Offside, icing, power play: ice hockey rules for beginners
Sep 8, 2026 · 12:00
Two lines and a few basic rules are all you need to follow a hockey game.
Ice hockey is fast, but its rules are logical. Four concepts make most of a game understandable.
Offside
An attacking player may not enter the opponent's zone before the puck: the puck must cross the blue line first. This prevents forwards from simply camping in front of the opposition net.
Icing
If a team shoots the puck from its own half of the ice, from behind the centre line, and it crosses the goal line untouched, icing is called and play resumes in the offending team's own zone. The rule prevents teams from simply clearing the puck to waste time.
Penalties and the power play
Infringements send a player to the penalty box for two or five minutes, leaving his team short-handed. The power play is one of hockey's most important phases: a large share of games is decided in those minutes, so every team has a dedicated unit for it.
Overtime and the shootout
In the regular season a draw is followed by a short overtime with fewer skaters, which favours attacking play, and a shootout if that fails to settle it. In the playoffs, full-strength sudden-death overtime continues until a goal is scored.
The goaltender
The hockey goalie is a world of his own: the size of the equipment is limited by rule, and so is his playing area - he may not play the puck outside the trapezoid behind the net.