Ice hockey & it’s objective

Ice hockey is a team sport that is officially played on an ice rink.  It is a very fast paced and very physical kind of sport that requires players to be in top physical condition.  Because of the requirement for ice, the sport of ice hockey is most popular in countries that have prolonged and regular seasons of ice.  Thus, ice hockey is most popular in countries such as Canada and the United States in Northern America.  In Europe, it is very popular in countries such as Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland.

Ice hockey is played on an ice rink called an ice hockey rink.  This rink is rectangular in shape but its corners are rounded.  The entire rink is surrounded by “boards” which measure 1 meter in height.  The length of the rink measures 61 meters while the width measures 30 meters.

During the normal course of the game, each team has 6 players active on the ice.  These 6 players include the goal tender, the center, 2 wingmen (the left and the right), and 2 defense men (also the left and the right).  All players are required to wear ice skates and the proper safety gear such as a helmet, heavily padded gloves, shoulder and elbow pads, and mouth guards.  The goal tender has the option to wear additional safety equipment such as a neck protector, chest and arm guards, and leg pads.

The objective of ice hockey is to score more goals than the other team.  A goal is scored when the puck is shot through the opponent’s goal net.  The puck can be controlled by the players with the use of a hockey stick.  This hockey stick can measure a minimum of 150 centimeters to a maximum of 200 centimeters.  It has 2 parts: the shaft and the blade.  The shaft is slender while the blade is flat.  The curved point at which the blade meets the shaft is called the taper.  The blade is the part of the stick that is used to get into contact with the puck.  It usually measures anywhere from 26 to 38 centimeters in length.

Checking is a defensive element in ice hockey that differentiates it from other sports.  There are many forms of checking, the most common of which is body checking.  A body check is performed when a player uses his body to knock the opposing player into the boards or onto the ice.  Body checking is so common that it is sometimes referred to as simply “checking”.  Other forms of checking are: hip checks, shoulder checks, sweep checks, cross checks, and press checks among others.

Although ice hockey is popular in many countries (there are 68 countries with membership to the International Ice Hockey Federation) international play has been dominated by just 7 countries.  A total of 177 medals have been awarded in the World Championships held by the IIHF.  Of these, 162 have been won by Canada, the United States, Finland, Slovakia, Russia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.  These 7 countries have also won 58 out of the 64 medals that have been awarded in Men’s Ice Hockey at the Olympics since 1920.  On the women’s side, these countries have won all of the medals awarded at the Olympics and at the IIHF World Championships.