the fact. It is new in the 2026/27 Handbook, with no counterpart in the 2025/26 edition that the IHUK In-House Rules name, and the Handbook ranks itself below the Rulebook and cites no rule number for this answer — so ask your referee rather than assume it settles a goal in your league. It plainly reaches the Elite League, whose Casebook makes the 2026-27 IIHF Rulebook and Situation Handbook the ruling on anything it does not itself mention.

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The Mental Side

The goal that goes in

Mindset

Every goalie lets in goals and some will be bad — the skill is what you do in the ninety seconds afterwards

Action

Have a reset ritual and perform it identically every time, so it signals that the previous shift is finished

Never

Do the analysis during the game — "what could I have done?" takes attention you need for the next play

Key

Short memory, long memory — forget the goal for the rest of the game, remember the read in the week after

Never

Point at a teammate, with your hands, your body language or a look

Every goalie lets in goals. Some of them will be bad. The puck will go through you, or off your defenceman's shin, or you will be on the wrong post. The building will react and there is nowhere to hide.

The skill is not avoiding this. It is what you do in the ninety seconds afterwards.

• Have a reset ritual and use it every time. Skate a small circle. Get a drink. Scrape your crease. Tap both posts. Whatever it is, make it identical every time, so that performing it becomes the signal to your body that the previous shift is finished.
• Do the analysis later. During the game, "what could I have done?" is a trap; it takes attention you need for the next play. There is video and there is tomorrow.
• Short memory, long memory. Forget the goal for the rest of the game. Remember the read that caused it in the week after.
• Never point at a teammate. Not with your hands, not with your body language, not with a look. It is the fastest way to lose a dressing room — and Mitch Korn treats blaming your defence as a symptom of a confidence problem rather than a description of what happened. His full list of those symptoms is under Spotting your own confidence problems, below.

Spotting your own confidence problems

Key

Korn's defence mechanisms are symptoms of your head, not real problems

Read

Blaming your equipment — suddenly nothing is right, the stick, the skates, the arm pads

Read

Blaming your defence — "there was no way to stop that one"

Read

Positioning drift — hiding very deep, or running at shooters and losing the net. Both show up plainly in warm-ups

Read

Mood swings to either extreme — quiet and sorry for yourself, or conspicuously cocky

Read

Guessing and flopping — leaving your feet early and no longer tracking the puck off the stick

Mitch Korn's list of defence mechanisms is uncomfortably accurate. If you catch yourself doing these, treat them as symptoms of your head rather than as real problems:

• Blaming your equipment. Suddenly nothing is right — the stick, the skates, the arm pads.
• Blaming your defence. "There was no way to stop that one."
• Positioning drift. Either hiding very deep in the net, where the posts feel safe, or running at shooters to cut the angle down to nothing and losing the net entirely. Both show up plainly in warm-ups.
• Mood swings to either extreme — going quiet and sorry for yourself, or going conspicuously cocky.
• Guessing and flopping. Leaving your feet early, no longer tracking the puck off the stick, and ending up swimming on the ice.

The honest version of the mental demand

Mindset

"The most psychologically demanding position in team sport" is widely repeated with no study behind it. Treat it as opinion

Key

The supported version: at the top level the separation is mental — reading, anticipation, tracking, save selection and toughness

Risk

Confidence is startlingly fragile — several strong games, one bad period, and it can be gone for a week

Key

Nobody else on your team plays a position where every mistake is final and public

Mindset

Goalies need to enjoy making saves — if the save is the thing you love, the goals are a price

Goaltending is routinely described as the most psychologically demanding position in team sport. That is a widely repeated claim with no study behind it, so treat it as opinion. The narrower version is well supported by coaches and still substantial. At the top level, where everyone has the physical skills, the separation is made in mental ones — reading, anticipation, tracking, save selection and toughness. Confidence is startlingly fragile: a goalie can play several strong games, have one bad period and lose it for a week. And nobody else on your team plays a position where every mistake is final and public.

The counterweight is the part that actually keeps people in the position: goalies need to enjoy making saves. If the save is the thing you love, the goals are a price. If the goals are the thing you think about, no amount of technique will hold up. Full treatment in Mental Game.

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Common Mistakes

• Dropping into the butterfly before the shot. Stay on your feet until going down is the answer. Drop early and you give away the top of the net and your own save selection.
• Hands at your hips. Get them out in front where pucks can hit them.
• Half-seeing a screen from both sides. Pick one side and find the puck cleanly there. Around or over is a coaching split — this page's default is around (tall means immobile), and the BVHS manual teaches over to keep your size — so ask your coach. Nobody defends splitting the difference.
• Being deep and off-angle. Get on your angle first, then set your depth — deep and off-angle is a goal. That is mainstream teaching, not a law: stepping off the post to a short-side shot is a documented exception, where depth closes the gap you just opened. Ask your coach.
• Charging at shooters. Come out far enough to cut down the angle, then stop and be set. Run out of your net and you lose the net, the pass and your feet at once.
• Shuffling too big. Large shuffles open the five-hole mid-step. Smaller is better every time.
• Rebounds into the slot. Angle your blocker and pads at the corners. Know where their forwards are before the shot.
• Losing sight of the puck at contact. Watch it into the equipment. Flailing saves see nothing and control nothing.
• Being a spectator on a pass. Move when the pass is released, not when it arrives.
• Passing up the middle from behind your own net. Keep it out of the middle: a turnover there is a shot into an empty net, and you are the one standing in it. Rank your outlets by turnover risk — leave it for a defenceman with time, a short pass to your strong-side wall, a rim to the far winger, then along the glass and out. A plainly open option still beats a safer one that is covered.
• Calling "leave it" as your defenceman arrives rather than while they are still coming back. Call it early, so they can stop checking over their shoulder and go and get the puck. A late call is one they cannot use.
• Not rebuilding your map at stoppages. At every whistle, skate your arc, tap both posts and find your top-of-crease spot. You cannot look at the net once play is live.
• Moving first on a breakaway. Their whole plan is to make you commit. Meet them well out, retreat on C-cuts matching their speed, keep a little backward flow, and let them decide first.
• Arriving at a 2-on-1 holding a different plan from your defenceman. Say it out loud before the rush arrives — their "I've got the pass" / "take the shooter", or your "shot". The usual convention is that they take the pass and you take the shooter; some teams coach a timed slide across the lane. Either is defensible. The two of you disagreeing is not.
• Dropping to a post out of habit, with no read. Go down on a read, and ask your coach what your trigger is. Late on and early off is the conservative North American default this document follows; the Swedish tradition where RVH originated seals earlier on a defined trigger line. Both are defensible. Habit is not.
• Going from the dressing room straight into live shots. Get warm and moving through range first: drops, slides and post seals all load the end of your hip range. The BVHS goalie manual warns: "Jumping straight into live shots without a sweat drastically increases the risk of pulled groin or hip flexor muscles." That is a coaching manual's judgement, with no figure attached. Conditioning and Recovery owns the warm-up, and its evidence favours moving over holding a stretch. ⚠️ Groin or hip pain that persists or keeps coming back is a physiotherapist's or sports physician's problem, not a document's.
• Playing the puck in the corner under NHL or IIHF rules. Leave it for your defenceman — out there it is two minutes, and avoidable. Under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA, which draw no trapezoid, go and get it — but play it, don't smother it. In the PWHL, stay inside the old trapezoid until your league says otherwise. ⚠️ Under USA Hockey, where body checking is allowed, arrive in the corner expecting contact: an opponent may engage you there for a puck you are holding, though a check meant to intimidate or punish you is still charging.
• Racing a forechecker for a loose puck and arriving at the wall head first. Better not to race for a 50-50 puck at all. If you arrive first, arrive head up, chin off your chest. ⚠️ USA Hockey's Rule One — "Heads Up – Don't Duck!" — is written for every player and names the goal post as well as the boards. No source held here writes a goalie's board posture, so ask your goalie coach before assuming the skater's version transfers to you in pads.
• In Britain, hearing "the restricted area isn't enforced here" as "I can do what I like behind the net". Play the puck back there rather than sit on it. England Ice Hockey's Rule 22.3 calls the Restricted Area "not currently enforced", but whether that still stands, or reaches Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Elite League, is unsettled — so play as though the trapezoid binds. Either way it touches only the restricted area: freezing the puck to cause a stoppage outside your crease is still the IIHF's separate minor (Rule 63.2(I)). Do not over-correct: coming out to cut down the angle, making the save and then covering is legal out in front (63.2(VI) Note) — but don't count on it behind your goal line.
• Under USA Hockey, declining a cover you were entitled to make. Under pressure in front of your net, cover it — that book allows the smother whether or not any part of you is touching the crease. What it bars is the corner, the ice behind your goal line, and a freeze you had the time and space to play with your stick.
• Under Hockey Canada, counting on a cover outside your crease because it came off your own save. Out of your crease, play the puck rather than cover it, and ask your league how its referees read a save-then-cover there. Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a) permits coming out, saving and covering (clause ii), but makes leaving your crease and freezing the puck a no-warning minor (clause v), and the goaltender paragraph of Rule 10.2 prices a freeze outside the crease too — and the book nowhere says which governs a cover made after a save outside the crease. Racing an attacker to a loose puck and jumping on it is plainly a no-warning minor.
• Banking snow up in front of your net, or dropping a covered puck onto the netting to buy a whistle. Scrape rather than heap, and let a puck fall off your netting on its own. Both are minors in all six books (CARHA's netting clause is Rule 75(d)) — ⚠️ and under Hockey Canada a snow pile that actually prevents a goal becomes a penalty shot. A puck that lands on your netting by itself splits the books: the NHL, IIHF and PWHL let you freeze it for a defending-zone faceoff; USA Hockey and Hockey Canada make that a minor, and CARHA can too (58(b) outside your crease, 61(b) anywhere).
• 🇬🇧 Glove-throwing the puck up the wall to a winger. Put the puck down and move it with your stick. ⚠️ The IIHF's Situation Handbook rules that throw a minor for handling the puck (Situation 67.2) — the Handbook's reading rather than the bare rule text, so treat it as the safe reading, not a certainty.
• Pulling your own mask off to buy a whistle. Leave it on and play. If it genuinely comes off, every book stops play for you — though not always at once during a scoring chance — so there is nothing to fish for. Pulling it is a delay-of-game minor in all six books. ⚠️ Against a breakaway, a penalty shot or a shootout attempt, depending on the book, they are awarded the goal or a penalty shot — and under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA a deliberate removal in the last two minutes or overtime is a penalty shot, breakaway or not.
• Drifting toward a dumped puck you wanted whistled. Decide first, then stand still or go. Under NHL, IIHF and PWHL rules, moving toward it waves off the icing and hands them a live puck in your end. Under USA Hockey, CARHA, and Hockey Canada minor and female hockey, movement waves off nothing — you have just left your net for no return.
• Stepping over the centre red line to reach a puck still on your own side. Keep your skates and the puck on your own side. Playing the puck past the centre red line is a minor in every book, and ⚠️ USA Hockey and Hockey Canada judge it on your skates, not the puck — so a reach the NHL and IIHF allow is two minutes under those two.
• Leaving your net when a fight starts. Stay in your crease; if the altercation is in it, wait for the referee to direct you out. Leaving is a minor in most books. ⚠️ Going in can end your game, and breaking it up counts: a fight ejects you under the IIHF, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, and can under CARHA and the PWHL; USA Hockey also ejects the first to intervene, and Hockey Canada and CARHA a goalie who joins in or acts as a peacemaker.
• Taking a loaned or handed-down mask without looking at the sticker. Borrow the rest and buy the mask. Goalie face protection is required under every book, and certification expires. ⚠️ But the sticker is a certification clock, not a condition report — it says nothing about the mask's impact history or its liner, which is what protects your head. A British goalie may find no sticker at all, because no British rule names a certification mark — ask your league what it accepts, and ask the mask's history either way. Equipment owns used head protection.
• 🇬🇧 Going without a neck laceration protector because a North American source said adults are exempt. Wear one at every age. Every British level plays the IIHF book, and IIHF Rule 9.12 makes one mandatory for all players in all categories, adults included — outside the Elite League the In-House Rules go straight to a 10-minute misconduct. The adult exemption is USA Hockey's. A throat dangler on your mask is an addition, not a substitute.
• Playing on after a hard shot off your mask because no whistle came. Say something at the next stoppage. ⚠️ Outside Hockey Canada at U13 and below, no book promises a whistle for a shot off the mask, and play stops for an injured goalie only once a referee judges you hurt — which a cage hides — and in most books not until your team has the puck, unless it looks serious. ⚠️ A concussion needs no knock-out and no body check to have happened, and it impairs judgement, so do not decide on your own read of how you feel. Conditioning and Recovery has the symptoms and red flags; when you play again is a qualified medical professional's decision.
• Letting a net-front body travel across the front of your own net — a mistake for a goalie's teammates. When a battle or a legal check moves a body there, never let it cross your goalmouth — the corner side is the safe one, with their skates on the ice. The route across has a steel goal frame at one edge and your goalie at the other; keeping it on the corner side is coaching caution, not a written rule. ⚠️ If you are the one being moved, in any league: head up, chin off your chest. Never walk a screener out — that can be called interference wherever you play, and where checking is barred an illegal check as well. ⚠️ A hit from behind that sends a player head first into the post ends the hitter's game in every book — plan on it — In front of your own net has the tiers.
• Shooting at your goalie in warm-up or from ten feet in a drill — the other teammates' mistake. Shoot at the net, never at your goalie's head. ⚠️ At your own goalie that is coaching caution rather than a rule — which is why a teammate who does not shoot there is the only protection on offer, since a shot off the mask may bring no stoppage. At the other team's goalie in warm-up it is a rule in every book, because every book confines each team to its own half.
• Assuming you may play on with a broken stick. Unless you know your book lets you play on, drop it and call for a stick from a teammate on the ice. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL let you play on; USA Hockey's stand-up rules write no such allowance, and Hockey Canada and CARHA bar it, CARHA with a minor for a goalie who does not "drop the broken stick to the ice immediately". Under those two books a teammate's own stick is legal in your hands until the next stoppage.
• Lifting a clear over the glass. Keep it along the glass. Under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL, a clear straight out of the rink from your defending zone is a minor whether you meant it or not; USA Hockey penalises only the deliberate one, ⚠️ and Hockey Canada and CARHA penalise a stick clear from anywhere on the ice — CARHA's rule has no intent word, and do not count on Hockey Canada's needing one either. Under the IIHF a stick save that deflects over the glass is not a clear — but do not stretch that into a deliberateness defence.
• Firing the puck out of the rink after the whistle, and pricing it at two minutes. Once the whistle has gone, put it down. It is two minutes under the NHL and IIHF. ⚠️ Under USA Hockey it is a minor under 610(c) or a misconduct under 601(c)(10), and the book does not say which; a game misconduct in protest of a call or sent toward an official or a spectator, and a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension if fired at one recklessly. Hockey Canada starts at a minor, the referee may go straight to a misconduct, and persisting makes it a game misconduct. A game misconduct takes you out of the net, not just a teammate into the box.
• Assuming the stick fouls are a skater's problem. Play the puck, not the stick. Slashing, cross-checking, high-sticking and roughing are written for "a player", and the NHL and IIHF books make that include you, so a chop at a stick in your crease is a minor a teammate serves. ⚠️ But two minutes is the floor, not the ceiling. A slash that injures must be a major in the NHL's book, and that major ends your game; the IIHF's referee can give a major and a game misconduct for a reckless one; and one meant to hurt somebody is an NHL match penalty. British hockey plays the IIHF book; under the amateur North American books, ask which one you are under.
• Reading Rule 69.4 as a rule that only protects you. Outside your paint, play the puck and not the attacker. A goalie who deliberately interferes outside the crease with an attacker "who is attempting to play the puck or an opponent" "may be penalized" (NHL and IIHF Rule 69.4) — the referee's call.
• Treating your own crease as the one place the rules cannot reach you. Take your position in the paint and hold it — what is priced against you is initiating contact, not occupying the ground. ⚠️ And the threshold is unnecessary, not violent: the NHL's and IIHF's worked tables price a goalie who deliberately contacts an attacker for anything other than establishing position, with no force needed — a minor in the NHL's, and in the IIHF's "the appropriate penalty", with no ceiling.
• Under USA Hockey, stepping into a net-front opponent to move them out of your paint. Hold your ground and play the puck; only the puck buys you any contact. ⚠️ A goalie's body check is a mandatory minor in that book, and a major plus a game misconduct where it recklessly endangers an opponent — plan on a match penalty and a likely multi-game suspension there too. Its Casebook allows only "competitive contact" made "in an effort to gain possession of the puck".
• Under Hockey Canada, reading a clean shoulder into a net-front opponent as legal because it would be legal for a skater. Take your ground by getting there first, not by moving an opponent off it. ⚠️ The book answers this exact case, against you: a goalie's otherwise legal body check "must be penalized as Interference" — a minor at the floor, and nothing in that book says the interference rule's major, game-misconduct and match clauses cannot reach you.
• Assuming two minutes is the worst that happens to a player who runs you. Describe the act to the referee rather than demanding a tier — "they drove through me", "they hit me from behind". ⚠️ Three books price it above a bare minor: USA Hockey for a charge anywhere or a check in your crease or privileged area, Hockey Canada for a charge anywhere or interference that injures you, CARHA for a charge in your crease or one that injures you. Each reaches a major and game misconduct — mandatory under Hockey Canada in both cases, under CARHA in both with at least a one-game suspension (32(d)), and under USA Hockey for a reckless charge or check, where you should also expect a match and a likely multi-game suspension. The NHL, IIHF and PWHL can stop at a minor. The counterweight: under USA Hockey, accidental contact is interference, a minor.
  • A hit on your back is checking from behind, and while it stays off your head no book prices it at a bare minor — Hockey Canada at the harsher of 7.5 and 8.5. ⚠️ Once it reaches your head, plan under Hockey Canada on the harsher of head contact, up to a match, and 8.5 — and of 7.5 too where it drove you head first into the boards or goal frame. The NHL and PWHL price it at the harsher of Rule 43 and Rule 48; under the IIHF plan on a major and game misconduct, never a minor (43.3, 48.3). The tier for running you has every limb.
• Waiting for a whistle in a rebound scramble. Win the puck. Under the NHL, IIHF and PWHL books no whistle is coming: incidental contact while you and an attacker both go for the loose puck is permitted. ⚠️ Win the puck rather than the player, because that permission excuses the attacker and not you: USA Hockey makes a goalie's body check a mandatory minor, Hockey Canada penalises a goalie who initiates deliberate contact, and neither stops at the minor. Under CARHA, avoid the body contact altogether, because its Rule 49(a) makes no exception for going for the puck.
• Handling the puck because you can. Stop the rim, then usually leave it for your defenceman. Every touch is a chance for a turnover in front of your own empty net.
• Silence. Talk — early, short and every time. You have the best view on the ice, and a goalie who doesn't talk throws it away.
• Calling "screen" once and giving up. Say it every time, loudly, until it changes something.
• Carrying the last goal into the next shift. Run your reset ritual the same way every time, and save the analysis for tomorrow.

