Last season the Calgary Flames spent the second-most time shorthanded behind the Anaheim Ducks, and took the most minor penalties in the league.
Breaking it down by penalty type:
2nd in roughings
T2nd-5th in holding the stick
T3rd in cross-checking
T3rd-4th in slashing
4th in tripping
T9th-10th for holding
T13th-17th in high-sticks
T13th-19th in goalie interference
T21st-23rd for interference
29th in hooking
Individually, excluding fighting majors, here's how it shook out
Penalties
Thoughts? The Flames went from basically the least penalized team two years ago to the most. You can blame Wideman effect but looking at most of the guys leading the chart above, they are guys who were not with the team two years ago...Frolik had the worst differential among the forwards, and Hamilton had the worst differential among the defensemen. Bennett could stand to improve too. However Bennett had a +13 differential the year prior. By my recollection, most of his penalties were in the offensive zone which might have been a struggle to overcompensate for a linemate's uselessness on the forecheck.