Centre (ice hockey)

The centre (or center in the United States) in ice hockey is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play is the middle of the ice, away from the side boards. Centres have more flexibility in their positioning and are expected to cover more ice surface than any other player. Centres are ideally stronger, faster skaters who can back check quickly from deep in the opposing zone. Generally, centres are expected to be gifted passers more so than goal scorers, although there are exceptions. They are also expected to have exceptional "ice vision", intelligence, and creativity. They also generally are the most defensively oriented forwards on the ice. Centres usually play as part of a line of players that are substituted frequently to keep fresh and keep the game moving. First-liners are usually the top players, although some top players make the second line to allow for offensive scoring opportunities.

Offensive zone play

Centres are required to cover much of the ice in all three zones. Where the centre tends to play in the offensive zone is usually a matter of coaching and personal preference. Centres are responsible for keeping the flow of the game moving, and generally handle, and pass the puck more than any other position player. Because of this, most good centres tend to score assists rather than goals because the play goes through them as they try to find open teammates.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. Ice hockey teams usually consist of four lines of three forwards, three pairs of defencemen, and two goaltenders. Normally, each team has five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team.

A fast-paced, physical sport, hockey is most popular in areas of North America (particularly Canada and the northern United States) and northern and western Europe. In North America, the National Hockey League (NHL) is the highest level for men's hockey and the most popular. The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the highest league in Russia and much of Eastern Europe. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada, where the game enjoys immense popularity. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is the formal governing body for international ice hockey. The IIHF manages international tournaments and maintains the IIHF World Ranking. Worldwide, there are ice hockey federations in 74 countries.

Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick. In many areas, one sport (typically field hockey or ice hockey) is generally referred to simply as hockey.

Etymology

The first recorded use of the word hockey is in the 1773 book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education by Richard Johnson (Pseud. Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey". The belief that hockey was mentioned in a 1363 proclamation by King Edward III of England is based on modern translations of the proclamation, which was originally in Latin and explicitly forbade the games "Pilam Manualem, Pedivam, & Bacularem: & ad Canibucam & Gallorum Pugnam". The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word "hockey" when he translated the proclamation in 1720.

The word hockey itself is of unknown origin. One explanation is that it is a derivative of hoquet, a Middle French word for a shepherd's stave. The curved, or "hooked" ends of the sticks used for hockey would indeed have resembled these staves. Another explanation is that the cork bungs that replaced wooden balls in the 18th century came from barrels containing "hock" ale, also called "hocky".

Hockey (album)

Hockey is an album by John Zorn featuring his early "game piece" composition of the same name which first appeared on the Parachute Records edition of Pool in 1980. The full recordings of the piece were first released on CD on Tzadik Records as part of the The Parachute Years Box Set in 1997 and as a single CD in 2002.

Reception

The Allmusic review by François Couture awarded the album 2½ stars stating "Hockey belongs to John Zorn's early works. The piece dates from 1978 and is shorter (in principle) than Lacrosse or Pool, also from the same period... The inner workings of the piece are left to the listener's imagination, but the composer suggests a likeness to entertainer Jack Benny (and to a lesser extent Buster Keaton). ".

Track listing

Center

Center or centre may refer to:

Mathematics and science

Sports

Center District, Ljubljana

The Center District (Slovene: Četrtna skupnost Center), or simply the Center, is a district (mestna četrt) of the City Municipality of Ljubljana in the center of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It has an area of about 5 square kilometres (1.9 sq mi).

The district's major thoroughfares are Slovene Street (Slovenska cesta), Čop Street (Čopova ulica), Cankar Street (Cankarjeva cesta), Wolf Street (Wolfova ulica), Trubar Street (Trubarjeva cesta), and Miklošič Street (Miklošičeva cesta), and the major squares are Congress Square (Kongresni trg), Croatian Square (Hrvatski trg), Liberation Front Square (Trg Osvobodilne fronte), Prešeren Square (Prešernov trg), Republic Square (Trg republike), and Slovene Square (Slovenski trg).

External links

Media related to Center District, Ljubljana at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 46°03′06″N 14°30′22″E / 46.05167°N 14.50611°E / 46.05167; 14.50611

Center (gridiron football)

Center (C) is a position in American football and Canadian football (in the latter the position is spelled centre, following Commonwealth spelling conventions). The center is the innermost lineman of the offensive line on a football team's offense. The center is also the player who passes (or "snaps") the ball between his legs to the quarterback at the start of each play.

In recent years, the importance of centers for a football team has increased, due to the re-emergence of 3-4 defenses. According to Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, "you need to have somebody who can neutralize that nose tackle. If you don't, everything can get screwed up. Your running game won't be effective and you'll also have somebody in your quarterback's face on every play."

Roles

The center's first and primary role is to pass the football to the quarterback. This exchange is called a snap. Most offensive schemes make adjustments based on how the defensive line and linebackers align themselves in relation to the offensive line, and what gaps they line up in. Because the center has an ideal view of the defensive formation before the snap, he typically makes the first line call. This call is typically based on the position of the defensive linemen or linebackers in his gaps (0i-1i), most subsequent adjustments are dependent on this call. In some cases the center may call an adjustment for the entire offensive line. This was taken to an extreme by the Indianapolis Colts in the early 21st century, with center Jeff Saturday having equal say with quarterback Peyton Manning in play calling, including audibles. The center is therefore usually the most intelligent player on the offensive line, which is critical to a center's success.