Icing (ice Hockey) - Variations

Variations

In the NHL and AHL, along with many North American professional leagues, a player on the opposing team other than the goaltender must touch the puck to cause the stoppage of play. This is called touch icing. If the puck is first touched by the goaltender or a player on the team that iced the puck, icing is waved off (cancelled) and play continues. The icing rule can lead to high-speed races for the puck. While an icing call is pending, the linesman raises an arm to indicate that a potential icing call may be made. If the icing is waved off, the official lowers his arm and gives the washout signal (extending both arms sideways from the body at shoulder height, similar to the "safe" sign in baseball but typically delivered from a less-crouched or fully upright position).

In international IIHF rules, European professional leagues, some lower-level North American professional leagues (ECHL and Central Hockey League), and most amateur leagues worldwide, play is stopped for icing immediately once the puck crosses the goal line. This is called automatic or no-touch icing. This rule has been adopted after an incident in the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League in 1990, when Luděk Čajka, rushing to get to the puck in an icing situation, crashed into the boards, suffered severe spinal injuries, and died a few weeks later.

The NCAA and several minor North American leagues use a third variation called hybrid icing. Play is stopped immediately if the player on the opposing team reaches the facedot circle first, instead of skating all the way across the goal line to touch the puck. This type of icing is intended to reduce the number of collisions along the boards during "touch icing", but still allowing the team that iced the puck to get to it first to wave off the icing.

Icing is always waved off in the following situations:

• The team committing the icing is shorthanded, i.e. penalty killing.
• The linesman believes a player on the opposing team (other than the goalkeeper) could have played the puck before it crossed the goal line.
• The puck enters the goal.
• The puck is iced directly from a player participating in a face-off.
• The goalkeeper leaves his goal crease and moves in the direction of the puck.
• In the NHL, the linesman deems the icing is the result of an attempted receivable pass.

The 1970s era World Hockey Association professional league never adopted the NHL rule of allowing shorthanded teams to ice the puck while engaged in the penalty kill. In 2009, USA Hockey considered eliminating the shorthanded icing rule, having tested its elimination in Massachusetts and Alaska in the 2007 to 2009 seasons.