Louisiana Ice Hockey

The Louisiana Hockeyplex Ice Arena is one of the hottest places to be in the Bayou! The Louisiana Hockeyplex Ice Arena is a state of the art venue that houses some of the finest hockey players in the South. Hockey is an action packed game that sees skaters fly around the ice at blazing speeds. The players are also able to pass the puck with amazing skill and are able to find the back of the net when a pass gets on their stick. The Hockeyplex plays host to teams of all ages. Whether more…

Most Louisianans rarely, if ever, see ice outdoors in the wintertime. This does not put a damper on their love for the sport of Ice Hockey. Louisiana does not currently have a National Hockey League (NHL) team, there are several minor league and collegiate ice hockey teams. The Southern Professional Hockey League is a minor league Ice Hockey association which is a farm system for the NHL with several teams throughout Texas and Louisiana. The Louisiana more…

If you would have said twenty years ago that the city of Charlotte would be able to sustain a hockey franchise, you would have been laughed at. The thing is, when the Hartford Whalers moved to that location in 1997, few would have thought that the team would have been so successful. After a Stanley Cup victory in 2006, the Hurricanes continue to have a large fan base and actually sell out a good amount of games. With success in places like Carolina and Atlanta, the question has to be asked: could we more…

Louisiana is not exactly known for being a hotbed of hockey. In fact, some people may argue that a game that is played on ice has nothing to do with a state that is traditionally boiling under hot, sticky heat. If you are a hockey fan, though, living in living in the Pelican State, you know that there are fans out there. Whether you are a transplanted fan from someplace else, or you just love the sport, you love hockey more…

In Louisiana the hard hitting sport of hockey has gone from ice cold to boiling point faster than you can say Zamboni. That’s right, the sweltering Bayou State has laced up their skates and put on their helmets to bring you a sport that is sure to provide heart pounding, quality entertainment for the whole family.

Hockey is a popular team sport that is generally played indoors on frozen water, known to most as an ice rink. Two goalies guard their nets on either side of the rink as five players more…

Depending on where you live in the state of Louisiana, it may be unreasonable for you to attend as many IceGators games in Lafayette as you might like or even catch hockey on TV. After all, hockey is an acquired taste for many people around these parts, not naturally broadcast with any sort of regularity. Fortunately for fans in the Bayou, no matter how warm the temperature might get outside, hockey is always only a few clicks away as long as your computer has a reliable plug-in or wireless internet service. Though IceGator games are not currently broadcast over the internet, the National Hockey League does provide streaming television service to online viewers, available in either monthly or full season payment plans, ranging from 20.99 to 169.00, allowing fans to watch the New York Islanders, the IceGators’ NHL affiliate, chase the Stanley Cup night on a nightly basis. more…

All the NHL stars you see crashing the boards most likely got their start in youth hockey leagues across the globe. While many hail from the frozen regions of Canada, Russia and Eastern Europe, it today’s climate controlled world, Louisiana kids are hardly at a disadvantage. Whether you or your child is from New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport or right here in Lafayette, there are plenty of local skating rinks to help a new skater get accustomed to the ice. Just like football or basketball, hockey has a positive influence on youth, teaching valuable teamwork and leadership skills that will stay with them long after their skating days are over. Of course, extracurricular sports are just as important for what they shield kids from as the skills they teach them, helping to keep local youth busy and out of trouble. As basketball courts and football fields often find themselves overcrowded with the best athletes Louisiana has to offer, hockey could serve as an alternative outlet in which you or your child might find more success and stand out from the crowd. Like most warm weathered states, Louisiana historically has not produced very many high level hockey players. If a young boy or girl were to take the game seriously, putting in the requisite practice time and elbow grease, it would be far easier to garner attention and acclaim statewide than it would be to break through the clutter than it would be in one of the state’s more traditional pastimes.If your school doesn’t offer a middle school, junior varsity or varsity ice hockey team (most in the area don’t), don’t fret. Just like church league basketball, Pop Warner football, Little League baseball or at a higher level AAU competition, many local hockey rinks will either host their own hockey leagues for various age groups or field their own traveling team.

In hockey, there are the type of penalties where a stoppage occurs, but standard play continues and then more serious no-no’s where the guilty party is forced to sit out a minimum of two minutes or, in extreme cases, the entire game. Once a serious penalty occurs, the referee will escorted a player to the penalty box, where he will remain until the necessary time ticks off the clock and he is eligible to get back into the game. These are some of the most commonly called infractions resulting in penalty minutes (the accumulated total of time spent in the penalty box), and why a player would be found in violation.Elbowing Hockey can be a physical game, but in fighting for position, a player must be careful in how he uses his body. A stray elbow that connects with an opposing player can result in a whistle if an official decides it was anything more than incidental contact.Cross-Checking Players often crash into other players on the ice, in an effort to jar the puck loose; however, if you check another player and lead with your stick, you are likely headed to the box. In order to qualify as a cross-check, both hands must be on the stick with all parts of the stick off the ice.Interference It may seem as if players are checking anyone and everyone all across the ice. However, interference can be whistled when a player comes into contact an opponent who does not have possession of the puck, and is deemed to impede his progress.Roughing Roughing can indicate any unnecessary use of physically, such as shoving an opponent.Spearing/Slashing/Hooking/High-sticking These penalties all regulate what you can and can’t do with your stick. Spearing signifies stabbing or jabbing your opponent with the blade of your stick; slashing is when a stick is swung at an opponent; hooking is just as the name describes, using your stick to hold a player back as he attempts to move across the ice; high-sticking makes it illegal to touch another player with your stick above waist height, protecting the unpadded areas on a player’s face and neck.While not a cumulative list of everything that could send you to the box, avoid these penalties as they are the most often frequent whistles that add to the average hockey player’s penalty minutes.

With 6 players on each side all chasing one puck, a few guidelines as to what you can do with said puck must be put in place in order to prevent sheer chaos on the ice. As far as game play is concerned, hockey is governed by three principle rules that can often trip up newbie skaters. These rules center around markings on the ice. The “blue line,” as you may have figured out, is a blue stripe across the ice, separating each team’s offensive end from center ice. The goal lines are red and run parallel to the blue lines, extending across each side’s curved end and connecting both goal posts before continuing outwards to the wall. A puck must pass over the portion of the goal line between the posts in order for the goal to be official. For close plays, a line judge makes the call, serving as an official whose sole job is to watch the goal line and determine if a puck fully breaks the plane. The center line is a straight red line that simply divides the rink into two halves. Now that you are all caught up on what those colored lines on the ice actually mean, here are the more complicated rules they regulate. more…

Defense is all well and good, but the main objective in hockey is to score more than the other side, a feat that is hard to accomplish without offensively focused players. Not to say that these positions don’t contribute on the defensive end, just as defensemen often wind up for slapshots from just across the blue line, but the number 1 goal for most offensive players is to light the lamp by putting the puck in the net. Think of the greatest hockey players in the history of the game Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordy Howe, Maurice “Rocket” Richard what do all of these players have in common? They are all elite goal scorers. While hockey is considered a tough guy sport, it’s still the glamour guys who enjoy the majority of the credit for a winning season. more…