Ice Hockey Offside Penalty

As a rule the infringement results in one of two ways.

Ice hockey offside penalty. An offside call is not a penalty that results in a player spending time in the box like tripping cross checking etc. A off sides occurs when players of an attacking team precede the puck into the attacking zone. The position of the player s skates and the position of the puck relative to the blue line are determining factors for an off side violation. The faceoff is in the neutral zone i e.

Linesman blows the play dead following an instance of this offside play. A so called offside pass may occur straight after a pass from inside a team s defending zone crosses the well known red line on the ice hockey field. Between the red and blue line but on the side where the offside violation occurred. When an offside violation occurs a linesman will stop play.

Instead play is stopped and a faceoff follows. In case one of the teams commits two violations during the same attempt for restarting the play then it can be assessed as a minor penalty for a delay of the ice hockey game. It is a rule that is in place to discourage what is known as cherry picking or sitting in the offensive zone waiting for the puck. Offsides is a penalty in ice hockey that is often misunderstood.

Even if the linesman erred in calling offside the faceoff will still occur.