Check yourself

Answer each question before you go on — a real attempt, not a guess. Then go and check, because the checking is the part that does the work. Producing an answer and getting it wrong is worth more than recognising a right one, but only when the right answer follows: the section named with each question, and the Key Takeaways after them, are where you get it. Where the answer lives in another document, that is named too.

1. One shooter, no pass available, shot from distance. How far out do you go, what are the three things that depth costs you — and if you cannot have all three of out, square and set, which one do you give up? (§Depth is the fundamental decision, and §Playing the angle)

2. There is a body in front of you and a point shot coming. Two parts of this have no single right answer — name both splits, say what each side is trading against the other, and say what both schools agree you must not do. (§Fighting for a sightline, and §Playing bigger and deeper through traffic)

3. You go to the post in RVH. Which pad goes where, what is the load-bearing detail most descriptions of it leave out, and what is the one thing about post play that nobody defends? (§Post integration: VH and RVH)

4. A shot is coming from the top of the circle and your instinct is to drop. Give three concrete reasons that instinct fails, and say which goalies it fails worst for. (§The butterfly is a tool, not a religion)

5. Their winger dumps the puck in from just inside their own blue line and it is coming round to you. You could drift two strides toward it, you could smother it, or you could stand still. Say what each of those three costs or buys you — and which rule book changes the answer. (§Icing — you are the one who can wave it off, §Freezing the puck — and the rules that govern it, and §When to freeze, tactically)

6. That same rim is running round the boards outside the trapezoid and you think about dropping to stop it with your pads. What happens, where on the ice would the identical act have been completely legal, and what should you do instead? (§Stopping pucks for your defence, and §The trapezoid — the NHL and IIHF rule that defines where you may play the puck)

7. You shout "shot" at your defenceman. What does that call actually mean, what does it not mean, and what do you do if your team already uses the word the other way round? (§The core calls)

8. The puck is on your blade behind your own net with a forechecker arriving, and you decide to get rid of it high and hard. Which two delay-of-game clauses are you inside, which of them does not require you to have meant it, and who serves the penalty if you get it wrong? And if the whistle had already gone and you did it in temper, under which two books is two minutes not the whole of the price? (§Putting the puck out of play — the minor that is yours too, and the tier above it after a whistle)

9. An attacker is standing in your blue paint obstructing your view and the puck goes in. What does the rule say — and what is different about that answer in EIH or SIHA competition, and what does that change about when you say something? (§Goaltender Interference, From Your Side of It)

10. You commit to a 50-50 puck in your own corner and you are going to get there first. Say what you do with your head as you arrive, name the source that tells you so and who that source is written for — and say why the posture your defencemen are taught for the same wall is not something you should assume applies to you. (§The discipline of not playing it, and Body Contact and Battles)

