The Basics
Short podcast episodes on the core principles of the game, suitable for newer players or younger players.
Start here. Each episode covers a few things to master first, in plain words. When you are ready to go deeper, every guide on this site has a longer Playing principles episode and a Conversation episode.
On this page
All 13 episodes, in order
1. How a game works
Key points
- Stay out of the crease, its red edge included, and never go into the goalie.
- In warm-ups and practice, never shoot at a goalie who isn't ready: facing you, set, with their stick down.
- Say "our end" and "their end": the zones belong to your team, and teams swap ends between periods.
- Keep your shifts short and go hard, and change when the puck is heading away from your net.
- When the whistle goes, stop playing the puck and leave it for the official.
- Offside: the puck must cross the blue line into their zone before you do, so keep your back skate dragging on the line until it has.
- Avoid icing: carry the puck past the centre red line before sending it deep, and ask which line your league uses.
- Keep your stick on the puck, not the other player; if you are beaten, move your feet instead of reaching.
Go deeper: Getting Started, Rink Map, Rules Primer
2. Your gear and staying safe
Key points
- Wear your own helmet, never a second-hand one, with the chin strap done up every time; replace it after a serious knock.
- Find out what your league requires, and wear a neck guard and a mouthguard every time you are on the ice.
- Pads and skates should fit, not be big: check pads in your skating stance, and keep your skate edges sharp.
- Keep your head up, meet the boards on an angle, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you, or duck.
- Never put your stick or body into anyone's back: if you can see their numbers, pull up and play the puck.
- If someone may have hurt their head or neck, don't move them except to keep their airway clear, leave their helmet on, and get help called.
- A suspected concussion means off the ice for the day, and a medical professional before playing again, however fine you feel.
Go deeper: Equipment, Body Contact and Battles
3. Skating
Key points
- Stay low, with your knees over your toes, and keep your eyes up, not just your chin.
- Go into the boards on an angle, head up, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you, or duck.
- Win races with short, quick first steps, pushing along the ice, and change speed on purpose: glide, then burst.
- Train your outside edges, and cross over when you have room but turn tight when you don't.
- Learn to stop on both sides, then go straight back the other way instead of looping.
- Falling onto the ice, tuck your chin; sliding into the boards, keep your head up and meet them skates or side first.
- If you might have a concussion, come off, tell someone, and stay off until a medical professional says you can play.
Go deeper: Skating
4. Carrying the puck
Key points
- Play with your head up, by building feel for the puck until your eyes can come up on their own.
- Keep the puck on your far side, your body between it and the other player, low and wide, without pushing or grabbing.
- Decide where the puck goes before you reach it: a pass, a rim hard along the boards, a reverse back the other way, or a chip.
- On the boards, take contact along your side, head up, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you, or duck.
- In your own end and through the middle, don't stickhandle: move the puck.
- Look for a pass before you try a move; if you take a defender on, make them turn with one good fake.
- When the puck arrives, keep striding: push it ahead and skate onto it rather than slowing down.
Go deeper: Puck Handling
5. Passing and catching the puck
Key points
- Move the puck, then move yourself to a new open spot.
- Look over your shoulder while the pass is coming, and decide your next play before it lands.
- Pass to where your teammate is going, on the side away from the other player.
- Without the puck, get into a clear lane on time, show your blade flat on the ice, and call for it.
- Cushion the puck with soft hands, and push your first touch into your next play.
- Catch the puck with your body open to the ice, already facing your next play.
- In your own end, never pass across the front of your goal, and ask your coach which other passes are allowed.
Go deeper: Passing and Receiving, Scanning and Anticipation
6. Shooting, and going to the net
Key points
- Shoot from the slot, the area right in front of the net, or pass to a teammate who is there.
- In a game, shoot quickly from where you are, before the goalie is set, without stopping your feet.
- Find a lane before you shoot: a shot that hits a shin pad is worse than no shot.
- Make the goalie move first, then aim where they aren't; some coaches teach the corners instead, so ask yours.
- Screen from just outside the crease, never touching the goalie, stick below everyone's shoulders, head up, and never duck.
- Follow every shot to the net and shoot rebounds at once, playing the puck, never the goalie.
- In warm-ups, keep shots off your goalie's head, and never shoot at the other team's goalie.
Go deeper: Shooting
7. Playing without the puck
Key points
- Notice the moment the puck changes hands and switch jobs at once; when your team wins it, go.
- Be available, not just unmarked: blade flat on the ice, a clear lane to the puck, and a call.
- Give the carrier two options at different angles: a triangle, not a line.
- Skate to open space, not to the puck, and arrive late with speed; in your own end, get there now.
- Drive the net hard, stop just outside the crease, and never go into the goalie.
