Hockey Terms Used In Rinks Everywhere 2024

Updated: November 29, 2024 by Bill Burniece

Hockey slang terms are a unique language in itself.

A kind of hockey language and hockey lingo.

The hockey terms below are used in hockey at all levels – from Mites to the NHL. And of course, the beer leagues.

I have listed all of the funny hockey terms to know if you are going to start watching or playing ice hockey.

Hockey terms are constantly evolving as will this list below. If you have something to add, please let me know.

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245 Hockey Terms To Know

  • A: The letter that is worn on a player’s jersey that is an Assistant Captain of a team
  • Ankle Burner: A poor hockey skater whose ankles bend inward as he skates. Also known as a Bender
  • Anchor: A teammate who makes frequent mistakes that sink the entire team
  • Angling: Moving an opposing team’s player to the side in your defensive zone, keeping them out the middle of the defensive zone
  • Apple: An assist on a goal
  • Assist: An assist is awarded to a player who sets up a goal scored by another player usually by passing the puck
  • Attacking Zone: The opposing team’s end of the ice – the area from the blue line to the end boards
  • Axe: When a player gets nixed or ‘axed’ from the roster
  • Babysitter: When a good player is placed on a line with two players of lesser skill and thus assumes the role of line ‘babysitter’
  • Backhand: A pass or shot that is taken from the back side of the hockey stick. AKA backhander
  • Backcheck: Forwards rushing back to the defensive zone to help out their defense during an opposing team’s offensive push
  • Bag Of Milk: A not-so-nice way of calling a player fat
  • Banana: A wicked curve on a hockey stick
  • Bandaid: A player who always gets hurt
  • Bar Down aka Bar In: A shot that deflects off the top bar and down into the net. A highly coveted and impressive goal type
  • Barn: A hockey rink or arena. Especially an old one with a wooden roof
  • Barnburner: A high-scoring, and sometimes fast-paced, game. Also called a Boat Race
  • Bar North: When a puck hits the crossbar and goes straight up in the air
  • Basket: The net. “He put the biscuit in the basket”
  • Beauty: A term used for a player who has a great personality and either exceptionally good or bad hockey skills. It can also refer to the pretty boy on the team who may or may not have good Flow. This player may also be called a ‘Beautician’
  • Beaver Tap: When a player claps his stick to get the attention of the puck carrier
  • Bench Boss: The coach
  • Bench Warmer: A player who sees limited playing time
  • Bender: A low-skilled player whose ankles bend precariously while they’re skating
  • Birdcage: A face-protecting cage on one’s helmet
  • Biscuit: The puck
  • Black Ace: A minor league player moved up to their parent NHL team for the Stanley Cup Playoffs
  • Blocker: The flat-surfaced pad that a goalie wears on his hand that holds the stick. Also called the Waffle pad
  • Blow A Tire: When a player falls without any logical reason why
  • Blue Line: The two blue lines on the ice that mark each team’s defensive zone
  • Blueliner: Hockey slang for a defenseman
  • Boarding: A hockey penalty that involves a violent check on a defenseless player into the boards
  • Boards: The barriers that form the framework of the ice rink surface. They are called ‘boards’ because they consist primarily of wood
  • Body Check: Duh. There is a lot of body-checking that goes on in hockey. Some clean, some dirty
  • Bottle Rocket: When a hard shot goes into the net and blows the goalie’s water bottle off the top of the net. Also called a Bottle Knocker
  • Breakaway: A player who has an open lane to the net without a defenseman in front of him
  • Breakout: When a team is in their defensive zone then ‘breaks’ out of the zone on the offensive
  • Breadbasket: The goalie’s chest area. Usually, the last place you want to put the puck as a shooter
  • Breezers: Hockey pants
  • Brick Wall: A goalie who is on top of his game and seemingly unstoppable
  • Bucket: Hockey helmet
  • Butt Check: A check initiated by driving the rear end into an opposing player
  • Butt-Ending: An ugly act of jabbing an opponent with the end-knob of a hockey stick. This is an illegal action which incurs a major penalty plus a game misconduct penalty
