The Offsides Rule in Ice Hockey

Keefe Gorman, a Merrill Lynch managing director of investments, studied economics and Spanish at St. Lawrence University. When he is not engaged in his professional responsibilities at Merrill Lynch, Keefe Gorman pursues a number of interests, including hockey.

Ice hockey is one of many sports that implement an offside rule. Similar to the offside rule in European football, the one in ice hockey is made to discourage players from hovering around the opposing team's goal and waiting for an easy shot. However, the implementation of the offsides rule in hockey is unique in that it allowed forward passes to occur for the first time in the sport’s history.

To make sense of ice hockey’s offsides rule, one must first understand how the ice rink is segmented for the game. Each team's defending zone begins at the back of the rink with the goalie. As a team’s players move out of their defending zone and past the first blue line, they enter the neutral zone. When they cross the second blue line into the opposing team's section of ice, players enter the attacking zone. The offsides rule prohibits an offensive player from entering the attacking zone ahead of the puck. More specifically, both of a player's skates may not cross the blue line ahead of the puck.