Hockey.

This is the quickest blog post ever. While it is super vague in the grand scheme of things hopefully it will help out my tweety friends just a little bit! Hockey consists of three periods each 20 minutes in length. Here in the US we are headed into quite the nail biter with one period left in our game against Canada. If one team is up over another at the end of those three periods, game over. If not we go into overtime. Overtime is considered a sudden death extra period meaning the first team to score is the winner. At the end of OT if the score is still even we will head into a shoot out. In a shoot out players take turns shooting one on one with the goalie. Usually, a shoot out is a 3 person shoot out. Whichever team scored the most after those three shots wins.

Terms you will hear frequently-

Faceoff-  Reff drops the puck in between two players who fight to snatch it and pass it off to a teammate.

Penalty- Same as any other sport penalties can be earned for a variety of different reasons. However, there are three different penalties a player can be given. A minor, major or misconduct. The most common penalty is a minor in which the player is sent to the penalty box for for two minutes giving the other team a power play.

Power Play- A one man advantage on the ice due to a penalty by a player on the other team. If the team with the PP scores within the two minute mark, Power Play is over and the offending player can return to the ice.

Icing- There are variations on icing however it is basically when a player shoots the puck across the center red line and the opposing teams goal line without it being touched.



I saw a lot of tweets asking about fighting. Fighting is not encouraged however it happens and is occasionally allowed. In the political sense most teams have 'enforcers' they are on the pay roll to fight when necessary. When there is a player playing chippy or throwing dirty hits the enforcer takes over. You will often hear "dropping the gloves" as players literally drop their gloves while squaring up for a fight.

Hitting is totally allowed and a HUGE part of the game. To keep everyone safe there are many rules that go along with hitting i.e.- no hitting from behind.

Post questions if you may have them! We can revisit this with more detail after the olympics. GO USA!!!!