rules for the game of lacrosse

[Evil Dr. Len]

yes, I'm excited about the Edmonton Rush but I'm also completely uneducated about the game of lacrosse.

nll.com has a rule breakdown I found to be informative so I thought I'd pass it on...

Very similiar to hockey but with two basketball time rules in the 10 seconds backcourt violation and 30 second shot clock
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NLL RULES

Rosters: 23 man roster, each team dresses 18 players for games (16 runners and two goalies). A team shall be composed of six (6) players on the floor, 5 runners and one goalie

Time Format: Four 15-minute quarters; two minutes between quarters; 12 minute halftime.

Time Outs: Each team may take two 45-second timeouts per half. A TV game has one timeout per half.

Sudden Death Overtime: Games ending regulation play with a tie score are decided by a sudden death overtime period. Play continues until a goal is scored. More than one overtime period is played if necessary.

10 Second Violation: Occurs when team on offense fails to advance the ball past midfield within 10 seconds after taking possession at their end.

Face-Offs: To determine possessions at the start of each quarter and after every goal, two players face their sticks at midfield with a referee placing the ball between the heads of the sticks.

Shot Clock: A 30-second clock begins (counting down) when a team assumes possession of the ball. The offensive team must put a shot on goal during that time or they will lose possession. If they do shoot on goal (without scoring) and recover possession of the ball (via rebound/loose ball recovery), the clock is reset for a new 30 seconds

[Evil Dr. Len]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

TERMS OF THE TURF

Body Check: Used to slow an opponent who has the ball; must be above the waist and below the neck.

Breakaway: One-on-one (shooter on goalie) scoring opportunity.

Cradle: Method used to keep the ball inside the pocket of the stick by rocking it back and forth.

Crease: Only the goalie can stand in this nine-foot radius with the ball. Shooters or their teammates can not stand on (or inside) the line or their goals won't count. Any violation of this rule will disallow the goal.

Crosscheck: An defensive strategy using the shaft of the stick to push on an opponent to force a missed or bad shot.

Hidden Ball Play: A player without the ball cradles his stick, drawing the attention of the defense, while a teammate who has the ball passes or shoots on net.

Loose Ball: Occurs when there is no possession and the ball is bouncing, rolling, or rebounding off the boards or goaltender.

Major Penalty: Five minutes in the penalty box for infractions such as high sticking, boarding, face masking, fighting and spearing.

Man Down: When a team has one less player on the floor than their opponent.

Minor Penalty: Two minute penalty for infractions such as delay of game, elbowing, holding, illegal crosschecking, slashing, and tripping, for example.

Offensive Pick: The legal interference by an offensive player from a set position on a defensive player who is trying to defend the ball carrier.

Outlet Pass: The first pass from the goaltender or defender that begins the transition from defense to offense.

Penalty Box: Where a player goes to sit while serving a two and/or five minute penalty.

Power Play: When a team has an extra man advantage because the other team has at least one player in the penalty box.

Screen Shot: When the goaltender can't see a shot because someone is in the way.

Shorthanded: When a team has one or more players in the penalty box and the opponent is at full-strength, or has more players on the floor.

Loss of Possession: Illegal screens, 30 second shot clock violation, 10 second half court violation, loose ball push, and illegal procedure during faceoffs are among the acts that can cause a team to lose possession of the ball.

[Evil Dr. Len]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

PLAY OF THE GAME

Minor Penalties: On two minute personal fouls, the penalized player is released from the penalty box if a goal is scored before the expiration of the two minutes.

Major Penalties: On five minute major personal fouls, the penalized player stays in the box for the duration of the penalty, though the offending team returns to full strength if two goals are scored against them during the five minutes. When a second major penalty is imposed on the same player in a game, an automatic game misconduct penalty shall be imposed.

Use of Penalty Shot: Since a team cannot be more than two men down at a time, if a third penalty is called, the official will award a penalty shot to the non-offending team.

Ejection from Game: Players can be ejected from a game for several reasons including being the third man participating in a fight or accumulating two major penalties in one game.

Slow Whistle (Delayed Penalty): If a defending player commits a minor or major penalty against an opponent in possession of the ball where there is offensive momentum and the opponent doesn't lose possession, the official raises his hand and does not blow the whistle until a shot is taken, the 30-second shot clock expires, or a goal is scored or possession is lost.

