Full strength (also called 5-on-5) in ice hockey refers to when both teams have five skaters and one goaltender on the ice. The official term used by the National Hockey League (NHL) is at even strength — abbreviated EV on official scoresheets and goaltenders' individual stats. All games start with both teams at full strength. Teams that take a penalty, go on the power play, or pull the goalie are no longer at full strength.
If a team is shorthanded, and its penalties expire, or it is scored on so that its penalized players return, it returns to full strength. Likewise, if a team on a power play scores so that the opposing penalized players all leave the penalty box, the team also returns to full strength.
Full strength is slightly different from "even strength", which means that each team has the same number of skaters on the ice.
Another related reference is that of "equal strength". This is not an official term used by the NHL but is commonly used to describe 'full strength'. The International Ice Hockey Federation uses the abbreviation EQ in its game summaries.
Famous quotes containing the words full and/or strength:
“I see you boys of summer in your ruin.
Man in his maggot’s barren.
And boys are full and foreign in the pouch.
I am the man your father was.
We are the sons of flint and pitch.
O see the poles are kissing as they cross.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“I am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life—always growing and increasing—is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength of the priests.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)