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January 26, 2010
Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is played on ice skates and involves using a stick to hit a puck past a goaltender into a net measuring six feet in width and four feet in height. The puck, made of vulcanized rubber, is 1 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. It weighs between 5.5 and 6 ounces and must be frozen solid for official play. Once a seasonal game popular only in cold climates, hockey is now one of the most popular sports around the world, due to the proliferation of indoor arenas, and one of four major professional sports in North America. Indeed, professional hockey has existed since the early 1900s when the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League began openly paying its players. Today, the National Hockey League, or NHL, is comprised of 30 professional teams divided into six divisions, with players from all over the world, primarily Canada, the U.S.A. and northern and eastern Europe. The annual championship is known as the Stanley Cup, a reference to the actual cup first awarded in 1892 by then Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston.
It is generally accepted that ice hockey originated in Canada, and there is evidence, mostly via oral histories, that a similar game was played among Mi’kmaq First Nation tribes in Eastern Canada. However, European immigrants brought various games that seemed closely related, particularly the Scottish sport known as “shinty” and Irish “hurling.” The term “shinney,” a derivation of “shinty,” is still used in Canada as slang for an informal type of hockey. It is likely that the game evolved from these beginnings.
Amateur ice hockey leagues for all ages and both genders have flourished in recent years. The rules are fairly simple and resemble those of soccer, with the addition of sticks, pucks and ice skates, of course! Like football, ice hockey is a “full-body contact sport.” Bodychecks are allowed and even encouraged. So, hockey requires protective gear that can be quite pricey. Injuries are still prevalent, however, and professional hockey players are among the toughest sports combatants. It is not unusual for pros to play with broken bones and stitches. Yet, in a sport where career-ending injuries are common and players begin their professional careers as young as 19, many players continue into their late 30s and 40s.
A team consists of offensive players and defensive players. Like basketball, both offensive players and defensive players are fielded at the same time. In ice hockey, a full playing complement is 6 players, 3 on offense and 3 on defense. The offense is comprised of a center and two wings (left and right). The defense is comprised of two defensemen and the goaltender (or goalie). Therefore, except when a team is playing under penalty for infraction of rules (known as a Power Play for a non-penalized team playing against a penalized team), there will be 12 skaters on the ice during a game
A game consists of three twenty-minute periods, with breaks between the first and second periods and the second and third periods for ice resurfacing. A tie results in “instant death” overtime, wherein the first team to score wins. If neither team breaks the tie during overtime, a “shootout” takes place. A fan favorite, a shootout pits three single shooters for each team against the opposing team’s goalie. If the initial 3-player shootout results in a tie, it will continue indefinitely, with one player after another facing the opposing team’s goalie until the tie is broken.
Hockey is a very fast-paced and physically arduous game, with players skating at 20-30 mph and puck speeds that can reach 100 mph. A player’s “shift” on the ice may consist of mere seconds or several minutes. Players take the field for shifts in “lines.” An offensive line consists of the three offensive players (center, left wing, right wing); a defensive line consists of two defensemen (minus the goaltender). Line changes occur without stopping play. One line simply comes “over the wall,” or off the bench, as another skates “out the door,” or off the ice.
The standard professional NHL hockey season is about six-and-a-half months in length, or 82 games, beginning usually around the first of October and ending mid April, with the play-offs to follow. Because the play-offs are conducted by best-of-7-games elimination, the championship (Stanley Cup) series usually takes place in June.
Like baseball, ice hockey is a game of statistics for teams and players, with stats for everything from scoring to assists to save percentages and penalty minutes. Devotees follow the stats of their favorite teams and players closely.
Interesting FAQs:
The ice on a regulation hockey rink is 1” thick and kept at 16˚F.
The Zamboni, so named for the man who designed and built the first ice resurfacing machine, shaves away the top layer of the ice, sweeps up the resulting “snow” and deposits a new layer of water, which almost instantly freezes, to fill in gouges and keep the ice at the required depth.
Professional hockey sticks are now mostly made of composite materials to the specifications of the individual player. When a player breaks a stick during play, he must discard it to the ice, but play does NOT stop. The player can continue without a stick until a break in the action or risk leaving his position to return to the bench for a replacement. Often, another player in a less vulnerable position will pick up a stick and take it to a teammate. Using a broken hockey stick is an infraction of rules that will result in a penalty.
Like sticks, the protective gear worn by professional hockey players are tailored to the individual.
In general, play stops for injuries only if they are incapacitating or result in blood on the ice.
Fighting, while controversial, is generally allowed by NHL officials as long as both combatants maintain their feet, though individual participants (not teams) are penalized. Supporters of fighting in hockey argue that referees cannot catch every infraction and clever “cheaters” can get away with dangerous, unfair activities unless a team “enforcer” makes it clear to the offender that such actions will not be tolerated. Fighting is also sometimes used to “fire up” the instigator’s team or “cool down” the opposing one.
Every NHL goalie has a specially fitted and decorated helmet. A goalie’s pads, or leg shields, alone can cost as much as $1,000.00.
The state with the fastest growing number of amateur hockey teams/leagues is…TEXAS! (more…)
August 20, 2009
Reeves and Gilli moved into Chatam House because their own home was invaded by honeybees. This is based entirely on facts and happens all too often.
Bees swarm most often in the spring and fall when a hive gets too crowded. The bees in the old hive choose a new queen. She flies off with the younger bees to establish a new colony and often does this in the walls or attic of an occupied home.
Honeybees like tiny openings that lead to large, dark spaces. They can bore into sheetrock but will not colonize where humans move about. They prefer outside walls or the attics of buildings. Bees should never be allowed to build hives in the walls of a structure. They become defensive of their hive once they have made honey and hatch baby bees. People (and even pets) who stumble into the paths of such bees may well be stung. Colonies that are left to grown inside building walls can produce massive amounts of honeycomb and honey, causing damage to the host structure.
Removing bees from such a hive usually involves tearing into the wall of the host structure. All of the bees, honeycomb and honey MUST be removed before repairs can be made. This often entails removing sections of wall and support beams saturated with the honey. A "bee wrangler" is usually needed to remove the bees, especially if the hive is sizable. General pest control procedures, such as simply spraying to kill the bees, are inadequate, and the average exterminator will not attempt a removal of an established colony. After the bees are removed, a builder can clean up the honey and remaining hive and make necessary repairs. It is best to keep bees from finding a way into the outside walls or attics of buildings by being certain that small holes and gaps are well plugged.
Unlike other bees, honeybees do not hibernate during cold weather. They feed on stored honey and share their body heat by clustering together. Honey bees are social insects, and a typical colony may contain as many as 90,000 individual bees.
Honey bees can fly up to 10 miles from their hive in search of nectar, from which they make honey, and can fly at speeds up to 15 mph. Honey is 80% sugars and 20% water. (more…)
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