  • Butterfly: When a goalie goes down on both knees to protect the lower part of his net
  • Buzzer Beater: A goal scored just before the period horn
  • C: The letter that is worn on a player’s jersey that is a Captain of a team
  • Cage: A metal face protecter that is attached to a players helmet. The grid pattern resembles a bird cage
  • Can Opener: When you trip another player by putting your stick between their legs and twisting
  • Catcher: The webbed glove worn by goalkeepers. AKA ‘catching glove’ or ‘trapper’
  • Celly: A celebration following a goal
  • Change On The Fly: When players on the ice substitute other players from the bench during live play
  • Charging: A penalty that involves a player taking too many strides before checking another player violently into the boards
  • Checking From Behind: A penalty that involves… guess what?
  • Cheese: The top shelf of the net. “He went top cheese on that slapper eh?”
  • Check: A check is when a player initiates body contact with an opposing player
  • Cherry Picker: A player who loiters near center ice, behind the defense, hoping to get an easy uncontested breakaway
  • Chiclets: Teeth; or lack thereof
  • Chippy: When tempers flare and things get feisty on the ice
  • Chirp: Trash-talking the opposing team. Or sometimes a teammate
  • Chisler: A teammate who tells the ref he assisted on a goal when he didn’t to chisel points
  • Clapper: A slapshot
  • Coast To Coast: A goal scored by a player going from end to end and usually around most if not all the defenders
  • Coincidental Penalties: When both teams are assessed the same penalty at the same time. For example, two players get called for roughing. Both players go to the penalty box, but play continues at full-strength with 5 players on each side
  • Crashing The Net: When an offensive player charges to the front of the net to look for a rebound and distract the goalie
  • Crease: The area of ice located in front of the goaltender usually marked with a red semi-circle often with a blue-colored background
  • Crossbar: The horizontal top post part of the net
  • Cross Checking: An illegal play that occurs when a player uses the shaft of his stick to strike another player. It must be forceful enough to draw a penalty
  • Cycle or Cycling: Cycling is an offensive tactic used to keep control of the puck by passing it from player to player close to the boards in the other team’s end. Each player will make a pass, then ‘cycle’ in a circle to get open for a return pass
  • Dance: A fight
  • Dangle: A move or series of moves or dekes performed by a skilled player to go around a defender or beat a goalie
  • Dasher: Another hockey slang term for the boards of the rink
  • Deke: A quick move made by an offensive player to get around a defender or beat a goalie by using misdirection
  • Delayed Penalty: When a penalty is called and the penalized team has not touched the puck yet to stop play. This allows the non-penalized team to pull their goalie to get another offensive player on the ice until the penalized team touches the puck. It’s kind of like bonus penalty time
  • Denied: A goalie robbing a player of a sure goal
  • Dirty: A term to describe an outstanding move or deke
  • Dish: A pass
  • Disk: Another word for puck
  • Dive or Diving: When a player embellishes contact from another player with the only goal of drawing a penalty. Kind of like soccer
  • Donnybrook: Another beautiful term for a hockey fight
  • Dots: Hockey slang for the face-off dots on the ice
  • Duster: A player who doesn’t get much playing time and sits on the bench and collects dust
  • Dust Off: A quick pass made by a defenseman
  • Egg: When a hockey game ends 0-0. This is very rare in beer leagues where games are usually a boat race
  • Elbowing: A penalty involving purposely using the elbow or forearm to drive it into an opponent
  • Empty Netter: Just like it sounds. When a goal is scored on an empty net. This usually occurs when the other team pulls its goalie to get an extra attacker on the ice
  • Enforcer: The assigned fighter of the team
  • Extra Attacker: When a team is behind near the end of the game they may ‘pull’ their goalie and insert another attacking player
  • Faceoff: When the play is started by the referee dropping the puck between both team’s Centers
