What is Icing?

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icing

Icing refers to a rule used in hockey. This rule is formulated for purposes of preventing a hockey team from throwing the puck deep into the zone of its opponent. A throw into the deep zone of an opponent is commonly referred to as dumping a puck. Teams use this strategy to enable them evade chances of playing a defense or run a time off the clock. Hockey teams that are found guilty of dumping the puck have to send the puck past the goal line of the opponent without allowing the puck to touch another player or get into the net. This approach is seen as a delay tactic that interferes with the flow of a game. After the application of the icing rule, a faceoff is done at the defensive zone where the team that iced the puck is. The National Hockey League first created the icing rule back in 1939. The aim then was to stop teams from playing a purely defensive game as well as stop them from dumping pucks too far away zones repeatedly.

Importance of the Icing Rule

Prior to the crafting of this rule, hockey teams that were out-skilled vastly would spend most of the playing time dumping pucks across ice fields in order to pass time. Teams also used this strategy as soon as they gained the lead to effectively prevent their opponents from getting any chance of a comeback. All this made ice hockey games very boring without any events. The icing rule applies when the puck is launched and made to cross a minimum of 2 red lines without anybody touching it. The second line that it crosses through is usually the goal line of the opponent. In simpler terms, the puck has to cross the middle line and the goal line of the opponent for the icing infraction to apply.

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