There are three rules that form the basis of hockey: Icing, Offsides, and the Offside (or Two Line) pass. Icing is to keep the team on the defensive from continuously throwing the puck all the way down the ice and makes them carry the puck out of the zone. The other two prevent "cherry picking" or one player not playing defense and hanging in the offensive zone while everyone is on the other end of the ice.

Icing occurs when a player on his team’s side of the center ice red line shoots the puck all the way down the ice, it crosses the red goal line at the end of the rink (except for going in the goal, then it is a goal!!!) and a defensive player touches the puck first. Icing is NOT called if the team who ices the puck is playing a man short due to a teammate in the penalty box, if the puck goes through any of the blue goal crease, or when a defender, in the judgment of the linesman, does not play the puck when he could have played the puck before it went over the goal line. When the puck is iced, it comes all the way back to the defensive zone for a faceoff.

 

As mentioned before, offsides can be one of the toughest calls in all of sports. Many times offsides is a matter of centimeters. Quite simply, the puck must be the first thing into the offensive zone. A team is offsides when any member of the attacking team precedes the puck into the zone, for this call, the position of a players body determines the call. If a player has both skates over the blue line before the puck goes in the zone, it is offsides. If the player is straddling the line, with all of his body over the line, but one skate (or even part of one skate) ON it, the player is onsides and play continues. If an offsides is called, there is a faceoff just outside of the blue line the offsides was called at.

 

When a player passes the puck from his defensive zone over the blue line and the red line to a player, a offside or two line pass is called. In this case, the position of the player's stick blade when he gets the pass is the determining factor.