  • Face Wash: When a player rubs the palm of their filthy glove into an opponent’s face
  • Fan or Fanned: A player who attempts a shot and completely misses the puck
  • Filthy: A term used for a great goal, deke, play or pass
  • Fishbowl: A helmet with a plastic shield attached as opposed to a cage or no shield
  • Fisticuffs: Yup, another fight. Seeing a pattern here yet?
  • Five Hole: The area between the goalie’s skates/legs
  • Flamingo: When a player quickly lifts one leg, standing like a flamingo, to get out of the way of a shot
  • Flow: Beautiful long hockey hair that flows out the back of the helmet when a player skates
  • Forecheck: When a team is applying offensive pressure in the other team’s defensive zone
  • Free Agent: A hockey player who is single. See: Puck Bunny
  • Freezing The Puck: Not literally. Although sometimes the game pucks are kept on ice before being put in play. In this context, it is when the goaltender holds on to the puck until the whistle, stopping play
  • Full-Strength: When a team has all five players on the ice and a goalie
  • Garbage Goal: A lucky shot, bounce, or event resulting in a goal
  • Gino: A goal scored
  • Give-And-Go: A quick pass exchange to a teammate
  • Goal Line: The red line between the two vertically placed posts that frame the net. Any puck that fully crosses this line or plane, is ruled a goal
  • Goal Post: The red steel frame that is on the front of the hockey net. There are two vertical ‘posts’ and a horizontal ‘crossbar’ that make up the goalposts
  • Gongshow: A widely-used and versatile hockey term game that can mean: 1. A game that gets out of control from dirty hits/fights, crazy-high scores, and other shenanigans 2. The shitshow that takes place after the game in the locker room, parking lot or bar
  • Goon: A player who likes taking dirty hits and likes to fight. Also called a Cement Head or Likes-To-Go-Guy
  • Gordie Howe Hat Trick: A Gordie Howe hat trick refers to a player who scores a goal, gets an assist, and in a fistfight all in one game. This is kind of the holy grail in beer league hockey
  • Greasy: An ugly goal or a sketchy hit
  • Gretzky’s Office: The area directly behind the net where Gretzky used to set up shop and plot his next move
  • Grinder: A gritty, hard-working player who’s not afraid to muck it up and fight for the puck in the corner or drop the gloves
  • Grocery Stick: A player who sits in between the group of forwards and defensemen on the bench. You get the idea
  • Hand Pass: Just like it sounds. Passing the puck with your hand(s) instead of your stick or skates
  • Hash Marks: The small lines attached to the face-off circles
  • Hatty: A hat trick, or three goals scored in a single game. Traditionally fans throw hats on the ice. But in the beer leagues, since we have little to no fans, this is a rare occurrence. A Gordie Howe Hat Trick refers to a goal, assist, and fight in a single game
  • High Cheese: A goal scored just under the top goal bar
  • Hip Check: A body check initiated from the hip area of the body
  • Hoser: This old-school term is used to refer to the losing team. Before Zambonis were invented, the losing team had to hose down the ice following the game. Brutal
  • Howitzer: A heavy slapshot that sounds like a cannon
  • Icing: When a player sends the puck down the ice from his side of the red line and it doesn’t touch another player
  • Junk: This can refer to a shot to the junk or the Junction – which is the area of the net where the Crossbar meets the post
  • Keep: Another nickname for the goalie. Derived from the shortened version of the word Keeper
  • Kronwalled: A big hit, normally blind-sided. Named after NHL’r Niklas Kronwall who likes to use this type of hit
  • Laying The Lumber: A slash delivered to another player
  • Lettuce: Hair on the head and face. Also called salad
  • Light The Lamp: Scoring a goal triggers a red light behind the goal. That is, only if you can afford to pay for a goal judge
  • Lip Lettuce: A mustache – usually without a goat. Also referred to as a Lip Sweater
  • Lumber: A hockey stick. One that is usually made of wood and not a composite model
  • Major Penalty: A serious infraction that warrants a 5 minute (or more) penalty
