Six Things You Need To Know About Hockey

Call it what you want but hockey and ice hockey are one and the same thing. To some it is probably the greatest sport in the world. It's got everything from speed, skill, and acrobats to fighting and borderline violence that will make the weak of heart faint. It's a mind-blowing experience and even more so when it is actually experienced. If you are looking to get into the game, here are a few things to learn about it.

• The Rink – Since hockey is most popularly known as a sport played on ice, you will have a better time playing it on the rink. The game happens on a 200 foot by 85 foot wide rink that has rounded corners. The surface of the ice itself has painted areas to show where all the parts of the rink are. A red line is drawn across the middle of the rink and there are blue lines parallel to it painted about 70 feet from the ends of each side of the rink. The red line is the middle of the rink and the blue lines divide the rink into 3 zones. Two teams play on the ice and they try to make goals on opposite nets.

• The goals – There are goals on each side of the rink, each about 13 feet from the edge of the rink and centered. The aim is for one team to put a puck to these goals more than what the other team can do in their own. The goal posts measure 6 feet in length and 4 feet in height.

• Players – There are three player types: the forwards, the defense men and the goalies. Each team has six players in the rink during a game. One of those six players is the goalie.

• The gear – Each player has a stick and this hockey stick is used to hit the puck around the rink and also to shoot the puck into the net. The puck is a small rubber disk that glides on the ice when hit around the rink. The sticks are also used to hit the other players but this is not part of the purpose of those sticks of course. Each of the players wear protective gear so they don't get hurt playing the game.

• The time – There are three 20-minute periods that make up the whole game. There are 15 minutes of rest between each period. There is also overtime for this game which lasts about another five minutes. Overtime is also known as “sudden death” because if any of the teams scores once during that time, the team that scores wins and it's game over. It's a tie if at the end of the extra five minutes nobody scores.

• The league – The National Hockey League (or the NHL) has 30 teams and the league consists of two conferences, the Eastern and the Western. The Eastern and Western conferences each have about five teams within them, each playing to get to the finals where only one can be declared champion.