Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
I think +/- is still a useful stat. Being -38 on a team is bad, and it being much worse than anyone else tells you... what exactly?
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It isn't that useful of a stat. It can give you a starting point to do analysis but it doesn't tell you a story or enable solid conclusions like the ones being thrown around here. If you want to prove a point you have to do a lot more lifting than to point at +/-.
Go into Anderson's game by game stats.
- In Oct 28th game against VGK, Andersson was -3. The Flames lost 5-0. Are you really proving that Andersson was terrible when the whole team scored zero goals? No, that doesn't prove a thing.
- How about the Nov 30th game against the Penguins where the Flames lost 6-2. Andersson was a +1.
- Nov 29th in the 5-2 loss to CBJ. Andersson is a 0.
- In the biggest shelling of the season, Dec 12 8-3 loss to the Lightning. Andersson has another +/- of 0.
Andersson definitely had some tough games, like against Dallas on Dec 8 and Mar 27 but when the team loses 6-2 and 5-2, it is hard for your top D to look good. But it is really hard to say anyone looks good when the team gets dummied, even if they end the game +2.
Also, look at how many games Andersson played above his average TOI.
- 28 minutes against the Sens (Nov 25)
- 27 minutes against Bruins (Nov 7), Wild (Nov 23), Islanders (Nov 19), Canes (Mar 2)
- 26 minutes against Canucks (Mar 12), Islanders (Mar 22), Sabres (Nov 9), Blues (Dec 5), Avalanche (Mar 31)
- 13 more games where he played over 25 minutes.
That is a lot of minutes for him to play in November and March and somewhere in those March games he has a broken fibula.
There are a lot of stories that can be told about Andersson's season and many of those stories are positive. Andersson played a massive role on this team this season and he is one of the main reasons they were even close to the playoffs instead of being eliminated weeks earlier.
He demonstrated that he is a warrior who plays big minutes, in tough assignments, and plays to win. Not only did he have a new partner to adjust to in Bahl replacing Hanifin (and it is absurd that the Andersson haters ignore that change to the D group) but also had to adjust to a new role as Tanev was no longer there to be the shutdown guy (another dramatic change to the D group being ignored).
Anyway, ya. +/- is a weak stat and shallow analysis doesn't prove anything.