  • Man Advantage: When one team is penalized and can only have 4 players on the ice while the other team has 5 players
  • Man Handle: A player physically roughing up another player
  • Meat Wagon: Refers to the ambulance that comes to transport the broken hockey player to the hospital
  • Michigan: The ‘Michigan’ is a lacrosse-style goal that consists of lifting the puck with the stick and tossing it under the top corner of the goal while skating behind the net. Bill Armstrong invented the move, but Mike Legg made it into a mainstream sports highlight while playing for the University of Michigan
  • Misconduct: A major penalty for a serious violation that removes the player from the ice for 10 minutes. A ‘game misconduct’ involves that player being ejected from the game
  • Mitts: Refers to both hockey gloves and a player’s hands
  • Mouthy: A mouthguard
  • Mucker: A Mucker is the same thing as a Grinder. A hard-nosed, hard-working player
  • Muddy Boots: When a player skates slowly like he is stuck in the mud
  • Muffin: A fluttering shot that spins or drifts in the air all the way to the net. Also called Flutterball
  • Munson: The guy who’s the biggest asshole on the ice
  • Nail: A hard body check or a tough physical player
  • Natural Hat Trick: When a player scores 3 consecutive goals in a game without being interrupted by any other players’ goals
  • Netminder: A hockey term for the goalie
  • Neutral Zone: The area of play that is located between the two blue lines
  • Nip: Scoring a goal through the tiniest of spaces
  • Odd Man Rush: Has nothing to do with an odd player, although there are many. The odd-man rush is when the number of players heading into the offensive zone outnumbers the defensive players. For instance, a 3 on 2 or 2 on 1. Sometimes players refer to this as having ‘numbers’
  • ODR: An outdoor rink
  • Office: The area directly behind the goalie’s net. Used to be Wayne Gretzky’s favorite place to work
  • Offsides: When a player enters the offensive zone before the puck crosses the blueline
  • Old School Player: A player who rocks old equipment or plays using an outdated style or tactics
  • Olympic Sheet Of Ice: An Olympic rink is noticeably larger than a regulation NHL rink (100′ x 200′ compared to 85′ x 200′)
  • One-Timer: A shot that is taken at the split-second it is passed to a player without the player gaining control of the puck first
  • On The Fly: A live shift change during play
  • Open Ice Hit: Just what it sounds like
  • Original Six: A term that is used to reference the first 6 teams in the NHL between 1942 and 1967 when expansion occurred
  • Overcorked: Taking a shot too hard without any control
  • Own Goal: Accidentally putting the puck in your own net
  • Packing A Bomb: Tossing a wad of recycled chewing tobacco in the locker room. Don’t do this
  • Paddle: The wide part of a goalie’s stick
  • Paint: The goalie crease area
  • Peanut Butter: When a puck gets stuck in the net for a few seconds before falling to the ice
  • Penalty Box: The special ‘box’ reserved for those players who break the rules and earn a penalty. Also called the Sin Bin
  • Penalty Kill: Playing a man short when your team gets a penalty. The kill ends when the player is released from the penalty box. Nobody is actually killed lol
  • Penalty Shot: A rare penalty awarded when an illegal move stops a high-percentage scoring opportunity
  • Pest: A pain-in-the-ass player who loves to annoy the other team in any way possible
  • Pigeon: A player that consistently scores Garbage Goals
  • Pillows: The goaltender’s leg pads
  • Pinch: An attempt to keep the puck in the offensive zone
  • Pipe: The goal post
  • Pizza: A horrific turnover that gives the other team a golden opportunity to score
  • Playmaker: A player who usually has more assists than goals
  • Playoff Beard: A traditional ritual of growing out your beard in the playoffs until you get eliminated
  • Plumber (aka Pipe-Fitter): Similar to the Mucker, a player with average skills who works hard on every shift
  • Plus-Minus: a hockey statistic applied to an individual player. When a player is on the ice when they score a goal, they are awarded +1. When a player is on the ice when a goal is scored on them, they are awarded -1
  • Point: The area near the blue lines that is occupied by the defensemen
