Question: Help me, help me, somebody heeelp me!

[MikeAD]

Can anybody explain to me the plus minus (+/-) rating in the NFL.

Now I am a casual hockey fan at best, and I really only watch games that Jagr is involved in. I get into it during the playoffs, especially when the Capitals are doing well, and about a year ago really started to watch Penguin games to see Crosby. Anyway, every now and then you see a players name and stats, Goals, Points etc, but I don’t get the +/-.

Maybe someone can help me, or at least maybe we can try to get some talk going in what seems to always be a dead section of the Hangout.

[bobmc]

Good old Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plus/minus) responds to your pregunta.

I sort of knew this but had to google it. I have totally lost interest in Caps hockey this year.

[SurhoffRules]

Basically, plus minus rating works like this.

You take a player. Every time (Excluding power plays) his team scores, while he is on the ice he gets +1 to his +/- rating. Every time (excluding power plays) the opposing team scores while he is on the ice, he gets a -1 to his +/- rating. It's a cumulative stat for the season meant to show how well the team performs when he is on the ice.

In all honesty, it's not that great of stat because there's a fair amount of luck in it. A player could play 59 minutes and the game could go 0-0 then get subbed out and all the sudden his team scores 4 goals. Obviously that's pretty far fetched but you get the idea.

[SurhoffRules]

Good old [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plus/minus"]I have totally lost interest in Caps hockey this year.

I can't imagine why. :) You should've been there at last night's game. We out shot them 2 to 1 and still lost 5 to 2. Mind boggling.

[OsStormers]

Basically, plus minus rating works like this.

You take a player. Every time (Excluding power plays) his team scores, while he is on the ice he gets +1 to his +/- rating. Every time (excluding power plays) the opposing team scores while he is on the ice, he gets a -1 to his +/- rating. It's a cumulative stat for the season meant to show how well the team performs when he is on the ice.


Thats a good explanation, but you can get a minus if you are on a power play and the opposing team scores a short handed goal.

That goes both ways, if your team scores shorthanded you get a plus.

[Bird_Man]

They should make a similar stat to this in basketball.


This stat doesn't necessarily tell the whole story, but it does imply that you're doing something right (high +) or wrong (high -).