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In NHL rules, a bench minor penalty is assessed when a rule is broken which involves delay of game as a result of action outside game play, whether through team action or interference involving people other than active players. The home team may be assigned a minor bench penalty as a result of actions taken by its fans. The information that follows is from rule #17 of the NHL rulebook.

Infractions for which bench minor penalties can be assessed include:

* improper starting line-up (#7)
* unsustained request for measurement (#10, #75)
* interference with an official (#40)
* interference from players' or penalty bench (#56)
* delay of game (#63)
* too many men on the ice (#63)
* throwing objects onto the ice (#63)
* illegal substitution (#68)
* coach stepping onto ice during period (#70)
* refusing to start play (#73)
* deliberate illegal substitution (#74)
* unsportsmanlike conduct (#74)
* leaving bench at end of period (#86)

Where any of these rules is broken by one specific player, the bench minor penalty may be replaced by a minor penalty against that player.

The team against which a bench minor penalty is assessed must promptly remove one of its players from the ice for a period of two minutes. The penalty may be served by any player except the goalkeeper, or 'goalie.' The captain, manager, or coach decides which player is to serve the penalty.

Rule 63 (4), delay of game by throwing objects onto the ice, is sometimes known as the 'rat trick' rule. Just before the home opening game of the 1995-96 NHL hockey season, Scott Mellanby of the Florida Panthers killed a rat in the players' locker room by shooting it across the room with his stick. In the game that followed, he scored two goals, helping to win the game 4-3 for the Panthers. After the game, all-star Panthers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck said to reporters that while Mellanby failed to score a hat trick (three goals in one game), he did manage a "rat trick."

During the next game, a fan threw a plastic rat onto the ice following a Panthers goal. More followed during the next games, until over a hundred rats were thrown regularly onto the ice after each goal. At the same time, the Florida Panthers were having one of their best seasons ever. As the Chinese New Year ticked over to the Year of the Rat, the Panthers qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs, eventually making it all the way to the finals.

By now, thousands of rats were raining onto the ice after each Florida goal. The Panthers responded by bringing on Orkin Pest Control as one of their sponsors, and by hiring rink attendants dressed as exterminators to clear away the plastic rats after each goal. During the Stanley Cup final, fans of the Colorado Avalanche responded by throwing rat traps onto the ice after Avalanche goals. Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy managed to keep the total number of Panthers goals in the entire series to three, helping win the Stanley Cup for the Colorado Avalanche.

Before the opening game of the next NHL season, the league amended its rules to include match penalties for the home team if its fans kept throwing objects onto the ice after a warning over the public address system.

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