# Dumb Hockey Question - Minor Penalties **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 5, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841 "2011-05-05T15:14:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/1 "2011-05-05T15:14:53Z")
Last night I watched the end of the Flyers/Bruins game - the Flyers got a penalty late in the game when they were down, desperate and empty-netted. It was for hooking - a plain, 2-minute minor. Boston, on the power play, scored. The penalty didn’t end. Philly was still short-handed. Have the rules changed? Is it playoffs-only? End of the game? What was going on? ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/2 "2011-05-05T15:27:24Z")
I just checked the box score and Philly was still short handed because they had two guys in the box. At 18:06, Mike Richards got a hooking penalty. Eight seconds later at 18:14 Braydon Coburn got a crosschecking penalty. Boston has a 5 on 3 advantage. Philly scores on the powerplay at 18:38. Richards comes out of the box and Coburn is still serving his penalty. It’s always good to score on a 5 on 3 before the first penalty expires. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/3 "2011-05-05T15:37:42Z")
I’m pretty unobservant. Never noticed the second penalty. ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/4 "2011-05-05T15:49:20Z")
Were you watching closely? No snark. At that point in the game it would have been a very big deal, commented on by the announcers, perhaps multiple replays of the transgressions. Okay I see that the final score was 5-1 for the Flyers, so it wouldn’t have been as big a deal as if the score was closer. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/5 "2011-05-05T15:55:12Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > …It’s always good to score on a 5 on 3 before the first penalty expires. If you score on a 5 on 3, it will always be before the first penalty expires, ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/6 "2011-05-05T16:01:34Z")
True enough. That was kind of awkward. How about; it’s good to score before the first penalty expires as it gives you a continued man advantage while the second penalty is still being served. Still awkward. Next we try the soccer offside. Thought of one. What if the two refs call different players for the same team in the same sequence? Two penalties at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/7 "2011-05-05T16:11:02Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > Were you watching closely? No snark. At that point in the game it would have been a very big deal, commented on by the announcers, perhaps multiple replays of the transgressions. > > Okay I see that the final score was 5-1 for the Flyers, so it wouldn’t have been as big a deal as if the score was closer. Actually I watched the game at that point, and in fact the announcers didn’t comment on it. They debated a bit about whether a goal would be awarded instead of a penalty (from what I gather, if a player gets taken down on a breakaway to an empty net, the officials can directly award a goal), but they didn’t even get around to mentioning who got the penalty. Play started again with Boston on the power play, and I didn’t notice it was 5 on 3. Boston scored and the announcers commented on the goal instant replay. By the time they were done with that, the game had already restarted. I was also wondering why the power play timer was still going, and the announcers sure didn’t tell me. Had to read an article today to understand. By the way, not only was the score 4-1 before the last goal, there was about two minutes left in the game, so anything on the ice that wasn’t an injury was pretty academic at that point. Can’t blame the announcers for losing a bit of focus. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/8 "2011-05-05T16:23:24Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > Were you watching closely? > > … > > Okay I see that the final score was 5-1 for the Flyers, so it wouldn’t have been as big a deal as if the score was closer. Were you watching closely? It was 5-1 for the Bruins. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/9 "2011-05-05T16:25:08Z")
Wow. I’m just all kinds of messed up. I blame reading comprehension. I really haven’t been watching any of the games. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/10 "2011-05-05T16:25:55Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > Thought of one. What if the two refs call different players for the same team in the same sequence? Two penalties at the same time. I believe that in that case, should the opposition score on the 5-on-3 PP, the penalized team can choose which player leaves the penalty box. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-hockey-question-minor-penalties/580841/11 "2011-05-05T18:22:56Z")
Oh, then I missed the \*first \*penalty, not the second. I saw the hooking to stop what could have been a clear open-net shot (it’s debatable whether he would have gotten the pass cleanly when he got hooked down). That explains a whole lot. Thanks.