 Let's talk about two events in hockey that will stop play, but are not penalties So they are a bit like icing and offside calls except that they're a little less common first is the hand pass which at first may seem a bit counterintuitive because the rule Starts out by saying that the player can in fact stop or bat the puck in the air with his open hand or Push it along the ice with his hand and these are completely acceptable The point at which the line is drawn though is if he has Directed the puck to a teammate or he has allowed his team to gain an advantage and subsequently Possession of the puck is held by his team In other words, you can reach out and grab the puck out of mid-air But upon doing so you must either put it down or knock it down Immediately and according to that last part. This means that basically you have to be the one who plays it next So essentially you have to drop the puck right in front of yourself There are two degrees to what this could entail if you grab the puck out of mid-air But throw it down in front of your teammate rather than in front of yourself Then this is by definition a hand pass if this happens in the neutral zone Play will be stopped and there will be a face-off at the nearest face-off spot If it happens in your attacking zone, the face-off will be moved out to the face-off spot Right outside the blue line just like you would have for an offside If it happens in the defensive zone though, since both players are completely behind the blue line Then it won't even be called The second aspect of the rule is that if you catch the puck and hold on to it for any a period of time Say for example you catch it and start skating up the ice with it. Then that is a two-minute minor penalty Similar to the hand pass is called a high stick on the puck Which says the batting the puck above the normal height of the shoulders with the stick is Prohibited there are two exceptions to this one though The first being that if I were to bat the puck and it flies away from me and a player on the other team Gains possession of it then play would continue if I high stick the puck and then play it myself Or one of my teammates plays it then the whistle is blown. This is a high stick on the park The second exception to the rule is that if a defensive player Knocks the puck into his own net with a high stick then unfortunately for him the goal will count Since high sticking on the puck will be called everywhere on the ice including your own Defensive zone the ensuing face-off will be either where the puck was contacted Illegally or where it was last played by the offending team Whichever one is closer to the offending team's goal If it happens while your team is in the attacking zone It'll be moved to the spot right outside the blue line If you high stick the puck while your team is on the power play the face-off will be at one of the two spots in Your own defensive zone Finally when it comes to high sticking the puck that goes into the goal not into your own goal But into the goal that you are supposed to be shooting at The point of contact between the puck in the stick cannot be made above the crossbar So if the stick is slanted upward in the end of the stick is sticking up Above the crossbar if the puck still hits the stick at a point below that crossbar It will still count So hopefully that makes a little more sense out of hand passes and high sticking the puck