One rule from new professional women's league the NHL should adopt

The inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League season offers the sport's talented crop of female players a spotlight. However, it's also produced several unique and intriguing modifications to the rules hockey fans have become accustomed to. 

Along with tweaks to shootouts and how teams gain points in the standings, there's one change that the NHL should consider adopting. 

In the PWHL, a short-handed goal frees that team's player from the penalty box, nullifying the opposing clubs' powerplay. Fittingly called a "jailbreak goal," it aims to change how teams approach a penalty kill and, conversely, how powerplay units operate. 

For the team down a player, it offers more motivation to go on the offensive. In certain situations, a club might opt to put offensive-minded players on the PK instead of their usual line to notch an equalizing goal late or change momentum. That, paired with plenty of open ice, should create more exciting opportunities on both ends.

Meanwhile, a team with the advantage may have to get more creative with setups in the offensive zone. If penalty killers get more aggressive, crisp, and efficient, puck movement becomes even more critical and offers opportunities for innovation. 

The PWHL's "jailbreak" rule may not come into play as often as a team's ability to use the same player as many times as they like in a shootout or the 3-2-1 point system, awarding three points for a win, two for an overtime or shootout win and one point for an OT or shootout loss. However, less than a week into the season's kickoff, it happened already.