Nicklas Lid! of the NHL hamplon Detroi !ed Winqs The greater the plus/minus NHL defensemen are judged number, the better. If the other team scores more than the by the plus/minus stat. player's team while that player is in the game, the player's e're two months scorers receive most of the glory, plus/minus will be a negative into the 2008-09 but without talented defensemen, number. National Hockey NHL teams struggle to win on a Last season, the Red Wings' League season consistent basis. Nicklas Lidstrom led all NHL and, as usual, the One statistic used to compare defensemen with a plus/minus of WDetroit Red Wings are playing to NHL defensemen is plus/minus 40. And in last year's playoffs, win. Last spring, Detroit won the (sometimes written • ' ), his teammate NIklas Kronwall 2008 Staniey Cup championship, which measures a team's goai had a plus/minus of 16, tops for making it 4 titles in the past differential while a particular all defensemen in postseason 11 seasons. No other team has player is on the ice. A player's action. No wonder the Red Wings won more than one Stanley Cup plus/minus increases by 1 won it all! during that span! every time his team scores Take a shot at our plus/minus To excel in the NHL, teams (while that player is on the ice) questions. Your goal is to answer rely on stellar play from their but decreases by 1 when the them all correctly! defensemen. Sure, the goal opposing team scores. -hv Rill Wise lO SCHOLASTIC MATH In the Red Wmgs' first- ^•Pittsburgh Penguins superstar WHAT TO DO round series last year, Niklas ^^Sidney ('rosby is ni>t a Iidstrom's plus/minus results (iefensenian, but we included him Read "Calculating Plus/Minus" were: 2, 1, -2, 0, -1, 2. What was anyway! Here are his plus/minus below. Use the information his total plus/minus? numbers from the 2008 playoffs: to answer the questions. You 0,0,1,1,0,0,0,-1. 1.1,0,2,-1,2, should be able to do the math -1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0. Whal was his total in your head! plus/minus? Here are Christian Ehrhoff s — !-Vlus/minus results for the San CALCULATING PLUS/MINUS Jose Sharks' 10 playoff games in 2008: 1, 2, -2, 3, -2, -2, -1, 1, 2, -1. In last year's playoffs, Braydon sum of his plus/minus results from What was his total plus/minus? 6Cobum of the Philadelphia each game. After each game, that Flyers had a total plus/minus of 4. game's plus/minus is added to the Here are his plus/minus results for player's previous total. 13 of the 14 games: 2, 1, 0, 2, -1, 1/ Adding a negative number is -1, 0, -1, 2, 1, 2, -1, 0. What was his the same as subtracting the Montreal Canadiens star plus/minus for the missing game? number. (6 + -2 = 6 - 2 = 4) »Andrei Mjirkov posted the • If you're starting with a following plus/minus numbers in negative number, think of its last year's playoffs: 0, 0, 0, 0, -2, location on the number line 1, 1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 2. What was his before adding (right on the total plus/minus? number line) or subtracting (left on the number line). Example: Niklas Kronwall's pius/minus results from Detroit's 6 first-round playoff games last year were 1, 0, -1, -1, 2, 0. What was his total plus/minus for the series? 1 + 0 = 1 1-1 = 0 0 - 1 = -1 -1 + 2 = 1 1 + 0 = 1 Kronwall's total plus/minus was 1. Here are Mártir Skoula's plus/ minus results for the Minnesota Wild's 6 playoff games in 2008: 0, -1, 1, -1, 0, 0. What was his total plus/minus? DECEMBER IS. ZOO8 11 .