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Key Takeaways

1. Positioning, not reflexes: be out, be square, be set, and get on your angle before you add depth. Deep and off-angle is a goal; on-angle and slightly deep is a save. Rebuild your references at every whistle. Play deeper against passes and further out against a lone shooter, and ask your coach about depth against a screen.
2. Track the puck all the way into your body: that is also how you control the rebound. Quiet head, quiet hands; move when a pass is released. Then treat the rebound as its own save — prevent it, cover it in your crease, or aim it wide and low — and know where their forwards are before the shot.
3. Stay on your feet until going down is the answer, and never drop to a post out of habit. Seal only for pucks below the goal line or on top of you, and dig the off-post pad into the ice, or the first shot drives you into the net. Ask what your trigger is.
4. Through a screen, commit to one side and see the puck cleanly there. Around or over is a coaching split; half-seeing it on both sides is what nobody defends. Step to open a lane if you need one, and call "screen" loudly, every time.
5. On a rush, be the last one to move. On a breakaway, meet them well out, retreat at their speed and stay on your feet. On a 2-on-1 your defenceman usually takes the pass and you the shooter — say it out loud, "I've got the pass", "take the shooter" or "shot", so you never arrive with different answers.
6. Behind your net, kill the rim, call "leave it" early, never move the puck up the middle. ⚠️ Know your book's limit: the trapezoid under the NHL and IIHF, the old one in the PWHL, anywhere under USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and CARHA. Inside it, play it; don't freeze it. ⚠️ Take a hit head up, chin off your chest.
7. With an attacker on you in your crease, freeze the rebound you have clean — it buys a pinned team a change. When your defenceman arrives with time, leave it. Freezing a puck you had time to play is a penalty in every book (Hockey Canada warns once in your crease). ⚠️ Outside your crease, play it or clear it.
8. Claim your ground in the paint early, and in a scramble win the puck, not the player. ⚠️ Never put your body or stick on an attacker: USA Hockey and Hockey Canada penalise a goalie's body check and neither stops at the minor, CARHA bars the contact altogether, and two minutes is only the floor on a chop.
9. When someone runs you, tell the referee what happened, not what to call, and in EIH or SIHA competition say it at the time, because nobody reviews it. ⚠️ In a USA Hockey checking game, expect contact in a corner while you hold the puck, though a check meant to intimidate or punish you is still charging.
10. When a fight breaks out, stay in your crease until you are directed out. ⚠️ Leaving it is a minor in most books. A fight ejects you under the IIHF, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, and can under CARHA and the PWHL; breaking one up, under Hockey Canada and CARHA, and USA Hockey if first in.
11. Call what you see, early and short, and agree that "shot" means you have the shooter. Say "time" only when sure: a false one sends a defenceman into a hit unbraced. ⚠️ After a hard shot off your mask, say something at the next stoppage: a whistle may never come, and a concussion needs no knock-out. A medical professional decides when you play again.
12. Tell teammates: never shoot at your head in warm-ups. Stand beside a screener; never walk them out, which can be called interference. If a battle moves a net-front body, never let it cross your goalmouth — the corner side is the safe one — and keep their skates on the ice. ⚠️ Never hit them from behind: driving a player head first into the post ends the hitter's game in every book. Plan on it.
13. Wear gear that is yours, and warm up before a live shot. Buy your own mask, even if you borrow the rest. Wear a neck laceration protector at every age — adults too in Britain, and a dangler does not replace it. ⚠️ Groin or hip pain that persists or keeps coming back needs a physiotherapist or sports physician.
14. When you are pulled, take your stick and get to the bench fast — when called for an extra attacker, or on a delayed call once your team has the puck. ⚠️ Leave nothing near the net: it can cost an awarded goal or a penalty shot. When they pull theirs, play a touch deeper and expect passes.
15. After a bad goal goes in, run your reset ritual before the next faceoff. Skate a circle, get a drink, tap both posts — the same way every time. Do the analysis tomorrow, and never point at a teammate.

