You don't feel if a player gets a penalty and costs his team a goal, that it shouldn't be reflected in the +/-.?
if they wanted to do 'spin off' plus/minus stats, then one could think up things like
that, but the main stat is 5 on 5, and keeps all players equal on the ice, not shorthanded,
or anything that would throw the balance 'off'.
the point is, all players were playing with the same amount of players for the
stat to be compiled, which gives them a 'pure' stat.
If he was good enough he'd play on the powerplay too. If his contribution is limited then who cares what his plus/minus is.
it still throws the stat out of whack, and its not about who cares, its about
accuracy of the stat.
there is all kinds of stats, and i'm sure the coaches/mgs have their own list
of stats, over and above the nhl.com stats, which allows them to break down
much more detail for all of their own players.
when one is going over the plus/minus stats, it is good to be aware of what team
he plays on, and how good or bad that team plus/minus is, eg. rick nash, has a
very poor plus/minus, but his team has also not played well at all thus far this
season, which will contribute to his individual play, so that must come into
play when 'judging' him, because if he is a very responsible two way player, but
is playing with players who are not, or just can't get it done, then he will look worse than he really is, another eg. he is always chosen to
play on the olympic team, and is one of the best players there.
one must know the players, so, when the coaching staff is going over the stat sheet
for the league, they know the players, and can think about that when reading stats.
if one doesn't know players, then ones view of any stat will be inaccurate
overall., and cause opinions about players from 'only' the stat.
