Any time a team leads the entire NHL in a specific category this deep into the season it tells a story. For the Golden Knights, they currently have the lead in one category and find themselves in dead last in a connected one.
After 54 games, no team in the NHL has taken fewer penalties than the Golden Knights. They’ve taken just 154 for an average of 6:38 of penalty time per game. No other team in the league is under seven minutes and just five others are under eight. They’ve taken just 140 minor penalties for an average of fewer than three penalties per 60 minutes.
On the flip side, as great as it is for the Golden Knights to never take penalties, they don’t draw them either. Vegas sits in 32nd place in penalties drawn with 169. Of course, that’s 15 fewer than they’ve taken, which is a nice plus, but it’s just over 3 per game where the league leader is at 4.67.
The Golden Knights aren’t alone though. In 2nd place behind them in both categories is the St. Louis Blues. That pretty clearly indicates the numbers are at least loosely connected, even if the referees aren’t outwardly doing it on purpose.
Referees may subconsciously say, ‘gee, I’ve only put them in the box once,’ but I think there are a lot of infractions that don’t go our way. I think it is correlated but not to the point where we’re going to make it an issue. -Bruce Cassidy
Not drawing penalties has been an issue for years for the Golden Knights too. Last year the Golden Knights came in last place as well, drawing just 262 over the 82 game season. Since Vegas entered the league, only two teams have drawn fewer per 60, Toronto and Columbus.