Sources — retrieved 27 July 2026; UK and IIHF layer retrieved 29 July 2026

Rules: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) — Rule 5.1 (Eligible Players — "any reference to 'player' shall refer to both skaters and goalkeepers", the definition that puts a goalkeeper inside every bare-"player" infraction), Rule 1.7 (Goal Crease), Rule 1.8 (Goalkeeper's Restricted Area markings), Rule 42 Charging, read 1 September 2026 — 42.1's "A minor, major or a major and a game misconduct shall be imposed on a player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within his goal crease", a longer sentence than the IIHF's at the same number, with 42.2 (minor), 42.3 (major), 42.4 (match) and 42.5 (game misconduct on a major "resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent"); the book writes no privileged area, Rule 10.2 (Goalkeeper's Stick), Rule 10.4 (Broken Stick – Goalkeeper: the permission to play on, the hand-to-hand replacement, the bar on going to the bench, and the skater's stick in the meantime), Rule 11 (Goalkeeper's Equipment), Rule 24 (Penalty Shot), Rule 27.1 (Minor Penalty to Goalkeeper — "A goalkeeper shall not be sent to the penalty bench for an offense which incurs a minor penalty", the teammate designated by the coach, and "⁠[a] penalized player may not serve a goalkeeper's penalty"), Rule 27.6 (Leaving Goal Crease — the minor during an altercation, its two express carve-outs, and the separate bar on going to the players' bench during a stoppage "without first obtaining permission to do so from the Referee"), Rule 27.7–27.8 (Goalkeeper's Penalties / Restricted Area — 27.7 on participating in the play beyond the centre red line, whose "position of the puck is the determining factor" sentence is the half USA Hockey and Hockey Canada reverse), Rule 63.2 (Delaying the Game, including 63.2(i) — the freeze outside the crease, which that clause says in terms "applies outside of his goal crease area" — 63.2(vii), the in-crease clause with its "unless he is actually being checked by an opponent", 63.2(ii), the deliberate puck-out-of-play minor "from anywhere on the ice surface", and 63.2(iii), the separate minor for shooting or batting the puck "directly (non-deflected) out of the playing surface from his defending zone" — read for a deliberateness element, of which that clause has none — with its NOTE on the players' bench and the face-off; 63.2(v), "On a player other than the goalkeeper", the express exclusion that shows the book excludes goalkeepers when it means to; and 63.2(viii) with its NOTE, the restricted-area penalty and the sole skate-contact exception), Rule 63.9, the Delaying the Game infractions list — "(i) Deliberately shooting the puck out of play", among acts producing "a penalty (minor, bench minor, penalty shot or awarded goal)", with no misconduct in the list — and Rule 75 Unsportsmanlike Conduct, read in full 1 September 2026 across 75.2, 75.3, 75.4 and 75.5 for a puck-out-of-the-playing-area limb, of which the NHL book has none; Rule 63.8 (freeze after a dump-in from centre), Rule 64.1 (the goalkeeper embellishment clause, in the same words as the IIHF's), Rule 67.3–67.5 (Handling Puck), read in full 1 September 2026 — 67.3(iv), "Drops the puck into his pads or onto the goal net", and 67.3(v), "Deliberately piles up snow or obstacles at or near his net that, in the opinion of the Referee, would tend to prevent the scoring of a goal", both read for an escalation above the minor, of which neither clause carries any; Rule 85.6, the second and separate delay-of-game minor on "a goalkeeper who deliberately drops the puck on the goal netting to cause a stoppage of play", which supplies the deliberateness element 67.3(iv) does not; and Rule 85.2 Puck Unplayable, whose three-second netting stoppage (printed across a page break) and whose sentence "Should the goalkeeper use his stick or glove to freeze the puck on the back of the net … the face-off shall take place at one of the face-off spots in the defending zone" answer that act with no penalty at all, Rule 69 (Interference on the Goalkeeper, including 69.2's minor-or-major range and 69.3's minor for refusing to give ground), Reference Table 11 (Summary of Goalkeeper Penalties — its eighth row, "Deliberately shoots or bats puck out of play — Rule 63", and its thirteenth row, "Using blocking glove to punch an opponent in the head or face — Rule 51"), Rule 51.3 (the match penalty for a blocker punch "in an attempt to or to deliberately injure an opponent"), Rules 61.2 to 61.5 (Slashing, read whole on 22 September 2026 for the escalation above the minor in Common Mistakes — 61.3's major "at the discretion of the Referee based on the severity of the contact" and its mandatory limb "⁠[w]hen injury occurs, a major penalty must be assessed", 61.5's "⁠[w]henever a major penalty is assessed for slashing, a game misconduct penalty must also be imposed", and 61.4's match penalty where "the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent by slashing"), Rule 81.1 (Icing — "Should any player of a team, equal or superior in numerical strength (power-play) to the opposing team, shoot, bat or deflect the puck from his own half of the ice beyond the goal line of the opposing team, play shall be stopped"), Rule 81.6 (the short-handed exemption and its empty-penalty-bench carve-out — "neglected to ensure there is a player on the penalty bench to exit upon the expiry of the penalty", with the substitution allowed "at the next stoppage of play" — read 14 September 2026 with Rule 20.3, which gives a team whose player "has been removed from the game or is injured" until "a stoppage of play prior to the expiration of the major penalty" to seat them; and where that player has "minor penalties in addition to the major penalty" running on the clock alongside it, the same rule requires the team to "place a substitute on the penalty bench immediately", read 14 September 2026, and grounds the icing ban in the team being "no longer short-handed by reason of a penalty") and Rule 81.5, read in full for a goalkeeper exemption — its three goalkeeper clauses reach the opposing goalkeeper's touch and a goalkeeper dislodging the puck from the back of the net, and none exempts the goalkeeper who shot it, Reference Table 14 (Interference on the Goalkeeper Situations — situations 5C and 5E, the two outside-the-crease rows — 5C in motion, 5E planted "on the crease line or outside the goal crease" — both answered "Goal is allowed"; and, under its heading 6, Crowding the Goalkeeper, rows 6D and 6F–6H on a goalkeeper who establishes position in the crease — 6D answering that a minor is not assessed, 6G and 6H putting the minor on the goalkeeper, and 6F splitting it, "Coincidental minors (goalkeeper/attacking player)"; with Rule 69.3's own third paragraph, which reaches 6D's facts and mandates the minor the table withholds. Cite the 6: Table 14 has two D rows, 5D being the screening case), Rule 81.3 (icing wave-offs, including the goalkeeper), Rule 84.4 (Shootout), Rule 86.6 Pre-Game Warm-Up, read 2 September 2026 — "During the pre-game warm-up … each team shall confine its activity to its own end of the rink. Refer to Rule 46.9 - Fighting", with "any violation of this rule by the players shall be reported to the Commissioner", which is a report and not a penalty · USA Hockey Playing Rules 2025-29 — Rule 624(b), which does not wave off icing for goalie movement, and Rule 624(b)(1), which limits the shorthanded icing exemption to Youth 15-Only and above, Girls 16U and above, High School and Adult; Rule 407(c), the minor where a goalkeeper "deliberately participates in the play in any manner when they are beyond the center red line"; Rule 615(e), the 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" — the book's Summary of Penalties lists it under Goalkeeper Infractions as "Leaving crease area during altercation", though the literal phrase "leaving the crease" appears nowhere in the playing rules; Rule 615(d), the game misconduct on "any player or goalkeeper who is the first to intervene in an altercation then in progress", which names goalkeepers expressly, attaches no crease condition, and is "in addition to any other penalty incurred in the same incident"; and, for goaltender interference, Rule 625(b) (the flat bar on a goal with an attacking player in the crease, its neutral-zone face-off, and the push-in relief), Rule 625(a)(8) (the minor, which requires physical contact) and Rule 617(c)(4) (the two limbs on which a goal is disallowed); Rule 607 Charging, read in full 1 September 2026 and again 26 September 2026 — Rule 607(b), "A major penalty plus game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to any player who recklessly endangers an opponent as a result of charging", the mandatory limb, which carries no crease condition and no injury condition; Rule 607(c), "A minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to a player who body checks or charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within the goal crease or privileged area"; Rule 607(d), "A goalkeeper is NOT 'fair game' because they are outside the privileged area", with its Note 1 routing "any accidental or unavoidable contact" to the Interference rule and "⁠[a]ny deliberate body contact or check" to charging, and its Note 2 defining the privileged area; and Rule 607(e), "A match penalty for reckless endangerment may also be assessed for charging." Rule 405(c), Rule 410(c) and the Standardized Discipline Policy – Match Penalties printed in the book’s own Preface, read 25 September 2026 for what a match penalty costs after the game — 405(c)’s suspension "from participating in all USA Hockey games and practices until their case has been dealt with by the proper authorities", 410(c)’s "the proper disciplinary authority (as defined in the Glossary) shall be required to conduct any disciplinary actions in accordance with the provisions of USA Hockey’s Standardized Discipline Policy", and the Policy’s Level 2 list, which names "Rule 607(e) Charging" among the match penalties carrying "a recommended range of a 4-8 game suspension", with the hearing body free to "reduce the suspension, maintain the suspension or increase the suspension imposed." The Policy points onward to Bylaw 10D and the USA Hockey Annual Guide; neither was obtained or read, so nothing here rests on them. ⚠️ Read in full for a bare-minor limb, of which Rule 607 has none at any limb — 607(a) prices charging any opponent at "⁠[a] minor plus a misconduct or a major plus a game misconduct penalty" too; Rule 404 Misconduct Penalties, read 1 September 2026 — 404(a)'s removal of a player "for a period of 10 minutes, or the designated misconduct penalty time", and the (Note) immediately above it, "(Except for Adults) Affiliates or governing bodies are authorized to reduce the length of misconduct penalties for games under their jurisdiction according to the following period lengths", at "12 minutes or less – 6:00", "More than 12 but less than 17 minutes – 8:00" and "17-20 minutes – 10:00", with 404(b), "A 'GAME MISCONDUCT' penalty involves the suspension of a player or Team Official for the balance of the game with immediate substitution taking place on ice" and the player "shall also be suspended for the team's next game"; Rule 407(a) and (b) (Goalkeeper Penalties), read 1 September 2026 — 407(a)'s "A goalkeeper shall not be sent to the penalty bench for an offense that incurs a minor or misconduct penalty", and 407(b)'s "Should a goalkeeper incur a game misconduct or a match penalty, their place will be taken by a substitute goalkeeper or a temporary goalkeeper (see Glossary) or an additional skater", with the time still served by a designated teammate; Rule 601 Abuse of Officials and Other Misconduct, read in full 1 September 2026 for a puck put out of the playing area — 601(a)(4), the unsportsmanlike minor for a player who "⁠[s]hoots the puck after the whistle, if in the opinion of the Official such shot was avoidable", with the escalation printed beneath 601(a), "A misconduct penalty shall be assessed to any player who persists in such conduct and any further dispute by the same player shall result in a game misconduct penalty being assessed"; 601(c)(10), the misconduct for a player who "⁠[s]hoots or bats the puck outside of the playing area during a stoppage of play (when not done in protest of an official's decision or in the direction of a spectator)"; 601(d)(7), the game misconduct for the same act "when done in protest of an official's decision"; 601(d)(9), the game misconduct for a puck shot "in the general direction of an on-ice official, or in the direction of a spectator during a stoppage of play"; and the Note to 601(d), "A match penalty shall be assessed to any player who shoots the puck directly at an official or spectator in a manner that recklessly endangers the official or spectator". Rule 601 and Rule 610(c) both reach a puck put out during a stoppage, at different tiers, and the book does not say which governs; Rule 601's opening Note gives only "A minor penalty or misconduct penalty should be assessed for actions that occur on the playing surface or in the penalty bench area", and the Casebook's Rule 601 situations were read in full and none concerns a puck put out of the playing area. and Rule 605 (Broken Stick — 605(a), whose drop-the-stick sentence and whose equipment minor carve out no goalkeeper, and whose only mention of one is the sentence between them, allowing "a player or goalkeeper" alike "reasonable time to be aware that the stick is broken"; and 605(c), which covers only where a goalkeeper's replacement comes from, so the stand-up rules write no equivalent of the NHL's play-on allowance) — with the Sled Hockey section of the same book, which does write one, and reverses 605(c) too: "A goalkeeper is allowed to play with a broken stick until the next stoppage of play or until the goalkeeper has been legally provided with a new stick. The goalkeeper can go to the bench and change their stick when the play is in progress." It governs sled hockey only — as does the only counterpart in that book to IIHF Rule 9.6's mask-hit stoppage, in the same Sled Hockey section under Goalkeeper's Equipment — Helmet: "Should a hard shot hit the goalkeeper's facemask while play is in progress, the play may be stopped at the discretion of the Referee only if no immediate scoring chance is presented to the opposing team." The stand-up playing rules were searched for a counterpart on nine phrasings — dazed, hard shot, struck in the head, hit in the head by the puck, stop play for safety, concussion protocol, in the head, safety reasons and every may/shall stop play occurrence, searched in full including across line breaks — and contain none outside that section; the same searches return the quoted sentences in the IIHF and Hockey Canada books. Also Rule 502(b), "Penalties may also be assessed during the warm-up period", and Rule 636(c), under which each team warms up "on their half of the rink". and, for neck laceration protection, Rule 304(g), which requires a HECC-certified neck laceration protector "that covers as much of the neck area as possible" of all players including goalkeepers "in all age classifications except Adults" (BNQ-certified protectors satisfying it "through the 2026-27 USA Hockey season", and Adults "strongly recommend[ed]" to wear one), with Rule 303(b), the goalkeeper-specific limb — "HECC-certified neck laceration protectors are required in all age classifications except for Adults" — which recommends hanging throat protectors for Adult goaltenders alongside the protector rather than in place of it. Read in full for a screening or goaltender-vision provision: the 2025-29 playing rules contain none · USA Hockey Official Rules and Casebook 2025-29 (PDF) — Rule 610(c), the delay-of-game minor on "any player or goalkeeper who delays the game by deliberately shooting or batting the puck outside the playing area", read in full for a defending-zone limb, of which Rule 610 has none; Casebook Rule 610, Situation 5 (a rebound batted out of the air and out of the rink — no penalty, with the answer's "Had the goalkeeper caught the puck first, thereby gaining control, and then deliberately batted the puck directly out of the playing area"); Rule 610(b) and its Note; Rule 610(f), the goalkeeper-specific delay-of-game minor — "A minor penalty for delay of game shall be assessed to a goalkeeper who drops the puck into their pads or onto the goal net or deliberately piles up snow or obstacles near the goal that, in the opinion of the Referee, could prevent the scoring of a goal" — read for a tier above the minor and for a penalty-shot or awarded-goal limb, of which the clause has neither; Casebook Rule 610, Situation 8, which extends it to a goalkeeper who covers a puck that reached the netting on its own ("Stop play and assess a minor penalty"), where NHL and IIHF Rule 85.2 answer the same facts with a face-off and no penalty; Situation 8 cites "610(g) and 631(b)"; the Casebook's Situations and both books' summary tables use older letters from (d) onward, so that is today's 610(f), and its reasoning is the 610(b) Note's "act of playing goal" test; Rule 618 (Handling Puck with Hands), read in full 16 September 2026 — 618(c), the three-second freeze and the forward-throw stoppage, and 618(b), the hand-pass clause that lets a bat "initiated and completed in their defending zone" stand — with Casebook Rule 618, Situations 1 to 9 read in full, of which 8 puts the goalkeeper inside the defending-zone hand-pass permission "even if the hand pass is in a 'forward' direction" while barring the catch-close-and-propel throw, and 9 answers "Yes" to a side or rear throw to a teammate and supplies the definition the playing rule leaves out — "'Forward' is considered to be anywhere in between two imaginary lines, one at each goal post, extending to the nearest end zone face-off spot"; a "Playing Rules" running head falls inside 618(c) at the page break, between "and it is first played by a" and "teammate", so the sentence quoted above is not contiguous in the book's text and a search for it returns nothing — read Rule 618 as a page range, not as a phrase; Rule 625(c) (a goalkeeper's stick left in front of the goal — a minor, with a goal awarded if the puck hits it and prevents an obvious and imminent goal "regardless as to whether the goalkeeper is on the ice, in the act of leaving the ice or off the ice", which is not the condition the NHL's and IIHF's Rule 67.5 attaches) with Casebook Rule 625, Situations 14 to 17 — 14 narrows that "regardless" back, ruling that "⁠[f]or a goal to be awarded, the goalkeeper must either be in the act of leaving the ice or actually off the ice", so the live divergence from Rule 67.5 is the goalkeeper who is leaving but not yet replaced; 15 removes the intent requirement the rule text writes — "⁠[i]t makes no difference whether or not the goalkeeper deliberately left their stick in front of the goal"; including 16's "It is the responsibility of the goalkeeper to keep the area near their goal free of any obstacles that may prevent the scoring of a goal"; Rule 614(c) — read in full for its four triggers and read for an exception, of which the rule text has none, together with the Note defining the "goalkeeper's privileged" area — and Casebook Rule 614(c), Situations 5 to 14, read in full — they supply the exceptions the rule text does not, answering it through the glossary's "act of playing goal", and they go both ways: 7, 8, 10 and 13 answer no penalty, 6 and 9 answer penalty, 11 answers both (on whether the goalkeeper is being pressured) and 12 answers both (on whether the puck is inside the privileged area and in front of the goal line, with the minor otherwise "must be assessed"); 5 answers no penalty but on the three-second rule at a delayed penalty — Rule 614(c)(1) with the Note to Rule 409(a) — rather than on the act of playing goal; and 14 answers that the privileged area "extends to the closer end boards". Note what 8, 10 and 12 have in common: none of them requires crease contact — and Casebook Rule 407(c), Situations 12 and 13 — the volume heads the pair under "Rule 407 Goalkeeper Penalties" and prints the sub-clause only in each answer's "Rule Reference 407(c)" line, which is where the (c) used here comes from; 13 answering that a goalkeeper "whose skates are beyond the center red line" may not play a puck still on their own side, because "the determining factor is the position of the goalkeeper's skates and not the puck", and 12 answering no penalty where the puck strikes a goalkeeper accidentally over the line; and Casebook Rule 615, Situations 10, 26 and 27 — 26 answering no penalty for a goalkeeper leaving a crease-side altercation "to remain out of the altercation", with the minor still assessed where the referee gave no permission and the goalkeeper became involved outside the crease; 27 answering "Yes" to going to the bench when the fight is at the crease; and 10 assessing "⁠[a] minor penalty for leaving the crease, plus a game misconduct for being the first to intervene in an altercation" on "Rule References 615(a, d and e)" — applying 615(d) rather than supplying it; and Casebook Rule 610, Situation 3, on when a goalkeeper may freeze the puck; and Casebook Rule 605, Situation 5, under which a goalkeeper handed a regular skater's stick may legally play with it "⁠[a]s long as the stick does not exceed the maximum measurements set forth for goalkeeper sticks"; Rule 640 (Unnecessary Roughness (Roughing)), read 19 September 2026 — 640(f), "A minor penalty shall be assessed to any goalkeeper who body checks an opponent", with 640(g), the major plus game misconduct for a player who "recklessly endangers an opponent as a result of any actions falling under Rule 640(b, c, d, e or f)", and 640(h), under which "⁠[a] match penalty for reckless endangerment may also be assessed" under the same sub-sections — the book's Summary of Penalties listing "640(f,g) Goalkeeper delivering body check" under Minor or Major (plus Game Misconduct Penalty) and "640(h) Goalkeeper delivering body check" under Match Penalty Option; with Casebook Rule 640, Situation 7, which asks "Is a goalkeeper allowed to body check an opponent?" and answers "No. Rule Reference 640(f)", allowing "competitive contact" only "in an effort to gain possession of the puck" and closing "A minor, major plus game misconduct or match penalty for Roughing must be assessed". The word this book uses is "body checks", not "initiates contact" — and it writes no diving/embellishment rule at all, so Rule 64.1 has no counterpart in it: searched 19 September 2026 in both volumes for diving, dive, embellish, feigning, exaggerat and simulat, and the only hits are three physical dives on a puck in the Casebook; and, for goalkeeper contact, Casebook Rule 607, Situations 4 and 6, read 1 September 2026 — Situation 4's three rungs ("no penalty should be assessed" only "⁠[i]n the case where a defending player has forced the attacking player into their own goalkeeper" and they have "clearly made every attempt to avoid the contact with the goalkeeper"; "a minor plus misconduct penalty is deemed appropriate" on an honest attempt once contact is unavoidable; "the major plus game misconduct, or match penalty option" where the player makes no attempt and accelerates through, extends the arms or drops the shoulder) and Situation 6 ("The goalkeeper's Privileged Area extends to the closer end boards"); and, for the crease, Casebook Rule 625, Situations 7, 9, 10 and 11 — Situation 11 answering "Yes" to whether the official should stop play and face off outside the attacking zone, Situation 10 answering "No" for a stick or skate placed momentarily in the crease "unless they interfere with the goalkeeper in any manner", and Situation 9 supplying the limit on the goalkeeper-out carve-out that the rule text does not print — the goal stands where the goalkeeper is "completely out of their crease", but "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" — with Appendix II, Summary of Face-Off Locations, which lists "625(b) Goal crease violation" under Neutral Zone Spot. The volume's seventeen Rule 625 situations were read in full for a goaltender-vision provision and contain none · Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) — Interpretation 3 to Rule 10.1(a), the five-part official interpretation of goaltenders freezing the puck, Rule 10.1(v), the delay-of-game limb written for goaltenders alone — "A goaltender who shoots or bats the puck directly out of the playing surface, with their stick" — with no zone restriction and no "deliberately" of its own, where limbs (i), (ii), (iv) and (vi) each carry the word and Rule 10.1's opening sentence carries it for the rule as a whole; the book does not say which governs; with 10.1(d), "No Misconduct penalty may be assessed for Delay of Game", and 10.1(e), "No Game Misconduct penalty may be assessed for Delay of Game", which is why the after-the-whistle escalation is not in Rule 10.1 at all; Rule 11.1 Unsportsmanlike Conduct, read in full 1 September 2026 — clause (v), "Shooting the puck out of the playing area, after the whistle", and clause (iv), "Shooting the puck at or near the goal after the whistle", among the listed acts, with 11.1(a) a Minor or Bench Minor, 11.1(b) and (c) barring a Major and a Match, 11.1(d)(i) a Misconduct for a player who "⁠[p]ersists in Unsportsmanlike Conduct, after receiving a Minor penalty under Rule 11.1 (a)", and 11.1(e) a Game Misconduct for persisting after either, whose Note 1 adds that "⁠[a] Referee is not required to assess a Minor or Misconduct penalty under this rule before assessing a Game Misconduct penalty, but may assess either penalty initially", read with the parallel Note 1 to 11.1(d), "A Referee is not required to assess a Minor penalty under this rule before assessing a Misconduct penalty, but may assess either penalty initially" — so neither the Misconduct nor the Game Misconduct is gated on the rung beneath it, and 11.1(d)(i)'s "after receiving a Minor penalty" describes the ordinary case rather than a precondition; Rule 10.1(vi), the goaltender's netting limb, restated at Rule 6.12(d), with 6.12(b) (deliberately making the puck "unplayable in order to gain a stoppage of play") and 6.12(c) (play continues where it "comes off without any delay"); Rule 8.3(a) – Interference, whose second paragraph assesses a minor to "any player that deliberately piles snow inside their goal crease or is observed by the Referee to have deliberately placed an object in their defending zone at or near the goal" and whose third escalates to a penalty shot, or to an awarded goal once the goaltender has been legally substituted, where the object "actually prevents a goal", with Interpretation 1 to Rule 8.3(a), "It is the responsibility of the goaltender to keep the area near their net free of any obstacles that may prevent a goal from being scored", and Rule 4.11(a)(iv), which lists that penalty shot for a goaltender who "deliberately piles snow or other obstacles at or near their net"; Rule 8.3(a)'s two Roman-numbered goaltender clauses, read 3 September 2026 — "A Minor penalty will be assessed to any goaltender who: i. except in the course of playing their position, initiates deliberate physical contact with an opposing player. ii. plays the puck with their skates over the centre red line." — the second of which is the skates test, in operative rule text rather than in an interpretation. The book pinpoints that pair with parentheses in its own pages — its Interpretation glossing the first clause is headed "Interpretation 2 Rule 8.3 (a)(i)" — which is what settles that the sub-clause citation form used here is Hockey Canada's and not this document's, and that Interpretation, read 19 September 2026, is the book's worked answer on the clause: because the goaltender is not "fair game" for physical contact, "the goaltender may not make deliberate physical contact with opposing players. If a goaltender makes an otherwise legal bodycheck on an opposing player, this must be penalized as Interference." It narrows "the course of playing their position" from outside without defining it — a phrase that occurs twice in the whole book, in Rules 4.13(c) and 8.3(a)(i), and in no Glossary entry, and it is the same both-ways habit already recorded above for Rule 10.1; Rules 8.3(b), 8.3(c) and 8.3(e), read 19 September 2026 — the Major and Game Misconduct "at the discretion of the Referee, based on the degree of violence of the impact" and its mandatory form "to any player who injures an opponent by an interference infraction that would otherwise call for a Minor penalty", the Match penalty "to any player who attempts to injure or deliberately injures an opponent by interference", and the rule that a Game Misconduct "must be assessed any time a Major penalty is assessed for interference" — none of the three names a goaltender, each is written for "any player", and 8.3(e)'s is the only cross-reference either of the first two receives anywhere in the book, which is why the routing question at 4.13(c) is disclosed above rather than answered; Rules 4.13(a) and 4.13(b), which have a teammate serve "⁠[a]ny Minor, Major, or Misconduct penalty assessed to a goaltender" and provide for replacing one assessed "a Game Ejection, Game Misconduct, Gross Misconduct or a Match penalty"; Rule 4.12 Awarded Goals, with Interpretation 4 to Rule 4.12(a) and 4.12(b) — which puts the stick left across the crease by a goaltender on the way to the bench and answers it in two parts, a penalty shot "⁠[w]hile the goaltender is still in the act of leaving the ice" and an awarded goal once off — and 4.12(b), which deems the goaltender "substituted" once a legal change has occurred "despite the fact that the goaltender may still be physically on the ice". Of the six books, Hockey Canada and CARHA (66(f), its goalkeeper-interference rule) do not price piled snow as delay of game, and Hockey Canada is the only one that reaches a penalty shot for it. Hockey Canada cites that Roman-numeral list both ways in its own pages — "Rule 10.1 (a)(vii)" in one cross-reference and "Rule 10.1 (iv)" in another — so the short form used here is one of the book's own two rather than a shortening invented for this document; the list itself is printed above clause (a), under Rule 10.1's opening paragraph, while the Interpretations that gloss it are all headed "Rule 10.1 (a)", Rule 4.13(c), which reaches a goaltender who "intentionally participates in the play in any manner when they are beyond the centre red line" and carries no penalty of its own, sending the offence to Rule 8.3(a) – Interference, with its Interpretation 2: "The 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 8.5(b), "A Major penalty and Game Misconduct penalty will be assessed to any player who charges the goaltender", read 1 September 2026 with 8.5(d), "No Misconduct penalty may be assessed for interference with the goaltender", Rule 7.10(a), whose second limb assesses "A Minor penalty … to a goaltender who leaves their crease during a fight", with Interpretation 1, under which the goaltender may proceed to the bench "⁠[w]ith the permission of the Referee" and takes the minor if they go "on their own accord" (and 7.10(d), requiring goaltenders to "stay in their goal creases or proceed to a neutral zone designated by the Referee", which is Hockey Canada's counterpart of the NHL's and the IIHF's neutral-location carve-out), Rule 7.10(e)(ii), the game misconduct on a player who "joins in a fight or acts as a peacemaker", read with the Glossary definition that settles that it reaches a goaltender — "The goaltender is considered a player, except where explicitly stated because special rules or privileges apply to them" — Rule 3.2 (Lost or Broken Sticks) — 3.2(c), which bars a goaltender from playing on with a broken stick of any kind and allows a handed player's stick until the next stoppage, 3.2(d) routing the penalty to Rule 10.6(a), and Interpretation 1 to 3.2(c) on carrying rather than sliding the replacement, and Rule 8.5 Interference with the Goaltender (in Section 8, Restraining Fouls) with its Interpretations 1, 2 and 3 — the crease bar and the carve-out that follows it, under which a goal scored by a teammate outside the crease "WILL BE ALLOWED" if the player in the crease stays passive; Interpretation 3's test of a crease player who attempts "to play the puck, interfere with the play, or impede the goaltender's vision or movements"; the "onus is always on the attacking player" sentence; the definition of the foul as impeding the goaltender "by actual physical contact"; the narrow push-in exception; and the mandatory penalty on an attacker who is fouled into the goaltender and makes no effort to avoid them. Also 8.5(a)–(e), the penalty tiers: 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, which the book prints under 7.4(a) as the blindside definition; charging itself is defined by 7.4's opening list, i–v) 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 for attempting to injure or deliberately injuring a goaltender by interference; at (d) the bar on any misconduct; at (e) the automatic game misconduct on any 8.5(b) major. Rule 2.2(i), "When both teams are on the ice during the pre-game warm-up, players will be restricted to their own half of the ice", and Rule 2.2(j), "The Referee will penalize any player who commits a violation of the rules during the pre-game warm-up. The penalty will be served at the start of the game"; Rule 6.18 Goaltender Safety, read 2 September 2026 — 6.18(a)'s "In categories of U13 and below should a Goaltender be struck in the head by the puck the Referee shall stop play as soon as it is safe to do so" and its instruction that officials "should always allow team staff to evaluate the goaltender during a stoppage under this rule … to allow for concussion protocols be applied", with Interpretation 2, under which "the goaltender's head refers to the protective mask / helmet and does NOT include any throat protectors that may be affixed to or hanging from the mask or helmet"; and Rule 3.6(c), which requires a BNQ-certified throat protector "for players registered in minor and female hockey" and states the dangler point outright: "Goaltenders who wear an attachment to the mask or helmet designed to protect the throat, must still wear a BNQ-certified throat protector." Read in full for a goaltender-vision provision: the only two in the book reach a player in the crease · Rule 27 Puts Goaltenders in Their Place — Scouting The Refs · IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (PDF) — Rule 10.4 (Broken Stick / Abandoned Stick – Goalkeeper), Rule 75 Unsportsmanlike Conduct in the 2026/27 edition, read in full 1 September 2026 across 75.2 to 75.5 for a puck-out-of-the-playing-area limb, of which the IIHF book has none — its 75.4(II) misconduct reaches "any equipment", not the puck — and Rule 69.1, whose crease-stoppage sentence — the referee's "possibility to stop the game" where an attacking Player "is in the goal crease and does not leave immediately" — has no counterpart anywhere in NHL Rules 69.1 to 69.8, and reads word for word the same in the IIHF's 2026/27 edition · 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 is the source for the IIHF's 2021-22 adoption date, and the only support held here for the KHL — a governing body's aside rather than a KHL rule, and no KHL rulebook was available to check against. Nothing held here dates the NHL's own adoption; the NHL book gives no date in Rules 1.8, 27.8 or 63.2(viii). Rule 21.1 — "A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner" — was read on 17 October 2026.

