What is a Bench Minor Penalty in Ice Hockey?

The sport of ice hockey is a very fast paced and confusing game. The rules can be intimidating to the untrained fan since many of them can be hard to understand. The bench minor penalty, while seldom seen, plays a very important role in the game of ice hockey. As the name suggests, a bench minor penalty is in the minor penalty family, meaning that it is a two minute penalty given to a team for violating certain rules.

Most bench minor penalties are given to teams for small offenses, such as having too many players on the ice at a time or for score sheet violations. If a team receives a bench minor penalty, then the coach or captain, depending on the age of the players, is responsible for telling the referee who will be serving the penalty on behalf of the team. Any player that is on the ice at the time of the infraction is eligible to serve the bench minor penalty.

Another reason why a hockey team may receive a bench minor penalty is if the coach acts unprofessionally or disrespectfully. Most of the time, these penalties are seen when arguing a call with a referee. Coaches and team officials can often discuss the interpretation of a rule with the referee, but under no circumstances are they allowed to argue with or threaten the referee. For the first offense of this rule, the team will receive a two minute bench minor penalty. Penalties continue to escalate if the coach or team official continues the behavior. If the coach continues, penalties such as a game misconduct or even match penalty can be assessed depending on the circumstances surrounding the behavior.

Instead of a normal minor penalty, bench minors are first given to coaches violating the abuse of officials rules because there is no way they could serve a regular minor penalty. Additionally, a ten minute misconduct penalty is not a viable penalty for coaches for the same reason. The penalty quickly escalates to a game misconduct from a bench minor because the coach cannot serve any other type of penalty directly.

Sources:

USA Hockey Rules

Composite Hockey Sticks