sportsjabber.net

The penalty shot is one of those plays that we don’t really think about too much. I mean, we all know it’s there and that it can happen, but it’s not something that’s in our conscious while watching a hockey game.

Much of that has to do with the rarity of it. I tried looking up exactly how rare the penalty shot is, but struggled to find concrete numbers on it. In any event, I know that I watched about 300 hockey games last year, if not more, and can only remember seeing two penalty shots in total.

We also know that a penalty shot happens in overtime about once every ten years, and that when that does happen, a kid that got dropped at your door step will wake up from a nap asking to watch the Kangaroo Song.

But although it’s not necessarily in the front of our minds as we watch a game, we quickly notice when the possibility of one comes up.

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2011/11/4/2537669/penalty-shot-hockey-shootout-nhl