I am obviously not a hockey fan, but I was wondering: Is it legal for the puck to leave the ice? Does a goal count if the puck leaves the ice anywhere along its path? What if the puck is in the air when it enters the goal?
Yes.
Yes, this happens all the time.
Yes, again, all the time.
Absolutely. It would be basically impossible to score otherwise – the goalie could just lie out along the goalline.
The puck must remain in play, though. If it goes over the glass the play is dead, even if it bounces off mesh at either end and returns to the ice surface. Play is also dead if the puck strikes the scoreboard over the ice, but that’s extremely rare.
Okay, since that was a softball, I’ll add another query onto it, if Jinx doesn’t mind now that his question has been answered.
The goal isn’t that big. Is there a rule preventing teams from just finding the biggest, fattest guy they can and sticking him in front of the net? Like the rule in baseball preventing teams from sending midgets(sorry, “little people”) up to bat. What’s to stop a team from slapping some pads onto, say, I don’t know, Albert Haynesworth and parking his giant ass in front of the net?
The puck can and does leave the ice surface regularly. Any part of the goal is fair game for goal scorers.
However, there are some play stopping limitations related to flying pucks. Pucks leaving the playing surface (over the glass) cause a stoppage in play. If they are shot over the boards (intentionally or not) by a goalie trying to clear the puck from the defensive zone the goalie is penalized for delay of game. Goals do not count if the player bats it out of the air with his stick higher than the cross bar of the net (about mid chest level). Players may not advance the puck to a team mate if their stick is above their shoulders. Players may not advance the puck to a team mate using their hand, although a player may catch a flying puck in the air and direct it to their own stick (closing their hand on the puck is not permitted).
You’ll never find somebody big enough. The net is a full 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide. Any person would leave holes, and any NHL player could easily hit them.
Fair enough.
…although I’ve met and known some amazingly, shockingly huge dudes before. I’m talking guys who were seriously wider than they were tall. But anyway, point taken.
I think you have that backwards - 4 tall, 6 wide
Okay, just for the sake of argument, let’s say you drop Paul Mason(look him up), 900+lbs. in front of the net. Legal?
Any player sending the puck over the boards is penalized 2 minutes, not just goalies.
Legal, but he might not go for it. Pad sizes can still only be so large, and they don’t get to make them bigger just because the goalie is. That would mean very large areas of the body would be essentially uncovered.
Even that fattest man in the world is only about a foot across at his ankles. He might be able to fill up the top 1/2 the goal with his girth but he’d have to be agile to fill up that bottom half. Plus there are rules restricting the size of a goalies pads, so that fat guy is gonna take a lot of unprotected hits to his doughy flesh. Lastly, remember that hockey happens in 3D. Fat guys aren’t flat planes of girth, they are orbs. If he’s big enough to span the entire mouth of the goal, he’s probably going to have to stand a couple feet forward of the goal so his ass isn’t knocking the net over. That’ll open up big gaps behind him on either side.
Also, you’d need to get him onto skates.
Right on. That’s all I wanted to know.
Apologies to Jinx for hijacking the thread.
Yes, that’s right. My bad.
i think “in the defensive zone” should be added to that. Without any sort of tippage or deflection. It needs to be a direct shot from the defending player’s stick out over the defensive zone glass.
Tippage and deflection also decides where the puck will be dropped for a face off. As well as location the tip/deflection/shot is done. If it’s done on the right side of the side the face-off will occur either inside or outside of the blueline and on the side it was shot out at.
An article in Sports Illustrated described a team that used that strategy, with good success.
That was a fun read
Why not just get a Sumo wrestler? 
Way back in 4th grade, I had a teacher who read a book with that very plot, with added anecdotes, including a picnic ruined by fire ants (in Minnesota!) I see from a quick Google search that the same author published this story as the children’s novel Porko von Popbutton, but that was definitely not the title we were given. Does anyone know if this was published under a different title (I recall fire ants in the title), or if my teacher possibly changed the title in the reading (presumably to avoid “Porko” in the title).