Key takeaways
- To judge offside, freeze the play at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge of the attacking blue line and look only at the attackers' skates.
- A skate touching the blue line, or one that has not broken the line's vertical plane, keeps a player onside; the stick never counts.
- During a delayed offside, every attacker in the zone must get back to the blue line at the same time before anyone can chase the puck, and a shot taken into the zone in that situation cannot produce a goal.
- Before challenging a goal for offside, a coach should weigh the price of being wrong: a minor penalty for the first failed challenge and a double minor for any after that.
- Do not carry soccer's offside logic onto the ice: hockey's rule has no last defender and is decided at a fixed line, not at the moment of a pass.
In hockey, a player is offside when he enters the attacking zone before the puck does. The NHL rulebook states the whole idea in one line — "players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone" — and then spends three pages on how to judge it. The short version: freeze the play at the instant the puck completely crosses the attacking blue line, and look only at the attackers' skates.
Everything below is from Rule 83 and Rule 38 of the NHL's 2026-27 rulebook. Other competitions write their own versions, but the core idea is the same across the sport.
How a linesperson makes the call
Offside is a sequence of questions, asked in this order.
- When does the puck finish crossing the line? The moment that matters is when the puck completely crosses the leading edge of the attacking blue line — the edge nearer the goal the team is attacking. Before that instant, nobody can be offside.
- Where are the attackers' skates at that instant? A player is offside when both skates are completely over the leading edge. He is onside if either skate is touching the line or still on his own side of it.
- Has a skate broken the plane? The rulebook defines "his own side" with a vertical plane rising from the leading edge of the line. A skate lifted in the air but not yet past that plane counts as onside.
- Did the player bring the puck in himself? A puck carrier who crosses ahead of the puck is not offside, provided he had possession and control before his trailing skate crossed the line and keeps control once the puck is in the zone.
Only the blade of the skate counts. The stick, the body and how far a player is leaning are irrelevant, which is why a forward can reach over the line with his stick while his trailing skate drags on the paint and still be onside.
| At the instant the puck fully crosses the line | Call |
|---|---|
| One skate on the blue line, the other inside the zone | Onside |
| Both skates completely inside the zone | Offside |
| A skate raised above the line, not yet past the plane | Onside |
| Stick in the zone, both skates behind the line | Onside |
| Puck carrier crosses first while controlling the puck | Onside |
One more exception is easy to miss: if a defending team carries or passes the puck back into its own zone while an attacker is still in there, the offside is ignored and play goes on.
Delayed offside, or "tagging up"
Stopping play every time an attacker is caught inside the zone would reward the defending team for nothing. So when attackers have gone in early but the defenders can bring the puck out without being pressured, the linesperson raises his non-whistle arm and lets play continue. This is the delayed offside.
The offside is wiped out — and the arm comes down — when either:
- every attacking player clears the zone at the same instant, which the rule defines as skate contact with the blue line; or
- the defending team passes or carries the puck into the neutral zone.
The whistle goes instead if, during the delay, an attacker touches the puck, tries to gain possession of a loose puck, forces the defending puck carrier back into his own zone, or is about to make physical contact with him. An attacker can also clear by going to his bench, once both of his skates are off the ice.
There is a sharp consequence for shooters. If the puck is shot into the zone and creates a delayed offside, a goal from that shot is disallowed even if the attackers tag up before it goes in. The only way the attacking team can score in that situation is if the defenders put the puck into their own net without any action or contact by the attackers.
Intentional offside and where the faceoff goes
The faceoff location depends on how the offside happened:
| How the offside happened | Faceoff |
|---|---|
| The puck was carried over the blue line | Neutral-zone spot just outside the attacking zone |
| The puck was shot or passed in | The spot nearest where the shot or pass came from that gives the offending team the least territorial advantage |
| The linesperson judges it intentional | The offending team's own end-zone spot |
An intentional offside is one made to get a stoppage of play, for any reason. Deliberately touching the puck during a delayed offside to force a whistle counts. The end-zone faceoff is the price, and it is a steep one: the restart moves from the attacking blue line to the other end of the rink.