UK rule set — the base book for every level of British hockey: IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 — Rule 5.1 ("any reference to 'Player' shall refer to both skaters and goalkeepers"), Rule 27.1 (Minor Penalty to Goalkeeper, the NHL's 27.1 with "penalty box" for "penalty bench"), Rules 27.3 and 27.4 (a goalkeeper's misconduct is served by a teammate designated by the coach; a game misconduct puts a substitute in the net "allowed the goalkeeper's full equipment"), Rule 20.4 and Rule 22.1 (a second misconduct in the same game is an automatic game misconduct; 22.1's ten-minute sitting is written for Players "except the goalkeeper", whose misconduct 22.2 routes to a teammate instead), Rule 1.7 (Goal Crease), Rule 1.8 and Rule 27.7 (Goalkeeper's Restricted Area — the trapezoid, and note the number), Rule 42 Charging, read 1 September 2026 in the 2026/27 book — 42.1's "A penalty shall be imposed on a Player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within their goal crease" with 42.2 (minor), 42.3 (major) and 42.4 (major plus game misconduct for reckless endangerment); the word "privileged" appears nowhere in the book, Rule 9.12 (Neck Laceration Protector — mandatory "For all Players in all categories of IIHF Competition", with a minor penalty "after warning by the Referee", and the separate permission that "A goalkeeper may attach a throat protector to the chin of their facemask", which sits alongside the mandate rather than satisfying it), Rule 10.2 (Goalkeeper's Stick, 71 cm paddle), Rule 11.1–11.2 (Goalkeeper's Equipment), Rule 24 (Penalty Shot, including 24.4's awarded goal on a third violation), Rule 27.5 (Leaving Goal Crease — the altercation minor, both carve-outs, and the bench-permission limb, all in the NHL's words at its 27.6), Rule 27.6 (Participating in the Play Over the Center Red Line, with the same "position of the puck" determining factor as the NHL's 27.7), Rule 27.8 (Infractions – Unique to Goalkeepers, a pointer to Table 13 and nothing more — the pointer reads Table 11 in the IIHF's 2026/27 edition, whose rows and rule references are identical), Rule 63.2 (Delaying the Game, including 63.2(II) and 63.2(III), the counterparts of the NHL's (ii) and (iii) — not verbatim the NHL's: (III) writes "protective glass" where the NHL writes "glass", and "surrounding the Players' bench" where the NHL writes "'behind' the players' bench", both quoted and compared in the body — and 63.2(VIII)), Rule 63.2(I), (VI) and (VII), read 1 September 2026 and identical in the 2025/26 v1.0, v1.1 and 2026/27 books — 63.2(I)'s "On any Player, including the goalkeeper, who holds, 'freezes' or plays the puck… Regarding to a goalkeeper, this rule applies outside of their goal crease area", 63.2(VI)'s Note and 63.2(VII)'s "unless they are actually being checked by an opponent" — read with Appendix IV Table 13, which prints "Playing puck outside restricted area" (1, 27.7, 63.2 (VIII)) and "Deliberately 'freezes' the puck inside or outside the goal crease" (63.2 (I), (VI) & (VII), 67.3 (I) & (II)) as two separate rows, which is what settles that England Ice Hockey's Rule 22.3 suspension of the restricted area does not reach the freezing rules; ⚠️ the Rules & Regulations and both editions of the In-House Rules were searched for any provision touching Rule 63 or the freezing of the puck, and none contains one, Rule 51.3 (a blocker punch — "a major penalty and an automatic game misconduct penalty … and the action is likely to result in injury to the opponent", where the NHL writes a match penalty for an attempt to injure), Rules 61.2 and 61.3 (Slashing, read whole on 22 September 2026 in the 2025/26, v1.1 and 2026/27 versions, which number Rule 61 identically — 61.3 is "MAJOR PENALTY AND GAME MISCONDUCT PENALTY", a major and "automatic game misconduct penalty" the Referee "may" assess where the Player "recklessly endangers their opponent by ‘slashing’", and the book writes neither an injury-triggered mandatory major nor a match penalty for slashing: its 61.4 is the penalty shot and its 61.5 the awarded goal, where the NHL numbers those two limbs), Appendix IV Table 13 (Summary of Goalkeeper Penalties — "Deliberately shoots or bats puck out of play" against 63.2 (II), and the blocker punch against 51.3; Table 11 in the 2026/27 edition, same rows), Rule 63.8 (No Line Change), Rule 64.1 (the goalkeeper embellishment clause, in the same words as the NHL's), Rule 67.3–67.5 (Handling Puck, including 67.3(IV) and 67.3(V) — the pads-and-net and the snow-and-obstacles minors, the NHL's sentences with "their" for "his"), Rule 85.6, the separate delay-of-game minor on a goalkeeper who "deliberately" drops the puck on the goal netting, and Rule 85.2 Puck Unplayable, whose three-second netting stoppage and whose "Should the goalkeeper use their stick or glove to 'freeze' the puck on the back of the net…" face-off sentence carry no penalty, Rule 69 (Interference on the Goalkeeper, including 69.2's minor-or-major range and 69.3's "appropriate penalty" for refusing to give ground, where the NHL's 69.3 writes a minor), Appendix IV Table 16 (Interference on the Goalkeeper situations — 5C and 5E, both answered "Goal is allowed"; and 6B, 6D and 6F–6H on a goalkeeper who establishes position in the crease; the same table is Table 14 in the IIHF's 2026/27 edition, where those rows were read in full and carry identical wording and identical answers), Rule 81.1 and Rule 81.3–81.6 (Icing — 81.1's "any Player", and 81.5 read in full for a goalkeeper exemption that is not there), Rule 84.4 (Shootout Procedure), Rule 86.6 Pre-Game Warm-Up, read 2 September 2026 — "each team shall confine its activity to its own end of the rink", cross-referencing "Rule 46.10 – Fighting Prior the Drop of the Puck", with violations "reported to the Proper Authorities"; and Rule 5.6 Pre-Game Warm-Up on the Ice, "No penalties are to be assessed but a report of the incident must be submitted to the Proper Authorities" — word for word in the 2025/26 v1.1 and 2026/27 editions · IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27 (Version 1.0, June 2026) — the current edition, read here for three things only: Rule 27.8, whose pointer now reads Table 11; Appendix IV Tables 11 and 14, the renumbered goalkeeper's-penalties and goalkeeper-interference tables, whose rows were read in full against the 2025/26 book's Tables 13 and 16 and carry identical wording, identical rule references and identical answers; and Rule 69.1, whose crease-stoppage sentence is word for word the 2025/26 book's. Nothing else in it has been read for this document, so the rest of the IIHF layer here is the 2025/26 book's · IIHF Situation Handbook 2025/26 (Version 1.1, August 2025) (PDF) — Situations 27.5, 27.6, 27.7, 27.9, 27.10 and 27.11 (restricted area and the centre red line), 63.29 (a stick save deflected over the glass — "No. The goalkeeper was simply making a save and did not 'shoot' the puck over the glass", identical in the 2026/27 edition), 63.33 (freeze after a dump-in), 67.2 (a goalkeeper who picks the puck up and throws it "with the blocker hand right to a teammate positioned near the top of the circle along the boards" — "This is deemed to be a minor penalty to the goalkeeper for handling the puck", on Rule 67.3(III), and word for word the same in the 2025/26 v1.0 and the 2026/27 Handbooks), 69.1, 69.2, 69.3 and 69.5 (crease screens, giving ground, the glove in the face, and the penalty that falls on the goalkeeper), 67.5 (a goalkeeper who leaves the stick in front of the net and is still on the way off — "Since the goalkeeper is still on the ice you cannot award a goal only a minor penalty", identical in the 2026/27 edition), 81.5 (what waves off an icing) · IIHF Situation Handbook 2026/27 (Version 1.0, June 2026) (PDF) — Situation 10.26 (a lost or broken stick propelled at the puck, and the goal disallowed only on intent) and the Foreword's "in case of any contradictions, the valid IIHF Rulebook is always the basis." Situation 10.26 has no counterpart in the 2025/26 Handbook, whose Rule 10 situations end at 10.25; of the other Situations cited in this document, only 27.5, 27.6, 27.7, 27.9, 27.10, 27.11, 63.29, 67.2 and 67.5 have been re-checked against the 2026/27 edition — all nine are unchanged there, and 27.6, 27.7, 27.9, 27.10 and 27.11 still answer with "Rule 27.8" against the Rule Book's 27.7; the remainder have not been re-checked, and the rest of the IIHF layer here is 2025/26 · IHUK In-House Rules 2026-27, Revision 1 (published 25/07/26) — the current British document: its Introduction, which adopts the IIHF Rule Book "Version 1.1, published July 2025" (the 2025/26 book), applies it "in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (the Home Countries)" alongside the BUIHA, calls the In-House Rules "the overriding interpretation of how the IIHF Rule Book is to be applied domestically", and names no Situation Handbook; Rule 9.12 (neck laceration protectors and their enforcement, "mandatory for all players in all IIHF categories and IHUK/EIH/SIH competitions"); Rule 37 and Rule 38 (no video review, no coach's challenge); the Rule 69.1 amendment; Rule 64 (Embellishment, one line: "Adding a misconduct to a minor. The required call is now 2 plus 10.", in a Section 9 carrying no "Applicable Leagues" qualifier, and absent from the 2025-26 edition); Rule 84 (overtime is not universal); and the section of rules applying specifically to BUIHA games · IHUK In-House Rules 2025-26, Revision 1 — superseded, and read alongside the current edition only to establish what changed. Full amendment list and the rest of the British layer: UK and England Rules

