I spent some time looking at what the all-time NHL season record is for most match penalties by a player, and was surprised to see Donald Audette sharing the record with Jimmy Orlando and Billy Coutu.
They all had three match penalties in a season.
Coutu got his three in 1920-21, twenty years later Orlando got three in 1941-42 and sixty years after that Audette got three in 2000-01 playing for the Atlanta Thrashers.
I live for stuff like this, I go into hockey stats rabbit holes almost every day and naturally had to go a bit deeper to see what the heck Audette did and why him of all people got so many match penalties (he was a point-per-game player that season, scoring 79 points in 76 games).
All three of his match penalties were "attempt to injure" and they all came within a span of 70 days (match #1 on Jan 1st, match #2 on Jan 12th and match #3 on Mar 11th).
The first match penalty came on January 1st against the Capitals and Audette had managed 20 points in his last 13 games.
It was nearing the half-way point of the season and he was at that time Top 10 in the league on total points (tied for 5th).
His line with Brunette and Ferraro were among the most productive in the league and Atlanta were among the hottest December teams.
With 2:56 remaining in the third period Audette drew a match penalty for attempt to injure (high stick on Sergei Gonchar) and received 10 minutes. 42 seconds later Washington scored on the power play (Zednik). Washington won the game 4-2.
The Atlanta Constitution paper speculated that Audette would not draw a suspension. Audette was quoted saying "I've taken a lot harder hits to the head than that one. It was unintentional."
So on to the second match penalty on January 12th against Montreal.
Almost a repeat of the Washington game, with 1:24 remaining in the third period Audette drew a match penalty for attempt to injure (cross-check from behind on Eric Landry) and received 10 minutes. Montreal did not score on the power play, but still won the game 3-0.
Four days later it was announced that Audette had been handed a four-game suspension.
He would forfeit $42,780.75 in lost salary.
He was leading the Thrashers in scoring with 53 points at this time.
I couldn't find a quote by Audette.
The Thrashers had eight injured players around this time and on his first game back from the suspension Audette had 1 goal and 1 assist against Nashville on January 23rd.
And so for the third and final match penalty, which he drew on March 11th against Calgary.
Audette had now dropped from 5th place (tied) in the league in points back in early January, down to 12th place (tied).
With 17:04 remaining in the third period Audette drew a match penalty for attempt to injure (cross-check to the head of Robert Petrovicky) and received 10 minutes.
Calgary did not score. The game ended in a 3-3 OT tie.
Petrovicky was quoted saying "he only caught me in the face with his glove, but he could have hit me in the melon. It was a stupid thing to do."
The following day on March 12th it was announced that Audette had been suspended again, he was considered a repeat offender and was handed a two-game suspension. He would forfeit $48,780.49 in lost salary.
With his third match penalty (tying the NHL all-time record for a single season) and his second suspension of the season, Audette was quoted:
"if I need to give a donation to someone, I would rather give it to someone who I think deserves it.
I didn't think the hit was worth anything. If a guy comes at me, what should I do from now on?
Let him punch me? Petrovicky wasn't coming at me to ask me out for a bite to eat after the game.
I wonder if the league is going to look at tapes of all the punches they throw at my head?"
It was being speculated that the game against Calgary would be Audette's last as a Thrasher, and it turned out to be true.
Audette had remained without a contract around this time and his agent hadn't talked to Atlanta in three weeks. Audette wanted to increase his salary from 2 million to 3.1 and trade rumors continued to appear around Audette.
The following day after his suspension had been announced, it was made public on March 13th that Audette had been traded to the Buffalo Sabres, where he would finish the season playing 12 games as a Sabre, scoring two goals and 6 assists. He also played 13 playoff games as a Sabre and scored three goals with 6 assists.
There were apparently several unhappy Atlanta players and many unhappy fans following the trade, with some airing complaints on bulletin boards, threatening to cancel season tickets.
GM Don Waddell said he had plans to meet with several hundred season ticket holders over the next few days.
Audette did not stay with Buffalo for long, as he became an unrestricted free agent and played for Montreal, Dallas and Florida over the next three seasons, but he did get his wish as he earned 9 million during these three years before he retired.
Audette is currently an amateur scout for the Montreal Canadiens, a position he's held since 2012.
