i am recently just getting interested in hockey and loving it. i have watched a lot of it but its still sort of confusing for me. can someone help me figure out some of the basics of hockey? thanks- good job denver on beating north dakota!!!

what do you want to learn? rules?

yea rules, teams, anything. but mostly rules

That's a broad topic!

Any specifics?

like the rules, icing, the penalties,offsides, checking, boarding, charging, cross-checking, overtime, face-offs. that kind of things. thanks

Where do we start?

Two teams with 5 players and goalie each try to put the puck in the opposing net as many tims as they can before the end of 3- 20 minute periods.

You probably already know this. Rules are a difficult thing to summarize because every league plays by different rules. The NHL plays a different game than the AHL. The NCAA has its own rules. Olympic hockey has its own rules.

So, here are some basics on the more confusing rules....

Icing: A player cannot shoot the puck from behind his side of the Centre Red line all the way over the opposing goal line. This results in a stoppage, and a faceoff in the offending team's zone. Players MAY ice the puck if their team is shorthanded by way of a penalty.

Offside: An attacking player cannot preceed the puck over their opponents blue line. Play is stopped immediatly if offending team is in posession of the puck. If not, different leages allow different things (I believe NCAA and International hockey has the delayed offside rule, where the offending team can return and "tag up" at the blue line, nullifying the offside. The NHL will be re-adopting this rule when they return to work).

Offside pass - Everyone is getting rid of this rule, so I won't bother to explain it :) I believe that the NCAA has gotton rid of this one, and the NHL will be getting rid of it.

Those are some of the basics. Overtime differs from league to league, so I can't summarize them here.

The names of the rules are pretty self-explanitory for the most part. For some of the ons you mentioned:

a) Boarding - called when a player causes another player to be violently thrown into the boards. Usually called on a hit from behind.

b) Charging - called when a player takes more than two strides to check an opponent, or when a player jumps into a check.

c) Cross-checking - the act of hitting an opponent when both hands are on your stick, and none of your stick is on the ice.

d) Face-offs: The means of starting or re-starting play. Players must line up on their "own" side of the faceoff circle/dot.

Let us know about any other question you may have.