Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Penalizing Teams

03/30/2022 at 9:33am EDT

from Travis Jost of TSN,

Over the last three seasons, the Colorado Avalanche (+178 goals) and Carolina Hurricanes (+131 goals) have distinguished themselves as the league’s preeminent franchises. They both lead their respective conferences in goal differential by a considerable margin and, once again, are favourites for the Stanley Cup.

They both play with relentless pace. They dominate the puck. They are as deep and skilled as any team you can find in the league. And yet, one data point differentiates them in an extraordinary way.

That data point? Penalties.

In what’s becoming an increasingly perplexing trend, the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes have realized extreme divergence in penalty behaviour. It’s particularly odd because the NHL hasn’t been shy about how they call penalties, and that’s to follow an extreme balancing strategy. Rather than call the rulebook as intended, the league prefers to ensure teams earn relatively similar amounts of power-play opportunities over the course of a game (and, by extension, a season). It’s why you see very few teams with outlier seasons; it’s also why you see teams that draw more penalties take more penalties (like the Montreal Canadiens), and teams that draw fewer penalties take fewer penalties (like the Toronto Maple Leafs).

continued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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