rules question

[miked]

so I was wondering about something after my sons game this weekend. U12 level. about 4 minutes to go in the game, a kid goes bonkers and picks up a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. so he goes to the locker room. no matter what happens this team will play with 4 skaters the rest of the game. so why do they have to pick some other poor kid who did nothing and stick him in the box? this kid, loses a couple shifts for no reason. there is no chance to be released, he just had his game ended because he is the kid the coach picked. But why does the coach have to pick someone? IMO U12 is still developmental and I didn't see any reason a body had to be in the box. I know it's not a lot of time, but it will be shorthanded time, it's something. does anyone know if this is an actual PAHL rule stating a warm body must occupy the box?

 

[rock]

 agreed, the poor kid missing a couple shifts picked by the coach at this level, is stupid. i don't see any reason for it.  make the kid that committed the penalty sit in the box, or don't put a kid in there if you need/want that kid removed entirely. 

[miked]

just want to point out that i'm putting no blame on the coach. it was a bit of a kerfuffle, so he was getting an explanation from the refs and after, he just put his hand on a kids head that was in front of him and the kid skated to the box. the kid was fine about it until he saw the penalty time go up and realized that he wasn't coming back out. then you could tell he was pretty bummed out, which is what got me thinking, why does anyone need to be in the box?

[Bob Loblaw]

Because the player amassed two penalties at the same time. You just can't say, "yeah we will play shorthanded until the penalty expires". A player has to physically be in the box. When the 10 minute or misconduct penalty kicks in you are back at 5 on 5.

[dropthepuck]

A penalty always must be served. If the player that committed the infraction is ejected someone has to sit in the box for duration of the  penalty. It should deter the player that got the game misconduct from repeat offenses knowing he put himself before his team but we all know how that goes. The coaches have to straighten things out and make sure players are accountable for their actions.

[hockey07]

Even if the coach does something wrong and it is a bench minor, a kid has to sit in the box.  Not the coach. 

[dazedandconfused]

12U? 5 and a game? Sounds like a kid well on his way getting plenty more of those.  With GM, he also is suspended for the next scheduled game.

[Loach]

Actually for adult hockey (including NHL), you don't have to put someone in the box immediately to serve the major for someone who got a major and a game misconduct. You can put someone in there at a whistle later on in the major so the player can come out of the penalty box before time expires.  The risk you take is that if there are no whistles, the powerplay could be longer than 5 minutes until there is a stoppage. 

Coaches almost always put a player in the box to serve anyways, but I remember Babcock didn't and got burned a couple of years ago:

https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2017/03/23/its-all-my-fault-mike-babcock-takes-responsibility-for-penalty-box-blunder/ 

 

But, the point is that in adult hockey you wouldn't have to put someone in the box if the major happened at the end of the game.  So, I was going to write that the coach didn't have to put a kid in the box, but I just looked it up and it turns out they have a different rule for youth than adult hockey, saying that a substitute player must serve immediately for youth.  If you are interested, the different rules for youth and adult is spelled out in section d) of Rule 403:

https://www.usahockeyrulebook.com/page/show/1084479-rule-403-major-penalties

 

Not sure why they bother to have separate rules for something like this. So, the rule is already basically already there, it just doesn't apply to youth hockey for some reason.

 

[miked]

thanks for looking that up. it is very interesting. the comments above got me thinking about how many times you see an NHL player take a major at the end of a period and just go straight to the locker room with no replacement in the box.  dropthepuck is probably onto something with the idea it should help calm kids down at the end of games. in reasoning I guess it makes sense, but as he mentioned, yea, we know how that will go. thanks for the responses all!!

 

@dazedandconfused yea, I've heard rumors that is the case, but I have little personal knowledge. I don't want to be judgy, sometimes kids have a bad day. game ended with 35 and 22 PIM respectively so it wasn't just him and a bunch of choir boys, it was, shall we say, old tyme.