🏒Glossary

Terms

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Assist Assist

Credit for the last two puck touches before a goal — up to two per scorer. Because second assists count, assist totals exceed goals and points (goals plus assists) drive scoring tables. Wayne Gretzky's assist total alone surpasses every other player's career points.

Backchecking Backchecking

Forwards racing back after losing possession to help defence — clearing the slot and tracking the third attacker to prevent odd-man rushes. Unspectacular but central to ice time; reliable backcheckers are welcome on any rec team.

Blue line Blue line

The two lines dividing the rink into three zones and marking each team's attacking edge. Offside is judged when the puck fully crosses; attackers need a skate on or behind the line. Defencemen who shoot from the blue line are called point men — point shots are a core skill metric.

Boarding Boarding

Violently checking a defenceless opponent into the boards. Hits from behind draw major penalties and game misconducts because of spine and neck risk. Among the penalties tightened most for player safety in recent decades.

Body check Body check

Legal shoulder or hip contact on the puck carrier to separate player from puck — only on the carrier, from front or side, targeting the body not the head. Illegal contact draws penalties. Most adult rec leagues are no-check; confirm league rules before joining.

Breakaway Breakaway

An attacker alone against the goaltender with no defenders between. Conversion rate is roughly 30%. Hooking or slashing from behind on a breakaway triggers a penalty shot. The shooter has about a second to shoot or deke.

Breakout Breakout

Organized exit from the defensive zone: retrieve behind the net, pass up the boards to a wing, hit a centreman crossing, or rim the puck. Without forwards providing outlets, forecheckers force turnovers and quick goals against.

Butterfly Butterfly

Goaltending style dropping to the knees and flaring leg pads to seal the bottom of the net. Standard since Patrick Roy and Quebec goaltending schools popularized it; as goalies grew and gear expanded, the league capped equipment size.

Crease Crease

The blue semi-circle in front of the goal — the goaltender's protected area. Attackers who interfere with the goalie's ability to make a save can have goals waived off; merely entering the crease is not automatically illegal. A large share of goals come from within a stick-length of this paint.

Cross-check Cross-check

Two hands on the stick, blade off the ice, pushing an opponent. Common in front-of-net battles; how much is tolerated varies by game and is endlessly debated. Contact to the head or neck escalates to majors and misconducts.

Cycling Cycling

Offensive-zone puck movement along the boards — pass low, retrieve, repeat — to pull defenders out of the slot and open seams to the middle or back door. Effective cycles tire units and block line changes.

Dump and chase Dump and chase

Shooting the puck deep past the blue line and racing to recover it. Surrenders possession for territorial gain and safe line changes. Controlled zone entries statistically produce more shots, but dump-and-chase remains viable against tight defences.

Empty net Empty net

Pulling the goalie for an extra attacker when trailing late — usually 6-on-5. Failure means an unguarded goal; empty-net goals count fully in stats and scoring races.

Faceoff Faceoff

Restart after stoppages: the official drops the puck between two opposing sticks at one of nine dots. Elite centres win roughly 55%; defensive-zone and power-play draws directly create goals or prevents them.

Fighting Fighting

North American tradition of two players dropping gloves to fight; both receive five-minute majors without creating a manpower disadvantage. Frequency has dropped sharply in twenty years. IIHF and international play eject fighters immediately; rec leagues ban it outright.

Five-hole Five-hole

The gap between a goalie's pads. Glove high, glove low, blocker high, blocker low are holes one through four; five-hole opens briefly as the butterfly closes. Goals through it sting goalies most.

Forechecking Forechecking

Pressuring puck carriers in the offensive zone to force turnovers. Aggressive 2-1-2 systems send two deep; success yields high-danger chances, failure leaves odd-man rushes the other way.

Goaltender Goaltender

The player guarding the net with oversized pads, catcher, blocker, chest protector, and mask. Only goaltenders may freeze play by covering the puck — in the NHL, generally only inside the trapezoid behind the net. Training and equipment make the position almost a separate sport.

Goaltender interference Goaltender interference

An attacker illegally impeding the goalie inside or at the crease. Goals can be overturned on video review; coaches may challenge. Judgment focuses on whether the goalie could execute a save, making it among the most disputed calls.

Hat trick Hat trick

Three goals by one player in a single game — origin of the tradition of throwing hats onto the ice. Three consecutive goals is a natural hat trick; four or more adds the count (four-goal game, etc.).

