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Border Wars: NHL 2012-13 Penalty Minutes Per Game By Country

Which countries of origin were the most pugnacious in 2012-13?

By Derek Zona
You like THAT old man? You want a piece of ME?
You like THAT old man? You want a piece of ME?
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Some interesting penalty minute numbers* from the 2012-13 NHL Season:

# Birthplace PM/G
1 France 1.77
2 Canada 0.72
3 United States 0.57
4 Czech Republic 0.55
5 Lithuania 0.55
6 Norway 0.53
7 Russia 0.52
8 Denmark 0.52
9 Slovakia 0.51
10 Germany 0.49
11 Sweden 0.44
12 Slovenia 0.41
13 Finland 0.40
14 Kazakhstan 0.40
15 Austria 0.37
16 Belarus 0.37
17 Latvia 0.36
18 Ukraine 0.29
19 Switzerland 0.08
  • France? France! France? What in the world is going on here? Did Stephane Da Costa attack an official with an ax handle? Oh, now I see. The culprit is Antoine Roussel. 85 penalty minutes in 39 games is plenty to grab the title of most violent, even with Da Costa's goose egg in 9 games.
  • Switzerland, the country of neutrality, remains peaceful. Damien Brunner and Sven Baertschi totaled only 18 penalty minutes in 64 games. Nino Niederreiter is set to bring the pain when he returns to the NHL next year, however: he's taken 20 minutes of penalties in 64 career NHL games.

Filtering out the one-offs...

# Birthplace PM/G
2 Canada 0.72
3 United States 0.57
4 Czech Republic 0.55
7 Russia 0.52
9 Slovakia 0.51
11 Sweden 0.44
13 Finland 0.40
  • The history of North America is a violent one, reflected in the continent's brand of hockey. The belligerent Canadians and punch drunk Americans want nothing more to turn the sport into an MMA event.
  • If Don Cherry reads this, he's going to fist pump, I know it.
  • The Nordic countries are peaceful places, reflected in the penalty numbers above.

*Data culled from HockeyDB