The Difference Between Ice Hockey and Roller Hockey

It is a common misconception between people that roller hockey and ice hockey are identical. While they are both played with the same concept and ideas, and both are called hockey, they are two games where success is achieved in very different ways. Ice hockey is all about speed and power, while roller hockey is about puck possession and playing the puck backwards.

In the game of ice hockey some of your most successful teams are also the team with the fastest skaters. This occurrence is no coincidence, especially in the NHL post lockout. Ice hockey is all about creating odd man rushes, and scoring on those types of opportunities. A team cannot create many odd man rushes without players that can pick up the puck and just take off, leaving the opponent in the dust behind them. For those of you who don't know what an odd man rush is, it is when one team is skating down the ice with the puck and they have more players trying to score then there are defenders trying to stop them. An odd man rush lasts only for a couple seconds. As soon as the players have taken their shot, or have stopped their movement forwards, the rush has ended, and if there is no goal the teams will battle for possession of the puck.

However the game of roller hockey is played in a completely different manner. Don't get me wrong there are still odd man rushes, and goals are still produced that way, but not as often as ice hockey. There are two main reasons for this occurrence. The first is that there are only four skaters per team on the rink, giving the players more room to decide what they want to do. The second reason is that there is no offsides, so if a player feels something is not right they can just turn around and skate back the other way, and not have to worry about putting their teammates in a bad spot. Now the reason that these two things equates to a different game than ice hockey, is that it promotes more puck control, and more stick skills. With more open rink, and no offsides, players have the ability to move the puck around until they feel they have a high percentage shot. Some of your most successful roller hockey teams are the teams that aren't afraid to pass the puck back into their own end, to either keep the puck moving, or start over again.

As you can tell ice hockey is a game based off of speed, and the ability of teams to create and stop odd man rushes. However with the game of roller hockey, your most successful teams are those that aren't afraid to play the puck backwards when they don't have the best possible chance at scoring. The games are similar in the fact that they are both hockey, and have the same common goal of putting the puck in the back of the net more times than your opponent. However the game of roller hockey requires a little more finesse and a little more stick skill.