High-sticking High-sticking

Contact with a stick above the shoulders — two-minute minor by default, four-minute double minor if bleeding. A goal scored with a high stick is disallowed and reviewed on video.

Hooking Hooking

Using the stick blade to slow an opponent — two-minute minor. Crackdown after the 2005 lockout on hooking and holding revived speed and scoring overnight and reshaped the modern game. Hooking on a breakaway can mean a penalty shot.

Icing Icing

Shooting the puck from behind the centre red line untouched across the opponent's goal line. Play stops; the faceoff goes to the offending team's defensive zone and that team cannot change lines — punishing tired units. Shorthanded teams may ice legally.

Line Line

A forward unit of three — left wing, centre, right wing. NHL clubs typically roll four lines and three defensive pairs; the first line scores, the fourth grinds. Lines stay together for whole shifts, so chemistry drives results and coaches shuffle combinations often.

Major penalty Major penalty

Five-minute penalty that does not end if the opponent scores — fighting, boarding, dangerous hits from behind, severe head contact. Game misconducts eject the player and may trigger supplemental discipline.

Minor penalty Minor penalty

Two-minute penalty for tripping, hooking, holding, slashing, interference, delay of game, and similar infractions. If the opponent scores, the penalized player returns immediately. Roughly six combined minors per game is typical.

Neutral zone trap Neutral zone trap

Defensive system clogging the centre ice to force turnovers and counterattack. New Jersey's 1995 Cup run popularized it and helped define the low-scoring dead-puck era before rule changes opened the game.

Offside Offside

An attacker crossing the offensive blue line before the puck. Both skates must be on or behind the line when the puck fully crosses. Since 2019 the NHL counts a skate on the line or in the air above it as onside; coaches may challenge missed offside on goals.

One-timer One-timer

Shooting a pass without settling the puck — denying the goalie time to set angle. Staple of power plays; left-shot wingers on the right circle exist largely for one-timer geometry. Alex Ovechkin's office from the left circle is the sport's most famous example.

Penalty kill Penalty kill

Defending while shorthanded — usually four skaters in a box or diamond protecting the slot, clearing pucks when possible. Icing is allowed while killing. A shorthanded goal swings momentum entirely.

Penalty shot Penalty shot

Awarded when a clear scoring chance is illegally denied — hooking or slashing on a breakaway, or a non-goalie covering the puck in the crease. The fouled player skates from centre ice against the goalie alone; the attempt ends the related penalty situation.

Power play Power play

Manpower advantage after an opponent's penalty — typically 5-on-4, or 5-on-3 with overlapping minors. Units often use a 1-3-1 with a point man, three across the slot line, and a net-front presence hunting one-timers. Elite NHL units convert near 20–25% of chances.

Puck Puck

Vulcanized rubber disc, three inches across, one inch thick, 156–170 grams. Frozen before games to reduce bounce. NHL shots exceed 100 mph; chasing this object for sixty minutes is the whole game. Off-ice practice uses lighter plastic pucks.

Shift Shift

One player's ice time between bench visits — typically 40–50 seconds of high-intensity effort. Staying out too long collapses skating and backchecking; changes happen on the fly during live play.

Shootout Shootout

If overtime does not decide a regular-season tie, teams alternate penalty-style attempts; NHL regular season uses three rounds then sudden death. Stanley Cup playoff games have no shootouts — 20-minute OT periods repeat until someone scores.

Slap shot Slap shot

Wind-up shot striking the ice behind the puck to flex the shaft — hardest shot type, with NHL speeds above 100 mph, but slower release and lower accuracy. Mainly power-play one-timers and point blasts; beginners should master wrist shots first.

Slashing Slashing

Chopping an opponent's body or stick with the blade — usually a two-minute minor. Hands and fingers are vulnerable despite gloves. Since 2017–18 the NHL tightened calls on stick contact to the hands, spiking early-season penalty counts.

Slot Slot

The high-danger area between the faceoff circles in front of the net. The tight patch immediately in front of the crease is sometimes called the home plate or royal road in analytics models. Defence clears it first; offence tries to feed it.

Too many men on the ice Too many men on the ice

A two-minute minor when a substitute joins play before the outgoing player is within five feet of the bench. No individual foul — yet coaches hate it because the team pays without an obvious culprit.

Zamboni Zamboni

The ice-resurfacing machine between periods — Frank Zamboni's 1949 brand name became generic. It shaves the surface, clears snow, and lays a thin hot-water flood. Fresh ice at period starts makes pucks move faster and games feel quicker.

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