Bias is something inherent to humanity–either consciously or subconsciously. But does this bias extend to the NHL? 2m444g
Using data from Hockey Reference, starting from the 2014 regular season, our goal is to reveal any potential patterns in penalty bias, defined as the difference between the average number of penalties a team’s opponents receives versus the average number of penalties the team receives. A positive penalty bias score indicates more favorable treatment from the referees, and the opposite for a negative score.
Key Findings: 2q6t1a
🏒Tampa Bay Lighting have been penalized the most since 2014 (4.27 per game)
🏒Vegas Golden Knights have been the least penalized since 2017 (3.33 per game)
🏒 Columbus Blue Jackets have are the least penalized since 2014 (3.52 per game)
🏒 Tripping has been the most common penalty since 2014 (15.82% of all penalties)
🏒 Chicago Blackhawks have experienced the most favorable penalty bias
🏒Anaheim Ducks have received the least favorable penalty bias
Most Penalized NHL Teams Since 2014 1a2035
Penalties. They can really throw things off for any team that starts getting into a rhythm. But which NHL team has received the most penalties since 2014?
The team that has been the least penalized since 2014 is the Blue Jackets. Despite having lower average penalties per game, Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken have only been active since 2019 and 2021 respectively.
| Rank | Team | Average Penalties Per Game |
| 1 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 4.27 |
| 2 | Florida Panthers | 4.21 |
| 3 | Ottawa Senators | 4.10 |
| 4 | Philadelphia Flyers | 4.01 |
| 5 | Colorado Avalanche | 3.99 |
| 6 | Nashville Predators | 3.97 |
| 7 | Winnipeg Jets | 3.95 |
| 8 | Calgary Flames | 3.94 |
| 9 | Pittsburgh Penguins | 3.89 |
| 10 | Boston Bruins | 3.87 |
| 11 | Minnesota Wild | 3.84 |
| 12 | Washington Capitals | 3.81 |
| 13 | Anaheim Ducks | 3.79 |
| 14 | Vancouver Canucks | 3.77 |
| 15 | Montreal Canadiens | 3.77 |
| 16 | Arizona Coyotes | 3.76 |
| 17 | Detroit Red Wings | 3.74 |
| 18 | Dallas Stars | 3.72 |
| 19 | New York Rangers | 3.71 |
| 20 | Los Angeles Kings | 3.70 |
| 21 | St. Louis Blues | 3.69 |
| 22 | San Jose Sharks | 3.69 |
| 23 | Toronto Maple Leafs | 3.64 |
| 24 | Edmonton Oilers | 3.63 |
| 25 | Chicago Blackhawks | 3.61 |
| 26 | New Jersey Devils | 3.60 |
| 27 | Buffalo Sabres | 3.59 |
| 28 | Carolina Hurricanes | 3.52 |
| 29 | New York Islanders | 3.52 |
| 30 | Columbus Blue Jackets | 3.52 |
| 31 | Seattle Kraken | 3.48 |
| 32 | Vegas Golden Knights | 3.33 |
| Overall Average | 3.77 |
NHL referees clearly become quite whistle happy when it comes to Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa has averaged 4.27 penalties per game since 2014.
Compared to the relatively well favored Columbus Blue Jackets across the same time period–the Blue Jackets only get penalized 3.52 times per game.
Most Popular Penalty Types 155o3n
Tripping makes up a whopping 15.82% of all penalties since 2014–that’s 100158 individual penalties.
Hooking closely follows, with 13,133 penalties being attributed to this foul type.
| Rank | Penalty Reason | Number of Penalties |
| 1 | Tripping | 15,849 |
| 2 | Hooking | 13,133 |
| 3 | Roughing | 10,143 |
| 4 | Interference | 9,005 |
| 5 | Slashing | 8,534 |
| 6 | Holding | 8,470 |
| 7 | High Sticking | 7,403 |
| 8 | Fighting | 6,709 |
| 9 | Cross Checking | 4,369 |
| 10 | Delay of Game | 3,336 |
| 11 | Too Many Men on the Ice | 2,330 |
| 12 | Misconduct | 1,707 |
| 13 | Boarding | 1,572 |
| 14 | Unsportsmanlike Conduct | 1,548 |
| 15 | Holding the stick | 706 |
| 16 | Elbowing | 577 |
| 17 | Goaltender interference | 577 |
| 18 | High Sticking – Double Minor | 498 |
| 19 | Holding Stick | 426 |
| 20 | Delaying Game-Puck over glass | 276 |
| 21 | Embellishment | 269 |
| 22 | Game misconduct | 267 |
| 23 | Illegal Check to Head | 263 |
| 24 | Closing hand on puck | 252 |
| 25 | Charging | 227 |
| 26 | Instigator | 217 |
| 27 | Kneeing | 194 |
| 28 | Interference on breakaway (Penalty Shot) | 180 |
| 29 | Interference – Goalkeeper | 169 |
| 30 | Face-off Violation | 131 |
| 31 | Instigating | 103 |
| 32 | Illegal Equipment | 92 |
| 33 | Match penalty | 76 |
| 34 | Hooking on breakaway | 68 |
| 35 | Diving | 51 |
| 36 | Broken stick | 33 |
| 37 | Delaying Game-Smothering puck | 31 |
| 38 | Clipping | 30 |
| 39 | Instigator – Misconduct | 29 |
| 40 | Tripping on breakaway | 29 |
| 41 | Delay Gm – Face-off Violation | 25 |
| 42 | Concealing Puck | 24 |
| 43 | Abuse of Officials | 23 |
| 44 | Throwing stick | 17 |
| 45 | Spearing | 16 |
| 46 | Too many men on ice | 16 |
| 47 | Bench Penalty | 15 |
| 48 | Interference in crease (Penalty Shot) | 14 |
| 49 | Goalie Interference | 13 |
| 50 | Holding on breakaway | 12 |
| 51 | Slash on breakaway | 11 |
| 52 | Checking from behind | 9 |
| 53 | Abusive language | 8 |
| 54 | Illegal stick | 8 |
| 55 | Interference – Throwing object (Penalty Shot) | 8 |
| 56 | Delaying Game – Smothering Puck | 6 |
