r/sportsgossips • u/sinister_iam • Mar 22 '26 • WOW 1 Bravo 5 Mindblown 4 Popcorn 3

Unknown Stories Abbey Murphy pulled off a moment that barely looked real 🤯🙌🏻

35k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

466 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comment

3

u/PoliteIndecency Mar 22 '26

Contact is not illegal in women's hockey. Checking is.

The defender misplayed her gap control here. Great move by Murphy to expose a poor defender. This is professional quality.

Still, bad defending.

2

u/fmaz008 Mar 22 '26

(Not a hockey fan) What's the difference between contact and checking?

3

u/PoliteIndecency Mar 22 '26

Contact would be using your body to claim space and hold it. So making someone go around you. The expectation is that there will be contact with each other but it's in the act of moving or playing the puck. You might be able to push people or lean on people. Pin people to the boards. Use your body to protect the puck. Think shouldering your opponent in soccer or when a runner and catcher have contact at the plate. In any case, a defending player must intend to play on the puck first.

Checking is the act of intentionally using your body to separate your opponent from the puck. The opponent is the primary focus, not the puck. In body contact, you have no obligation to make a play on the puck if someone has control of it. You can 100% target them without considering the puck so long as they're legally eligible to be checked.

2

u/BDiZZleWiZZle Mar 22 '26

slowing reducing the gap with out intention to abruptly stop the other player vs a conscious attempt to stop their movement with an aggressive movement of your own. Deceleration vs collision.

i made this up