Football season is over. As sad as that statement is, it ended in magnificent fashion with Peyton Manning winning his second Super Bowl trophy, in what is assumed to be the future Hall of Famer’s last game in his career. The game was an incredible spectacle, with both defenses having truly amazing performances, yet Denver simply being able to outlast Carolina. The halftime show was also wildly entertaining, solely for the sheer star power of Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, and Coldplay all being on the same stage. Once the game finished, though, all football fans faced that inevitable and annual question; what the heck do we do now?
Football provided an escape and endless entertainment for almost six months, yet now there is a long wait till we get to enjoy it again. Well my friends look no further, for the answer is right here. NHL Hockey. As foreign as this may seem to many of you, especially my fellow diehard college football fans, just give me a chance to introduce you.
First off, lets start with a little rundown of how hockey is played. Prepare yourself, because differences from football begin immediately. This is ice hockey, so it’s played on ice (obvious I know, but we have to start with basics). Players skate around, with sticks in their hands, and attempt to get a puck (a small circle of vulcanized rubber) into the goal they are attempting to score in. Instead of quarters or halves, hockey is played in three twenty-minute periods. Between the first and second periods, and the second and third periods, there is a twenty-minute intermission, akin to football’s halftime. You get five skaters on the ice, plus one goalie, giving you six guys total on the ice from your team at a time. In an NHL game, each team can dress eighteen skaters total, along with two goalies. Now hockey does not substitute with subs in the same sense that football does.
The only thing that matches football’s idea of substitutions is if a goalie gets hurt or isn’t playing well, he will get subbed off. If that doesn’t happen, a goalie will play the entire game. The eighteen skaters on the other hand, rotate consistently throughout the game. A shift in hockey is incredibly tiring, yet very short. Hockey shifts are generally only around a minute or so long each time, with the players changing on the fly while the game is still happening. Basically players jump onto the ice at the same time as players are coming off while the game is still happening, so line changes have to be fast and timed well so that your opponent doesn’t get an easy chance at goal. Because of this, all 18 players play, but the best players do play more, with defensemen getting more ice time as there are usually only six defensemen.
Generally, teams play with two defensemen, a center, and a left and right winger on the ice. Many skaters are able to switch between positions, most commonly between center and winger as most defensemen only play as defensemen. Oh and one other thing that adds to hockey is that the referees are on the ice as well, and also skate around. So now that you have a basic understanding of how hockey is played, let's move to some of the more confusing things about hockey.
First here is a beautiful diagram of an NHL rink
Now when either of those two things happens, or when a goal is scored, puck goes out of play, or the game is stopped for any reason, a faceoff happens on one of the faceoff dots. A faceoff is where an official drops the puck, and then a player from each team attempts to push it back to his teammates. It’s a tip-off on ice, basically. One situation where a faceoff is needed is if a penalty is called. Penalties are called for a variety of reasons, including tripping and too many men on the ice. When a penalty is called in hockey, the offending player is given a set amount of time that they must sit in the penalty box, and they cannot engage in play, for the set amount of time. This leaves that player’s team down a man (can be down two if another player commits a penalty), and the term for this, when it happens to a team, is shorthanded.
The team that still has their full five players is then on the power play. A team’s power play ends if they score (against most penalties), yet will continue if the penalty was severe. A corny yet effective list and description of penalties can be found here. The one instance where a penalty is called, yet a team does not receive a power play, is when a penalty shot is awarded. This happens on a breakaway, where a player fouls the player with the puck who is in front of them and prevents a goal scoring opportunity. This gives the player who was on the breakaway the chance to skate in, just 1-on-1 with the goalie, and attempt to get one shot by him. If he doesn’t score, it's simply an offensive zone faceoff for his team, but no further punishment is assessed, meaning his team won't have a power play for that penalty.
Fighting
Many people immediately think of fighting when they think of hockey. While it doesn’t happen every single game, it does happen, and when it does, it's incredibly fun for the fan to watch (unless your player is getting whooped). Fighting happens for a lot of reasons. Sometimes guys just want to have a go at each other, sometimes they are fighting a guy who took a shot at their goalie or other teammate, sometimes they even do it just to get the fans or their team riled up. Whatever their motivations, its entertaining for us. Players both drop the gloves and start going at it, and eventually the referees will skate in to break it up once punches have slowed down.
Once the fight is broken up, both players serve five-minute major penalties, but because they both fought neither team goes to the power play, unless there was some other penalty called in the preceding action. Occasionally there will be entire lines fighting each other, and some great examples can be found here and here. Either way, everyone who watches hockey generally enjoys two grow men trying to stay balanced on ice skates as they throw haymakers at each other.
The League
So the NHL is divided up into the Eastern and Western Conferences, with two divisions in each. Here is the breakdown of each division.
Eastern
Atlantic Division- Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens (they spell it weird on purpose), Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs
Metropolitan Division- Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals
Western
Central Division- Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets
Pacific Division- Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oiler, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks
So first thing, if you don’t know the city, it’s probably in Canada. There are seven teams based in Canadian cities currently in the NHL. Secondly, if you noticed that there are eight teams in each of the Eastern Conference divisions, and only seven in each of the Western Conference divisions, you saw that correctly, it is not a typo. For some reason it is unfairly balanced like that, and my OCD and sense of fairness hates it just as much as you do. Moving on from that, there are eighty-two games in an NHL season. Teams move up and down the standings based on points, with two points being awarded if you win a game, and one point if you lose a game in overtime or a shootout. NHL games go into sudden death overtime if tied at the end of regulation, with the overtime period being played 3-on-3, plus the goalies. This 3-on-3 overtime is a new rule change in the NHL this season, and it makes it more open and exciting, and more likely that a goal will be scored in overtime. If the teams are still tied, they go into a shootout, where they trade taking 1-on-1 shots against each goalie, with whoever has more goals after five shooters, winning the game. If it's tied after five shooters, they continue to take the 1-on-1 shots, but it is sudden death. So if one team scores and the other doesn’t, the game is over. By going based off of points, the system is able to show the best teams based on their wins, losses, and overtime losses.
Now lets go to playoffs. To get into the playoffs, a team has to be in the top three in their divisional standings at the end of the year, or in one of the two wild car spots from their division. These wild card spots go to the two teams with the most points in the conference who didn’t make the top three in their division. Once the playoffs begin, each round the match-ups are played in a best of seven series, so the first team to win four games advances to the next round. The winners of each conference then meet in the finals, with the winner hoisting the Stanley Cup, which is the absolute best trophy in all of sports in my opinion.
It has the name of every single person who has won it permanently etched on there, for goodness sakes.
In conclusion, whether or not you found this introduction interesting, I highly recommend giving hockey a chance. It’s fast paced, and though it may take you a couple games to be able to really follow where the puck goes, you will grow in appreciation and awe for the skill and power these players have. There are many rules and niceties not discussed here, but many you can pick up as you go, along with tactics and such. Hockey is similar to almost every sport in that it is way more fun when you have a team to root for, so I highly suggest that you pick a team. Give the game a chance, watch some games, and see what you think. And please have a decent reason for choosing a team, and not just because they are doing well right now.
#LetsGoSabres
