Top 100 Hockey Slang Terms: Master all the hockey lingo 

One of the great thing about hockey is all of the hockey slang and lingo. It keeps on getting added to every year, but below we kept it to the list of the top 100 slang words.

And, before we get to that here is a picture of the Hobey Baker winner, Cole Caufield, doing a little ‘Celly’ after scoring his first NHL goal – an overtime winner at that!

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Top 100 hockey slang words for the ice hockey player and fan


Apple: An assist

Bar Down: A shot that hits the crossbar and then goes into the net for a goal

Barn: The hockey arena

Barnburner: A game that is high scoring and has a number of lead changes

Bender: When a player is skating and their ankles are bending

Beauty: An extremely nice goal or play

Biscuit: The hockey puck

Blades of Steel: An old-school hockey video game released in 1987/88

Bottle Rocket: When a goal hits the goalie’s water bottle in the net

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Brawl: A fight often involving multiple players

Brick Wall: A goalie who is making amazing saves and cannot be scored against

Broadway Blueshirts: A nickname for the New York Rangers

Bucket: A hockey helmet

Buds: A nickname for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Buzzer Beater: A goal that is scored just before the end of the period

Cage: A goalie mask

Caps: A nickname for the Washington Capitals

Celly: Means celebrate. Also goes with Dangle, Snipes, Celly, which means deke, score, celebrate

Charleston Chiefs: The team name from the cult hockey movie Slapshot

Cheap-shot Artist:  A player who makes a lot of dirty plays, often causing injury to other players

Cheese: A goal at the top shelf of the net

Cherry Picking: Usually a negative connotation of a player who stays up in the offensive zone to try and get a pass for an offensive opportunity instead of helping his teammates on defence

Chiclets: Teeth (which hockey players lose a lot of!)

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Chirping: Talking trash to your opponents

Clapper: Another name for the slapshot

Coast to Coast: Skating with the puck from one end of the rink to other end

Dangle: Deke

Denied: A statement made when a goalie makes a big save against a player

Desert Dogs: A nickname for the Arizona Coyotes

Disk: The puck

Duster: A player who sits on the bench without much playing time

Enforcer: The player charged on the team with being the main fighter

Face Wash: Rubbing your glove (often sweaty) into another player’s face

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Fake: A player with the puck who deceives a player or goalie to think he is going one way and then goes the other

Fan (Fannned): A player who goes to shoot the puck and misses it

Filthy: An extremely great deke/fake or goal

Firewagon Hockey: A game that has a lot of offence, offensive chances and little defensive play

Five Hole: The hole that opens up between a goalies pads when he is going to the ground. He scored through the five hole!

Flamingo: When a player who goes to block a shot lifts only one of his legs making himself look like a flamingo

Flash the Leather: A goalie who makes a great stop with his glove hand

Flow: Another name for great hockey hair that ‘flows’ out of the back of the helmet

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Garbage Goal: A goal that is not ‘pretty’ and often is scored within a couple feet of the goal through a rebound or a deflection off a player

Gino: A goal

Give-and-Go: When a player passes the puck to a teammate and then gets a pass back to beat an opponent

Goon: A player whose main role on the team is to be the fighter

Goose Egg: When a goalie gets a shutout and allows zero goals against

Gordie Howe Hat Trick: A game where a player gets a goal, assist and fight

Grapes: The nickname of longtime Hockey Night in Canada personality Don Cherry

Great One: The nickname of Wayne Gretzky

Greasy: A type of goal that is not pretty

Grinders: A forward whose role is more about hitting and checking than it is goal scoring

Handcuffed: A player who has many opportunities to score but just cannot seem too put the puck in the net

Hanging from the Rafters: A player’s jersey number that has been retired and now hangs up in the rafters of the home arena

Hanson Brothers: The brothers who play for the Charleston Chiefs in the hockey movie Slapshot

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Holy Grail: A nickname of the Stanley Cup

Hot Dog: A player who is trying to show up his opponent

Howitzer: A really hard shot

Insurance Goal: Adding a goal to increase your lead so that you have more room for error

Jarring Hit: A hit that leaves another player shaken up

Johnny-on-the-spot: A player who is in the right spot at the right time to score a goal

Journeyman: A player that has played for a large number of teams of a long period of time

Knuckle Puck: A puck, when shot, that does not fly in a straight trajectory but is flipping over and curling in the air

Lamplighter: Someone who scores a lot of goals — they are scoring and making the goal light come on

