Icing is a rule in hockey that prevents a team from dumping the puck into the opponent’s zone to run the clock out or avoid defense. It is called when a player sends the puck over the opponent’s goal line without touching another player. Different leagues have variations of the rule, and there are exceptions, such as when a team is short-handed. The NHL changed the rule in 2005 to make penalties stiffer and reduce line changes between calls.
Icing is a rule in hockey designed to prevent a team from driving the puck deep into the opponent’s zone — also called “dumping” the puck — to run the clock out of time or to avoid playing defense. Except in a few cases, a team is guilty of this when a player on its side of the center line sends the puck over the opponent’s goal line without the puck touching another player or going into the net. This is considered a delaying tactic that disrupts the flow of the game. After the icing has been called, a faceoff is made in the backcourt of the team that iced the puck.
Lines of hockey rink
On a hockey rink, there are red and blue lines that extend horizontally across the width of the ice to mark certain areas of the rink. The line in the center of the track is red. There is a blue line on each side of the center line, typically 25 to 30 feet (15.2 to 18.3 m) from the center line, depending on the specific rules used. Approximately 10 to 15 feet (3.0 to 4.6 m) from each end of the rink is the goal line, which is red, and in the center of which is the front of the net.
A common way of referring to an icing infraction is when the puck crosses at least “two red lines” without being touched, with the last red line it crosses being the opponent’s goal line. In other words, the puck must cross the center line and the opponent’s goal line for this offense to be called. If the puck crosses the team’s goal line and the center line, the puck crossed two red lines, but did not cross the opponent’s goal line, so it would not be called icing on the cake.
Rule variations
Different leagues and organizations have slightly different applications of this rule. In the National Hockey League (NHL), the premier professional league in North America, it is not called until the puck crosses the goal line and an opposing player other than the goaltender touches the puck with his stick. In international play and in most European leagues, there is what is called a “no-touch” icing, where the offense is called and play is stopped as soon as the puck crosses the goal line, regardless of whether that an opponent touches it.
exceptions
There are some instances where the freeze will not be called, or will be “cleared” by the judges. This is most common when a team is short-handed, which occurs when they have more players in the penalty area than their opponent. If the opposing team has more players on the ice – which is called being on a power play – the team with fewer personnel can dump the puck at any time from anywhere on the ice.
During even play, when both teams have an equal number of players on the ice, the icing on the cake can be reversed if the referee determines that an opposing player may have touched the puck before it crossed the goal line or that the The infringement was the result of a missed pass which could reasonably have been completed. These exceptions prevent the defending team from gaining an easy faceoff near the opponent’s goal and prevent the attacking team from being severely penalized for a bad pass. The intent is to limit the infraction to instances where a player has clearly dumped the puck deep into the opponent’s zone with no clear offensive intentions.
NHL Rule Change
The icing rule is generally successful in preventing teams from running the clock by offloading the puck. In the early 21st century, NHL officials felt that a team that had been stuck in their defense for an extended period of time would often iced the puck just to be able to get new players on the ice when the game was down. interrupted for the next face-off. In 2005, the NHL changed the rule to state that the five players on ice for the offending team must remain on the ice for the faceoff. This change helped reduce the number of freeze penalties by making them stiffer. He also helped speed up play by reducing these calls and reducing line changes made between a call and the next faceoff.
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