How many players in skating?

Answer 1

At full strength, each team has 6 players on the ice (5 skaters and a goalie). However, when a team commits a penalty, the violating player must leave the ice for a specified amount of time (2 minutes for a minor penalty and 5 minutes for a major penalty). That player sits in the penalty box. There is no limit to how many players a team can have in the penalty box at one time (other than the 20 players they are allowed to dress), but a team can only be a maximum of 2-men down at one time. That means that, if both teams have 2 or men in the box at one time (and they aren't concurrent penalties), there can be as few as 8 players on the ice at one time (3 skaters per side and a goalie for each team as goalies don't serve their own penalties). There can be no less than that.