The National Hockey League (NHL) is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Formed in 1917, the NHL celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017.
The season runs from October to April, with each team playing a total of 60 games. This results in six 30-minute periods per week, spanning over seventeen weeks.
Periods denote the time between two shots, or the time between goals, during a game. The first and third periods are generally referred to as the “power play” and “penalty kill” periods, while the second and fourth periods are referred to as the “Shootout” and “short-handed” periods.
Here we answer the question: How long is the time between periods in hockey?
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The Off-Peak Season
The NHL has four distinct seasons: Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. The off-peak season is between the “on-peak” seasons, which are typically June to September.
The league completely shuts down in the winter, with no games played, and only practice and exhibitions. Between the on-peak and off-peak seasons, there are fewer people playing hockey, and it’s generally a little colder.
The NHL also has an annual awards show, the “NHL Awards,” which is held in the winter. The awards ceremony itself is generally broadcast on television, with the live telecast starting at 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday, April 23.
Power Plays And Penalties
Hockey is a “fast-paced” game, due to the high number of shots and scoring chances during a game. This is reflected in the fact that there are only six periods in an NHL game, as opposed to eight in a Major League Baseball game or ten in a National Basketball Association game. The periods are generally broken down into two 15-minute halves, with a five-minute intermission in the middle.
A team’s power play is a series of plays geared toward scoring a goal from the blue line. To start the play, the coach signals for the forward to take a run at the puck. The puck will either be lifted over to the blue line, or the forward will dump it in himself and take a run at the puck on his own. Once the forward establishes possession of the puck, the rest of the team begins to push forwards, either towards the net to shoot or pass the puck, or towards the opposing team’s end of the ice, to force them to defend.
The power play will frequently start with a neutral-zone draw, where the team at the other end of the ice attempts to gain control of the puck via a draw on the ice. This is intended to create a screen, protecting the puck-carrier from the opposition’s interference. If the defense controls the puck long enough in the neutral zone to start the power play, the coach will give the signal for the player with the puck to enter the offensive zone.
Once the puck is in the offensive zone, there are a variety of plays that the coach can call for. The main two are a traditional power play or a “man-on-man” power play, where the forwards skate toward the net, and a “circle” play, where a defender drops back and passes the puck to a teammate, who moves it around the circle before shooting or passing it to a forward.
The penalty kill is a team effort, with everyone chipping in to cover the opposing team’s power play. The team will adjust its strategy according to how effective the power play is when they are on the ice, and will either maintain the same setup, or will bring in additional players to take over for those who are out. The primary responsibility of a penalty killer is to prevent goals against, by either blocking shots or taking the puck away from the opponent.
Intermission
The intermission is a five-minute period between the two halves of a hockey game. During this time, the players will stretch, the coach will make some adjustments to the strategy, and the ice will be wiped clean for the beginning of the second period.
The NHL has changed the way they officiate games over the years, introducing a number of new rules to keep up with the ever-evolving game. One of the more recent additions is “cross-checking” and “holding.”
The cross-check is a legal maneuver where a player hits his opponent with his forearm, knocking the other player’s mitt off the puck. This play can be hazardous to the opposing player, as his arm will be hanging out to the side as he’s being hit from the front, creating the possibility of an injury. This play is often accompanied by a letter-writing campaign to the NHL, with fans demanding the crackdown on the dangerous play. This type of checking was previously banned due to its potential to cause injury, but it is now a permitted and deliberate act, with the intention of checking the opposing player, rather than simply trying to keep the puck in play, as the old rules stated.
The “holding” penalty now allows for a goaltender to be assessed a minor penalty for contact with the puck. Prior to this rule change, goaltenders were only assessed an interference penalty for hitting a player with the puck. This is because goaltenders are considered “neutral players” in hockey, as they are neither team’s player. This makes them legal combatants, and allows them to fight off attackers, as well as checkers from the opposing team.
Shootout
The shootout is a five-minute period at the end of a hockey game, where the players use regular sticks to beat away shots at the goal, with the winner being the first player to score a goal. This can be entertaining for the fans, but the players will tell you that it’s stressful, as the shootout gives the opposing coach the chance to replace a bad play with a good one. This is to ensure that your goalie doesn’t get exposed too much during the game, as you can never predict which player is going to win the shootout in advance.
There are three players on the ice for the shootout; two goalies and a “crease” player. The center ice position is referred to as the “money spot” because it is in this area that the two teams’ captains will stand during the national anthems (one player from each team), after the game has ended. The captain of the winning team gets to skate up to the money spot, drop the national anthem pin, and receive their trophy.
The last player to score a goal in the shootout wins. If there is nobody left to score, then the game ends in a tie.
That’s a pretty long article, and we covered quite a bit of ground. Hopefully, this was informative and helped answer some questions. Give it a like, leave a comment, and let’s get some more hockey fans talking about the game we all love!