Ice Hockey Expository Essay

Ice Hockey is a sport played worldwide and has possibly the biggest fan base of all sports. Hockey is my personal favorite sport due to how intense and grueling it is, in the 2009 season there was a total of 714 fights and around 30 thousand injuries in the exact same year. Hockey has also one of the fewest rules in sports. Hockey is also one of my favorite sports because it requires little to no technique at all, and the crowd is always into the game and always causing commotion; for example some fans throw stuff at the players for fun and it’s allowed!

Hockey is much faster and requires more energy than most sports. The  players streak across the rink. The players  powerful shots and passes can send the puck flying at a rate  faster than 100 miles per hour. Each team has a goalkeeper that defends his own net from the puck going in.The goalkeepers must often make quick slides across the ice rink on their skates, stomachs, knees or backs to stop the puck from going into their  net. After the puck crosses the goal line of the opposition it is a called a goal for the team that puts it in the net and scores a point for the team.The team that scores the most goals wins the game. To keep the action fast, hockey has an unusual rule which is that hockey is the only major sport that allows players to switch in and out while the game is going on. The game is rough and includes lots of hitting which is legal and tons of fights, which is against the rules.

Hockey is a sport that requires a variety of different skills and techniques. The variety of skills  include the following the ability to check, ability to skate, ability to pass the puck, how to handle the  stick and how to shoot the puck. Checking is how the player takes the puck away from the other player. There are two main ways you can check another player checking with the stick and checking with the body. When you are checking with the stick it is when a player uses his stick to poke the puck away from the other player. A body check is when  the player bumps against the opposition with his hip or his shoulder and tries to block  the opponent’s progress or throw the opponent off balance. Stick checking and body checking are allowed only against the player in control of the puck or the last player to control the puck. Skating is the most important skill in all of hockey. Players must be able to turn sharply, skate backwards and perform many other different types of skills and maneuvers while skating at top speed which is why hockey is harder than it looks. They must be able to do this with their head up and while handling the puck with their stick. 

Hockey has five main different kind of offenses: one is penalties, another is major penalties, also misconduct penalties, then match penalties and lastly penalty shots.

Minor penalties are awarded for stuff like holding an opponent, purposely tripping or hooking which ultimately results in two minutes inside the penalty box. The team that the penalty goes against  must play without that player  until the 2 minutes have passed or the other team scores. But if the same penalty is given to the  players on both teams they must both sit in the box for  the full to minutes and two different players must  replace them on the ice.

Major penalties are given most of the time for offenses such as  fighting ,cutting or drawing blood of an opponent with the stick, those penalties result in five minutes inside the penalty box. The penalized team must play without the player for five minutes, but if a player on each team receives the same penalty at the same time, other players must replace the two players on the ice. Penalties for misconduct are given mainly when a player becomes hostile towards a referee, which results in ten minutes inside the penalty box, but another player may replace the penalized player. Match penalties are awarded for purposely hurting or trying to hurt an opponent. The  player awarded with that penalty is removed for the rest of the game and most of the time the team is given extra penalty minutes depending on the severity of the injury, which a player on that team has to serve. Penalty shots are basically  free shots at the opposing goal which is only defended by the goalie. They are awarded against the defending team when an attacking player throws his stick or is pulled down from behind and is so prevented from taking the shot.