"Line of sight" issues in a hockey-themed game

I'm trying my hand at a sports-themed game, about ice hockey, but I'm having some difficulties with deciding how to handle some of the spatial aspects of the game. These run sort of similar to "ling of sight" concerns, but I think there are some differences.

First, some primitives. I believe that the underlying board will be a hex grid, but I'm not committed to this, if someone can suggest a better tiling. I believe that each skater will have a specific orientation relative to the hex he's sitting on, such that he faces one edge of the hex, and can interact with the two faces adjacent to that. So in the drawing below, the skater faces edge A, and can interact with action on sides B and F -- this could include catching a pass coming through one of those edges, or sending a pass through one of those edges, or disrupting a play, etc.

(BTW, anyone know how to make images smaller?)

Now, what I'm having problems with is evaluating the trajectory that passes should take, and who should be able to interact with them (I'll have similar concerns for shots, but we'll wait for that). The crucial caveat is no rulers, no strings. This is simulating a fast paced sport, and playing the game must be fast paced as well.

Here's a drawing that shows the dilemma:

Player R1 is making a pass to R2, and defenders B1-B4 are potentially involved. "L" shows the trajectory of the pass. The first question raised is, through what hexes does L pass? The answer to this depends on where L begins; does it start at the player's stick, or at the center of the hex he occupies? But even that is sort of water under the bridge, because the point is, without a string or ruler, I can't guarantee that you can ever determine exactly what L is. So, the real question is, how can you easily define a path that shows which hexes the puck will pass through, that most closely approximates L? A and B show two possible paths that the puck could take in connecting the pass. Is there a way to prefer a unique path (again, assuming that you don't "know" what L is, although you can eyeball it and immediately rule out some paths as clearly unreasonable)?

The next question is, which defenders can interfere with the pass, and how to define a set of universal, but simple, rules, to evaluate this? ("interfere" will probably involve a quick die roll against a "skill value", I suspect) Note that I haven't drawn any defenders in the actual path of the puck. Note also that I've drawn the players to be large relative to the hexes. It could be more appropriate to just say "a defender can only disrupt a pass if the puck passes through a hex edge that he can interact with based on his orientation".

I guess my dilemma is that looking at the drawing qualitatively, it seems reasonable to me that B2 definitely can't intercept the pass, B3 probably can't, B1 possibly can, and B4 probably could. So the question is whether there's a way to make a simple set of rules that codifies this qualitative analysis, or is it hopeless?

I welcome any input or suggestions on any aspects of how to handle puck movement or player interaction (hockey player interaction, not game player interaction!) with respect to this idea.

Thanks in advance to all you spatially minded folks!

-Jeff