🇬🇧 Elite League, read 22 September 2026: Motorpoint EIHL Casebook 26-27, Section D, from the League's own Casebook page — the Preamble (its interpretations "will replace or in specific cases, supersede, the ruling that is currently within the IIHF Rule Book", the IIHF book ruling "⁠[f]or all rules not mentioned"); Rule 64 (the plain-minor tariff sentence, the "Goaltenders" embellishment paragraph and the DOPS fining note); Rule 69 (the "EIHL Addition to the IIHF Rule Book" and its three criteria); Rules 37 and 38.5 (video review and the coach's challenge, both retained); Rule 9.5 and Rule 9.12 (mouth guard recommended but not mandatory for goalkeepers; neck laceration protector mandatory, warning then minor, and the goalkeeper's throat protector on the facemask chin); Rule 10.5 ("No request for measurement of a player's stick will be allowed"); Rule 11.9 (administrative only); and Rule 84.4 (the shooting team's goaltender during a shootout) ⚠️ The Handbook is linked above as the versioned PDF because the IIHF's officiating hub page (iihf.com/en/statichub/officiating), where it used to be reached, no longer resolves — it answers HTTP 200 with the IIHF's own error page (re-checked 29 August 2026). The Handbook itself is unaffected.

🇬🇧 Discipline in England and Wales — retrieved 22 October 2026: Department of Player Safety Rules and Procedures 2026-2027 (PDF) (IHUK; in force from 1 September 2026) — Section 5 for its reach, IHUK-registered participants whose club is based in England or Wales, with games in Scotland and Northern Ireland under their own policies; Appendix C.1, whose mandatory one-game bans for boarding, checking from behind, an illegal head check, a discriminatory slur and fighting in the last five minutes are enforced at every level the player plays at and give way only to a higher tariff; the late-fight row of the Appendix C.2 tariff bands ("Last 5 minutes, OT & or End of game"), which apply to all leagues; and Section 11, under which a suspension also costs one game in every other league or age group the player is registered in. The document does not say in terms which on-ice call triggers a ban, so the game misconduct and boarding major named here are a reading of it. Whether it reaches Elite League fixtures is not stated; the Elite League's Casebook names its own Department of Player Safety.

Technique and terminology: USA Hockey Goaltending – Goalie Terms That Really Count (Mitch Korn) — source for challenging, square, front/back door, telescope, T-push, shuffle, half butterfly, paddle down, cushioning, five- and six-hole, Y-theory, flow, and cutting down the angle — "The three steps are (1) being out … (2) being square … (3) being set (stationary if possible)" (note: Korn numbers those steps but does not rank them, and his shuffle definition specifies no skate edge) · BVHS Goalie Coaches Tactics and Skill Development Resource Guide, updated May 2026 (PDF) — quoted verbatim for the shuffle on flats, the RVH off-post anchor at 45 degrees, the "close gap" school on screens, the breakaway checklist ("chest and hips, not their stick or eyes"), the refusal to sort goalies by style ("not to create identical goalies or force athletes into one specific style"), sacrificing depth only against a back-door or breakaway-deke threat, and — in its How to Warm-up chapter, read 2 September 2026 — the warm-up claim quoted in The load goaltending puts on your hips ("The intense butterfly drops and side-to-side pushes require loose muscles. Jumping straight into live shots without a sweat drastically increases the risk of pulled groin or hip flexor muscles") together with the eight items of its Goalie Pre-Practice Checklist. ⚠️ That warm-up claim is a coaching manual's, not a study's, and the manual attaches no figure to it — searched in the full text, it contains no injury rate, no incidence figure and no reference to the adductors, and none has been supplied here. The measured finding it is set beside — proximal adductor injuries as the largest injury category and the largest source of days missed among NHL goaltenders (Keshen and colleagues, 2025, American Journal of Sports Medicine) — is Conditioning and Recovery's, and its numbers, its population and its caveats stay there · USA Hockey Goaltending – In the Crease: Controlling Rebounds (Joe Bertagna) — source for the rebound priority order and the soft stick · USA Hockey – Five Tips for Adult League Goalies — hands out front, playing within the crease, the shuffle, the "cone of shame" · IIHF Coaching – Butterfly Slide · Butterfly style — Wikipedia — VH definition, butterfly recovery, and how the terms profly, hybrid and stand-up are used. ⚠️ Used for terminology only. Its sentence calling the profly "the style most commonly used and taught" cites a 2004 NHL.com coaching Q&A that does not contain the claim or the word "profly", so no statement about which style dominates rests on it here · Goaltender — Wikipedia

