Short-handed

Short-handed is a term used in ice hockey and several related sports, including water polo, and refers to having fewer skaters (players) on the ice during play, as a result of a penalty. The player removed from play serves the penalty in the penalty box for a set amount of time proportional to the severity of the infraction. If a goaltender commits a minor infraction, another player who was on the ice at the time of the penalty serves, often but not necessarily the team captain.

The penalized team is said to be on the penalty kill, abbreviated as “PK” for recording purposes, while their players are in the penalty box. The opposing team is usually referred to as having an “advantage” until the penalized player returns to play. This situation is often called a power play for the opposing team. The advantage largely comes from having an additional player, making it impossible for the short-handed team to defend every player one-on-one and, in the event the short-handed team is making an offensive run, the team on the power play can double-team one of the short-handed team’s players while still covering everyone else.

The short-handed team has one advantage during a power play: it is free to ice the puck without the play being stopped and thus can change lines at roughly the same intervals as during five-on-five play. This advantage can also be exploited by skaters with enough speed and offensive skill: without the threat of icing, breakaways can be more safely attempted, which opens the opportunity for short-handed goals. However, two governing bodies have enforced icing on power plays, thus putting the short-handed team at an even stronger disadvantage:

• The World Hockey Association did so during the 1970s.
• USA Hockey has done so in all sanctioned youth competitions (players 14 and under, in all age groups) since 2017–18.

The team on the power play often only has one defenseman at the rear rather than the typical two, in favor of adding another attacker. Rarely, teams have pulled their goalie for the sixth on-ice player (such as in Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals). Players assigned to power play or penalty killing duties are often known as “special teams”.

If the team with the power play scores a goal while the other team is short-handed, the penalty is over, except if a goal was scored during a major penalty or a match penalty in regulation time.

In leagues that reduce the number of players on the ice in overtime, the concept still exists, but is slightly modified to accommodate the reduced team size. For example, overtime during regular-season NHL games uses a 3-on-3 format, with each side having three skaters plus the goaltender. If a player is penalized during overtime, he is sent to the penalty box, but can be replaced by another player. However, the non-penalized team receives an extra skater for the duration of the penalty. If the penalty expires without a goal being scored, the extra skater is removed from the ice and play continues.

If regulation time ends with a power play in progress, the advantaged team will start overtime with more than three skaters (almost always four, very rarely five).