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Taken with a grain of salt but fun to read. I'm going to paste it but it is much easier to read if you click the link because there are a lot of tables.
Dirty Cheaters? Sorting Through NHL Penalties Team-By-Team - SBNation.com
Dirty Cheaters? Sorting Through NHL Penalties Team-By-Team - SBNation.com
Dirty Cheaters? Sorting Through NHL Penalties Team-By-Team
RALEIGH NC - JANUARY 29: Danny Briere #48 of the Philadelphia Flyers participates in the Honda NHL SuperSkills competition part of 2011 NHL All-Star Weekend at the RBC Center on January 29 2011 in Raleigh North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
2 months ago:RALEIGH NC - JANUARY 29: Danny Briere #48 of the Philadelphia Flyers participates in the Honda NHL SuperSkills competition part of 2011 NHL All-Star Weekend at the RBC Center on January 29 2011 in Raleigh North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
By Mike Chen - NHL Contributor
Dirty players? Cheaters? What's the difference and who's the biggest offender in the NHL? Here's a team-by-team breakdown of who gets away with what -- and how that might impact the playoffs.
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Mar 23, 2011 - With just ten games or so to go in the regular season, we've got a pretty good sample size to see who's been naughty and who's been nice over the course of the regular season. This isn't just a combined list of PIMs; thanks to the penalty tracker over at CBS Sports, lists of penalties have been broken down into categories.
Why is this relevant now? I don't think it's any surprise that several types of penalties wind up being called less during the stretch run and the playoffs. The standard of enforcement seemed to hold steady for two seasons following the lockout; after that, it's been fairly erratic, though things like interference have certainly gone out the window.
So let's break down penalties into two categories: dirty (boarding, charging, checking from behind, clipping, elbowing, kneeing, and roughing) and cheating (holding, holding the stick, hooking, goalie interference, interference, and tripping). Note that I'm NOT including fighting in with the dirty plays, as fighting tends to be two enforcers squaring off against each other, which is a bit different from, say, a boarding play.
Here are the teams sorted by dirty penalties so far this season:
Team Dirty
Pittsburgh Penguins 84
Buffalo Sabres 79
Columbus Blue Jackets 73
Montreal Canadiens 73
New York Islanders 73
New York Rangers 73
Anaheim Ducks 70
Edmonton Oilers 68
Ottawa Senators 67
Colorado Avalanche 62
Dallas Stars 62
Philadelphia Flyers 60
St. Louis Blues 60
Tampa Bay Lightning 57
Toronto Maple Leafs 57
Boston Bruins 54
San Jose Sharks 53
Vancouver Canucks 51
Carolina Hurricanes 49
Los Angeles Kings 46
Minnesota Wild 45
Phoenix Coyotes 44
Washington Capitals 42
Calgary Flames 40
Chicago Blackhawks 39
Nashville Predators 37
Atlanta Thrashers 36
New Jersey Devils 26
Detroit Red Wings 23
Florida Panthers 22
If you're focusing on who's dirty, here's a list of all players with nine or more "dirty" penalties. Not too many surprises here.
Player Team Pos GP Board Charge Check/Behind Clip Elbow Knee Rough Sum
Chris Neil OTT RW 70 0 1 0 0 0 0 16 17
Cody McLeod COL LW 60 3 1 0 0 1 0 11 16
Matt Cooke PIT LW 67 3 1 0 0 1 1 10 16
Patrick Kaleta BUF RW 50 1 3 0 0 0 1 9 14
Steve Ott DAL C 72 0 2 0 0 1 0 11 14
Steve Downie TB RW 48 1 2 0 0 0 0 10 13
Corey Perry ANA RW 72 1 2 0 0 0 0 9 12
Brad Staubitz MIN RW 62 2 3 0 0 0 0 7 12
Matt Carkner OTT D 50 1 0 0 0 1 0 10 12
