Question is exactly as it sounds. I’ve just started getting into hockey, and have had the fortune to go to some entertaining games this year. I’ve even started to enjoy watching on television – something I could never stand before.
Now, I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the sport, and I’m picking it up slowly. I still have a lot to learn about the non-penalties that stop play (I don’t quite grasp icing yet, for instance), but the most amusing mystery to me is the player substitutions. To my untrained eye, it looks like magic, the way these guys know when to come off the ice. So how is this done? And is there more strategy to substitutions than just getting fresher skaters in the game? Do teams intentionally try to catch other teams off-guard through quick and/or unexpected subbing? And is there a penalty for having too many players on the ice at one time?
Yes, yes – Google is my friend. But I’d much rather hear a Doper perspective than to just dig up the rules somewhere. Thanks, folks!
There is a too many men on the ice penalty. The player coming off the ice has to be with in so many feet of the bench before the new player can come on. I don’t remember the exact number, but it is more of a guideline anyways. Players and refs just know from the years they have with the game. The major no-no is if one of the players coming on the ice touches the puck or otherwise gets involved in the play before the guy he is replacing gets off the ice.
The players are the ones to decide when to come off the ice (generally). The shift length can vary depending on the game. But it is up to the player to respect that, and to know when he is tired and get off. When watching games in person, watch for a player to raise his hand, that signals the bench he is going to come off the ice, and the next line prepares to go in.
You can generally expect shifts to last around 40-45 seconds, assuming a whistle doesn’t stop play beforehand. Players who purposely stay out too long (over a minute or so) are generally put in the coach’s doghouse, and are not often popular among their teammates if it becomes a habit.
In the NHL, icing the puck is when a team shoots the puck from their side of the center red line and it passes the end (goal) line in the other team’s zone, and a player from the opposing team recovers the puck before a player from the team that shot the puck down the ice. (In international hockey, icing is immediately whistled as soon as the puck crosses the end line. This is called no-touch icing) When icing happens in the NHL, the team that iced the puck is not allowed to make a line change.
There is a bit more strategy than simple substitution. It’s not always the case that player B goes in every time that player A goes off the ice. Sometimes the coach switches up the lines, which means that the center is playing with one or two different wingers than he usually plays with. In certain circumstances, a player who is normally a center may even switch to play wing if the coach likes a particular combination. The Penguins use one or both of Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal as wingers for Crosby from time to time, e.g., if they want to create extra offensive pressure near the end of a period. This often means that a player is “double shifting” - which usually means playing on less rest than usual, rather than taking two shifts in a row. The home team gets the last line change, which means that they can see what forward line is put out by the visitor during a stoppage of play and choose their line combination accordingly. That way, if the visitor puts out their top line for a faceoff, the home team can send out their defensive specialists or whatever combination might be appropriate.
Icing and substitutions are somewhat coupled, actually.
As previously mentioned, icing occurs when the puck is shot by a team from their defensive end behind the center red line past the red goal line at the other team’s end of the ice where it is then touched by the other team. It is to prevent teams from simply throwing the puck down the ice in their defensive zone instead of controlling it. Icing is waved off if the puck is touched before the red goal line or if the ref thinks the puck could have reasonably been played before crossing the goal line.
Anyway, frequently you will see a player carrying the puck, hit the center red line, and throw it the length of the ice. This is when substitutions are occurring. By gaining the center red there’s no chance of icing and while the other team goes to retreat after the puck, they can safely make a change. Quick outlet passes by the goalie or a defenseman up the ice can sometimes catch teams that are slow to change in this way, however.
No player change on the team icing the puck only started in the NHL in 2005. Sometimes it really prevents icing when the team is tired. Other times they will ice the puck anyway just to get a short break.
Which is why, with respect to the bolded part, the team dumping the puck in will always try to dump the puck into the corner that is on the same side of the ice as the players bench. If they put it in the wrong corner, an alert defensemen can zip the puck way up the ice to the far blue line, and the team making the substitution will be caught as the other team goes in virtually unimpeded to the net.
There is also the issue of whether a team is rolling four lines. On some teams, one or more of the players on the fourth line don’t get much ice time at all during the game, so in a sense there isn’t a real fourth line. On other teams, all of the fourth line players take regular shifts, and they will play as a unit when both teams are at full strength (although the top lines will still get more ice time than the fourth line, of course).
Sometimes as well, a team will elect to go with 13 forwards and only 5 defencemen, or alternately 7 defencemen and only 11 forwards. Teams are allowed to dress 18 skaters and 2 goaltenders. Generally the skaters brake down as 12 forwards and 6 defencemen, but depending on injuries or slumps or the coach’s whim, etc., he may dress or scratch somebody.