Coincidental Penalties: When each team is given the same amount of penalty time arising out of the same incident, the offending players shall not be released until the expiration of the penalty. Teams do not lose floor strength, and the ball is awarded to the team who was in possession prior to the fouls.

Field & Goals: Indoor lacrosse is played on a hockey rink covered by an artificial turf playing surface, which is usually referred to as the floor or the carpet (as opposed to the field). There must be boards around the sides of a minimum height of 3' high. Dimensions are 200' x 85' but may be altered.

Goals: are 4' (high) x 4'9" (wide). The circle around the goal known as the crease is 9'3" in diameter. An offensive player is not allowed to intentionally step into the crease area.

[gizmo fan 2]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

Good posts, Doc ...I would've put them up closer to the season if anyone inquired, but that's a good idea.

Just some points on the game...

Lacrosse has a lot of flow, and is often end-to-end very quickly. It is not uncommon for a defending team to send a player to the bench while the other team still has the ball, as a player can jump out of the bench and be at midfield, ready for a long bomb from the goalie, before anyone realizes what's happening.

An average game usually has around 20 goals combined, I think. Shooting percentages are normally high, as the goalies are very vulnerable to a player with good control of the ball, especially on a breakaway. Saves in odd-man situations and breakaways are uncommon, but are momentum shifters when they do happen.

Most teams use 5 offensive specialists and 5 defensive specialists as a starting lineup (on the floor respectively, depending on which team has the ball). There will usually be 2 or 3 fast transition players as well, who will defend the point on defence and who can break out very fast on a change of possession. On any change of possession during the flow of play, you will see the formerly offensive players racing to get off the floor in order to get the defensive specialists out from the other end of the bench (in one end and out the other is a normal change). Bad changes result in goals against most of the time, and so a team's changes must be good or they will be in trouble. Arizona's bad changes killed them in 3 or 4 games last year, as they gave up a lot of transition goals on slow changes.

Most teams will use a basketball-style halfcourt offence about 2/3 of the time, in which they will get the ball across midfloor and set up an offensive play. The other 1/3 will be fast transition or a quick setup play.

Cross-checking is legal.

It's a really fun game to watch, I find ...it's hockey-style hitting on two feet with basketball-style setups, and lots of scoring chances and goals.

[Evil Dr. Len]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

covered the rules...may as well cover the playoff format
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(NLL) - The National Lacrosse League has announced its divisions and expanded Champion's Cup Playoffs format for the 2006 season.

The league will continue to play with two divisions, the East and West. Expansion teams in Edmonton and Portland will join the West to create a six-team division. The East Division will consist of the same five teams that comprised the division during the 2005 season.

The top four teams in each division will advance to the playoffs. The expanded playoff format received unanimous approval from the league's Board of Governors, who concluded two days of meetings at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

In the opening round of the divisional playoffs in the East and West Divisions, the first place team hosts the fourth place team, while second place hosts third place. The winners of those games advance to the East and West Division Finals, which are hosted by the higher remaining seeded team in each division. The East and West finalists will meet in the championship game.

The expanded format increases the total number of playoff games to seven (from five under previous format). Playoff games remain in a single-game elimination format.

[gizmo fan 2]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

Cool, the 4th place team makes it. Awesome, we'll have a better shot.

[Evil Dr. Len]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

last year's standings
EAST W L
Toronto 12 4
Buffalo 11 5
Rochester 10 6
Philadelphia 6 10
Minnesota 5 11

West Division
W L
Calgary 10 6
Arizona 9 7
Colorado 8 8
San Jose 4 12
Edmonton & Portland

Anaheim, the team that folded, was actually 5-11 and finished ahead of the San Jose team.

So from an outsider's point of view it would appear to be a 3 way battle for fourth place between the two expansion teams & San Jose.

[Evil Dr. Len]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

here's a quirky rule on the uniforms teams wear plus news on the trade deadline...

The league also announced the in-season trade was moved from the 3/4 point of the season (75%) to the mid-way point of the season.

Teams will also wear their light-colored sweaters at home during the first half of the 2006 season, and switch to their dark-colored sweaters for home games in the second half of the season.