  • Poke Check: When a player uses his stick to dislodge the puck from another player’s stick 
  • Policeman: A type of enforcer who will hit or fight any opponent taking cheap shots at his teammates. The policeman’s watchfulness and reputation often act as a deterrent against such practices
  • Pond Hockey: C’mon. You don’t need me to explain this
  • Power Move: When a player aggessively cuts to the next using speed and strength 
  • Power Play: When an opposing team is serving a penalty and is a man down, the other team is full strength on the power play until the penalty ends
  • Press Y: This comes from EA Sports NHL game series on Xbox when you press the Y button to start a fight
  • Puck Bunny: An attractive female, sometimes a Rink Rat, who hangs out at hockey games trying to bag one rather than coming to watch the hockey game itself
  • Puck Hog: A player who seldom passes the puck to others
  • Puck Luck: When the puck is bouncing in your favor
  • Pulling The Goalie: When a team sends their goalie to the bench to add an extra skater. This normally occurs during the end of a game when a team is within a goal or two of a tie score
  • Pull The Trigger: Shooting the puck
  • Pylon: A poor-skating defenseman that offensive players ‘walk’ around presenting an obstacle as effective as a pylon
  • Ragdolled: When a player get crushed by a check and looks like a ragdoll
  • Razor: A player on top of his game
  • Rebound: When a puck bounces off the goalie, post, board, or another player 
  • Red Line: The red line is the horizontal line that divides the ice surface in half. It is also where the opening face occurs
  • Ringer: A player who is unethically or illegally brought into a beer league or tournament hockey game that is significantly better than the rest of the players on the ice. A high-producing Ringer can often trigger a Gong Show
  • Ringing The Iron: Hitting the goalpost
  • Rink: Duh. But technically, standard hockey rinks are 200 feet long by 85 feet wide. International ‘Olympic’ rinks are a little larger weighing in at 200 feet long by 100 feet wide
  • Rink Rat: A person who loves to hang out at the rink. See Puck Bunny
  • Rink Swamp: When the Zamboni lays too much water on the ice surface
  • Road Apple: Old School hockey term referring to frozen horse manure that was used as a hockey puck
  • Roughing: A penalty that involves acting too aggressively towards another player and ‘roughing’ him up
  • Salad: Also called lettuce. Refer to a hockey player’s hair
  • Sauce: A saucer pass right on the tape
  • Save: When a goalie stops the puck from going into his net
  • Screen: When a player on the offensive team blocks the goalie’s view, it is referred to as screening. It’s a completely legal (and very effective) play as long as the player doesn’t make contact or interfere with the goalie
  • Shaft: The long straight part of a hockey stick
  • Shinny: A style of hockey, usually pond hockey, where you’re supposed to keep the puck below the knees since most players are not wearing shin pads
  • Shorthanded: When a team has a player in the penalty box they play with one less player until the penalty expires
  • Sieve: A goalie who allows a lot of goals. Not exactly a term of endearment
  • Silky: Soft player hands and stickhandling
  • Sin-Bin: The penalty box. You get a penalty, you get 2 minutes by yourself, and feel shame
  • Slapshot: A hockey shot that involves a full wind-up then striking the puck with maximum force. AKA: A Slapper. Pro players slap shots can exceed 100 mph
  • Slew Foot: A dirty move involving sweeping the leg or skate out from another player causing a violent fall backwards
  • Slot: The high-scoring area directly in front of the net
  • Snap Shot: A hockey shot when the player pulls the stick back then quickly forward on the puck using leverage from the bend in the stick
  • Snarl: Usually precedes a fight
  • Snipe: This term refers to a thread-the-needle type shot that beats the goalie in the smallest of spaces available for a goal. A sniper is a player who can do this at will
  • SOG: Shot On Goal. A SOG is recorded whenever a goalie makes a save keeping the puck out of the net. Interestingly, if the puck strikes the metal post or crossbar it is not recorded as a SOG
  • Spin-O-Rama: When a player maintains control of the puck while conducting a beautiful 360 spin move
