How likely is it that the Bruins actually committed the first three penalties in a game that they were absolutely dominating 5 on 5?
How likely is it that the Islanders committed none until a 18:50 in the second, while getting absolutely dominated 5 on 5?
It’s just math at that point. We don’t even have to look at the first Islanders’s penalty, which was such an obvious “even things off” call that Tim Peel smiled while drinking a Schlitz and watching from home with his full pension.
This season, they’re third in Corsi, second in Fenwick, yet 16th in PP opportunities and fourth in number of times shorthanded. -18 PP differential. And I’d be really surprised if that pattern didnt play out surprisingly often over the past decade or so.
It's been a thing for a while, going back to Julien.
From 07/08 to 16/17 regular season (Julien's tenure plus a hand full of Butch at the end) the Bruins were 27th in penalties drawn, 15th in penalties taken. Worked out to a -202 penalty differential which was 4th lowest in the league.
From 17/18 to 20/21 regular season (Cassidy) they are 5th in penalties drawn, 6th in penalties taken. Works out to +12 which is 14th in the league.
Under Julien the Bruins were -13 in penalty differential in the playoffs. Under Butch they are -3.
The Julien years baffled me. That's when the Bruins started becoming a puck possession monster and puck possession monsters usually end up on the PP a lot. When you have the puck, the other team is going to try to get it back and will commit penalties to do so. When you have the puck more than the other team, they're going to commit more penalties. It is pretty easy logic to follow. That said, despite a huge sample size, it was never the case under Julien. This despite cries from other cities about preferential treatment because Jeremy Jacobs was the chairman of the Board of Governors and Colin Campbell's son played for us.
The differential has gotten better under Butch. We draw more penalties now, but we still get called as if we're the Big Bad Bruins of old.
If anything, the playoff data just confirms the "even them up" approach NHL officials take. They get one, you get one. And so on we go. On the playoffs, the Bruins are -6 in penalty differential. It's -4 if you exclude the "automatic" calls like delay of game (LOL), and too many men on the ice. The NHL will look at that and tell the officials job well done, despite having fired an official this year for doing just that in a regular season game.There's a ridiculous notion that each team should have equal opportunities on the power play. I have no idea what this is rooted in. Just call the fucking rule book. Using last night as an example, the first 3 penalties of the game went against the Bruins. Of the 3, the Kuraly one was soft but the Grzelyck and Wagner penalties were penalties. I've got nothing wrong with those 2 calls. It's just they weren't called the other way. It's unfathomable to me that the Bruins had the puck 66% of the time up to the point of the Islanders first penalty and the Islanders had not committed a single penalty. 66% possession should not equal 25% power play opportunities.