Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
Handwaving poor performance from "fourth line bangers" is lazy. Everything has an indirect consequence.
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This can't be said enough. Another hypothetical: 4th line bangers get hemmed in own zone until goalie has to freeze the puck... the next unit out is now starting out further from the offensive zone and will now have to gain possession of the puck and log it further up the ice to generate any offence. Poor performance by anyone shouldn't be brushed off.
And as far as having one of the lowest plus-minuses on the team not being meaningful either... +/- is a flawed stat but I consider getting outscored 5v5 pretty meaningful. You just have to adjust for context.