What Is Icing in Hockey?

Icing is the whistle that confuses new fans most, mostly because it looks like nothing happened. A defender fires the puck down the ice, nobody touches it, a linesman raises his arm, and suddenly everyone skates back to the other end. Here is what the rule is, why it exists, and the handful of exceptions that make it look inconsistent.

What is icing in hockey?

Icing has two parts, and both have to happen:

1. A player shoots, bats or deflects the puck while it is on his own side of the center red line.
2. The puck travels the length of the ice and crosses the opponent's goal line (the red line the net sits on) without being touched by anyone.

When that happens, the linesman stops play. The faceoff is held at one of the two faceoff dots in the zone of the team that iced it, right in front of their own goalie.

The point of the rule is to stop a team from simply flinging the puck away whenever it is under pressure. Without icing, a team protecting a lead could shoot the puck the length of the ice every time it touched it and kill the clock. Icing forces teams to actually move the puck up the ice.

What does icing mean in practice?

The real punishment is not the faceoff location. It is the line change rule. Since the 2005-06 season, the team that ices the puck may not make a line change before the next faceoff. The five skaters who were on the ice, often worn out after a long shift in their own end, have to stay out there and take a defensive-zone draw against fresh opponents.

That is why you see exhausted players ice the puck and then hunch over their sticks while the other coach sends out his top line. A long shift that ends in icing is one of the most dangerous situations in hockey, and it is a big reason coaches preach getting the puck out over the red line before clearing it.

How does hybrid icing work?

For decades the NHL used "touch" icing: the puck crossed the goal line, and a defending player had to skate down and touch it before the whistle went. That produced high-speed races into the end boards and some serious injuries.

The NHL adopted hybrid icing in 2013-14. Now the linesman judges the race instead of waiting for a touch:

• If a defending player would reach the puck first, icing is called as soon as the puck crosses the goal line. Nobody needs to touch it.
• If an attacking player is winning the race, the linesman waves icing off and play continues, because the attacking team has fairly chased the puck down.

The linesman makes that call when the players reach the end-zone faceoff dots, well before anyone gets close to the boards. If the race is too close to call, icing is called. That is the safety point: the play is decided before the dangerous collision part.

When is icing not called?

This is where icing looks inconsistent. The linesman waves it off when:

• The team is shorthanded. A team killing a penalty is allowed to ice the puck. This is a big help to penalty killers and the main reason you see them clear the puck down the ice without a whistle. More on that in our power play guide.
• The puck goes into the net. If the long shot goes in, it is a goal, not icing.
• The goalie leaves his crease to play it or makes a move toward the puck.
• An opponent touches the puck on the way, including the goalie.
• A defending player could have played the puck and chose not to. The linesman can wave off icing when, in his judgment, a defender could have touched the puck before it crossed the line.

One detail trips up a lot of viewers: what matters is where the puck was when it was played, not where the player was standing. Once the puck is over the center red line, sending it down the ice is legal.

Icing in overtime and the playoffs

Icing rules are the same in overtime and in the playoffs. In regular-season overtime, which is three-on-three, icing is rare because teams usually prefer to keep possession, but when it happens the no-change rule bites hard: three tired skaters in their own zone with no relief is often how OT games end. See overtime and shootout rules for the format.

How to spot it from the couch

Watch the linesman, not the puck. When the puck is sent down the ice from a team's own half, the back linesman raises his arm to signal a possible icing. If the play is waved off, he drops his arm and you will see a sweeping "wash out" motion. If icing is confirmed, the whistle goes and the linesman points to the faceoff dot.

Icing looks a lot like offside on TV, because both involve a linesman's arm and a stop in play. They are different rules: icing is about long shots from your own half, offside is about entering the attacking zone before the puck.