The team vs the individual penalty is generally the greater concern when the
referee puts an individual into the penalty box. Sometime the team skates one
man short for two minutes, or sometimes the team skates one man short for five
minutes (or three) minutes short, or sometimes the team skates even up. A ten
minute misconduct penalty generally is the latter of the three, because only
the individual is penalized in that case and the team is not.
If an individual is given a misconduct penalty (e.g. for searing at the
thin-skinned referee) the team is not penalized by skating shorthanded (unless
a weaker goalie replaces the penalized one). A game misconduct, which kicks
the player out of this and the next game, is of course much more costly to the
individual.
Nathan Hampton