Louisiana Ice Hockey

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.Offsides: Offsides is primarily an effort to regulate cherry picking and limit fast break opportunities. The infraction occurs when any player crosses the blue line while on offense before the puck comes across. In summary, the puck must lead the charge towards the net.Two Line Pass: A two line pass is whistled when one teammate passes to another and the puck travels across two or more lines other ice. The lines in question are the center line and the blue line, as the goal line has no bearing in this regard. This forces players to either bring the puck up themselves or make more controlled, concise passes when handling the puck.Icing: On the defensive end, players often try to clear the puck across the blue line so the opposing team will have to restart their offensive attack. Icing regulates this practice by flagging any puck that starts on one side of the center line and traverses all the way across the goal line on the other end (unless, of course, the puck winds up in the net). Once icing is called, a faceoff occurs back in the offensive zone from which the puck was cleared.