What is "short-handed"

Underhanded \Un"der*hand`ed\, a.

1. Underhand; clandestine.

2. Insufficiently provided with hands or workers; short-handed; sparsely populated; obsolete in this sense, short-handed or understaffed being the preferrred term.

   Norway . . . might defy the world, . . . but it is much underhanded now.
   --Coleridge.

"having too few 'hands,'" 1794, from short (adj.) + -handed. The ice hockey sense is attested from 1939.

a. (alt form shorthanded English)

adj. inadequate in number of workers or assistants etc.; "they're rather short-handed at the moment"; "overcrowded and understaffed hospitals" [syn: short-staffed, undermanned, understaffed]

Short-handed is a term used in ice hockey and several related sports, including water polo, and refers to having fewer skaters (players) on the ice during play, as a result of a penalty. The player removed from play serves the penalty in the penalty box for a set amount of time proportional to the severity of the infraction. If a goaltender commits a minor infraction, another player who was on the ice at the time of the penalty serves, often but not necessarily the team captain.

The penalized team is said to be on the penalty kill, abbreviated as "PK" for recording purposes, while their players are in the penalty box. The opposing team is usually referred to as having an "advantage" until the penalized player returns to play. This situation is often called a power play for the opposing team, due to the increased likelihood of scoring during this time. Not only does the power play team have the main advantage, the penalized team is frequently trapped in their zone and often cannot make line changes, resulting in their players being on the ice for longer-than-normal shifts. As a result, the penalized team's players are often exhausted when the penalty expires and they are often scored on shortly afterward.

The team on the power play often only has one defenseman at the rear rather than the typical two, in favor of adding another attacker. Rarely, teams have pulled their goalie for the sixth on-ice player (such as in Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals). Players assigned to power play or penalty killing duties are often known as "special teams".

During a power play, the short-handed team may launch the puck to the opposite end of the rink, and play will continue: icing is not called, something that the 1970s-era WHA in North America did not do, as that league called icings even during a penalty kill.

If the team with the power play scores a goal while the other team is short-handed, the penalty is over, except if a goal was scored during a major penalty or a match penalty in regulation time.