Video review and the coach's challenge
Offside is one of the few infractions a coach can challenge. Under Rule 38, the defending team may challenge a goal on the grounds that the play should have been stopped for offside. The Situation Room reviews the replays with the on-ice officials, and the goal is disallowed if one or more attackers preceded the puck into the zone.
Three conditions shape whether a challenge is worth it:
- The puck must not have left the zone. A goal can be reviewed for offside only if the puck did not come out of the attacking zone again between the offside and the goal.
- Failure costs a penalty. An unsuccessful challenge brings a two-minute minor for delaying the game; any later failed challenge in the same game brings a double minor.
- The final minute is different. In the last minute of the third period and throughout overtime, the league's Situation Room initiates the review itself.
If the challenge succeeds, the goal comes off the board and the clock is reset to the moment the play should have been stopped. That makes the decision a genuine risk calculation for a coach: a disallowed goal is worth a lot, but a failed challenge hands the opponent a power play.
Hockey offside is not soccer offside
The shared name causes plenty of confusion. Soccer's version, set out in IFAB's Law 11, is a different idea entirely.
| Hockey (NHL Rule 83) | Soccer (IFAB Law 11) | |
|---|---|---|
| What is judged | Entering the attacking zone before the puck | Position relative to the ball and the second-last opponent |
| Where | A fixed line: the attacking blue line | Anywhere in the opponents' half |
| When | The instant the puck completely crosses the line | The moment a team-mate plays or touches the ball |
| What counts | The skates only | Head, body and feet; not hands or arms |
| Is the position itself an offence? | Yes, unless the delayed rule applies | No, only becoming involved in active play |
| Notable exceptions | Puck carrier with control; tagging up | No offside from a goal kick, throw-in or corner kick |
| Restart | Faceoff | Indirect free kick |
The practical difference is the defender. Soccer's rule measures attackers against the second-last opponent, so a defensive line can step up to catch an opponent offside. Hockey's rule measures attackers against a painted line, so no defender can create an offside by moving. How the offside rule works explains the soccer version in full.
What the rule does to the way teams attack
Because the line, not the defence, defines offside, every attack has to solve the blue line first. A team can enter the zone in two broad ways, and the rule treats them differently:
- Carrying the puck in. The carrier's control protects him, but his linemates have to time their run so their skates are still touching the line when the puck crosses.
- Shooting or chipping it in. Teammates can be waiting at the line, but anyone who has crossed early creates a delayed offside — and a shot that started the delay cannot become a goal.
The defending team's answer is to stand up at its own blue line and force the attackers to make that choice under pressure. A puck shot from the attackers' own half that crosses the goal line untouched brings in a different rule entirely — icing — which is why teams try to get past the centre red line before dumping the puck in.
The positional side of this — who holds the blue line, who goes first — is covered in hockey positions explained. For the league's own footage of carried-in, delayed and possession-and-control offsides, the NHL video rulebook has short clips of each.
Where to go next
Hockey Career Sim 2026 puts you in the skates of one forward, centre, defenceman or goalie through a career in a fictional league, where the decisions you make in a game shape how it unfolds. For the team-building side of the sport, the hockey draft simulator guide covers drafting a balanced starting six in 84-0 Hockey Draft & GM Manager, whose player pool is built from real players' careers and rated by the game itself. Neither app is connected with any league. More rules explainers are on the hockey hub, and more articles are listed under sports GM.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
What is offside in hockey?
Does the stick count for offside?
What is a delayed offside?
Can a team challenge a goal for offside?
How is hockey offside different from soccer offside?
Sources
- National Hockey League Official Rules 2026-2027 (Rule 83 Off-side; Rule 38 Coach's Challenge) (opens in a new tab)National Hockey League — accessed
- NHL Video Rulebook (Off-Side, Delayed Off-Side, Possession and Control) (opens in a new tab)NHL.com — accessed
- Laws of the Game: Law 11 Offside (opens in a new tab)The International Football Association Board (IFAB) — accessed
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