Originally six skaters and one goaltender constituted the on ice team. The current six skaters came into existence with the creation of the NHL.
At this stage, the forward pass was forbidden. There were no player substitutions. The goaltenders were not allowed to hit the ice to save the puck. That rule was revised in January of 1918 to allow for this.
Goalies were required to serve their own penalties. Oddly enough, this rule remained in place until the 1941-1942 season.
For a comprehensive review of this issue, please see the article written by Eric Zweig for the NY Times. For full details of the first NHL game, please see the NY Times article.
When the NHA and the NHL began, the forward pass was forbidden. This was similar to the rule in rugby, the likely origin. The violation of this rule led to a stoppage in play, resulting in a face off from the point of the infraction.
The first noted easing of this rule came from the Ontario Hockey Association which allowed the defensive team to pass the puck forward within three feet of the goal, but, however, only when the puck had rebounded from their goalie.
The NHL then permitted the forward pass within the defensive and neutral zone in 1927. The rule was again revised in the 1927-1928 season to permit unimpeded forward pass, and in fact completely so. The league was then required to create a rule preventing an offensive player being permanently located in front of the opposing goalie. This led to the introduction of a version of the current blue line offside rule in late 1929.
2 Replies to “The Forward Pass & Early Goaltender Rules”