Why is hockey the only sport in which a penalty box is set aside?
Answer Bill, Lacrosse also has a penalty box, and they have it for the same reason as hockey. As I’m sure you know all sports have rules and they have different penalties in order to deter players from breaking them. Football- takes away yards and field position, Basketball gives the non offending team possession and free shoots. Soccer allows restart and free kicks. Hockey and Lacrosse are very different in nature do the constant change of possession and field movement. Both of their governing bodies came up with the penalty box concept. If you think about the nature of both sports, you can’t assess a “yardage” penalty; and resets (like soccer) aren’t an effective way to reward a team that had a penalty committed against it. That would allow both teams a fair chance to with possession, and the immediate stoppage of play my cut an offensive chance short. The only other option was to remove the penalized player for a period of time. This then translates to a distinct advantage for the n