Laser Beam: A hard shot that goes directly where it was aimed

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Laying on the Lumber: A player that slashes another player with his stick. This comes from the history of hockey because hockey sticks used to be made of wood

Light the Lamp: A term used to encourage someone to score. Essentially, let’s get a goal and make the goal light turn on

Lumber: Another name for a stick with its nod to old hockey sticks that were made from wood

Manhandle: A player that roughs up another player, he may not get a penalty for this

Mitts: Your hands, often referenced to someone who has nice hands and can score

Muffin: A really weak shot

Nail: To hit someone with a bodycheck extremely hard

Nosebleeds: The spectator seats that are at the very top of the hockey stadium

Office: The area behind the goalie net, was first termed for Wayne Gretzky’s play behind the net as he was said to be “set up in his office”

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Paint: Another name for the goalie crease, as it is a different color from the ice

Pest: A player that is extremely annoying to his opponents

Picking his Pocket: When a player steals the puck from another player

Pipe: A nickname for the goal posts

Pinch: When a defenseman comes into the offensive zone to help out

Playoff Beard: The tradition of growing a beard until your team is eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs or wins the Stanley Cup

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Plug: A player that is not very good and does not really add to the team

Plumber: A player who is good at digging the puck out of the corners of the boards

Preds: A nickname for the Nashville Predators

Puck Bunny: A girl who likes to hang around guys who play hockey

Puck Has Eyes: A puck that has had several deflections before going into the net for a goal

Puck Hog: A player who does not pass the puck

Puck Luck: When the puck takes a lucky bounce for a team usually resulting in a goal

Puckhead: A person who is passionate about hockey

Pylon: A player (usually a defensemen) who is easy to skate around

Razor Sharp: A player that is on his game and is playing great

Riding the Pine: A player who is not getting playing time and is sitting on the bench

Right in the Numbers: A player who is hit from behind

Ring it off the Iron: When a puck is shot and hits the post and stays out of the net

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Rink Rat: Someone who loves to come and hang out at the hockey arena

Ripple the Mesh: Another term for scoring a goal, a player has shot the puck and scored so that the net will move

Rob (of a Goal): A save by a goalie that takes away what looks like a sure goal

Roof: Shooting the puck to the top of the net, the mesh at the top of the net

Rubber: Another name for a puck, because it is made out of vulcanized rubber

Sens: A nickname for the Ottawa Senators

Sharpshooter: Someone who is an accurate shooter and scores a lot of goals

Shinny Hockey: A type of hockey played on an outdoor rink where players are not wearing padding so the puck is not to be raised above the shins

Sick Bay: A term used for a player that is injured (he is in sick bay) or a player who goes to have an injury looked at (he goes to sick bay)

Sieve: A goalie who cannot make a save, a reference to the sieve that drains water through it

Sin Bin: The penalty box

Snow Job: When a player stops and sprays snow into the face of goaltender as he is down on the ice

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Soft Hands: A player that is good at scoring goals when he uses more finesse than power

Spin-o-rama: A hockey move which the players does a 360 spin to fake out or deke around an opponent

Stand on His Head: A goalie that is making a lot of saves and keeping his team in the game is said to be standing on his head

Stone Hands: A player that cannot score goals. He is getting chances to score he just cannot do it

Tic-tac-toe: A three way passing play that ends up in a goal

Top Shelf: When a player scores a goal into the very top part of the net hitting the mesh that basically acts as the roof of the net

Turtle: When a player drops to the ice and protects himself as another player tries to fight him

Uncork: A player that winds up and takes a powerful shot

Wheels: A player that can skate really fast

Yard Sale: When a player(s) lose a number pieces of equipment during play – either from a hit or just the normal course of action

Yawning Cage: A wide-open net to shoot at, this is often referred to even when the goalie is in the net but the play has developed so that a goal looks likely

Zebra: A nickname for the referee based on the uniform of white and black stripes

We hope you have enjoyed your guide to the essential hockey lingo for every ice hockey player and fan! 

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Welcome to Hockey Answered: a resource for anyone curious to learn & understand more about the great game of hockey.

I am a lifelong fan who grew up in a major market (Calgary), and I have played, coached, and watched a lot of hockey!

As my daughter began watching NHL games with me, I realized how many questions come up about the sport. Hockey Answered is full of, well, answers! If you are a new fan or lifelong enthusiast, I hope that you can enjoy hockey even more by learning something new around here.

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