There are three styles of glove

Glove

A glove is a garment covering the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each...

s worn by ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 players. Skaters wear similar gloves on each hand, while goaltenders wear gloves of different types on each hand.

Skaters' gloves

Skaters' gloves are designed to protect the players' hands from pucks

Hockey puck

A puck is a disk used in various games serving the same functions as a ball does in ball games. The best-known use of pucks is in ice hockey, a major international sport.- Etymology :The origin of the word "puck" is obscure...

, sticks

Hockey stick

A hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in field hockey, ice hockey or roller hockey to move the ball or puck.- Field hockey :Field hockey sticks have an end which varies in shape, often depending on the players position...

, and skates

Ice skate

Ice skates are boots with blades attached to the bottom, used to propel the bearer across a sheet of ice. They are worn as footwear in many sports, including ice hockey, bandy and figure skating. The first ice skates were made from leg bones of horse, ox or deer, and were attached to feet with...

. They do not play any role in the performance or play of the game. A skater may push a puck forward with his glove when in his defensive zone. A skater may also use his glove to bat down an airborne puck. However, if a skater catches or otherwise closes his glove about the puck, the skater may be penalized with a minor penalty. When fighting, skaters almost always drop their gloves to the ice and fight with bare fists.

The gloves are normally not worn too tight to better enhance movement of the hands.

Goaltender's gloves

Goaltender

Goaltender

In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...

s wear a different type of glove on each hand. While these gloves do offer the goaltender a measure of protection, their design is to aid the goaltender in performance of his duties. On the hand with which he carries his stick, often called the "stick hand," the goaltender wears a blocker with a large pad across the back of the forearm, usually extending just beyond the wrist. National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 rules mandate that the blocking glove may be no wider than eight inches and no longer than fifteen. The goaltender uses this glove to deflect shots.

On the other hand, often called the "glove hand", the goaltender wears a catching glove called a trapper

Trapper (ice hockey)

A trapper, or catch glove, is a piece of equipment that is worn by ice hockey goaltenders on their non-dominant hand.-Evolution:Often referred to simply as the "glove", it was originally shaped in the same fashion as a baseball first-baseman's mitt, but evolved into a highly specific piece of...

, which is similar to a baseball glove

Baseball glove

A baseball glove or mitt is a large leather glove that baseball players on the defending team are allowed to wear to assist them in catching and fielding balls hit by a batter, or thrown by a teammate.-History:...

. In addition to using it to catch shots, goaltenders can distribute caught pucks by tossing them from the catching glove. National Hockey League rules limit the perimeter of the catching glove to forty-five inches and the widest part of the glove may not exceed eighteen inches.