10 – Number of days remaining until the start of the Washington Capitals’ 50th season. But it’s also…
…the number of times the Capitals have racked up 100+ penalty minutes in a single game in franchise history, their most recent coming back in 2006 against then-Southeast Division rival Atlanta.
Somewhat surprisingly (or perhaps not, considering the level of acrimony in some of those old Patrick Division affairs), that ranks in the top third among all teams, tied with Buffalo for the seventh-most 100+ PIM games in NHL history.
Probably less surprising is the fact that four of those 10 games for the Caps came against the Broad Street Bullies themselves, the most being a December 1980 outing where the Caps racked up 177 penalty minutes – somehow more than the Flyers, who “only” put up 165.
Don’t let that relatively low number fool you, though; those Flyers are no angels. In fact, Philly not only holds the league lead in number of games with 100+ penalty minutes (21, six more than second-place Chicago) and the highest penalty minute total in a single game, 213 in a fisticuff-filled 2004 game against the Ottawa Senators (who were nicked for 206 minutes in the same game).