u/CloseToMyActualName

▲ 0 r/nhl

This is a follow up to this post. The OP there shared the data they collected. I can't confirm if the data was collected properly, but it looks legit and so I did a bit of independent analysis to add some different visualizations.

This is isolated to CAN vs USA games, and I do PIM per game rather than for the playoffs as a whole to make the trends a bit more stable.

The top graph shows the average PIM per game for Canadian and US teams, along with the absolute per-game difference. The middle graph shows the delta as a percentage of the total PIM per game.

The bottom graph shows the same for Home vs Away.

https://preview.redd.it/3bqob2td50yg1.png?width=1184&format=png&auto=webp&s=d5d1687c3c3c4da712c5dd51f5a241dc606d8664

A few interesting bits. For one, the number of penalties called in the playoffs has been steadily decreasing. Though I can't say if that's different officiating standards or better player discipline (and fewer fights).

Second, since 1993 American teams get 13.0 PIM / game in the playoffs while Canadian teams get 14.0, so an extra minor penalty every other game. Pre-Bettman it was 22.2 for the US and 21.1 for Canadian teams.

Interestingly, the Home V Away trends are almost identical. Home teams get 13.2 PIM /game in the Bettman era vs 14.1 for away teams. And pre-Bettman the results were 22.3 vs 21.0.

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u/CloseToMyActualName — 16 days ago