- On a loose puck, one player goes, one supports and someone stays back, so call who is going.
- At the boards, arrive on an angle, head up; never turn your back to anyone coming at you, never duck, and never push or hit anyone in the back.
Go deeper: Playing Without the Puck, Puck Support and Spacing
8. Defending
Key points
- Stay goal side, between your attacker and your net, and don't chase unless your team sends you.
- Watch your attacker, not the puck; on the carrier, watch their chest and hips.
- Keep your stick flat on the ice in the passing lane, never across a player.
- Start skating backwards early and keep the gap, the space between you and the carrier, shrinking without lunging; ask your coach how tight.
- Take the middle and steer the carrier toward the boards with your skating, never into the boards or their back.
- When the puck is lost, sprint back to the inside of your attacker, and make sure somebody has the middle.
- When the rush ends, find the front of your own net first.
Go deeper: Core Principles, Defending the Rush
9. Playing centre
Key points
- In your own end, swing low so your defenceman has a safe pass, unless your coach wants you leaving early.
- Keep the slot in front of your net filled: if you help in the corner, call a winger in behind you, unless you play man-on-man.
- Under pressure, put the puck to the outside, and on the boards never turn your back to anyone coming at you, or duck.
- Own the middle: carry through it head up, and coming back, take the late player trailing the carrier, on their inside.
- In their end, shoot from the slot, screen the goalie, and go for rebounds, never into the goalie.
- On the forecheck, chasing the puck in their end, arrive under control and steer the carrier, rather than running at them.
- Take the faceoffs that matter seriously, and agree with your wingers where you will win the puck.
Go deeper: Centre
10. Playing wing
Key points
- Going up the ice, stay wide in your lane, so one defender can't cover two of you.
- Crash the net on every shot, head up, stopping just outside the crease and never going into the goalie.
- With a good shot and a teammate at the net, lean toward shooting; pass if a teammate has an open side.
- In your own end, stay high, level with their defenceman on your side; when your team wins the puck, come down the boards. Ask your coach.
- On the boards, keep the puck on your far side, feet moving, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you, or duck.
- When the other team gets the puck, sprint back, pick up the late player arriving behind the play, and never go into anyone's back.
Go deeper: Winger
11. Playing defence
Key points
- Stay goal side, between the player you are covering and your net.
- Work as a pair, one on the puck and one in front of your goal, unless your team plays man-on-man.
- At your net, get inside first, then lift their stick low on the shaft, never at the hands; never shove or put your stick across anyone.
- Never carry or pass the puck across the front of your own goal: go behind the net, or above the tops of the circles if your team does.
- Going back for the puck, look over your shoulder, and never turn your back to anyone coming at you, or duck.
- When you win it, look up the ice and move it early; if nothing is on, off the glass, never over it.
- Win the gap, the space to the carrier, by skating backwards early and steering with your feet; never put your stick or body into anyone's back.
- In their end, keep the puck in at the blue line, and only one of you goes low at a time.
Go deeper: Defender
12. Playing goal
Key points
- Get on the line from the puck to the middle of your net: out, square and set as the shot leaves.
- Choose your depth before the shot: out against a lone shooter, back when the puck is close or a pass is open.
- Watch the puck all the way into your body, and move as soon as a pass leaves the stick.
- Kill rebounds if you can; if you can't, steer them wide to the corners, never into the middle.
- Stay on your feet until going down is the answer, and on a breakaway, be the last one to move.
- Talk early, short and every time, using the call words your team has agreed.
- Behind your net, keep it simple, and never pass the puck up the middle.
- Have your own mask, even if you borrow the rest, and wear a neck guard.
- After a hard shot off your mask, tell someone at the next stoppage; if you might be concussed, come off until a medical professional says you can play.
Go deeper: Goaltender
13. Talking, teamwork and bouncing back
If you ever have any thought of harming yourself or of suicide, get help now, tonight: call your local emergency number (999 in the UK and Ireland, 112 across the EU, 911 in the US and Canada). Crisis lines and where to get help.
Key points
- Call "man on" early when someone is closing on the puck carrier, and say "time" only when you are sure.
- Keep calls short, use names, be loud, and answer every call.
- Be where your linemates expect you, and when a teammate leaves their spot to help, fill it, then get back to your own spot.
- Keep giving a struggling teammate the puck, and never show frustration at them.
- After a mistake, run your reset, a short routine to let it go, and name your next job before your next shift.
- Say nothing to the referee, never get back at anyone, and stay out of any pushing and shoving.
- Criticism of your play is coaching, but being put down as a person is not: tell someone at your club.
Go deeper: On-Ice Communication, Team Play and Culture, The Mental Game