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Hockey is a winter outdoor sport that is mostly played on ice. This sport is played by two opposing teams of 11 players who hit a puck with a stick. the disc must slide on the frozen surface of the ground. The goal is to get it into the opponent’s goal.

Ice hockey is one of the four most watched sports in the United States and is Canada’s national sport. Canada, which boasts the oldest formation still in business, the Canadiens de Montréal, is one of the nations with the richest medal table in international competitions.

There are also other versions of this sport:

  • Field hockey, played on grass (including synthetic grass) with a ball. Discipline included in the Summer Olympic Games.
  • Ice hockey, played on ice with a small puck. Discipline included in the Winter Olympic Games.
  • Roller hockey (also called roller hockey), played indoors with a puck.
  • Inline hockey, played on a field with stilmat or painted concrete with a small puck.
  • Wheelchair hockey, played indoors on a hardwood court with a perforated plastic ball.

In this site we will see together the rules of the game and the variants. But we will also discover many curious things.

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Let’s start with the basics!

What is Hockey?

Hockey is a team sport whose objective is to put the puck into the opposing team’s goal with the help of a stick. In general, this discipline is played with teams of 6 players, on an ice rink and using a stick to move and pass the puck, the team that scores the most goals is the winner.

The origin of this game dates back to the 18th century in England, with the passing of the years it underwent changes and variants, resulting in the first game being played in 1875 in a roofed court in the city of Montreal. Today, it is quite popular in countries such as Canada, the United States, Central Europe, Scandinavia, Finland and Russia.

Where is hockey played?

The pitch
Measurements of the court: 60.96 metres long by 25.9 metres wide.

Surface: It is an ice-covered rink.

Where the game is played: The rink is divided into three zones: defensive, neutral and offensive. In the centre the red line divides the neutral zone in two.

The game is played on an ice rink that is specifically designed for this sport. The rink is rectangular in shape but with rounded corners to prevent the puck from stopping if it hits them.

In the centre of the rink is the centre line (red) which divides the field in half and is used to mark any infractions that may be committed during the game. There is also the goal line (also red) which is located at each end of the rink four metres from the edge of the rink.

What is required to play hockey?

In order to play hockey it is necessary that you have certain implements that are indispensable, these are:

Goals
Also known as a goal box, this is located in front of each goal line and has a strong net to stop the puck when it enters and a goal is scored. It measures 1.2 metres high by 1.8 metres wide.

Puck or puck
It is a puck made of vulcanised rubber, similar to a pencil eraser and it is black in colour. It has a diameter of 3 inches and 1 inch thick, its weight is usually between 5 and a half ounces to 6 ounces.

Sticks
These are made of wood and cannot be longer than 63 inches. At the base of the stick is the blade, which is the area used to hit the puck and move it from one place to another on the court. It cannot be more than 12 and a half inches long.
In the case of the goalkeeper’s stick, it is larger than that of the other players and its blade is curved.

Skates
In this case if it is ice hockey, skates are required that have a blade made of rust-proof material that allows them to move without any problem on the ice rink. There are some variants of hockey in which roller skates can be used to play.

Which leagues are the most important in field hockey betting?

As mentioned above, this sport is not very famous and played in European culture, but if you move overseas, the story changes completely: especially in North America and Canada, this sport is one of the most followed and famous in the whole country.

Here are the most important ones, useful for your field hockey bets.

Winter Olympic Games

Ice hockey has been one of the highlights of the Winter Olympics since the 1920s and although the best teams in the competition are made up of professional players from the NHL and other professional leagues, for many players winning the Olympic gold medal remains the pinnacle of their careers.

World Championships

Unlike the Olympics, which are held every four years, the Ice Hockey World Championships are held annually and feature the 16 best national teams in the world, which contain most of the sport’s top players. Unlike the Olympics, which have both men’s and women’s tournaments, the World Championships are a “men’s only” event.

NHL

The National Hockey League (NHL) is the largest professional ice hockey competition/cup in the world. It is staged in North America and consists of 30 teams from Canada and the United States. The NHL is divided into two leagues – known as conferences; the 16-team Eastern Conference and the 14-team Western Conference. The regular season runs from early October to mid-April. It is followed by the 16-team playoffs leading up to the Stanley Cup finals, the ice hockey equivalent of the World Series.