The Impact of the Instigator Rule on Fighting in the National Hockey League

Table 3

Fighting and penalty data comparing NHL Stanley Cup champions and nonplayoff teams.

	Stanley Cup champions		Nonplayoff teams		value
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Modern Era (2005–2019)
Fights/gm	0.36	0.24	0.42	0.19	0.44
Total penalty (minutes/gm)	11.01	2.90	12.06	3.06	0.15
Net penalty (mins/gm)	0.17	0.36	-0.04	0.47	0.03
Expansion Era (1967–1980)
Fights/gm	0.45	0.21	0.51	0.24	0.49
Total penalty (minutes/gm)	14.50	3.75	13.74	3.61	0.01
Net penalty (mins/gm)	-0.41	0.77	0.08	0.62	<0.0001

Gm = game.