Why are hockey shifts so short?

Playing hockey is very tiring. It is non stop action, either you are rushing on a break, or hurrying back to get into your defensive zone. There is no time, especially in the NHL, where a player would really have the chance to catch their breath during a game. I like to compare hockey as a combination in a way of football and basketball. It's like football in that it requires a lot of effort and physicality, and it is like basketball that the game never really stops, and even basketball has free throws. If a hockey player tried to play an entire 20 minute period, they would collapse on the ice not even halfway through.

Short Hockey Players

Listen, if you ever get a chance go over to a rink with some buddys and play some hockey. If you are evenly matched the game will go up and down the ice and you will be very tired. But you can imagine even with NHL pros how much more intense and fast pace it would be. Even a one minute shift is fairly long. The most you will see a player on for is about 2 minutes. But this only happens when their team is on the powerplay (when a player from the opposition is penalized and the other team has a 5 on 4 or 5 on 3 or 4 on 3 advantage) and the person on for the full 2 minutes will most likely be the person on the point. Hope this helps!

There's usually 20 players in a hockey game (4 lines of 3 forwards, 3 lines of 2 defenseman, 2 goalies). To keep them fresh, they get switched out after a minute or so because it's extremely tiring to skate up and down the ice full speed while swinging a stick and banging into guys (or getting crushed yourself). What's amazing is how much the goalies sweat and drink water during the game, you would think they don;t skate much so it's easy, but apparently they are running a marathon when making those awesome saves.

hockey is a very tiring game. Theres not a time during the game when we stop moving our feet. usually even one minute is way to long to be on the ice. our coach gives us 40- 45 second shifts. if youre not tired and out of breath after that, then you didnt work hard enough a play doesnt take that long. its not like football where you have to memorize all these different plays and drills. its more like reading what the other team is trying to do and counteracting them.

Well, there are some players that play 10 minutes in a period but that's besides the point.

Skating like that and playing at that quick of a pace is exhausting. To get the most out of the players, coaches generally have there players play shifts of 40 seconds to keep them from getting too fatigued.

Hockey moves at such a fast pace and skating is so physically draining that a one minute shift feels like an hour.Think of doing full wind sprints or running the bases....a minute straight of that would kick your but too.

Its too tiring. Wearing all the equipment and they are skating non-stop. Shifts are short so that players can be more concentrated and focused and know that they can give 100% for a short time and then get a break.

To see for yourself try sprinting as fast as you can for as long as you can. If you can run at top speed for one minuet then wow, you are in super shape. A hockey shift in the NHL would be equivalent to sprinting then doing push ups then hopping up and sprinting etc, wears you out super quick.

Try sprinting for a minute while moving in different directions.

After a minute of skating fast in game conditions, you should be tired.

As my old coach used to say, if you're not tired when you come off, you haven't been working hard enough.