Some teams will sometimes use a specific forward line and a specific defensive pair; a five-man unit, in effect. The 1980s Soviet national teams did this a lot. Their front five of forwards Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov; and defencemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov were known as the Green Unit, for the colour of the sweaters they wore in practice. Larionov and Fetisov are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Makarov probably could be. Kasatonov had a few decent years in the NHL even though he didn’t come over until age 31. As for Krutov, although he was probably the deadliest sniper of the three forwards; his conditioning left much to be desired. It was once said of him “He can stickhandle past everything except a McDonald’s.”
Also, in cases where a coach is not playing a five-man-unit, it is typical for the defensemen to play as regular pairs. In some cases an offensive defenseman is regularly paired with a more defensive-minded defenseman. There are also so-called “shut down” defensive pairings where both are more defensive-oriented defensemen. But, like the forwards, they do not always pair up with the same player throughout the game. In a case where there are 7 or 5 defensemen dressed, there will be probably be more switching around of the defensive pairings.
Note that, unlike some other leagues I could mention, the NHL makes its full official rulebook available for free on its website. Here are some pertinent rules:
[QUOTE=KennerTheGreat;12009833 Teams are allowed to dress 18 skaters and 2 goaltenders. Generally the skaters brake down as 12 forwards and 6 defencemen, but depending on injuries or slumps or the coach’s whim, etc., he may dress or scratch somebody.[/QUOTE]
What happens if both goaltenders get injured? Can any healthy player become the goaltender?
A big part of it is to have a fresh set of skates on the ice. Sprinting, maneuvering, checking and being checked take away your wind pretty quickly. FWIW, I wondered that myself before playing briefly in a league. Once I started playing, holy cow it was obvious why we switched lines.
Other considerations may be more subtle, as in, certain lines on your team may be more effective against certain of the opponents’ lines. Or it may be time for one of the opposing players to get the special attention of your enforcer/goon.
A third goalie can be called up to the bench during a game if one of the two dressed goalies become injured, though, right? I’m pretty sure this happened in a Hawks game last year during the playoffs, where Khabibulin became dehydrated, Huet went into the net, and some other guy whose name I didn’t learn showed up and sat on the bench as back up. I do recall the announcers saying something about the team being rather lucky that the third goalie happened to be in the building at the time. I’m pretty sure most teams don’t keep three goalies around on a regular basis.
A couple of years ago in Vancouver, Dan Cloutier, the number one, pulled his groin during the pre-game skate. The Canucks still had Johan Hedberg, the regular backup, but they didn’t have anyone to back him up, and the farm team was traveling in the east and nobody could get to Vancouver in time.
So, they called the University of British Columbia campus, only to find out that they couldn’t use either of their two regular goalies, one because he was an undrafted European, and the other because he once played pro (in the Vancouver organization, incredibly) before going back to school. So they had to use the third-string UBC goalie, Chris Levesque. Levesque had an 0-4-1 record, with an .855 save percentage and a 4.77 GAA. In Canadian university hockey, which is about five levels away from the NHL.
Nevertheless, he was the only option available, and so he took part in the warmup and then settled in at the end of the bench. Then things got interesting. During the game against Pittsburgh, the Penguins’ Konstantin Koltsov barreled into Hedberg, sent his mask flying down the ice and left Hedberg in a heap. Cut to the TV cameras zooming in on poor Levesque, working his chewing gum at about 5000 RPM.
Luckily for the Canucks, Hedberg was able to continue, even though he suffered a wrist injury on the play. Vancouver ended up winning 4-3 in overtime. Markus Naslund, the team’s captain and star, scored all four goals, but still had a smaller media scrum after the game than did Levesque.
Awwww! I like that story! I wish I had seen that game!
I think this came up more seriously in one of the other NHL threads, regarding just how far back teams call each other up until someone is stuck without a team, or some woefully unprepared kid is called in to play.
The NHL calls the AHL, who presumably call the CHL/Whatever the equivalent is in the States, who I guess would call the universities, who would call the colleges, who would call the local teams…yeah, I know it’s not that straightforward and there are age rules for kids, but I can’t help but laugh that with enough injuries and illnesses, we could have a couple of Bantam Hockey League kids playing for the Bruins or something.
I know the Habs once called in Kim St-Pierre (goalie for women’s Team Canada) as a second goalie during practices when one of the regulars is sick or injured but not needing to be replaced by the farm team goalie. I always thought that was rather cool. And I just found out that she also has a 1-1-0 record playing on the men’s McGill Redmen team, which is also pretty cool!
This isn’t even close. The AHL draws from the ECHL, who probably draws on the semi-pro leagues if they’re desperate. Most players in the CHL are ineligible to play in the AHL or ECHL, and any player from the NCAA(US universities) would void his NCAA eligibility if he played even a single professional game, including the CHL. Canadian universities aren’t as stringent about professional leagues.
Yeah, I know that’s not really how it works, although I worded it very poorly. I don’t even understand all the leagues below the AHL level, let alone who is eligible for what. I just think it would be rather funny to see, so I like to believe in it anyways I didn’t mean to make it sound like that’s actually how these teams work and relate to one another.
I didn’t mean to make it sound like that’s actually how these teams work and relate to one another.