  • Snow Shower: When a hard-charging player, frustrated by a goalie save, unceremoniously sprays the goalie with ice shavings from his sudden deceleration in front of the net. Always intentional
  • Stack The Pads: When a goalie goes down to make a save and puts his two large legs pads on top of one another
  • Stay At Home Defense: A defense-first defenseman who is especially strong in his own zone
  • Stick Handling: A hockey term used when a player is controlling the puck using his hands to keep the puck away from defenders
  • Stoned: When the goalie robs a player of a high-percentage goal-scoring chance
  • Stripes: A hockey referee. AKA a Zebra
  • Strong Side: Simply the side of the ice where most of the players, and usually the puck, are located
  • Suicide Pass: A pass made that sets up the recipient to get crushed by an awaiting defender
  • Sweater: A hockey jersey
  • Synthy: A synthetic ice surface
  • Tape To Tape: A perfect pass from one stick to another
  • Tender: Another term for the goalie. A shortened version of the word goaltender
  • The Show: The big leagues (aka The NHL)
  • Tic Tac Toe: A series of quick passes on offense that usually results in a spectacular goal
  • Tilly: A large hockey brawl
  • Toe Drag: When a player holds the puck out with his stick, to get a defender to ‘bite’, then pull it back and around the defender using only the “toe” of his stick. Very cool when done smoothly
  • Top Shelf or Top Cheese: The top section of the goal’s net between the crossbar and the goaltender’s shoulders. A Top Shelf goal is more impressive by adding the coveted Bar Down element. The top shelf is also called top cookies… where grandma hides the cookies
  • Trapezoid: The area, thus shaped, located behind the net and the goal line
  • Turnover: Losing control of the puck to the other team
  • Turnstile: When a defenseman gets deked and beaten like a rented D-man
  • Turtle: When a player assumes the Turtle position rather than fight
  • Twig: A hockey stick. Usually wood, not composite
  • Twine Bulge: A goal that hits the net and pushes it outward. A beautiful sight. Unless it’s your net
  • Wave Off: This can mean one of two things. The first is when a ref ‘waves off’ a goal, meaning it is not a good one. Or a ref can wave off a delayed call such as icing or offsides
  • Wheel: This means “turn and wheel” or change directions and proceed the other way at high speed
  • Wheelhouse: Is the area closest to the net where a player has the highest percentage chance of scoring
  • Windmill: This move occurs when a goalie makes a fast glove save and the momentum causes his catching glove to windmill over his head. The Windmill can also be used as a Celly
  • Woody: An old-school wooden stick. Modern sticks are made of super light and strong composite materials
  • Wrapper of Wraparound: When a player circles behind the net and jams to puck into the far side space before the Keeper gets there
  • Wrister: A wrist shot
  • Yard Sale: The Yard Sale occurs when a player gets hit so hard (or just falls) that he loses some or most of his equipment that litter the ice after the play. The Yard Sale is a fan and player favorite
  • Zamboni: The funny-looking vehicle that resurfaces the ice between periods. The Zamboni, or Zam, scrapes a thin layer of ice from the playing surface while applying a fresh layer of heated water that freezes to create a level surface
  • Zamboni Confetti: Ice shavings collected by the Zamboni
  • Zebra: A referee. There is a love/hate relationship that hockey players have with the Zeb’s. One thing is for sure; it is a very underappreciated job

Why Do Hockey Slang Terms Exist?

Most sports have a collection of their own slang terms.

So why is hockey different?

There is a unique culture that was built around the sport of ice hockey. To us players, hockey words rule.

Hockey lingo, hockey slang, hockey puns… whatever you want to call it, it defines us.

The men, women, and kids who play hockey are as dedicated a group as you’ll find anywhere. They are absolutely passionate about the sport. And it shows.

Hockey terms have developed over the long history of the sport and are designed to make hockey unique, fun, and original.

Hockey language may seem weird to folks outside of the hockey community.

And we wouldn’t want it any other way.