Post play and modern practice: InGoal Magazine – How Sweden Invented the RVH — Linda Blomquist and Daniel Henriksson, Luleå, 2010, and the three problems with VH · InGoal Magazine – Why Tuukka Rask Uses Shin on Post for Reverse VH — Bob Essensa on seal points and getting stuck · InGoal Magazine – Brady Robinson: When to Prioritize Depth on Short-Side Shots · InGoal Magazine – The Modern Science of Goalie Tracking and Object Interception — tracking as object interception, smooth pursuits and saccades

Coaching and the mental side: USA Hockey Goaltending – In the Crease: Spotting Confidence Problems (Mitch Korn) · USA Hockey – Coaching the Crease (Kevin Reiter, Jeff Blashill) — "set, then shoot", and goaltending as much a mental position as a technical one · USA Hockey – Tips on Coaching Goalies (Corey Schwab, Kevin Reiter) — why dropping automatically fails for smaller goalies, and Schwab on wanting young goalies "to learn how to react and not just drop and hope they stop the puck"

Head and neck at the boards — read 22 September 2026, and read because this document sends a goaltender into a corner race and said nothing about arriving there: USA Hockey, Heads Up Hockey Program Guide (PDF) — "How spinal injuries happen in hockey", restating Charles H Tator et.al., Spinal Injuries Due To Hockey, Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences; 11:34-41 for "almost all on-ice cervical spine injuries have been due to the head being slightly flexed (head down) while making head-on contact with the boards or goal post", and the guide's framing of a coach's influence on "the safety of every player on the ice" · USA Hockey, Introduction To Body Contact (PDF) — its Basic Principles of Heads Up Hockey page, "Rule One: Heads Up – Don't Duck!" and "Hit the boards or goal posts with an arm, a leg, or anything but your head first." ⚠️ Both documents were searched in full for goaltenders and neither instructs one. Goalkeeper, goalie, goaltender and netminder return zero from the Program Guide; from Introduction To Body Contact the first returns one, at its 16/18-and-Under curriculum table ("forwards, defensemen and the goalkeeper"), and the other three return zero. So the instruction reaches a goalkeeper through the breadth of the wording, not because either book addressed one. ⚠️ The narrower boards posture is not carried across. The skates-parallel, forearm-and-hip teaching set out in Body Contact and Battles comes from Introduction To Body Contact's sections on being checked at the boards, which are written for a skater taking a check; no source held here — the BVHS goalie manual included, whose 45 pages carry no contact section and whose only boards material is stick-and-puck work on the wall — states a board-contact posture for a goaltender. That is a gap in the sources, not a gap that has been filled by inference.

Communication: On-Ice Communication and its sources, including The Coaches Site – Goalie Breakout Calls (Kelvin Cech)

Helmets and face masks — the four books read in the primary text on 1 September 2026: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) Rule 9.6 — the lost-mask stoppage and its possession condition, the minor for removing the mask "in order to secure a stoppage of play", and the awarded goal where it is done "when the opposing team is on a breakaway, during the course of a penalty shot or shootout attempt" — read with Rule 25.4, which lists the awarded-goal infractions during a penalty shot and does not repeat the mask clause, and Rule 22.1 (a misconduct is ten minutes) · IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (PDF) Rule 9.6, the same two limbs with the breakaway qualified as one meeting the penalty-shot criteria "except for a foul from behind", identical in the 2026/27 edition, and Rule 25.4, which does carry the clause — "or removes their face mask to force an interruption" · USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 (PDF) Rule 304(e) (the immediate stoppage in all classifications, the goalkeeper not ruled off before the face-off, and the delay-of-game minor reaching "a goalkeeper or skater"), Rule 610(e), and Rule 404(a) for the length of a misconduct, plus the sled-hockey goalkeeper equipment note in the Disabled Hockey section · Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) Rule 3.6(d) — the goaltender stoppage, its imminent-scoring-chance exception, its equipment list reaching the blocker, trapper and skate blade, and the delay-of-game routing for deliberate removal — with Rule 4.11(a)(iii) and Interpretation 11 to Rules 10.6(a) and 3.6. ⚠️ Two negative statements in that passage were established by search, not assumed. That neither the NHL nor the IIHF writes a last-two-minutes or overtime limb rests on reading every occurrence of "helmet", "face mask" and "facemask" in both books: in the NHL book the goalkeeper provision is Rule 9.6 alone, the rest being Rule 46.6 (helmets before a fight), Rule 51 (roughing, for removing an opponent's helmet) and the reference tables; in the IIHF book, Rules 9.6, 24.5, 25.4, 42, 46.12 and 51. That USA Hockey publishes no interpretation of 610(e) rests on reading all eleven Casebook Situations printed under Rule 610, none of which mentions a helmet or a facemask. The lettering used for 610(e) is the printed body's, per the convention flagged earlier in this document; the Casebook prints the same clause under the same letter. A fifth book was searched for the same stoppage and writes none: CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF), read 2 September 2026 in the 2020 printing (every CARHA rule cited in this document is unchanged in the 2026 book) — its Rule 24(f) stops play "⁠[w]hen a goalkeeper loses their helmet" and prices deliberate removal as a delay-of-game minor, or a penalty shot on a breakaway or in the last two minutes or overtime, its Rule 24(d) requires that "⁠[g]oalkeepers must still wear a full face mask" — the single occurrence of the word mask in the book — and its remaining face-protection clauses (23(d), removal for identification; 24(d)'s Notes, on CSA certification and insurance) are about what is worn, not about what a shot does to it. The phrases "hard shot", "dazed", "struck in the head", "head by the puck" and "hit on the face" return nothing from it, and it has no disabled-hockey section for a clause to sit in, as USA Hockey's does. What every one of the five books searched for it does have is a general injured-player stoppage that reaches a goalkeeper, and the text above now says so. CARHA Rule 20(d) — "When a player is injured so that they cannot continue play or go to their bench, the play shall be stopped immediately" — with Note 1 adding the widest discretion of the five, "Where there is suspicion that a player has sustained an injury, the Referee may stop the play immediately" (no serious, no obvious); it reaches a goalkeeper on the book's own definition of Players — "Except where special rules apply, the goalkeeper is to be considered as one of the players" — corroborated by Rule 20(a)'s "a player, other than a goalkeeper" and Note 2's "excluding the goalkeeper", both carve-outs that only make sense if the word otherwise includes one. NHL Rule 8.1 stops play for a player "injured so that he cannot continue play or go to his bench"; IIHF Rule 8.1 is that rule in the IIHF's own words, "injured so that they cannot continue play or go to their Players' bench" — the noun differs as well as the pronoun. Both allow an immediate stoppage where "it is obvious that a player has sustained a serious injury", and each book's Rule 8.2 presupposes the result in a sentence the two do write alike — "When play has been stopped by the Referee or Linesperson due to an injured goalkeeper". USA Hockey Rule 206(a) is the same, its "A player other than a goalkeeper, whose injury appears serious enough to warrant the stoppage of play" being a carve-out from a consequence rather than from the stoppage. Hockey Canada Rule 2.4(b) likewise, with Note 1 at "suspicion that a player has sustained serious injury" and Note 2 excluding the goaltender only from leaving the ice. None of these is written about a mask, and that is the whole point: each asks an official to judge that a player is hurt, which is what a goalkeeper behind a cage supplies least evidence for — so the distinction that matters is the trigger, not whether a stoppage exists. An earlier reading of this passage recorded only the two Notes, called them discretionary and concluded that the books wrote no stoppage; that was too narrow on both counts, because the operative clauses of 8.1, 206(a), 2.4(b) and 20(d) are mandatory once their threshold is met. CARHA governs CARHA-affiliated adult leagues only.

The goaltender in an altercation, fifth book — CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF), read 7 September 2026: Rule 37 (Goalkeeper Penalties) — 37(c), the minor for leaving the goal crease during a fight, and 37(d), the game misconduct for leaving it to join in, act as a peacemaker or take part in another fight during the same stoppage, read as a window because a page banner splits 37(d) between its first line and the rest; Rule 59 (Fighting and Roughing) — 59(a)'s match penalty for the instigator or aggressor, its Note 2, which supplies the neutral-location route and reads "The goalkeepers must stay in their goal creases or proceed to a neutral zone designated by the Referee" with a game misconduct for "refusing to do so after being instructed by the Referee", 59(b)'s game misconduct for any player who joins in or acts as a peacemaker, and 59(d)'s automatic suspension "until dealt with by the Chairman", which is written to players "assessed fighting penalties" and which this document therefore does not apply to a peacemaker's game misconduct; and Rule 32 — 32(b), what a game misconduct costs (dressing room plus a report to the Chairman), 32(c), which exempts Rule 46 game misconducts from automatic suspension unless assessed in the last 10 minutes of the game, when the player sits at least the next game, and 32(d), whose automatic one-game suspension attaches to a game misconduct earned by way of a major. ⚠️ The book governs CARHA-affiliated leagues and is not a rec-hockey standard; how much adult recreational hockey runs on it is a question about leagues rather than about books, and this document has no count for it.

The tier for charging a goaltender, fifth book — CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF), read 22 September 2026: Rule 52 (Charging) — 52(a), the minor "or, at the discretion of the Referee, a Major penalty" for charging any opponent, with its Note that "⁠[i]f more than two steps or strides are taken, it shall be considered a charge"; 52(b), the mandatory limb — "A Major penalty and a Game Misconduct shall be assessed to any player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within the goal crease or who injures an opponent as a result of a charge" — read against 52(a) for the shall / discretion of the Referee contrast the text relies on; and the Note to 52(b), "A goalkeeper is NOT 'fair game' just because they are outside the goal crease area. A penalty for interference or charging (Minor or Major) shall be called where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper", which is what puts the tier back to the referee outside the crease. Rule 54 (Cross-Checking) — 54(c), "A Major penalty and Game Misconduct shall be assessed to any player who crosschecks a goalkeeper while they are in the goal crease, or who injures an opponent as a result of a cross-check", read against 54(a)'s "Minor penalty or, at the discretion of the Referee" for the same contrast, with 54(b), "Any player who strikes an opponent above the normal height of the opponents shoulders with a cross-check shall incur a Major penalty and Game Misconduct, whether or not injury results", and 54(d), the match penalty for one who "deliberately attempts to or deliberately injures an opponent with a cross-check"; Rule 53 (Checking from Behind) — 53(b), the match penalty where a player is "high sticked, cross-checked, body-checked, pushed, hit or propelled in any manner from behind into the boards or goal net, in such a way that the player is unable to protect or defend themselves", with its Note that referees are "instructed not to substitute other penalties when a player is checked from behind in any manner"; and Rule 66 (Interference/Protection of the Goalkeeper) — 66(e), "A Major penalty shall be imposed on any player who injures an opponent by interference", read alongside Rule 30(a) (Major Penalties), "A player, including a goalkeeper, assessed a Major penalty shall be ruled off the ice for the remainder of the game (Major penalty plus Game Misconduct)", with its Note excepting only "an ACCIDENTAL high stick", an exception the Note to Rule 62(b) withdraws where the high stick injures — which is why 66(e)'s silence about a game misconduct is not a cheaper tier. Read 24 September 2026. Rule 16(i) Note 1 (read 29 September 2026): "In games where teams have only one goalkeeper dressed and a penalty is assessed to the goalkeeper, which causes ejection from the game, at the discretion of the Referee, the goalkeeper may be allowed to remain in the game and the time penalty will be served by a team member, who was on the ice at the time of the infraction." Cited beside 54(b) for the same act in other books: USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 (PDF) Rule 620(b), with Rule 620's Note bringing the stick inside head contact; and Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) Interpretation 2 to Rule 9.2(b), Rule 7.6(b) with its Interpretation 2 and 7.6(a)'s minor for accidental head contact (minor and female hockey), and Rule 7.7(b) (Junior and Senior, which prints no such interpretation), each cross-check paragraph reading "whether or not injury results". Read 1 October 2026. ⚠️ The book governs CARHA-affiliated leagues and is not a rec-hockey standard; how much adult recreational hockey runs on it is a question about leagues rather than about books, and this document has no count for it. Also read in it on 14 October 2026: Rule 49(a), a minor or a major for any player who "does not avert body contact with an opponent", and Rule 50, head contact — a double minor or a major and game misconduct for intentional contact (50(b)), a match for deliberate injury (50(c)). Also read 18 October 2026: Rule 62 (High Sticks) — 62(b), a major for contact "above the normal height of the opponent's shoulders" "whether or not injury results", with its Note on the game misconduct, and 62(c), "A Match penalty shall be assessed to any player who deliberately attempts to injure or deliberately injures an opponent with a high stick"; and, for which fouls carry a discretionary major, Rules 54(a), 59(c), 63(a), 64, 80(a) and 86(a). Also read 22 October 2026: Rule 48(a), "A Match penalty shall be assessed to any player or team official who deliberately injures or attempts to injure an opponent" "in any manner", and 80(d), the match for a slash meant to injure.