| 57 | Goalie leave crease | 6 |
| 58 | Delaying Game-Ill. play goalie | 5 |
| 59 | Head butting | 5 |
| 60 | Covering puck in crease | 4 |
| 61 | Goaltender leaving crease | 4 |
| 62 | Unsportsmanlike Conduct – Coach | 4 |
| 63 | Spearing (maj) | 3 |
| 64 | Throw object at puck | 3 |
| 65 | Butt ending | 2 |
| 66 | Butt ending (maj) | 2 |
| 67 | Illegal substitution | 2 |
| 68 | Interference – Displacing net (Penalty Shot) | 2 |
| 69 | Interference (maj) | 2 |
| 70 | Objects on Ice | 2 |
| 71 | Aggressor | 1 |
| 72 | Check From Behind | 1 |
| 73 | Coach/Mgr on ice | 1 |
| 74 | Illegal Substitution – Bench | 1 |
| 75 | Instigator – Face Shield | 1 |
| 76 | Kneeing (maj) | 1 |
| 77 | Net displaced | 1 |
| 78 | Roughing – double minor | 1 |
| Grand Total | 100,158 |
Overall Penalty Bias 3m22n
Looking at the total number of penalties given against the opponent measured against the total number of penalties given against the team in question, we managed to find that some teams experience positive, or negative bias when it comes to penalties.
Overall, our analysis found that 14 teams had a negative penalty bias–meaning that they received more penalties during each game compared to their opponents.
17 teams had a positive penalty bias–meaning that referees tend to blow the whistle more against the opposing team.
Since 2014, the Chicago Blackhawks have received the most bias in their favor (8.03). They’re followed by Colorado Avalanche (5.09) and then by the Vegas Golden Knights (4.83).
On the other end of the spectrum, Anaheim Ducks receive the most bias against them (-13.39), by some margin. The next team to them are the Boston Bruins (-5.20), followed by the Arizona Coyotes (-5.11), now the Utah Hockey Club.
| Team | Penalties against opponent | Total Committed Penalties | Penalty Bias | Penalty Bias Difference |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 3094 | 2855 | 239 | +8.03 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 3424 | 3254 | 170 | +5.09 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 1780 | 1696 | 84 | +4.83 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 3009 | 2902 | 107 | +3.62 |
| Calgary Flames | 3383 | 3274 | 109 | +3.27 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 3320 | 3215 | 105 | +3.21 |
| Minnesota Wild | 3293 | 3203 | 90 | +2.77 |
| Florida Panthers | 3605 | 3513 | 92 | +2.58 |
| San Jose Sharks | 3165 | 3088 | 77 | +2.46 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 3074 | 3000 | 74 | +2.44 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 3437 | 3362 | 75 | +2.21 |
| Seattle Kraken | 852 | 835 | 17 | +2.02 |
| New York Islanders | 3011 | 2956 | 55 | +1.84 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 3654 | 3589 | 65 | +1.79 |
| Dallas Stars | 3182 | 3127 | 55 | +1.74 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 3394 | 3389 | 5 | +0.15 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 3116 | 3115 | 1 | +0.03 |
| New York Rangers | 3182 | 3182 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ottawa Senators | 3520 | 3522 | -2 | -0.06 |
| Nashville Predators | 3394 | 3396 | -2 | -0.06 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 3172 | 3179 | -7 | -0.22 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 3200 | 3210 | -10 | -0.31 |
| St. Louis Blues | 3173 | 3187 | -14 | -0.44 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 3227 | 3276 | -49 | -1.51 |
| Washington Capitals | 3260 | 3340 | -80 | -2.42 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 3120 | 3200 | -80 | -2.53 |
| New Jersey Devils | 3082 | 3168 | -86 | -2.75 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 3017 | 3125 | -108 | -3.52 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 3228 | 3397 | -169 | -5.10 |
| Arizona Coyotes | 3221 | 3390 | -169 | -5.11 |
| Boston Bruins | 3316 | 3493 | -177 | -5.20 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 3253 | 3720 | -467 | -13.39 |
Methodology 3s4i6p
We’ve taken on the exciting task of analyzing penalty bias in the NHL, using data from hockey-reference.com starting from the 2014 season.
Our goal is to reveal any potential patterns in penalty bias, defined as the difference between the average number of penalties a team gives to its opponents versus the average number of penalties it receives. A positive penalty bias score indicates more favorable treatment from the referees, and the opposite for a negative score.
- Data Collection: We used Python to gather detailed game data, focusing on penalties from the 2014 regular season onwards.
- Data Transformation: We applied specialized techniques to clean and transform the raw data, making it ready for analysis.
Key points of analysis:
- Most common penalty reason across all teams.
- Teams that suffered the most penalties overall.
- Teams that committed the most penalties overall.
- Teams that suffered the most penalties per season.
- Teams that committed the most penalties per season.
You can find the full dataset here.