Scott Hartnell PHI RW 71 4 1 0 0 0 0 7 12
Ladislav Smid EDM D 68 3 0 0 0 1 0 7 11
Trevor Gillies NYI LW 33 1 0 1 0 1 0 8 11
David Backes STL C 72 1 0 0 0 0 1 9 11
Mike Weber BUF D 48 1 2 0 0 0 1 6 10
Zenon Konopka NYI C 73 1 0 0 0 0 1 8 10
Sean Avery NYR LW 70 2 2 0 0 0 0 6 10
Brad Winchester ANA LW 66 0 1 0 0 1 1 6 9
Jarkko Ruutu ANA LW 63 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 9
Paul Gaustad BUF C 71 1 0 0 0 0 0 8 9
Derek Dorsett CLB RW 66 2 1 0 0 0 0 6 9
P.K. Subban MON D 68 0 0 0 0 1 0 8 9
Matt Martin NYI LW 59 4 1 0 0 1 0 3 9
Colton Orr TOR RW 46 0 1 0 0 0 1 7 9
John Erskine WAS D 65 3 0 0 0 1 0 5 9
Now let's look at cheating penalties:
Team Cheating
Calgary Flames 192
Washington Capitals 188
Montreal Canadiens 183
Columbus Blue Jackets 181
Minnesota Wild 180
Pittsburgh Penguins 177
Detroit Red Wings 177
Colorado Avalanche 174
Tampa Bay Lightning 171
Vancouver Canucks 170
Phoenix Coyotes 169
Philadelphia Flyers 163
Anaheim Ducks 155
Atlanta Thrashers 154
Dallas Stars 152
Boston Bruins 149
Los Angeles Kings 149
Buffalo Sabres 148
Carolina Hurricanes 145
San Jose Sharks 144
Edmonton Oilers 142
Nashville Predators 137
New York Rangers 135
New York Islanders 134
Florida Panthers 131
Chicago Blackhawks 130
Ottawa Senators 127
New Jersey Devils 118
Toronto Maple Leafs 116
St. Louis Blues 115
And the biggest offenders -- everyone with 15 or more "cheating" penalties:
Player Team Pos GP Hold HoldStick Hook GoalInt Int Trip Sum
Danny Briere PHI C 68 6 3 6 0 1 9 25
Brent Burns MIN D 71 6 0 4 1 7 4 22
Roman Hamrlik MON D 70 0 1 7 0 7 5 20
Mark Giordano CGY D 75 4 3 8 0 2 2 19
Jonathan Ericsson DET D 65 4 0 6 0 6 3 19
P.K. Subban MON D 68 1 0 4 1 4 9 19
Victor Hedman TB D 71 6 1 5 0 1 6 19
Christian Ehrhoff VAN D 70 4 0 8 0 1 6 19
Adrian Aucoin PHO D 67 3 1 6 0 2 6 18
Steven Stamkos TB C 72 2 0 4 2 2 8 18
Cory Sarich CGY D 69 3 1 5 0 5 3 17
Steve Ott DAL C 72 0 0 5 1 7 4 17
Clayton Stoner MIN D 48 3 3 6 0 2 3 17
Lars Eller MON C 68 5 1 6 0 2 3 17
Alexander Semin WAS LW 58 0 0 7 0 4 6 17
Tobias Enstrom ATL D 66 1 2 8 0 3 2 16
Jordan Leopold BUF D 69 4 0 6 0 2 4 16
Antoine Vermette CLB C 72 3 1 2 0 3 7 16
Paul Stastny COL C 68 1 1 6 0 3 5 16
Alex Goligoski DAL D 73 0 0 9 0 3 4 16
Todd Bertuzzi DET RW 73 6 0 2 2 3 3 16
Theo Peckham EDM D 61 5 0 5 0 4 2 16
Dainius Zubrus NJ RW 71 0 0 6 1 2 7 16
Erik Karlsson OTT D 69 4 0 4 0 4 4 16
Matt Cooke PIT LW 67 2 0 2 2 4 6 16
Joni Pitkanen CAR D 63 3 1 7 0 3 1 15
Rene Bourque CGY RW 73 2 0 6 0 3 4 15
Jay Bouwmeester CGY D 75 3 0 6 0 5 1 15
Derick Brassard CLB C 64 3 1 3 2 3 3 15
Karlis Skrastins DAL D 68 3 0 6 0 1 5 15
Dustin Brown LA RW 73 2 0 3 0 4 6 15
Braydon Coburn PHI D 71 3 0 5 0 3 4 15
Brooks Laich WAS C 73 0 0 4 3 4 4 15
Cheating penalties tend to lighten up in the last quarter of the season and the playoffs while dirty penalties are the kinds that tend to still get noticed whenever the season. If that trend continues, then it's important to differentiate between the two styles of penalties because one of those categories will lessen, which means that the teams at the top of the "cheating" list will be able to get away with interference, hooking, holding, etc.
I'm a big fan of holding that standard of enforcement from start to finish (the notion of "letting them play" always puzzled me, because wouldn't letting them play really mean that the unskilled players SHOULDN'T get away with cheating?) and I hope that if we see a drop in, say, Calgary's PIMs over the next 10 games, it's due to them playing cleaner as they need points.
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