The route a player arrives on you by — read in the primary text on 24 September 2026: IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (PDF), Rules 43.1, 43.2 and 43.3; 42.1’s superseding sentence; 48.1, 48.2 and 48.3; 23.1; Rule 5.1 (“any reference to “Player” shall refer to both skaters and goalkeepers”); Appendix IV Tables 6 and 7; and Appendix II’s Vulnerable Position entry, whose wording is “A skater…”. The phrase “match penalty” does not appear anywhere in that book. IIHF Situation Handbook 2025/26 (Version 1.1, August 2025) (PDF) prints “No situation” under Rule 43, and its Situation 42.2 leaves the charging tier to the referee — “[a]t the discretion of the Referee, it is possible to assess a minor, major or major plus game misconduct”. Motorpoint EIHL Casebook 26-27 (PDF) was searched for its penalty sections: it heads them Rule 41, Rule 42 (twice — the second is Elbowing) and Rule 46, and writes none for Rule 43 or Rule 48, so on those two routes the IIHF text stands unamended. The same act was read in three more books on the same day: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) Rules 43.1, 43.2, 43.3, 43.4 and 43.5; USA Hockey Official Playing Rules 2025-29 (PDF) Rule 608(a), (b) and (c) with its Note, whose “This includes body checking or pushing an opponent from behind in open ice or directly into the boards or goal frame” is the sentence that puts open ice on the same footing as the boards; and Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) Rule 7.5(a) to (e); for a hit that drives a skater head-first into the boards or goal frame in front of your net and reaches the head, Rule 7.6 and Rule 7.7, preambles and (a) to (c), read 15 October 2026. CARHA’s 53(b) is quoted from the reading already recorded above. The sixth book was read for this route on 25 September 2026 — PWHL Official Rule Book 2025-2026 (PDF), Rules 42.1 to 42.5 and 43.1 to 43.5: its charging ladder runs clause for clause with the NHL’s, 42.2, 42.3 and 42.4 each a “may assess” at the Referee’s discretion and 42.5 the face-or-head game misconduct; and on the route from behind, 43.2 is “There is no provision for a minor penalty for checking from behind”, 43.3’s major “shall be assessed” and applies “anywhere on the playing surface”, 43.4’s match penalty is the Referee’s “may assess”, and 43.5 makes the game misconduct mandatory once a major is applied. ⚠️ Whether Rule 43 reaches a goaltender at all is a reading and is disclosed as one in the text; only the rules named here were read, and CARHA Rule 53(a) — including its “[a] Match penalty could also be assessed under this rule” — and 53(b) with its Note were read for the same act on 24 September 2026.

Putting the puck out of play, fifth book — CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF), read 23 September 2026: Rule 55 (Delay of Game) — the goalkeeper limb, "A Minor penalty shall be assessed to any goalkeeper who shoots or bats the puck out of the playing surface with their stick", which carries no defending-zone condition and no deliberateness wording of its own, and its (Note 1) excusing a puck put out "where there is no glass (such as at the players’ bench or penalty bench, or if the puck touches the glass or deflects off a player or official)". Rule 83 (Throwing Stick) and Rule 46 (Abuse of Officials, Unsportsmanlike Conduct/Misconduct) were both read for a rung above the minor for a puck shot out after a whistle, and neither writes one: 83(d)’s misconduct is for a player who "deliberately throws a stick or any part thereof or any object, outside the playing area", and 46(b)(3)’s is for one who "intentionally knocks or shoots the puck out of the reach of an official who is retrieving it" — a different offence, as the NHL’s and IIHF’s Rule 39.4 counterpart is. The limb is printed under Rule 55(a) in this edition’s layout but is a paragraph of its own, so it is cited here as Rule 55. CARHA-affiliated leagues only. Also read in it on 14 October 2026: Rule 66(f), a goalkeeper's minor for piled snow or obstacles that "would tend to prevent a goal", Rule 75(d), a goalkeeper's minor for deliberately dropping or throwing the puck on the goal netting, and Rule 36(c), an awarded goal for the same snow or obstacles once the goalkeeper is removed.

Icing and the goaltender's wave-off — the five books read in the primary text on 15 September 2026: NHL Official Rules 2025-2026 (PDF) Rule 81.3, whose three paragraphs are the whole of that book's goalkeeper limb — the wave-off for a goalkeeper who "feigns playing the puck, attempts to play the puck, or skates in the direction of the puck on an icing at any time", the extra-attacker carve-out, and the retreat-to-the-crease carve-out · IIHF Official Rule Book 2025/26 (PDF) Rule 81.3, the same three paragraphs in the IIHF's own words · USA Hockey Playing Rules 2025-29 Rule 624(b), whose five nullification conditions contain no goaltender-movement limb, with 624(b)(5) writing "except the goalkeeper" into the able-to-play-but-did-not wave-off and 624(b)(4) reaching a touch by "an opposing player" · Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF) Rule 6.7(c), five limbs with no goaltender limb among them and 6.7(c)(iii)'s "except the goaltender"; Interpretation 8 to Rule 6.7(c)(iii), the minor-and-female-hockey ruling quoted above — the book prints "RULING" on its own line above "ICING.", which is why it is quoted here without a colon; Interpretation 9 to the same clause, "The goaltender is not obligated to play the puck in a delayed icing situation"; and Rule 6.7(e)(vi), the goaltender limb that exists only inside hybrid icing, which is itself scoped to "⁠[i]n categories of U18AAA, Junior, and at the option of the Member in Senior" · CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF) Rule 65, read (a) to (h) in full together with the book's one Rule 65 situation — no goaltender-movement limb anywhere in it, 65(f) the "except the goalkeeper" exclusion and 65(g)(2) the touch. ⚠️ Which Members have taken Hockey Canada's Senior option, and how much hockey is played under each of these books, are questions about leagues rather than about books, and this document has no count for either. CARHA governs CARHA-affiliated leagues only.

The trapezoid and the centre red line, fifth book — CARHA Hockey Official Rule Book 2026 (PDF), read 17 September 2026: the words trapezoid, restricted area and designated area do not appear anywhere in the book — searched in full, not merely in the goalkeeper rules — so CARHA is treated in the text as a third book with no trapezoid, alongside USA Hockey and Hockey Canada. Rule 58(b) is CARHA's freeze restriction in place of a trapezoid: "A Minor penalty shall be assessed to any goalkeeper who deliberately falls on or gathers the puck into their body, or holds or places the puck against any part of the goal or boards when the puck is behind the goal line and the goalkeeper's body is entirely outside the boundaries of the goal crease area." It has no four-trigger structure and no privileged-area carve-out; the crease-boundary test is the whole rule. Rule 37(e) is CARHA's centre-red-line rule: "If a goalkeeper intentionally participates in the play in any manner beyond the centre red line, the goalie shall be assessed a Minor penalty." Its Minor is written into the rule itself, unlike Hockey Canada's routing through Interference. Rule 37(e) writes no skate-position test — the phrase does not appear near it, and the only skate-position language found in the book is Rule 72(c), the general off-side rule, which is unrelated — so CARHA is not added to the two-North-American-amateur-books skate-versus-puck comparison drawn elsewhere in this passage. CARHA governs CARHA-affiliated leagues only.

The trapezoid and the centre red line, sixth book — PWHL Official Rule Book 2025-2026 (PDF), read 23 September 2026: Rule 1.8 (Goalkeeper's Area — "No restricted Goalkeeper's Area, which will be known as a ‘trapezoid’ will be enforced") and Rule 27.8 (Restricted Area — "The PWHL does not apply a restricted area for goalkeepers") switch the trapezoid off in terms. ⚠️ Two inherited limbs still contradict that switch-off, and they are recorded rather than smoothed away: Rule 65.2(viii) — delay of game is Rule 65 in this book, Rule 63 being Slashing — still carries the NHL's "On a goalkeeper who plays the puck outside of the designated area behind the net" with the NHL's skate-contact Note under it, and the summary table of goalkeeper penalties still lists "Playing puck in restricted area" against Rule 1.8, the rule that abolishes it — which is why the text tells a PWHL goaltender to stay inside the old trapezoid until the league says otherwise. Rule 27.7 (Participating in the Play Over the Center Red Line) is the NHL's 27.7 with this book's pronouns, keeping "The position of the puck is the determining factor", and Rule 65.2(i) and 65.2(vi) are the NHL's freeze clauses in the NHL's words. ⚠️ Rule numbers are cited here and page numbers are not, deliberately: eleven pages of this PDF carry the previous season's running header, so a page-based citation from this book can date it a full season wrong — the edition here is taken from the title page. The book's goalkeeper rules beyond those named have not been read for this document.

Women’s professional — the mask, broken-stick and icing passages, read in the primary text on 23 September 2026: PWHL Official Rule Book 2025-2026 (PDF). The PWHL renumbers against the NHL from Rule 52 on, but Rules 9.6 and 10.4 keep their numbers, while the NHL’s 63, 81, 82 and 87 are its 65, 83, 84 and 89. Rule 9.6 prices deliberate removal of the mask "in order to secure a stoppage of play" as a delay-of-game minor, and removal "when the opposing Team is on a breakaway, during the course of a penalty shot or shootout attempt" as an awarded goal; a mask lost involuntarily stops play on the NHL’s possession test. Rule 10.4: "A goalkeeper may continue to play with a broken stick until a stoppage of play or until she has one legally provided to them by a Teammate" — which is why the NHL and IIHF no longer stand alone on that permission. Rule 65.8 carries the shoot-in freeze with the same two exceptions as the NHL’s 63.8, and 83.4 and 89.1 the post-icing line-change and time-out bars. Rule 21.1, read 17 October 2026, prints the NHL's general match penalty for a deliberate attempt to injure word for word.

James Bloom, "Goaltender", Learning to Play the Game. https://learn-ice-hockey.com/positions/goaltender/ — licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

<a href="https://learn-ice-hockey.com/positions/goaltender/">Goaltender</a> by <a href="https://github.com/jamesdbloom">James Bloom</a>, licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC 4.0</a>.

@misc{positions-goaltender,
  author  = {James Bloom},
  title   = {Goaltender},
  howpublished = {Learning to Play the Game},
  url     = {https://learn-ice-hockey.com/positions/goaltender/},
  note    = {Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}