Players lined up behind the shooter and chase the skater in the event they miss and it's way more fun.
As they've done every year of development camp, the Toronto Maple Leafs wrapped up the week-long event with a scrimmage. The teams were divided into 'blue' and 'white and played in two thirty-minute halves broken down into three different sections of 5-on-5, 4-on-4 and 3-on-3 hockey.
But when. infractions occurred on the ice, teams were awarded a penalty shot instead of sitting in the box. While that's not unusual in scrimmages, the Leafs used a different variation of penalty shots that saw more players involved.
Call it the chase penalty shot.
The player awarded a penalty shot lines up along the center line while the other nine skaters are lined up on the back blue line. When the skater picks up the puck, the chase begins, applying pressure to the skater and allowing play to resume immediately if no goal is scored.
And while this isn't the first time the Leafs have done this at a development camp, it certainly adds more of a team element to the game.
"It's good. It gives you a little more pressure, it's not a skills competition at that point," Maple Leafs prospect Fraser Minten said. "It's a little more game-like."
If it looks familiar, it's because it's the closest thing in hockey to what happens to soccer in penalty kicks where play resumes if the ball remains in play on the initial attempt.
Of course, the difference in soccer is the players behind the shooter can't move until after the kick is made.I'm not advocating for this to replace penalties like it did in the scrimmage. But this would be a lot more fun than the traditional penalty shot when it is awarded. You can keep the clock stopped and then resume it if the shooter loses possession of the penalty shot or the puck or is stopped by the goaltender.
I would go one further and award this for any type of infraction on a partial break rather than the full breakaway standard that currently applies to penalty shots when they are awarded.
Don't expect this to be adopted in the NHL anytime soon, but it would be nice to see the league send these down to the AHL for testing for a season like they have done with other proposed rule changes.
Another fun way to incorporate team play during an exciting moment in the game.
