Knock Hockey Rules (from an earlier post)
We played knock hockey daily during our childhood days at the summer recreation program run by the Suffolk County Parks & Recreation department. The school were we played at was Timberpoint Elementary School in East Islip, NY.
Below is my recollection of our rules. (I’m sure that we introduced many “house rules” over the years.
Our boards used the red & blue lines. The red line was simply the center of the board. The blue line separated the neutral zone from the two player “home” zones.
We also had the triangular shaped “red zone” between the block and the goal.
A. To Start: We used the three strike face-off method, hitting the playing surface first and then the stick of our opponent. The player who hit the puck beyond his opponent’s blue line then got to take a free shot.
Three routine outcomes were possible:
1. The shot resulted in a goal.
2. The puck did not go into the goal, and, did not enter the triangular red zone. The play would go to the next player, who would play it from where it landed.
3. The shot landed in the triangular red zone. If this happened the defender got to move the puck to any location behind his own blue line. This rule allowed for many creative “planned” shots. (see – red zone shots)
B. Routine Play: Play would alternate according to these rules. If your first shot landed beyond your opponent’s blue line, you got to take one more shot. After a goal was made, a new “face-off” was played, just as at the start of the game.
C. Goals: In our game we played that if the puck crossed the goal line at all, it as a goal. This was tested by running the stick along the “outside” wall behind the goal. If the puck was touched by the stick, it was a goal.
D. Red Zone Shots: If the puck landed in the “red zone” the triangular zone in front of the each goal, the defender got to move the puck to anywhere behind his blue line.
In each case, if the initial shot resulted in the puck landing behind the opponents’ blue line, then you got to take one more shot.
The “normal” red zone shots were:
- The “thumb” shot from the side of your own block. In this shot, the puck was placed tight against your own block. You then gripped the block with your fingers while squeezing the puck against the block and causing it to fly out toward the side wall, in an attempt to ricochet into your opponents’ goal, (or at least his blue zone for the second shot.)
- The line shot was taken by placing the puck just behind your own blue line and shooting on your opponent’s goal, directly of by bouncing off the side wall.
- Shots could be taken from any other spot behind your blue line.
E. Special Shots: These had to be agreed upon “prior” to the start of play.
1. Thumsies – The puck was “flicked” with the thumb, placed on top of the puck, instead of being “struck” by the stick. No “dragging’ of the puck was allowed. (This of course was always a judgement call.)
2. Special Red Zone Shots – My recollection is that these shots were worth more points if you scored on the initial shot. Just what the amounts were I do not recall.
- Top of the block shot.
- Off the top of the side wall. The puck was placed “on” the wall, usually just behind the blue line.
- Rolling off the stick. One end of the hockey stick was placed on the back wall in the corner, up against the side wall, on the shooter’s side. Usually the handle was placed on the back wall and the blade was resting on the playing surface.
The puck was then rolled from the end of the handle, resting on the back wall, down the length of the stick. If the puck landed behind your opponent’s blue line, you took another shot.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
It brought back such memories reading your article. My brother and I played all day long at summer rec. at our school in North Bellmore. I can remember him hitting me with the wood stick when he lost, sore loser. I have been hunting for the boards with the original wood sticks. I bought a Nok Hockey board years ago and my son who is now 37, we would play for hours.
The only problem I have now is to find someone to play with me. My brother that played with me as kids is more interested in XBox games.
Thanks for the story Michelle. I too have the same issue. No one to play with now that my daughter is not living at home. Maybe there needs to be a travel league. LOL Next time your in Northern NH let me know and we’ll bang a few pucks together. I used to make some nice high end boards a few years ago, but I’m not doing it now. Just supplying the sticks and pucks to all the old games that are out there. There are still plastic sticks and dinky pucks available. I just supply an alternative.
I used to live on Long Island (Dix Hills to be exact) in New York. When I was a kid we would always go to our local pool, where they had Nok Hockey boards set up along a wall. We spent more time playing Nok Hockey than we did in the pool.
My dad bought me a Nok Hockey board back in 1974 or so when I was a kid, which I still have today. It has the wooden sticks and wooden pucks. My 9 year old son begs me to play with him (when he is not playing the Wii). My skills come back and I have a hard time trying NOT to score against him.
I remember that there were two versions of play: a clean game, and a dirty game. It was picked by the winner of each game. Faceoffs became very violent. A clean game was normal hitting of the puck back and forth off the walls. A dirty game was when the special shots were used:
1. On the wall behind the blue line was called a flying saucer.
2. Rolling off the stick was called an ice cream soda.
3. On top of the diamond I can’t recall what we called it.
I seem to recall there being several other shot variants for the dirty game, but I can’t remember them off hand.
A correction: a clean or dirty game was picked by whoever won the faceoff; thus faceoffs became very violent sometimes!
We played similar rules but we only named those shots 5 or 7 pointers. There was some shot we could do from inside the goal too that was maybe 2 points? All the rules I learned were hand me downs from the older kids or councilors at the Rec Field in Longmeadow, MA
Question for you. My version of the game board measures 35″ wide by 47″ long. My goal zones are blue, not red. Did/do they make smaller versions of this game?
Yes… there is a 2×3 version and both versions I believe I have links to on my website through Amazon. As for the color of the goal area… I’ve seen both colors. When I was making custom boards I used to make a travel version that was 18″ x 24″.
I also grew up on Long Island, near patchogue in Holtsville. I remember 2 trick shots called a hamburger and a hot dog. They were shots from the corner, don’t exactly remember how. Does this strike a chord with any islanders?
If you don”t have a puck we used plastic checkers they worked well.
We used to play every day at summer rec in Lincln Park Mi. My sister in Tn. just bought a board can’t wait to go down and play, always a kid at heart.
I suppose you can use anything round that has dimension for a puck as long as it will fit through the goal opening until you order replacement pucks from MEEEEEEE!
I wish I had someone to play with.