hockey.

Hockey is fast, mean, and beautiful — and the broadcasters assume you grew up watching it. Here are the terms that come up most when the puck stops moving and everyone's looking at the ref.

Power play

When one team is short a player because of a penalty, the other team gets a “power play” — 5 skaters against 4 for usually two minutes. Hockey's biggest scoring opportunity. Good teams convert these; great teams convert them often.

If you hear “they're on the power play,” the next two minutes are worth watching closely.

Power play for Pittsburgh. They convert 27% of the time. Don't walk away.

Penalty kill

The opposite side of a power play — when your team is short a skater and just trying to survive the two minutes without giving up a goal. Successful penalty kills are massive momentum shifts. Your most defensive players come out for these.

Killing a long penalty (especially a 5-minute major) without a goal against gets the bench up on its feet. Watch for the energy shift right after.

They killed it. Five minutes shorthanded, no goals against. Massive.

Icing

A penalty for shooting the puck from your own half across the opponent's goal line without anyone touching it. The puck comes back to your zone for a face-off and you can't change players. Designed to prevent teams from just dumping the puck whenever they get tired.

Commentators say “icing” with mild disappointment. It's the hockey equivalent of stalling.

Icing. The puck comes back. Their tired line has to stay on for another shift.

Offside

When an attacking player crosses the opponent's blue line before the puck does. Whistled dead immediately, face-off goes back to neutral ice. Different from soccer's offside — it's about whether the puck gets there first, not where defenders are standing.

Goal scored, crowd erupts, then a video review wipes it off the board — this is usually why.

Offside. The puck was a step behind the skater. They wave the goal off.

Hat trick

When one player scores three goals in a single game. Fans throw hats on the ice when it happens — yes, real hats. The arena staff sweeps them up between plays. The tradition is older than most fans realize.

If hats are flying onto the ice, you don't need anyone to tell you what happened.

Hat trick from Crosby. He's 40 in August. We are in fact doing nothing about it.

The crease

The blue painted area in front of the goal. Goalies own it — opposing players can't camp in there or interfere with the goalie. Goals get reviewed (and often overturned) for “goaltender interference” in the crease.

When a goal gets waved off after celebration, the crease is usually involved. Watch for the slow-motion replay.

That goal's under review. They're looking at whether he was in the crease.

Slapshot

A shot where the player winds the stick way up above their shoulder and slams down on the puck. The hardest shot in hockey — pucks regularly clear 100 mph. The wind-up is slow, which is why the puck needs to be sitting still or moving toward the shooter.

When a defender on the blue line winds up like a golfer, this is what's coming. Don't blink.

That slapshot was 101 mph. The goalie didn't even see it.

Empty netter

A goal scored against a net with no goalie in it. In the final minute of a one-goal game, the losing team often “pulls the goalie” for an extra attacker, gambling on a tying goal. If they don't score, the other team usually flips the puck into the empty net to seal it.

The dagger that ends close games. If you see a goalie skating to the bench with two minutes left, the next 60 seconds are tense.

Empty netter. Game's over. They pulled the goalie a hair too early.

Other sports

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Hail Mary translates every one of these terms live during the game, in your group chat. iOS, summer 2026.

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