Hockey is a unique sport. Contrary to its popular counterparts, football or soccer, hockey doesn’t wait for players to be substituted in and out.

Player changes are done on the fly, once a minute for every minute of the game. With four lines of offense and up to three pairings of defensemen, the Illinois hockey team has a lot of players shuttling in and out of the game.

Trying to break up the players during practice causes the team to stash away traditional Illini colors in favor of a more diverse pallet. At each practice, players will sport one of eight colors, based on their position and line. Goaltenders wear white, defensemen wear black and injured players don red uniforms. Each line of forwards wears a different color: gray, light blue, yellow, orange or green, depending on how lines are broken up that weekend.

“I think it’s really common,” forward Austin Bostock said of the rainbow of jerseys. “It really helps in practice when we’re doing forechecking drills and zone drills.”

Also, the chaos of trying to orchestrate substitutions is quelled with the colors. In the midst of play, head coach Nick Fabbrini can simply call out a color and three forwards will be ready to come in at a moment’s notice. While it’s convenient not only to differentiate players in drills and games, breaking up the lines helps Fabbrini game plan. Because the team only dresses four lines a game, players on the green line normally are scratched from the lineup on game day.

“We take extra players because obviously everyone doesn’t play,” forward Mario Pacheco said. “If you had a bad week of practice or aren’t playing well, then you might get scratched.”

The gray line, centered by freshman John Olen, is the Illini’s premier scoring line, with Olen and forward Scott Barrera as the team’s top-two point scorers.

The light blue line, centered by Matt Welch with Bostock and Matt Crook, is a fast and physical line with the ability to fly around at both ends on the ice.

The yellow line is known for being a stingy defensive unit that is mostly tasked with matching up against the other team’s top scoring line. Eddie Quagliata centers the line, along with Nick Stuercke and Daniel Kerr, as of late. Orange is led by Pacheco at center and features Jon Langan and Jacob Matysiak on the wings. Pacheco described the group as a “tempo line” that comes in and is reliable to play a good shift in situations after a power play or at the beginning of a period.

The main competition among players is to stay off the green line and on the ice, but there is also friendly competition among lines in practice.

“It can be frustrating when you aren’t clicking as a line,” Pacheco said. “If we’re getting dominated out there in a mini-game, and my line is losing to another line, it’s frustrating.”

There isn’t the blind ambition of a set depth chart like other sports. No line is necessarily better than others, but playing time depends on the situation. The whole team knows there are shifts to be won with good play in practice. Particularly, the “special teams” of hockey, which consist of power-play and penalty-killing shifts, allow lines to be sculpted and altered to create the best combination.

With the exception of those situations, the linesmen are able to work together in practice and games, building chemistry with each other on the ice.

“You get pretty bonded with your line because they’re always on your team,” Pacheco said. “We’re great buddies off the ice.”

With a three-game winning streak intact and the conference and national tournaments looming, Bostock doesn’t foresee too many more changes to the lines — a practice that was common in the beginning stages of the year.

“I don’t think there will be too much more switching,” Bostock said. “It’s up to Fabbrini and (assistant coach) Dan Rooney as we go forward.”

The Illini are winding down the season and enjoying the constant of having the same lines. Bostock said even the little things are important to keep the same in the future. “I think it would cause a bit of commotion in the locker room if Barrera and those guys were wearing orange, and we were wearing green.”

Stephen can be reached at sbourbo2@ dailyillini.com and @steve_bourbon.