It took two seconds for the penalty train to start at Sunday afternoon’s game in Boston – and it just kept a-rollin’.

Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov and Panthers captain Brady Tkachuk dropped the gloves two seconds after the opening faceoff, and the Boston Bruins’ 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers kept escalating from there. The two teams combined for 126 penalty minutes – Florida 72, Boston 54, on 29 penalties – obliterating the NHL’s season high, which had been 84.

 

The first period produced 34 penalty minutes and two fights: Zadorov vs. Tkachuk at 0:02, then Garnet Hathaway and Mark Kastelic at 6:32. Boston scored three times in the period, with Elias Lindholm, Michael Eyssimont, and Morgan Geekie finding the twine, along with Carter Verhaeghe’s lone goal for Florida.

The second period was worse: 52 penalty minutes. Sam Reinhart and Charlie McAvoy picked up matching roughing minors at 11:14. Matthew Tkachuk and Zadorov took matching delay-of-game minors at 12:05. And in the final eight seconds of the period, the officials handed out four misconducts – Eetu Luostarinen and Hampus Lindholm at 19:52, then Brady Tkachuk and Zadorov at 20:00.

The final 20 tacked on 40 more minutes in penalties. After two early minors, Matthew Tkachuk took a roughing minor and a misconduct at 11:52. At 14:31, Kastelic picked up an interference minor and a misconduct, and Brady Tkachuk was sent off with his second misconduct of the afternoon. Sam Reinhart’s interference minor at 16:14 was the last entry on a very full scoresheet. Brady Tkachuk finished with 25 penalty minutes; Zadorov and Kastelic had 17 apiece, and Matthew Tkachuk 16.

“You can go back and watch the tape and decide if I deserve to have 17 penalty minutes today,” Zadorov said after the game. “I don’t think I can comment on the officials.” 

This season’s PIM leaderboard

  • 126 – Florida at Boston, Nov. 8 (Panthers 72, Bruins 54)
  • 84 – Florida at Ottawa, Oct. 21 (Panthers 44, Senators 40)
  • 84 – Anaheim at Vancouver, Nov. 3
  • 67 – Anaheim at Edmonton, Nov. 5
  • 65 – Vegas at Seattle, Oct. 6

For some historical scale: the wildest game of all of last season, Florida at Tampa Bay on February 5, 2026, produced 167 penalty minutes; 11 games last season topped 84. This season hadn’t produced a single game over 84 until Sunday before Boston and Florida jumped straight to 126.

It’s the teams, not the officials

Check out the names on that leaderboard, then look at the league’s most-penalized teams this season – the overlap is almost perfect.

Entering Sunday, Anaheim led the NHL with 232 penalty minutes (13.6 per game), followed by Ottawa (225), Florida (220), the Islanders (214), and Boston (202). After Sunday, Florida (292 in 18 games) and Boston (256 in 18 games) sit first and second in the league – and it’s not close.

They’ve also both got players at the top of the penalty leaderboard. Boston’s Nikita Zadorov leads the league with 64 PIM; Florida’s Brady Tkachuk has 44 (3rd), with the Bruins’ Mark Kastelic and the Panthers’ Bokondji Imama tied at 36 (6th). 

Florida has now played in the season’s two highest-PIM games. Anaheim has played in two of the top four. Every game on the list involves at least one of the league’s five most-penalized teams.

The officials, by contrast, barely repeat. The five games were worked by five different referee pairings:

  • Florida at Boston: Brandon Blandina (#39) and Pierre Lambert (#25)
  • Florida at Ottawa: Wes McCauley (#4) and T.J. Luxmore (#21)
  • Anaheim at Vancouver: Graedy Hamilton (#41) and Jean Hebert (#15)
  • Anaheim at Edmonton: Cody Beach (#12) and Graham Skilliter (#24)
  • Vegas at Seattle: Brandon Blandina (#39) and Chris Schlenker (#3)

Blandina is the only referee on the list twice. Scott Cherrey is the only linesperson to appear in two of the top three games entering Sunday, working the lines in both the Ottawa 84 and the Edmonton 67. And the Ottawa game is its own argument against pinning this on the crew – McCauley and Luxmore went into that night as two of the lowest-PIM referees in the league, and the game still exploded for 84.

Different crews, different styles, same common denominator: the teams on the ice.

The Boston Bruins defeated the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Sunday afternoon, with referees Brandon Blandina (39) and Pierre Lambert (25) and linespersons Tyson Baker (88) and Brandon Grillo (75) working the game. 

The Bruins and Panthers will meet three more times this season; next matchup is one month away: December 8 in Sunrise.