What was the rule you struggled without the most?

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I think everybody here understands hockey at this point, but that wasn't always the case.

What I want to know is what rule gave you the most trouble?

For me it was offside, offside took me a probably 3 years, I struggled with offside a long time

 

[NYRfan85]

It was definitely offside for me as well. I played floor hockey after school all through middle school, and primarily played defense (I'm at my best as a stay-at-home defenseman). But those times they put me up on the wing, I directly remember costing my team a few goals because I was offside, and had no idea why they were disallowed at the time.

 

[Summer Rose]

It was offside for me as well at first. I don't think it took me 3 years, but I spent a good amount of the first season I started watching not really understanding it. Reading the official rule on it at the time didn't help, because at the time it was phrased in a way that 15 year old me couldn't really make sense of. I wouldn't guess that it was phrased much differently back then compared to how it is now, but being a teenager not used to what somewhat resembles "lawyer speak" made it pretty unhelpful. The difference maker was when I found a description of it on an old website called "So You Wanna" that said right off the that the principle of the rule is that the puck (or the player carrying) can't enter the zone before any other attacking player. That's what made it suddenly click for me.

A vaguely related one was the two-line pass rule - not that it was difficult to understand, I just had no clue what the point was. I'm pretty sure I also once had it in my head that it meant any line parallel to the goal line (including the goal line itself), which would mean that you couldn't pass it from behind your goal line across your own blue line, or from behind the red line across the attacking blue line, although the latter case would have been offside anyway.

 

[dirtydanglez]

headshots. still so many people on the board dont understand the rule.

honorable mention to goalie interference.

 

[NVious]

Goals, I hate seeing sad goalies, I wish we had a vegan option where no goalies were hurt, the players can still hit the puck around and fight each other, but just no goal scoring.

 

[koivalev]

Distinguishing between refs pump faking and having lightning quick reflexes that happen to catch a winger drifting in or a centerline cheating

 

[RussianBum86]

Instigator penalty. If they removed it chicken littles like Bennett and the rat pack would not be throwing the people's elbow every chance they get because a goon would settle it like McCarty did on the other chicken little claude the Lemieux Turtle. Cheap shot artist actually get protection with this rule and has the opposite effect.

 

[landy]

Delay of game. Stupid that a legit accident causes a game to be decided. Refs can make a judgment call live if they think a dude air mailed it on purpose.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

In nhl 99, when they said the goalie “froze the puck”, I thought it meant it literally froze, but that also didn’t make sense and I was very confused.

 

[byrath]

Delay of game. Stupid that a legit accident causes a game to be decided. Refs can make a judgment call live if they think a dude air mailed it on purpose.

That used to be the rule, it was never called and flipping the puck into the crowd was a common tactic for tired defenders

 

[SirJW]

No touch icing.

 

[Stive Morgan]

That used to be the rule, it was never called and flipping the puck into the crowd was a common tactic for tired defenders

It should just be treated as an icing imo. Or maybe delay of game after back-to-back flipping-into-the-crowds.

 

[Sanderson]

That used to be the rule, it was never called and flipping the puck into the crowd was a common tactic for tired defenders

Indeed, I'll never understand hopw anyone could be against this rule, it is one of the best changes they ever made.

The rule as it stands right now has drastically reduced the number of pucks being put into the stands. And that's a good thing. Trying to remove it - or weaken it - is like removing *insert random car safty feature here* because fewer people are dying in car crashes now then they used to. There are less deaths in car crashes because they exist, and removing them won't somehow keep safety at that level. You change the rule about putting the puck over the glass, and you will see a considerable increase in just that happening.

And more to the point: why oh why does anyone want players to be able to take the lazy way out / cheat?
If a player is under pressure, he needs to make a play. Any reasonable hockey-fan should aim to make sure that he has to try and make a proper play, not chuck the puck wherever he wants to get out of pressure. None of the proposed alterntives to the current rule are in any way enough of a deterrent. Players would gladly face any of them compared to the risk of losing the puck in their own zone.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Go watch a game from the late 90’s/early 00’s. Defenders used to casually flip the puck out of play when it came into the defensive zone just so they could get reset for a faceoff

 

[OkimLom]

Not a rule, but when I started to play hockey when I was young and gullible, my older cousin said it was against the rules to hit him off the puck/ball. I played defense mostly. I had to learn how to play defense without playing the body for far too long, but I half-appreciate that because I had to learn how to use my stick and learn to block shots and anticipate plays happening.

 

[TheBeard]

Goaltender Interference.

 

[HansonBro]

Not a rule, but when I started to play hockey when I was young and gullible, my older cousin said it was against the rules to hit him off the puck/ball. I played defense mostly. I had to learn how to play defense without playing the body for far too long, but I half-appreciate that because I had to learn how to use my stick and learn to block shots and anticipate plays happening.

