Bandy: Another Ice Hockey – Hockey Writers – International Hockey

The sound of ice-grinding blades of high-speed skaters, 100+ MPH slapshots, great end-to-end rushes with tape-to-tape passes, and kick saves by goal scorers are all staples of a great basketball game.

Many people: “What are you waiting for? You mean hockey.”

No, I mean the band.

Bandy is a very skillful and fast paced sport played on a very large ice rink mainly in northern Europe and Russia. For someone who doesn’t know a bit about hockey, bandy can be mistaken for it and is also known as hockey in some remote areas of Finland and Sweden. Bandy has also been named “Russian Hockey” as earlier versions of the game were played in the northern regions of Russia. Although very popular overseas, bandy is often overlooked or unheard of by many North American sports fans due to the more popular sport of ice hockey.

However, every hockey fan and player should check out this game at least once in their life. My bucket list now includes playing a shooting game of bandy after watching a professional game live while on tour in Sweden.

Bandy and ice hockey share a common historical ancestor. The two sports diverged into two separate sports during the 19th century when ice hockey developed in Canada and the official band in England.

In the late 19th century, English football was growing rapidly in Britain, with new clubs being formed every year. Many of these clubs have decided to start playing a regular winter game of bandy to keep in shape and have a little fun. As more groups began to compete with each other, the need for universal rules became apparent.

As most of the bandy teams were English football clubs, the official Bandy rules were heavily influenced by English football rules. The size of the rink, also known as the pitch, is about the size of a football field which is about 350 feet long and about 180 feet wide. There are short boards that surround the rink, but extend beyond the out-of-bounds line, so the ball (not using the puck) can go out of bounds like in soccer. And like soccer, the game time is 90 minutes long and is divided into 45 minutes.

Since the band was based on English football rules, the positions are similar to soccer, with one goalie and 10 skaters including defenders, midfielders, and forwards. Typically, there are three or four bench players on the bench, unlike in soccer and similar to hockey, they can alternate throughout the game to give the starters a break. All skaters use bandy sticks, which are shorter than hockey sticks in both stick height (no more than 127 centimeters or 50 inches) and blade length (no wider than 7 centimeters or 2.8 inches ). Bandy, a Welsh word for “bent stick,” does not allow for flat blades as the sticks are crooked and are offered in five angles, from a slight curve to a large curve.

Since there are no blue lines, the foul rule is the same—again—soccer. That means an attacking player cannot slide behind the last defender (not including the goalkeeper) unless he is in possession of the ball. If the pass is directed to that player, it must be in front of or parallel to the last defender when the ball leaves the attacking partner’s stick to the side. This makes breakaways nearly impossible and puts more emphasis on hanging and passing to get around opponents.

One major difference in North American ice hockey is the band’s emphasis on speed rather than physicality. Body checking and fighting are prohibited and both will result in penalties being imposed. If the intensity of the game is the only reason why you like hockey, bandy is probably not the game for you. Players may touch shoulder to shoulder when fighting for possession or pushing opponents off the ball, but anything more than competition will be whistled. Also, much to the chagrin of John Tortorella, skaters are not allowed to cross the ice to block shots. However, they can create a soccer-like wall of defenders in front of the net during a “free hit,” where opposing players are given a free shot on goal for some type of infraction.

A “corner stroke” is awarded if the ball is deflected behind the goal line by a defender or goalkeeper. This is very similar to field hockey, where a striker shoots the ball from the corner of the rink to teammates around the circular penalty area, often shooting one player into the goal for a scoring chance. This can be seen in the highlight video starting at 1:30 below.

Another important difference in hockey is that the goalie does not use a stick, but instead wears two grip gloves similar to a soccer glove, to prevent the ball from being pushed into a net that is much larger than the 6-foot by 4-foot hockey goal. Bandy goalkeepers must prevent shots from entering the 11-foot by 7-foot net and, similar to soccer, are responsible for throwing the ball back into play if they make a save or a forward shoots the ball out of bounds. goal line.

Highlights of the World Bandy Championship:

USA Montage Team:

Team USA is made up mostly of former college and professional hockey players.

The next clip is a really cool video of the band playing in an outdoor public arena. While you can’t really follow the game, this clip captures the purity of the band to me, as there are no announcers talking or loud music due to the game’s natural setting. Watching and hearing the sounds of their ice skates in this amazing outdoor setting really shows the purity of this sport.

Growing the Game of Bandy

Throughout the 20th century the band has been hampered in expansion partly due to the technical difficulties of maintaining an ice field as large as a soccer field, and partly due to the rapid expansion of ice hockey in Europe during the first few decades of the century. Many European teams preparing for the 1920 Olympic hockey tournament by playing bandy, came to realize that they needed to play under Canadian ice hockey rules, which they had never seen before. This quickly changed most of the band players to hockey players, not because ice hockey was better than bandy, but for one reason that hockey was the sport they needed to play to compete in the Olympics. Because of this change, bandy was relegated to a much smaller northern niche sport. In fact, the influence of the band and the background of many of those former European hockey players is the main reason why European hockey is played on a larger surface of ice and often has a smaller body.

Now, these organizations are trying to grow the Bandy game:

World Bandy
USA Bandy
Canadian Bandy

The Federation of International Bandy (FIB) and its members are pushing hard for this sport to be included in the Winter Olympics. By putting the game on a global level, it will make recruiting young new players, old players, and others interested in contributing to the game in some way (referee, training youth, etc.) much easier going forward. Very few kids will be playing hockey without the lure of the NHL and the Stanley Cup. Creating the dream of an Olympic gold medal band can help attract greater awareness and potential interest in sports participation. Although the FIB has 29 member countries, most like the United States and Canada, have few players involved in the sport and are unknown to many people in their countries.

* first written in May 2013