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Although it’s been overshadowed by the long history of statistical analysis in baseball, there’s a lot of interesting number crunching going on in the “nondiscrete” sports, like basketball and hockey. A lot of it has to do with adjusted plus/minus ratings. The traditional plus/minus statistic in hockey gives a player one point for each goal that his team scores and deducts one point for each goal against, only when he’s on the ice. It’s basically a personal goal differential stat, and it’s surprisingly useful. It does have one big defect, though–as with a pitcher’s win-loss record, it’s impossible to extricate the player’s personal performance from the context of his team. For instance, the Islanders’ Trent Hunter has racked up 11 goals and 11 assists, while the Bruins’ Stephane Yelle has four goals and five assists–13 fewer points than Hunter, and in 19 more games played. Yet Yelle, playing for the Eastern Division-leading Bruins, is a +4, while Hunter, with lowly New York, is a -7.
For defensemen, numbers are a bit lower in general, since they spend less time on attack and more time in prevention. With the exception of Brian Campbell (+4), it doesn’t look good for the Hawks. Duncan Keith and Aaron Johnson are both a -4, while Cam Barker is a -3. The worst offender, by far, is Brent Seabrook, clocking in at an unsightly -11. In his first two seasons, Seabrook racked up 194 penalty minutes despite getting in only eight fights; this year, he’s on pace for 105 PIM, while having drawn just two penalties in 29 games.
