If You Understand the Balk, You Can Understand Icing @Ironpigs @LVPhantoms |

A few years back I remember listing to Matt Provence call an IronPig’s away game. I forget when and where it was but the crowd microphone was clearly picking up a man explaining to his son the Balk rule but very badly and completely wrong. Matt had a lot of fun with this and we can hope the father and son eventually learned the correct rule. We hope this never happens to you so we decided to brush up a bit ourselves.

The Lehigh Valley will soon welcome the arrival of professional Ice Hockey in the form of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. There will be a definite transition period from baseball to hockey. Granted, I know there are die-hard hockey fans out there who are all schooled up on rules, teams, players, history, stats and all that but for the causal fan, (and those of us who couldn’t sit straight up on a Zamboni in ice skates), it may prove a challenge to understand all the rules.

I’d like to start with what most non-hockey fans complain about not understanding. Icing. That call that stops play and causes a faceoff.. sometimes it’s called, sometimes it isn’t. We’ll help you understand it but first…

You are a baseball fan, right? You know what a Balk is. You don’t? Yes, yes you do but just in case:

A pitcher is restricted to a certain set of motions and one of two basic pitching positions before and during a pitch; if these regulations are violated with one or more runners on base, an umpire may call a balk.

With a runner on base and the pitcher on or astride (with one leg on each side of) the rubber, under Official Baseball Rules, it is a balk when the pitcher switches his pitching position from the windup to the set (or vice versa) without properly disengaging the rubber

while on the rubber, makes a motion associated with his pitch and does not complete the delivery

when pitching from the set position, fails to make a complete stop with his hands together before beginning to pitch

throws from the mound to a base without stepping toward (gaining distance in the direction of) that base

throws or feints a throw from the rubber to an unoccupied base, unless a play is imminent

steps or feints from the rubber to first or third base without completing the throw (doing so to second base is legal)

delivers a quick return, a pitch thrown right after receiving the ball back, with intent to catch the batter off-guard

drops the ball while on the rubber, even if by accident, if the ball does not subsequently cross a foul line

while intentionally walking a batter, releases a pitch while the catcher is out of his box with one or both feet unnecessarily delays the game pitches while facing away from the batter

after bringing his hands together on the rubber, separates them except in making a pitch or a throw stands on or astride the rubber without the ball, or mimics a pitch without the ball throws to first when the first baseman, because of his distance from the base, is unable to make a play on the runner there.

delivers a pitch during a squeeze play or a steal of home, if the catcher or some other player steps on or in front of home base without possession of the ball, or touches the batter or his bat. The ball is dead, the batter is awarded first base, the pitcher is charged with a balk, and the run scores.

Offical MLB Rules for Pitchers

Ok, enough about baseball for now. Let’s move onto hockey and that elusive understanding of Icing.

Icing is an infraction that occurs when a player shoots the puck across both the center red line and the opposing team’s goal line, and the puck remains untouched. When icing occurs, an official stops play. Play is resumed with a faceoff in the defending zone of the team that committed the infraction.

For a puck shot towards the top of the diagram, example “A” is not icing. Example “B” is icing, provided that “B” is done by a team that is not short-handed. – Wikipedia

So when you are on your side of the field (ice) and you just hammer it to the other side and no one touches it. It’s a penalty. Got it.

Wait, it’s not that easy.

While an icing call is pending,(it hasn’t gotten there yet) 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 (similar to the “safe” sign in baseball).

So icing can be waved off? How does the official decide when to wave off the penalty?

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.

So it’s looking clearer now. There seems to be a process to deciding if icing will be called. Kind of like the opposing team can stop the penalty if they want.. if they stop the puck before it gets to the goal line or the goal keeper goes for it.

Interesting stuff. Hope you learned something today and you’ll be able to school your friends and neighbors at the Phantoms soon!