[gizmo fan 2]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

here's a quirky rule on the uniforms teams wear plus news on the trade deadline...

The league also announced the in-season trade was moved from the 3/4 point of the season (75%) to the mid-way point of the season.

Teams will also wear their light-colored sweaters at home during the first half of the 2006 season, and switch to their dark-colored sweaters for home games in the second half of the season.

Wow, early trade deadline. Interesting.

I like the uniform thing - gives the home fans a chance to see both sets of jerseys.

[gizmo fan 2]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

last year's standings
EAST W L
Toronto 12 4
Buffalo 11 5
Rochester 10 6
Philadelphia 6 10
Minnesota 5 11

West Division
W L
Calgary 10 6
Arizona 9 7
Colorado 8 8
San Jose 4 12
Edmonton & Portland

Anaheim, the team that folded, was actually 5-11 and finished ahead of the San Jose team.

So from an outsider's point of view it would appear to be a 3 way battle for fourth place between the two expansion teams & San Jose.

Yes and no.

San Jose just had a very bad year last year, they were better in the year before that.

Colorado just lost the ability and leadership of Gary and Paul Gait.

I would say Calgary and Arizona are favourites to clinch two spots - the other two are up for grabs. I doubt either expansion team will make playoffs this year, but it should be competitive. Like the CFL, any team can beat any other team on any given weekend.

Scheduling will play a factor - it depends on how many two-game weekends a team has.

Should be an interesting season. It has already been established that the Rush will play Calgary 4 times (1/4 of the sched) to get the rivalry going. I would assume we would have home/away vs the rest of the division, so that's another 8 games, which leaves 4 games vs the East division (perhaps 2 vs TOR and 2 vs other teams, or 1 each vs 4 teams).

[Evil Dr. Len]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

Yes and no.

I would say Calgary and Arizona are favourites to clinch two spots - the other two are up for grabs. I doubt either expansion team will make playoffs this year, but it should be competitive. Like the CFL, any team can beat any other team on any given weekend.

Scheduling will play a factor - it depends on how many two-game weekends a team has.

Should be an interesting season. It has already been established that the Rush will play Calgary 4 times (1/4 of the sched) to get the rivalry going. I would assume we would have home/away vs the rest of the division, so that's another 8 games, which leaves 4 games vs the East division (perhaps 2 vs TOR and 2 vs other teams, or 1 each vs 4 teams).

yeah I tried figuring out their scheduling process but it does appear to be heavy on divisional & natural rivalries...4 games against the roughnecks if that doesn't get the rivalry started I don't know what will

[gizmo fan 2]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

yeah I tried figuring out their scheduling process but it does appear to be heavy on divisional & natural rivalries...4 games against the roughnecks if that doesn't get the rivalry started I don't know what will

Last year, in general, it was 3 games vs teams in your division (12), and then 4 games vs the other division, for example I know Arizona didn't play Buffalo at all last year, but Calgary and Toronto played twice due to the Canadian rivalry.

This year I assume it would be similar, as one would expect to have home/away at least against the own division, with the 4 Calgary games. We should play Toronto at least once as well.

[Evil Dr. Len]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

I wasn't sure which of the lacrosse threads to post it in so I choose this one using the scientific eeney, meeney, miney, mo method.

I found a national lacrosse league forum board much like this one(v-bulletin style) for anyone interested(I guess realistically I'm talking to you GF2)

I believe the addy is www.wingszone.com/nllmb/index.php?

I'm not sure if you'll need the index.php? part...
I'm registered there as Rush because of the over 2800 members I don't figure many will get Evil Dr. EE

[gizmo fan 2]

Re: rules for the game of lacrosse

I wasn't sure which of the lacrosse threads to post it in so I choose this one using the scientific eeney, meeney, miney, mo method.

I found a national lacrosse league forum board much like this one(v-bulletin style) for anyone interested(I guess realistically I'm talking to you GF2)

I believe the addy is www.wingszone.com/nllmb/index.php?

I'm not sure if you'll need the index.php? part...
I'm registered there as Rush because of the over 2800 members I don't figure many will get Evil Dr. EE

Yeah, it seems to be just us.

Cool, I'll have a look at it.