Regular Gloves- Used by players only, they are heavily padded and have rigid fingertips. They protect the hands and wrists from getting hit with pucks and sticks.
Chest Pad- Worn by players and goalies, the chest pad comes complete with shoulders, and sometimes, elbow pads. These are worn to protect your upper torso from sticks and pucks.
Shin Guards- With built in knee pads, these protect the player's shins and knees when they fall on the hard ice. They also protect you from hard shots and, once again, sticks. They are usually made with a soft, cushion-like material with a hard plastic coat. Usually equipped with straps, some players prefer to use a special kind of tape to keep them on.
Helmet- Everyone (players, goalies, and referees) needs to wear these. It has 1" thick protective foam on five sides of it, and it's covered with a hard plastic. In addition to that, some players like to have a half-face fiberglass visor. Goalies must have a full-face cage, and a fiberglass neck protector hanging down from the chin.
Protective Cup- Worn over the male's private parts, a cup is made of VERY hard plastic. If you aren't wearing a cup, you can't play! It protects you from the hard shots and slashing sticks.
Hip Pads- Very puffy and soft, hip pads are filled with a foamy substance. They are short like shorts, and they are worn over pants that resemble something like long underwear. These protect you from, once again, pucks and sticks. They also cushion your fall on the ice.
Goalie Leg Pads- The goalie's leg pads are very soft, and they are an essential to saving shots. They are very slick so that you can slide. Due to NHL Rules, they may not be more than 12" in width.
Catching Glove- The goalie uses his glove to catch a shot going into the upstairs corners. It looks somewhat like a baseball glove, and there is loosely strung net almost in the middle for the puck to go.
Blocker Glove- Worn on the hand the goalie uses to hold his stick. It basically looks like a regular glove with a 1"-2" thick rectangular block on the front of it. The goalie uses this as one of his methods to stop the 90 mph shots.
Sticks- Sticks have a long wooden shaft with a slick wooden blade. As you already know, players use these to hit the puck around the ice. Standard NHL rules say that the shaft can not exceed 63" in length, the blade may not be more than 3" in height, and the curve of that blade can't be more than 1/2". Normal players aren't the only ones who use a stick. Goalies use them to make the rare stick-saves. The wider goalie's stick has a max of 3 1/2" in height for the blade, 4 1/2" at the heel (where the shaft and blade meet), and the wide shaft may only extend 24" from the heel.
Jersey- Every team needs a jersey. The jersey is normally made of something like mesh, and they have the team symbol on the front, the player's number on each sleeve, and the player's last name and number on the back.
Ice Hockey Skates- You MUST have skates to play hockey (unless it's field hockey)! In ice hockey, you MUST wear hockey style skates! No figure skates or speed skates allowed! Some of the more popular brands with the pros are Bauer and CCM, but you don't have to be exactly like them. Just make sure that they fit nicely, and you have some room to grow into them.
Puck- The second to last thing on the list of the equipment you need for hockey is a puck. There's no possible way you can play ice hockey without a puck. Shaped like a disk, the puck is made of vulcanized rubber, and it's frozen before each game to keep its shape.
The Rink- You have to use a rink to play hockey! It's impossible to play without some kind of rink. A full NHL size rink is 200" long and 85" wide.
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