Flyers University: A Place to Learn Flyers History

Pluses are what you get when you're on the ice for a goal by your team (except for when you score a PP goal). You earn a minus when the opposition scores a goal and you're on the ice (except if you're on the PK). If you look at a player's statistics you'll see a category labeled "+/-" in which wizards keep track of the number of Goals For you're on the ice for versus the number Against. Today Mark Savard and Denis Wideman are tied for 1st place in the NHL at +25 each. Last season Pavel Datsyuk led the league with a +41 and Nicklas Lidstrom was the highest ranked defenseman with a +40. The next highest defenseman was Duncan Keith at +30.

During the 1985-86 season, a season in which the Flyers won the Atlantic division with 110 points, two Flyers defensemen put up some pretty impressive numbers in the plus/minus category. The Flyers scored 335 goals that year, good enough for 4th in the league, and only gave up 241, which was 31 goals less than any other team in the NHL. The Flyers blue line included Doug Crossman, Brad Marsh, and partial seasons by Ed Hospodar, Thomas Eriksson, Daryl Stanley, and Dave Richter. But it was the defensively sound and offensively gifted duo of Brad McCrimmon and Mark Howe who led the team that year. Howe, in his 7th season in the NHL, was third on the team in scoring with 82 points. McCrimmon, who would never even come close to his offensive output of that season, had a surprising 56 points while playing with Howe. More impressive than their offensive statistics that season was the sole statistical defensive indicator - the plus/minus rating. Howe and McCrimmon led the league in plus/minus, at +85 and a +83. respectively.

Last season Braydon Coburn led the Flyers with a +17. Danny Briere was by far the worst with a -22. The chances of ever seeing another defensive pairing, much less a single player, who each and every game of the year can be assured to be out on the ice for 1 more Goal For than Against is extremely unlikely. Could you imagine if every game this season you could be assured that Matt Carle and Randy Jones might be on the ice for 7 goals but 4 of them would be Flyers goals? It'd be like starting every game 1-0.

FYI: Bobby Orr has the single season record for highest plus/minus rating ever with a +124 in 1907-71. The Bruins had 399 Goals For that year and only 207 Against. Amazing.