 Let's take a look at the most common penalties that you will see handed out throughout a hockey game. You'll recall that there are two main types of penalties that are minor penalties, which are two minutes long, and major penalties, which are five minutes. Before we get into the specific calls, I wanted to go over what I guess you could call the procedure of how a penalty is called. Rather than blowing the whistle and stopping play as soon as a penalty is committed, the referee will raise his arm straight up, which signals that he is calling a delayed penalty. The whistle will not be blown until the team that has committed the penalty gains control of the puck. So let's say that the green team here has just been called for a penalty, but the orange team possesses the puck. This means the play will continue with the delayed penalty called on the green team. Usually it doesn't matter much, but what this allows for is the potential potential for the orange team to have an additional scoring opportunity. Because as soon as the green team touches the puck, the whistle will be blown, the orange team will usually pull their goalie and send an extra player out onto the ice. And this guy who replaces the goalie is called an extra attacker. Now if the puck were to go back into the empty net, maybe if a pass is missed or something like that, it would still count as a goal for the green team. So the orange guys have to be careful out there. However, if the orange team were to score a goal while the delayed penalty was in effect, the goal would count, but this would also mean that the green team would not have the penalty called on them. That is, if it was a minor penalty. If it was a double minor, it would be reduced to a minor. But if it was a major penalty, the goal would count and the penalty would be called anyway. So it's similar to the way that a goal would affect a power play as well. The vast majority of the time, though, the green team will gain possession of the puck. The whistle is going to be blown and the penalty will be called. In addition, after the player goes into the penalty box, the next face off will be in the green team's defensive zone. OK, so as for what actually constitutes a penalty, there are quite a few different actions that are illegal, most of which are fairly obvious once you get to see them. But for now, here are probably the 10 or so most common. For most of these calls, it is at the referee's discretion, whether to call a minor, a double minor, or a major penalty. It's not like football where a face mask call will always result in a 15-year-old penalty. Usually they will result in a minor penalty, but there is some leeway. Boarding is any player who checks an opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to be thrown violently into the boards. So the responsibility here lies with the player who is doing the checking to make sure that his opponent is not in a vulnerable position. And if he is, then he's not allowed to hit him. There also is some responsibility on the player who is about to get hit for placing himself in that dangerous position, too. Next we have charging. So this is a player who skates, jumps into, or charges an opponent in any manner, which is pretty self-descriptive. And this may be the result of a check into the boards, into a goal frame, or in the open ice. So this can really happen anywhere on the ice. Elbowing, I think you get the idea that the use of an extended elbow in a manner that may or even may not cause an injury, but you can't have your elbows swinging out there regardless. So roughing is a punching motion with the hand or the fist. Usually this will be directed at the head or the face of an opponent. So like I said, a lot of these are obvious. I think it'd be fairly obvious that you're not allowed to punch somebody else in the head. So that's roughing. Holding is any action the player restrains or impedes the progress of an opposing player, whether he is or is not in possession of the puck. This is similar to the next, which is hooking, which is the act of using a stick in the manner that enables a player to restrain an opponent. Interference is a little more complicated than the other ones, but it mainly comes down to impeding the progress of a player who is not in possession of the puck. So let's go to the rank for this one. If the green player dumps a puck into the zone and he chases in after it and this orange player comes across the ice and stops the green guy from moving forward, the orange player would be guilty of interference. Now, if the green player does have the puck, the orange guy can hit him. Then this is not interference. And if the orange player is close to the green player when he dumps the puck in, but the orange guy hits him immediately after the puck was released. This is also not interference because you can imagine if any player is about to get hit while they have the puck, they could just throw the puck away. And then if they got hit, it'd be interference. So as long as he's in his, as long as the defensive player is close to him when he releases the puck, he is still allowed to hit him and it won't be interference. A lot of times you will see interference along the boards. And so the defensive player will maybe try to pinch the offensive player against them. If the offensive player pulls up and stops on his own, they might not make the call. But if he continues to move his feet and try to push forward, especially if he's kind of running in place, then usually you will see an interference call made. Cross checking or a cross check is the act of using the shaft of the stick between both hands to forcefully hit an opponent with a stick. A high stick is a stick which is carried above the height of an opponent's shoulder, so up around the head area. And basically players must be responsible for their stick at all times. Usually a high stick will come about if a player hits another player in the face with their stick. So there is some leeway, though, involved. If, for example, a player shoots the puck and with his follow-through the stick continues through the air and hits another player in the head, this might be considered accidental contact, but generally it's best to keep your stick down close to the ice, if you can. Tripping a player can't use his stick, knee, foot, arm, hand or elbow in any manner that causes his opponent to trip. And finally we have slashing, which I would imagine would hurt a great deal. This is the act of a player swinging at his opponent, whether or not contact is made, so you can swing, slash at a guy and miss and still get that penalty called on you. And this is generally applied to any kind of chopping motion. So like I said, a great number of these are common sense and really the more hockey that you watch, you'll catch on very quickly to what you can and cannot do.