New to hockey? Looking to better understand the game? Then look no further then our multi-part guide to the game of hockey.

The 2024-25 NHL season is upon us and with a new year comes an opportunity for new fans to be introduced to the great game that is hockey.

My goal here is to provide a simple guide to watching and following along with the game so that it is easier to understand for someone new to the sport.

The Basics

The Game

At its core, the "goal" of hockey is to score more goals than your opponent.

Ba-dum-tsss

To score a goal, players are trying to take the puck — a three-inch, six ounce piece of rounded, vulcanized rubber — and put it in the opposing team's net.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, you're trying to score that piece of rubber while nine other skaters move around a 200 foot by 85 foot sheet of ice along with four officials on the ice too and then there's also the goalie who are defending the net and then there's the penalties and... 

Actually, let's slow it down a little bit.

The Players

Every team has an active roster of 18 skaters and two goaltenders.

A skater refers to the players who move around the ice, which are your forwards and defensemen.

Traditionally, a team will have 12 forwards, six defensemen and one goaltender in a game.

A forward's primary job is to score goals while a defenseman is tasked with defending their team's net by doing things such as blocking shots and intercepting passes.

You can have forwards who are good defenders and defensemen who can score goals too, but that's just the basic way of looking at each.

While teams are comprised of those 18 skaters, there can only be five skaters on the ice at any one time in a game.

Traditionally, that will be three forwards, called a line, and two defensemen, called a pair.

While each team carries two goalies, only one can play in a game at any one time.

A goaltender's job is simply to protect the goal. 

They wear heavily padded protective equipment, a large catching glove and a caged-helmet to aid in that endeavor and they're the only player allowed to hold onto and cover up pucks for play stoppages.

SPECIAL RULE: A team can actually have six players on the ice at any one time, but they're typically using one of those slots for their goaltender. There are rare occasions where teams will "pull" their goalies in order to get a sixth skater on the ice. It's a bit of a tactical, high-risk/high-reward type of play that teams will use when they are losing late in a game. 

It's high risk because when a goaltender is off the ice, there is nobody defending the net, but having six skaters on the ice gives a team better odds of scoring a goal.

Teams will alternate who's on the ice — the time a player is on the ice is called a shift and typically shifts are less than a minute — and players are also able to change out during live play in what's called line changes where a player will skate to the bench and a teammate immediately hops onto the ice to replace them.

Goaltenders are a bit simpler, because normally, a goalie will play the full game.

They also don't really leave the blue-painted area in front of the net, called the crease.

The Structure

A game is split into three 20-minute intervals called periods and after each period, teams will alternate which side of the ice they're protecting/attacking.

Between each period is an 18-minute intermission which allows time for teams to rest, regroup and/or refocus.

So in total, there is at least 60-minutes of live action in a game.

Hockey does not use a running clock and instead time counts down when the puck is "in play." 

The clock will stop for things such as goals, penalties, when the puck exits the playing area, illegal plays, etc.

But what happens if two teams are tied after 60-minutes?

If that happens, the two teams will play in what's called overtime. 

Following the third period of a tied game, there will be a very short intermission and the two teams will then play a five-minute period. 

If anybody scores in that interval, that team automatically wins.

During overtime, teams are also limited to just three skaters each which opens up the ice and promotes a bit more offense.

And if the game is still tied after those five additional minutes?

If the game is still tied after the overtime period, then we move on to what's called a shootout.

In a shootout, a player goes 1-on-1 with an opposing team's goaltender.

A player will start from center ice and will get one shot to try and beat the opposing team's goaltender so long as they maintain forward progression. 

That means a player can't stop of skate backwards at any point during their shootout attempt.

The shootout is a back-and-forth, best-of-three format and if the score is still tied after the first three shooters, the shootout enters a sudden-death format.

Up Next - Hockey 102: The Rules

Coming Soon!