PIM
Ice Hockey: Penalties In Minutes
Strictly speaking, this statistic keeps track of the number of minutes a
player has spent in the penalty box. A minor penalty and major penalty,
the most commonly called infractions, result in 2 and 5 minutes, respectively,
being added to a player's PIM stat. Interestingly, this stat does not reflect
the actual number of minutes spent in the penalty box, since a minor penalty
will expire if the opposing team scores.
More interestingly, this statistic is a measure of the feistiness of a given
player. The higher your PIMs, the more time you have spent in the sin bin, the nastier you are likely to be. Generally speaking, if you
have consistently high PIMs, your other stats tend to suffer (like goals,
assists, etc.). However, some particularly talented hockey players have
high points and high PIMs. Most players with high PIMs also tend to
have a large number of hits recorded as well. Of course this is merely an
observed tendency, and by no means a rule. There are some players who are
simply dirty and serve no useful purpose on a team except to
try and intimidate the opposition.