There's only hitting on the grass!

 

[Bard Marchand]

My last year of HS ice hockey our team didn't have enough players so we let everyone who wanted on the team. We're talking guys who had never skated before or knew anything about hockey. I remember one game one of the dudes was standing inside the offensive zone frantically tapping his stick and yelling at everyone else to pass the puck to him for like a solid minute while our bench started yelling back at him... I guess he didn't understand offside lol.

 

[DieSendungmitderMaus]

It was definitely offside for me as well. I played floor hockey after school all through middle school, and primarily played defense (I'm at my best as a stay-at-home defenseman). But those times they put me up on the wing, I directly remember costing my team a few goals because I was offside, and had no idea why they were disallowed at the time.

Funny you mention Floorball (it's the same as floor hockey, right?) because it's what led me to a mini-crisis with regards to slashing. I was a hockey fan first and picked up floorball via University sports. My floorball friends would cry slashing all the time when watching a hockey game with me since obviously in that sport any tap on the opponent's stick is a slash. I tried to explain that it has to be forceful in hockey by pointing examples in play, but the way it's called has made it difficult to pinpoint what is and what isn't acceptable beyond the obvious cases

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Go watch a game from the late 90’s/early 00’s. Defenders used to casually flip the puck out of play when it came into the defensive zone just so they could get reset for a faceoff

My memory of the rulebook back then is fuzzy, but when they did that in the 90s a line change for the defensive team was still allowed, right?

If you changed it to an icings equivalent punishment, that tired defender would be stuck with a draw in the defensive zone against a fresh top line for the opponent, which is waaay worse than if both teams change and the defending coach sends out his faceoff ace

 

[tmg]

And more to the point: why oh why does anyone want players to be able to take the lazy way out / cheat?
If a player is under pressure, he needs to make a play. Any reasonable hockey-fan should aim to make sure that he has to try and make a proper play, not chuck the puck wherever he wants to get out of pressure. None of the proposed alterntives to the current rule are in any way enough of a deterrent. Players would gladly face any of them compared to the risk of losing the puck in their own zone.

To go further with your point - I don’t even get why there’s an exception if it hits the glass before going out. I see it all the time that a defenseman behind the net under pressure banks it up off the back glass into the crowd. It’s the exact same intent - he’s delaying the game deliberately. The glass ricochet isn’t some wildly unpredictable factor - he knew his bank shot would go out. He was counting on it because the rule strangely allows his deliberate delay of game as long as he makes sure it hits the glass before entering the crowd/netting. Makes no sense to me. If we want to stop deliberate delays, we should stop deliberate delays. No “but bank shot deliberate delays are cool”.

 

[Duffy13]

for understanding how the rule is called, Goalie Interference, and headshots, seems to be the most baffling.

For why it is the way it is, Puck over the glass.

I understand why they did it, the tired defenders flipping the puck out to get a change and faceoff was pretty frequent. However, I would like to see it altered to an intentional act called, vs an unintentional act not being called.

Intentional a 2 min penalty for delay of game, unintentional there's no line change. Every puck clear since the rule has been instituted has been unintentional.

This isn't like a high stick where someone could get hurt, it's like a missed pass that turns into an icing. And there can be caveats with the rule, if no pressure from forechecker and the puck bounces and goes out... penalty, if there's pressure and it goes out and it's pretty clear the defender wasn't trying to flip it out, Face off and no change. An accidentally on purpose flip out is so obvious, an unintentional act is also obvious. Teams shouldn't be punished for accidental acts like this that don't cause bodily harm.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Delay of game. Stupid that a legit accident causes a game to be decided. Refs can make a judgment call live if they think a dude air mailed it on purpose.

That's one thing that you NEVER have to do, there is NEVER a reason to put the puck over the glass, a player that does that is just an idiot, and if I were a coach he wouldn't see the ice again for the rest of that game and probably 2 more after that.

Delay of game is one penalty that is COMPLETELY unacceptable.

At least when you hook or slash or trip there are times when those prevent scoring chances and goals.

Delay of game is just stupid and selfish

 

[Junohockeyfan]

Charging. Still unclear how many steps constitutes a charge. I used to take five steps then glide into a hit and would get called sometimes. Its too grey.

Also how many seconds after the player passes or loses a puck is fair game for a hit before its interference?

 

[CTHabsfan]

Delay of game. Stupid that a legit accident causes a game to be decided. Refs can make a judgment call live if they think a dude air mailed it on purpose.

I thought it was stupid when goaltenders (whose gloves and sticks were not made for passing) were penalized for flipping the puck over the glass, while other players did not get penalized for doing the same thing.