Ice hockey is played with teams of five regular players, plus a goalie. There are three forward players (center, right wing and left wing) and two defensive players (right defence and left defence).

The ice is split lengthwise, into left (L) and right (R). It's always viewed from the perspective of the goalie, so that when you're playing right defense, you will be playing against your opponent's left wing because of the opposing goalies' perspectives.

The puck must enter your offensive zone before any of your players do. In order to be considered onsides (i.e., not offsides), you must have at least one foot outside the offensive zone. You can skate along the blue line with one foot on each side, to keep up your momentum, but you can't cross the line completely. If someone from your team is in the offensive zone before the puck, there will be many shouts of "offsides". If you hear this, get out of the zone: play won't resume until all offensive players have been out of the zone at the same time. As soon as the zone has been cleared, you can begin your attack again.

The goalie obviously is in from of the goal. In front of the goal there is also a blue box - only the goalie is allowed inside the box.

We don't much care about this one, but try not to do it. Icing is when someone in their own defensive zone sends the puck all the way out of their zone, across center ice, across their offensive zone, and past the goal line on the other end of the ice. We don't stop play for this, so it gets really tiring to have to continually chase all the way down the ice for the puck because someone has iced it.

In a real game (and on the rare occasions when we might have a referee), the puck is brought back to the defensive zone and a face-off takes place in one of the circles near the goal. Thus the only real reason to do it in a game is to get a few seconds break from playing and have time to change up the players on the ice. Accidents happen but please don't make a habit of doing this.

Remember to Rotate!

We emphasize the importance of rotating: play your hardest, then go swap with somebody on the bench to recover. Its much more fun this way. You shouldn't be on the ice more than 2 minutes at a time. If you stay on the ice too long, somebody may ask you to rotate. Remember, its no fun waiting on the bench for half the game because others don't want to rotate.

When you rotate, shout out the position you are playing as you approach the bench. That way the person coming on can know where they will be playing right away. Go in the door closer to the middle of the rink, and the person at the door furthest from the middle of the rink is up next.

Checking

We generally do not allow body checking between players, although some of the more experienced players may occasionally check each other if they have both agreed beforehand that it is ok. No one will play this way with you until they judge you capable of it and you request it. Don't be frightened off by it! Other than that, the rule is that anything you do to get the puck or interfere with another player's play must be directed toward the puck: you can't hit, push, trip, slash at, hook, or in any other way commit mayhem on another player. Think about what you're doing, and if it seems kind of mean, don't. We're in this for the fun of it and it's no fun to get hurt. So, don't hold someone back or down. You can lift their stick, though, or move it at a critical moment.

Keep your stick low at all times

Remember that have some short players, and what you consider to be about waist-level may be right in their face. Hitting someone in the head with your stick is a BIG no-no; it's called high-sticking and it really hurts (and can give someone whiplash!).