Here’s why the Kraken played a 4-on-4 overtime in loss to Predators

An unusual situation during overtime of last week’s first of two pivotal Kraken games against Nashville reminded me of nuances fans newer to hockey are still sifting through. 

Penalties, power plays and penalty kills are instances when plenty happens. You’d think it simple: A penalty gets called, someone sits for two minutes, and opponents gain a man advantage until scoring, or the offending team kills the time and its player returns.

But it isn’t always that easy. For instance, new fans are still adjusting to regular-season NHL overtime, when instead of five skaters against five it’s three-on-three for five minutes of sudden death. The idea is creating more open ice to generate a goal and end things before the dreaded shootout nobody really wants or likes.

However, most of last week’s overtime saw the Kraken and Predators playing four-on-four. How did that happen? Even seasoned hockey scribes were momentarily confused. 

Well, Brandon Tanev of the Kraken took a penalty with 1:31 left in regulation. Fortunately for the Kraken, they killed those 91 seconds to secure a point for making it to overtime. 

But they needed to kill the remaining 29 seconds once overtime began. And the NHL does not allow teams to play three-on-two because that too closely resembles a poorly attended pickup game in the street.

So, rules require a four-on-three power play until the first whistle stoppage after the penalized player leaves the box, upon which the standard three-on-three overtime begins. It would be too confusing to switch to three-on-three during live play.

The Kraken killed the penalty, and Tanev returned to make it four-on-four until the whistle. Problem was, there were no whistles. Play continued and continued some more. It was 4 minutes, 40 seconds into overtime before play was blown dead on a Joey Daccord save.

By then only 20 seconds remained. This really hurt the Kraken, because they excel at three-on-three and stink in shootouts. 

Jordan Eberle admitted postgame: “Honestly, we should have thought more about getting the game back to three-on-three,” suggesting they should have forced a stoppage.

So the Kraken went on to lose their fourth shootout in four attempts this season. The good news for Kraken fans is that once the team makes the playoffs — and they’ll qualify in another week or two despite Monday’s loss to Minnesota — shootouts go away, and it’s five-on-five overtime until somebody scores.

Back to penalties: I’m frequently asked why the goaltender leaves the net when a penalty gets signaled but play continues. Seems counterintuitive.

Well, when a penalty occurs, the referee raises his arm until the offending team touches the puck to automatically stop play. Sometimes he’ll get a real achy arm because the non-penalized team keeps the puck a while.

During this prolonged “delayed penalty” the team with the puck will pull the goalie on the fly and insert an additional attacker to create a six-on-five advantage. You often see this dynamic near game’s end when trailing teams pull the goalies in a desperate bid for the tying marker. Sometimes they score. More often they get an empty-net goal scored on them.

But the advantage when pulling a goalie during a delayed penalty is you can’t get scored on. The play, after all, is blown dead once the penalized team gains control of the puck. A blocked shot or puck glancing off a skate doesn’t count. 

So the non-penalized team’s empty net can’t get scored on. Unless it gets sloppy.

Last season, Carl Hagelin of the Washington Capitals had the puck behind Minnesota’s net during a delayed penalty. He tried passing it back to the point, missed and scored on his own net. It’s very rare but makes for good video highlights.

When killing a penalty, you prevent opponents from scoring until the two minutes expire — often by shooting the puck down the ice and forcing the power-play unit to regroup.

At even strength, shooting to the end boards from before the center-ice red line would produce an “icing” call with a stoppage, a faceoff back in your end and no ability to replace tired players until play resumes. But icing doesn’t apply when killing a penalty. 

For added penalty confusion, some infractions last longer than two minutes. The most common is the four-minute double minor. If a player gets high-sticked he’ll immediately — once done writhing in pain — rub his face with his hand and show the referee. 

No, he isn’t proud to be AB-negative. A high stick drawing blood usually is grounds for two more minutes.

It then becomes a double minor of two penalties lasting two minutes each. And it’s not like one big four-minute penalty ending once a goal is scored.

No, if a team scores during the first two-minute span of a double minor, that penalty ends and the second two minutes begin. So, you can score two power-play goals on a double minor. 

You’ll occasionally see a team assessed a single five-minute major penalty. Usually, majors are offsetting after a fight — each combatant receiving five minutes.

But a player sometimes does something egregious to earn five minutes by himself. Mostly it’s a dangerous stick infraction such as spearing or butt-ending. A player dropping his gloves and beating up an opponent with no inclination to fight can also get a lone major.  

A minor penalty can be upgraded to major if there’s a clear attempt to injure. And the full five minutes must be served, regardless of how many goals are scored.

The Vegas Golden Knights led 3-0 in the third period of Game 7 of their opening playoff round against San Jose in 2019 when Sharks captain Joe Pavelski was cross-checked to the ice and dangerously hit his head.

A five-minute major resulted, and the Sharks tied an NHL record with four power-play goals for a 4-3 lead. Though Vegas tied things late, the Sharks won in overtime.

So, best to avoid those. And avoid penalties after already killing one, as five-on-three advantages are tough to defend. On rare occasions a team takes multiple additional penalties while serving one, the NHL doesn’t allow five-on-two advantages. Instead, the third penalty gets delayed until the initial one expires. 

But penalties matter in the playoffs. All playoff teams are good. What often separates them — hello, Tampa Bay Lightning — is capitalizing on power plays.

And now, hopefully, you have a better idea of what’s going on during those critical junctures.