In last night’s game against Anaheim (Oct 30), there were two similar plays, one at the end of the second period that resulted in a power play for Anaheim, and one with about 13 minutes left in the third period in which Kerfoot was awarded a penalty shot. When they showed the two plays back to back, Kerfoot did appear to be more in the clear than Grant, but my question is not whether the referee made the right calls. I want to know, would you rather have a power play or a penalty shot?

Conventional wisdom is that a penalty shot is better, because statistically speaking, the probability of scoring on a penalty shot is higher, but this fails to consider that a penalty shot takes no time. A power play gives you an opportunity to control the play for up to two minutes. With a two-goal lead with 13 minutes left and a guy who is not one of their top scorers taking the penalty shot, I think the Leafs would have been better off with a power play. This is what I was thinking even before Kerfoot missed and Zegras scored the momentum changing goal during the time that the Leafs would have been on the power play. I think teams should have the option of taking a power play instead of the penalty shot.