By: Lily Duval | Staff Writer
Hello and welcome to A Good Girl’s Guide to Hockey! I’m Lily, a freshman Creative Writing and Communications major here to bring you all things hockey (it’s the only sport I know anything about).
To introduce myself a bit further, I’m from Massachusetts and I am both a Bruins and Sharks fan! I got into hockey last year, when I watched a Devils versus Sharks game on YouTube. From there I was hooked! The San Jose Sharks are my favorite team and the Bruins are a close second. Will Smith and Jeremy Swayman are two of my favorite players along with Mark Kastelic, Nikita Zadorav, Yaroslav Askarov, and Alex Nedeljkovic. The Boston Fleet is my favorite PWHL team, with Aerin Frankel being the GOAT.
This article series is going to be broken into sections. The National Hockey League (NHL), The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL–I will focus on this during the spring semester), Salve Hockey, Rules, Fact of the week, and important players/things to know.
This first article will be covering the must knows of hockey. Things I wish I knew before watching my first game!
The Teams:
First things first. There are 32 teams in the NHL. Those 32 teams are divided into two conferences and four divisions.
We have the Eastern Conference which is made up of:
And the Western Conference, made up of:
From there, the conferences are split in half.
Eastern Conference:
Atlantic Division:
Metropolitan Division:
Western Conference:
Central Division:
Pacific Division:
Each NHL team plays 84 games a season. If they make it to the playoffs that number is higher.
There are five players per team on the ice at a time plus a goalie. There are 3 forwards, two defensemen, then a goalie. Forwards; a right wing, a center, and a left wing.
There are no more than 23 players on an active roster. 20 players is the minimum; 18 skaters and 2 goalies. There are 20 players dressed (on the bench) per game. This allows for up to 3 players to sit out a game. If a player is injured they are on Injured Reserve and does not count toward that 23 player limit.
The Rules:
There are no ties in hockey. It’s win, lose or overtime loss. A win is worth 2 points, a loss is worth none, and an overtime loss is worth 1. These points determine the rankings per team. I will
explain playoff hockey in a specific article later in the semester!
When a player goes against a rule they receive a penalty. That player will go to the penalty box and the team will suffer a loss. This is called a power play. The team that suffered the penalty is
now on the Penalty Kill. They will play with one less player on the ice. The team with all five players on the ice is on the Power Play.
Look out for more articles with rules, standings, players you want to know, random fun facts, Salve Hockey, and so much more!
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week on A Good Girl’s Guide to Hockey 🙂
Photos provided by Pinterest
