we all know the basic rules three 20-minute periods it's five on five plus goalies hit the puck with your stick and get it into the opposing team's net but hockey's fast and there's just so much going on that it can get tough to keep up with everything else that you're watching in this video i just want to give more context to any new fans and explain everything that you see when you first tune in to a hockey game first we'll go over the arena then we'll talk about the personnel running the game and finally we'll go over the composition of a hockey team my name is matt and this is hockey visually explained welcome to benchworm we make videos that help people understand sports because we believe enjoying sports brings communities together every nhl team plays in an indoor building some call them arenas some call them centers or places there's a couple of gardens and one saddle dome for the purpose of our videos we'll be calling them arenas the most historic and arguably most well-known one is madison square garden home to the new york rangers it opened in 1968. now let's take a look inside an arena first you have the ice a roughly three-quarter inch slab of ice that is our playing surface surrounding the ice are the boards and attached to the boards are plexiglas panels to keep you safe from flying pucks holding the panels together are stanchions these are worth mentioning because there have been some crazy bounces off stanions in hockey's history now just behind the boards are the team's benches each team gets a side and there's a small buffer in between them you'll see a lot of players hop over these boards to get onto the ice but they also do have doors that open and close directly across on the other side of the rink you have three sections there are two penalty boxes one for each team that's where the players have to wait and serve out their time when they commit an infraction and in between the penalty boxes is the score keeper's bench finally you have the two nets a goalie net has two posts and a crossbar sometimes you'll hear the term bar down that means the player has scored a goal by ricocheting the puck off of the crossbar and down into the net now let's look at the lines on the ice let's start off right in the middle this is the center red line and right in the middle is the center circle and center ice faceoff spot this is where the game always starts with a face off at center ice to the left and right of the red line equal distances apart are the blue lines the blue lines form what is referred to as the neutral zone and within the neutral zone are four more face-off dots referred to as neutral zone face-off spots now to go over the rest of the lines we have to put you in the shoes of a player let's say you're a team canada and you're playing against say team sweden your goalie is over here and theirs is here this would be your attacking zone and this would be your defending zone both are identical but this terminology is important to know for when you're watching games when a player is trying to score they are on the offensive and when a player is in this zone trying to prevent another team from scoring they are playing defense each of these zones has two more face-off circles face-off spots a goal line and the goalie's crease in 2005 in an effort to create more offensive opportunities the nhl added two more red lines in each zone to form a trapezoid-shaped area behind the net previously the goalie could roam anywhere they wanted behind the net and help their team out defensively with the new lines the goalies are now limited to playing the puck within the trapezoid shape and last but not least is the referee circle while it doesn't affect play at all this is the area where the referees congregate now let's talk about personnel it's easy to spot the players but who is everyone else that you can see while each arena's personnel may vary the iihf off-ice officials handbook states that the scorekeeper's bench is meant for the scorekeeper two scorekeeper assistants the timekeeper and the announcer and right beside each penalty box has a penalty box attendant whose main role is to keep track of all the penalty times and usher the players in and out and of course you have the on ice officials comprised of two referees and two linesmen now let's talk about the hockey teams let's start with looking at the composition of a roster each team dresses 20 players per game you have 12 forwards 6 defensemen and 2 goaltenders the forwards are comprised of 4 centers 4 left wings and four right wings the forwards form lines known as the first second third and fourth lines with each line having a center a left wing and a right wing the first line is normally the team's best scoring line while the fourth line is usually used more in a defensive capacity you might also hear the term top six forward this means that the player has the offensive skills that make them a number one or number two line player you might also hear the term top nine which refers to the top three lines or the term bottom six which refers to the bottom two lines line mates practice together and for the most part stick together in games this is an important concept to understand as great lines in hockey are often discussed and even get nicknames some of the best names for lines in hockey's history include the west coast express featuring marcus nasiland todd bertuzzi and brendan morrison the legion of doom featuring eric lindros john leclaire and michael renberg and the production line featuring gordy howe sid abel and ted lindsay defensemen are split up into groups of two into what are called defensive pairings or pairs so you'll notice there are three groups of defensemen and four groups of forwards this is why when you look at a timesheet of a game defensemen usually have more play time than the forwards and lastly there are two goaltenders a starting goalie and a backup goalie the starting goalie will play the entire game with the backup available in case of injury or in case the starting goalie is just not having a good day during the course of the season these players will split the games usually with one goalie playing more games than the other the exact number of games however varies by team with some backups only playing a dozen or so games and some others hitting the 30 mark some teams even split the duty almost evenly when they aren't sure who their starter should be alright let's get to the ice during a game you'll have six players on ice per team at a time you'll have the starting goaltender one line of forwards and one defensive pair that leaves the backup goalie as we mentioned but there's also three lines and two defensive pairs left on the bench waiting for their time to get on unlike a sport like soccer or basketball player changes happen frequently with players rotating on and off the ice every minute and lastly on each bench are the head coach assistant coaches and support staff that can include trainers equipment managers and more there's a lot more people that make the game like the zamboni driver and the people that clean the ice during commercial breaks and the mascots and of course the crowd we could go on forever but we hope this gives you a great starting point to start understanding hockey and even help you with watching your first game thanks for watching we are benchworm teaching you sports from the bench what do you want to learn about next let me know in the comments and if you like this video please hit that like button and click subscribe if you want to see more videos