Multiple narratives exist about the team discipline under the returning Lindy Ruff, so we take a look at the stats going back twenty seasons
While the spotlight has been firmly on the Buffalo Sabres power play unit underperforming to start the season, and indeed, a continuation from where they left off last season, there’s been quite a bit of chatter amongst the fanbase about the number of penalties the Sabres are taking in every game.
Whether the penalties given up have been of the ‘took one for the team’ kind or the more egregious boneheaded variety, the end result is that they do tend to put the team at a disadvantage. It makes things more difficult when Buffalo are holding a lead, hands the initiative to the opposition when games are level, and when the Sabres are behind opens them up to conceding more goals and eventually losing.
Opinion: The Sabres have been more undisciplined in the last few games
Buffalo has struggled with injuries to key players recently, with Tage Thompson missing games along with Jordan Greenway. Just in the last five games, the Sabres have taken 23 penalties, which averages out to about 4.6 per game. This might feel higher than how they started the campaign, but believe it or not, Buffalo’s season average for penalties taken per 60 min is actually 4.55, so they’re right about where they have been for the full 19 games of the season so far, nearly at the quarter-mark. There’s one myth busted already. Conclusion = False.
There’s a big narrative going around the socials that seems to imply that Lindy Ruff’s Sabres teams from his first stint in charge were better disciplined and didn’t take too many penalties. So let’s take a look-see then, going back twenty seasons of Sabres hockey. That should go far enough to encompass the NHL coming out of the lockout and changing a number of rules to make the game more free-flowing and entertaining to watch. It also covers the period when Buffalo was last good, so that it’s not just that the penalties taken are more frequent when the team is poorer.
First, some explanations are in order before we start digging into the data and looking at trends. The NHL Avg Pens column is an average by game, while the Pens Drawn/60 and Pens Taken/60 are per 60 min played, so there are some fractional discrepancies there to include overtimes in games. The Pen Ratio column is penalties drawn over penalties taken, so a number higher than 1 means the team gets more power plays than they give up penalty kills. The trendlines used in the chart below are third degree polynomials, which seem to more accurately reflect the increases and decreases. Finally, numbers in red are bad – meaning lower than league average rank for penalties drawn, higher then league average rank for penalties taken, and lower than 1 for penalty ratio.
Opinion: Ruff’s Sabres in the early aughts were more disciplined
Coming out of the lockout season, the Sabres were most certainly taking more or about the same number of penalties as they are now. However, keep in mind the zebras were calling more penalties at the time too. We see that during the last few years of Ruff’s first go-around, the Sabres were certainly getting called for more penalties, but then so was most of the league. Only twice in that span were Ruff’s teams in the top half of league in terms of penalties given away.
This season though, the Sabres are second in the league already in penalties taken and while the penalties being called has stayed somewhat consistent, the Sabres’ numbers have jumped up in a negative way. So yes, it does look like the previous teams under Ruff were better-disciplined, conclusion = True.
Opinion: The more the Sabres give, the more they get
What is interesting about looking at the penalty ratio column is that for the most part, the Sabres have tended to play a certain way over the two decades. Under Ruff and Ted Nolan, Buffalo have tended to play a more open, attacking style. This leads to drawing more penalties, but then also tends to give away more penalties too.
The other coaches in between – Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger and Don Granato – mostly played more conservative styles, which was reflected in the number of penalties drawn as well as penalties taken. They all tended to emphasize the importance of playing safe, well-disciplined hockey.
Overall, whenever the Sabres have been more run-and-gun, they have given up more penalties but have gotten more too. Conclusion = True.
(Data sources: NHL, Hockey Reference)