Dasher: The lower portion of the boards that encircle the hockey rink. Sometimes the dasher is different color than the boards.
Defensive player: Players who are primarily used for defense are called defense or "D"s for short.
Defensive shell: When a team plays shorted handed because of a penalty they form a defensive shell. This is usually a box formation for four skaters or a triangle for three.
Defensive zone: The hockey rink is divided into zones by the blue lines. The zone in which a team’s goalie is located is that team’s defensive zone.
Deflection: A deflection occurs when one player shoots at the goal and a teammate changes the direction of the shot with their stick before it reaches the goal.
Deke (Deking): A deke is used by an offensive player with the puck to confuse a defender or goalie. It is a fake or feint move. A common deke is to lower the shoulder in one direction but actually turn in the other. "Deke" originated as a shortened form of "decoy." Ernest Hemingway used "deke" as a noun referring to hunting decoys in his 1950 novel Across the River and Into the Trees ("I offered to put the dekes out with him"). About a decade later, it began appearing in ice-hockey contexts in Canadian print sources as both a verb and a noun ("the act of faking an opponent out of position"). Today, "deke" has scored in many other sports, including baseball, basketball, and football. It has also checked its way into more general usage to refer to deceptive or evasive moves or actions. However, this general application of "deke" has never made it past the defenders. It occurs too rarely in English to merit its own sense in the dictionary. Click here to see examples from Hockey Canada of different types of dekes.
Delayed off side: A delayed offside is indicated when a puck is shot across the blue line into the offensive zone with an offensive player inside the zone but is not touched by any offensive player. The delayed offside is indicated by the linesman with an upraised arm. If an offensive player touches the puck inside the zone offsides is called. If the offensive players return to the neutral zone without touching the puck, no offsides is called.
Delayed penalty: When the referee determines that a penalty will be assessed against a player they will raise their arm. If the puck is controlled by the team that does not have the player who committed the penalty, play continues until the other team touches the puck. This is know as a delayed penalty. A common strategy during a delayed penalty is to pull the goalie and add a player, as the other team can never get off a shot.
Digger: A player who is a hard worker and goes into the corners to regain possession of the puck.
Dive: A player exaggerates being hooked or tripped to draw a penalty on the opposing team.
Draw: During a face-off, each opposing player will try to get the draw. The draw occurs when a player succeeds in getting control of the puck and pulling it back to a teammate.
Drive Delay: An offensive individual tactic whereby the puck carrier gains possession of the blueline and turns away from the defender to save time and space while looking for support.
Drop pass: When an offensive player enters the offensive zone with the puck, they may leave it on the ice for a trailing offensive player to pick up and pass or shoot. Because the player leaving the puck appears to push the puck backwards it is known as a drop pass.
Dump and chase (Dump in): The dump in is an offensive strategy in which the puck is shot into the offensive zone corner by the offensive team from outside the blue line. This strategy is usually employed if the offensive team is having trouble getting though the defense at the blue line or if the offensive team wants to change lines.
Elbow pads: Elbow pads are worn by players to protect their elbows and the portions of the arms that above and below the elbow. Players with good quality shoulder pads, elbow pads and gloves should have very little of their arms exposed.
Empty Net: When a team that is behind "pulls" their goaltender so that they have an extra attacker to try and score a goal this is known as an "Empty Net." This usually occurs when a team is down one goal late in a game. As a result of the goaltender being "pulled" the net is empty. If an opposing players shots and scores a goal into the "empty net" it is sometimes referred to as an "empty netter."
End zone: The end zone is the portion of the rink behind the goal line.