Portal:Ice hockey/Selected article archive
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[edit] June 28 to July 31, 2006
A goalie mask is a helmet-and-mask unit worn by goaltenders to protect against cranial and facial injuries.
The first recorded use in professional ice hockey was by Clint Benedict of the National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators early in the 1920s; Benedict wore the leather mask to protect a healing broken nose but found his visibility reduced and abandoned the mask after one game. Georges Vézina, pictured at left, playing for the Montréal Canadiens, also experimented with a mask during the 1923-24 NHL season but ultimately eschwed the device.
Image:Georgesvezina.jpg
The first professional to use a mask regularly was the Canadiens' Jacques Plante, who, having in practice worn a fiberglass mask (without concomitant helmet) after having undergone sinus surgery to remedy asthma-related health problems prior to the 1957-58 NHL season, first wore the mask during a regular season game against the New York Rangers on November 1, 1959, to protect against nasal injury. The Canadiens did not suffer a loss over the first ten games during which Plante wore the mask, and after Plante claimed the Vezina Trophy as best goaltender and led the Canadiens to the 1960 Stanley Cup title, compiling a 1.25 goals-against average during the championship series, many other goaltenders began sporting masks as well.
Image:Calgary Flames Miikka Helmet.jpg
The mask permits modern-day goaltenders to spend more time kneeling on the ice surface in order best to make saves without fear of head injury. Extant masks are typically of two varieties: a helmet-cage combination with little peripheral protection and a complete fiberglass helmet with a central cage–pioneered by Tony Esposito of the Chicago Blackhawks; the latter, thought to provide better protection against slapshots, is more popular, although several notable goaltenders, including Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood prefer the former.
Masks are often adorned with symbols meaningful to goalkeepers or the teams they represent, with some colorful decorations' requiring many hours of work; that of 2006 Vezina and William M. Jennings Trophies winner and Hart Trophy finalist Miikka Kiprusoff (Calgary Flames), pictured at right, features fire-breathing skulls inspired by the Ghost Rider comic book series and Kiprusoff's nickname, Kipper.
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[edit] June 2 to June 28, 2006
Image:Referee hockey ahl 2004.jpg In ice hockey, an official is a person who has some responsibility in enforcing the rules or maintaining the order of the game. There are two categories of officials, on-ice officials, who are the referees and linesmen who enforce the rules during game play, and off-ice officials, who have an administrative, rather than an enforcement, role.
As the name implies, on-ice officials supervise play on the hockey rink. They are traditionally clad in a black hockey helmet, black trousers, and a black-and-white striped shirt; in view of their appearance, on-ice officials are often referred to, sometimes derisively, as zebras. They wear standard hockey skates and carry finger whistles, blown to stop play. They communicate with players, coaches, off-ice officials, and spectators both verbally and via hand signals.
A referee, pictured, is responsible for the general supervision of the game and can be identified by his red or orange armband. His judgment of goals is final. He is the only official with the authority to assess penalties for violations of the rules and leads the on-ice officials.
Linesmen are primarily responsible for watching for violations involving the red line and the blue line, such as icing and offside infractions. Linesmen also conduct faceoffs and serve to separate players involved in fights. Under some codes, linesmen may call technical penalities, such as too many men on the ice, and other violations not observed by the referee (as in American collegiate hockey, where linesmen are known as assistant referees) but under most codes linesmen instead must relay notice of the infraction to the referee.
Several permutations of linesmen and referees are employed around the world, the most prominent of which are the three-official system, which employs one referee and two linesmen and is popular in Europe; the four-official system, which employs two referees (of whom one is dominant) and two linesmen and is popular in the United States, including in the National Hockey League; the two-official system, in which each official acts as both linesman and referee and in which neither is dominant, as is often found in adult recreational and lower-level junior hockey leagues; and the two-one system, which features two referees and one linesman, who typically divide the ice into thirds, with the back referee responsible for the puck upon its entry into the offensive zone and the linesman responsible thereafter.
