ice time: changing on the fly

 

over the past year, my family has gotten really into ice hockey! we've become huge fans of a local college team, the Colorado College Tigers. they are national title holders and really fun to watch.

one thing i love about hockey is that the season is really long. that means that i have lots of time to continue learning more about hockey. this Christmas i asked for Hockey for Dummies-ha!

i'll be posting some answers to questions i've had about hockey along the way starting with: why do the skaters switch out so often and how do they know when to switch?

the official term is "changing on the fly" and the substituted skater can leave the bench when the other skater is within 5' of it. if they leave too early, they get penalized for having too many skaters on the ice. this switch out happens every 45 seconds in order to keep up a high level of intensity throughout the game.

the visiting team always has the chance, when play stops, to switch out their team first but the home team has the final substitution slots before play resumes allowing them to create good match ups for offense and defense.