re plus minus stat in article qmtd innr l iskut ucs ubc ca gibson nukta geop ubc ca brad gibson writes in response to a debate about who has has a better season jagr of francis i think jagr did he probably had a better point per minute ice time stats don t exist to properly analyze this and he had a substancially better actually what i think has become more evident is that you are determined to flaunt your ignorance at all cost jagr did not have a better season than francis to suggest otherwise is an insult to those with a modicum of hockey knowledge save your almost maniacal devotion to the almighty plus minus it is the most misleading hockey stat available until the nhl publishes a more useful quantifiable statistic including ice time per game and some measure of its quality i e is the player put out in key situations like protecting a lead late in the game is he matched up against the other team s top one or two lines short handed etc i would much rather see the disappear altogether instead of having its dubious merits trumpeted by those with little understanding of its implications is a useful statistic if a player is on the ice when his team scores a lot of goals and only allows a few goals he must be doing something right it is especially useful to compare between teammates as they play for the same team and should have roughly similar ratings if they are equally good players it can be adjusted with varying degrees of success to compare between players on different teams i agree it would be nice for the nhl to keep more statistics but how useful are the ones that you suggest total ice time would be very useful it is a missing stat in jagr vs francis arguments from before somehow measuring the quality of ice time as you suggest would be useless it would be a better stat for evaluating coaching ie are the players given quality ice time actually their talented ones a very good player could be given low amounts of quality ice time because of team depth or a stupid coach who doesn t recognize his talent and a very bad player could be given lots of quality ice time because of a lack of team depth or a stupid coach that thinks he is an effective player this stat would be much more flawed than and almost no conclusions could be drawn regarding player talent is a useful stat it is quite useful in evaluating player talent you are the one displaying ignorance because of your unwillingness to see that being on the ice when goals are scored but not when they are allowed is a very positive thing and should be evaluated as such gregmeister
