84 penalty minutes. 28 penalties. Two fights, two misconducts, and two brothers piling up 12 PIM all by themselves.

Wednesday night’s Panthers vs. Senators game in Ottawa – a 5-1 Senators win – was the highest-penalty game of the 2026-27 season through 153 games. The next-highest total this season is 63 PIM, which came from Seattle at Vegas on October 6. 

The best part? The two referees working it were, statistically speaking, the two officials least likely to call it.

Heading into Wednesday, refs Wes McCauley and T.J. Luxmore ranked 34th and 33rd out of 36 referees (minimum four games worked) in penalty minutes called per game – McCauley at 14.7 PIM per game through nine games, Luxmore at 14.8 through eight. The league average sat at 19.8. These two refs typically let ’em play.

Then Ottawa and Florida shook up their stats, with a combined for 84 PIM in one night: 44 on the Panthers, 40 on the Senators, spread across 11 penalties in the first period, six in the second, and 11 more in the third.

McCauley and Luxmore jumped up to 21.6 and 22.4 PIM per game, respectively – ninth and tenth in the league. (Corey Syvret still leads at 32.6 PIM per game, for anyone scoring at home.)  Historically, neither is a stranger to penalty-filled hockey: across the full 2025-26 season, Luxmore averaged 19.1 PIM per game over 76 games and McCauley 17.5 over 77. Both had simply opened this season as the league’s quietest whistles.  For the record, the linespersons keeping order were Scott Cherrey (#50) and Jesse Marquis (#86).

Piling Up the PIMs

The tone was set before the puck dropped. This was Brady Tkachuk’s first game back in Ottawa since the June 21 trade that sent the Senators’ captain of five years to Florida, and the crowd booed him all night. Hayden Hodgson and Bokondji Imama dropped the gloves at 10:05 of the first period just five seconds after Brady had opened the scoring on a power play, set up by his brother. Brady Tkachuk picked up the first of his three roughing minors five minutes later. The penalty parade kept rolling from there… but the third period is where it came apart.

Sam Bennett and Ridly Greig fought at 2:17. At 3:35, a roughing scrum involving Matthew Tkachuk, Nick Cousins, Brady Tkachuk, and Dylan Cozens ended with Cousins taking a 10-minute misconduct on top of the roughings.  Imama added a 10-minute misconduct of his own at 15:34.

At 18:46, with the game long decided, the Tkachuk brothers got into it again, both picking up roughing minors, with Grieg getting two for Ottawa.

Brady finished with six PIM (roughings at 15:32 of the first, 3:35 of the third, and 18:46 of the third). Matthew finished with six of his own: a high-stick at 11:43 of the second and roughings at 3:35 and 18:46 of the third.
That’s 12 combined PIM for the Tkachuk brothers, coming in Brady’s old barn.

It’s rare to have teammate-siblings spending time in the penalty box together. Brothers Florian and Arber Xhekaj combined for 17 penalty minutes for the Canadiens back on November 22, 2025, against the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

Family History

McCauley also happens to have a connection with the Tkachuk brothers on the ice. Back in 2020 when the Senators hosted the Panthers, he tossed both centers from the opening faceoff so that Matthew and Brady could get the opening draw.

Big Penalty Totals

You have to go back to April 9, 2026 to find a game with more penalty minutes. Tampa Bay and Montreal combined for 126 PIM that night. A total of 11 games surpassed last night’s penalty total of 84 PIM in 2025-26, led by the Panthers and Lightning combining for 167 PIM on February 5, 2026.

This season had produced nothing close through its first 152 games. The Panthers and Senators fixed that in one night.

Games like this are why single-game PIM totals are a terrible way to judge a referee, and why season-long numbers need context. That’s also why we show last season’s totals and rankings in our stats.

McCauley and Luxmore didn’t suddenly become the league’s strictest officials on Wednesday. They just happened to be the guys called upon to work a scrappy game with some bad blood and some brotherly love.