In hockey, why can goals be scored off bodies?
- Thread starter The Panther
- Start date
Why wouldn't it be like that?
I haven't been keeping an eye out for it or anything, but I don't recall seeing any goals being called back because they went off a body as I've gone through the old game reports.
The Panther
Registered User
I can think of lots of reasons why it wouldn't be like that. In baseball, a batter can't put the ball into play with their leg/arm, for example. A tennis player can't have a ball bounce off his/her body and back over the net in the midst of a match.
The main reasoning, I suppose, would be to eliminate ambiguity. Today, there is often confusion over what is a "distinct kicking motion", which hasn't reduced ambiguity much.
This is what I'm wondering about. In, say, the 1920s, did goals count if pucks went off attacking players' body parts?
In baseball you get a base. You can score off your body in soccer. You can catch off a body in football. It doesn’t seem unusual.
Fair
Like I said, it’s not something that I’ve been trying to keep tabs on, so I could easily have missed something (or several somethings), but I don’t recall seeing goals called back for that reason.
MadLuke
Registered User
- Jan 18, 2011
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I feel in those, hitting the ball is more an explicit goal.
In hockey you could score without ever even touching it (by pushing an opponent into the net that has it for example), soccer-football-basketball are maybe closer where the goal is defined by the things ending in a goal/zone and you can do it in a lot of ways.
In tennis, you cannot double touch it with the racquet either.
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Isn't it the same in soccer? Hockey is much more similar to soccer than to sports like baseball or tennis so those comparisons are a bit off.
The Panther
Registered User
Not really, because in hockey you use a tool to score with, but in soccer you have no tool.
I just wondered if there was any point in history, or in any particular country etc., where it was forbidden for goals to be scored off the body.
overpass
Registered User
I think it may have been forbidden for goals to be scored off the body at one point.
In very early hockey, it was forbidden for players to kick the puck anywhere on the ice. Allowing players to kick the puck as long as it wasn't around the goal was one of the rules pioneered by the Patricks' Pacific Coast league in the 1910s, and it was eventually adopted across Canada.
In 1912, Art Ross proposed a number of rule changes. Among them was a proposal that goals scored off the body of an opposing player, including the goaltender, should not count! I guess Ross was of the opinion that goals should be scored on a clean shot directly into the goal.
Daily Phoenix, Aug 17, 1912 (originally appearing in the Montreal Star).
I'm not aware of a rule prohibiting goals off an attacking player, but I think Ross's proposal to ban goals off a defending player implies that such a rule may have existed. Otherwise you'd think he would propose to ban goals off an attacking player as well, right?
In very early hockey, it was forbidden for players to kick the puck anywhere on the ice. Allowing players to kick the puck as long as it wasn't around the goal was one of the rules pioneered by the Patricks' Pacific Coast league in the 1910s, and it was eventually adopted across Canada.
In 1912, Art Ross proposed a number of rule changes. Among them was a proposal that goals scored off the body of an opposing player, including the goaltender, should not count! I guess Ross was of the opinion that goals should be scored on a clean shot directly into the goal.
Daily Phoenix, Aug 17, 1912 (originally appearing in the Montreal Star).
I'm not aware of a rule prohibiting goals off an attacking player, but I think Ross's proposal to ban goals off a defending player implies that such a rule may have existed. Otherwise you'd think he would propose to ban goals off an attacking player as well, right?
jcbio11
Registered User
Honestly for all I care they could also do away with the "distinct kicking motion" rule. Goes off your body or you kick it, doesn't matter, a goal is a goal. Quality of play wouldn't change, it's not like we'll suddenly have players trying to kick the puck in from the blue line and we'd get rid of one opportunity for controversial calls.
Yozhik v tumane
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- Jan 2, 2019
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You’re not allowed to deliberately score without the stick, right? It’s not just “kicking motions” that are disallowed, you can’t catch and throw the puck into the net, you can’t head it in (I’m pretty sure I once saw a goal disallowed because it was deemed a deliberate header).
I think the reason why inadvertent goals off players bodies are allowed is because it would turn ridiculous real fast and change the game way too much if a fast, chaotic contact sport like hockey starts treating every bounce like using your hands in soccer. You create a screen and a point shot grazes your ass? Disallowed goal. A scramble in front of the net, goalie deflects a puck onto an opposing player’s foot and it goes in? Disallowed! And sooo many reviews.
I think the reason why inadvertent goals off players bodies are allowed is because it would turn ridiculous real fast and change the game way too much if a fast, chaotic contact sport like hockey starts treating every bounce like using your hands in soccer. You create a screen and a point shot grazes your ass? Disallowed goal. A scramble in front of the net, goalie deflects a puck onto an opposing player’s foot and it goes in? Disallowed! And sooo many reviews.
