h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hi.
i'm an australian and as such am not surrounded by hockey culture, but recently ive gotten into the sport and all. and basically i know all the rules and stuff, but there's one thing that i would like to know.

u know how in a players stats they have a +/- rating?
well, wat the hell is that?

thanku.
bye

Plus/minus stats are basically a way of gauging any given player's offensive and defensive capabilities without using the six truckloads of dumb statistics that accompany each player in the NHL or European league. A minus lets you know that the given player was on the ice when a goal was scored against his team. A plus meaning a goal scored for his team, etc. For the 2001 season Patrice Brisbois of the Montreal Canadiens had a -31 rating which is just terrible. On the surface this speaks volumes not only about his offensive capabilities but his defensive capabilities as well. What this stat doesn't tell you is that Patrice is one of the best defensemen on an awful team and was matched up against the opposing team's first line. (This is where the six truckloads of info comes in handy).

On the opposite side of the table, Scott Stevens of the New Jersey Devils had a +40 for the 2001 season. Playing on a good team doesn't hurt but this stat says you aren't going to get many chances to score when he's on the ice. In the 2000 Stanley Cup finals he was matched up against Pavel Bure (Florida Panthers), Mats Sundin (Toronto Maple Leafs), John Leclair (Philadelphia Flyers) and Mike Modano (Dallas Stars) - all of which he shut down and all leading scorers in the NHL.

Hope this long winded answer sheds some light for you

thanks, u explained that perfectly. much appreciated.

A slight addition to that definition is that power play and short handed goals are not counted towords the plus/minus

Actually, that's only half right. Players on the ice during a power-play goal do not get a plus or minus. If you're on the ice when your team scores a shorthanded goal, you get a plus. If you're on the ice when your team gives up a shorthanded goal, you get a minus.

What team(s) do you support? Mine's my local team, the Haringey Greyhounds (Racers from next season). They play in the EPL and though they have just had a dreadful season, they do pretty well for an amatuer team in a semi-pro league. Home ice is the rink at Alexandra Palace, North London (England, not the Canadian one). Which is also home to the London Ravens sledge hockey team, who are run by the Haringey physio and are the only sledge hockey team in the SE of England.
My NHL team is the pens and I also keep an eye on the London Knights scores, even if they do take a decent goalie on loan as back up\training with them, give him an ego and generally worse player before returning him. You'd never guess they were a pro team in the superleague and haringey were amatuer looking at the goalies performance before and after he trained with the knights.

Hi Lou, it's good to see another ice hockey fan.
I come from near Dundee, and support the Dundee Texol Stars, Home ice is The Dundee Ice Arena. They are a new team, in their first season in the British National League.
They have been very successful, winning the Caledonian Cup, they are the B.N.L. champions, and this weekend are playing Fife Flyers, in the semi-finals of the play offs.
It is good to support a successful team, but like yourself, I would sopport them through thick and thin.
I hope your team has a better season next year, I will follow their progress in Powerplay Magazine.
..
Dave.

I wonder how many other UK hockey fans are on here? How did Dundee do against the kings, any 10 goal victorys? With the season the hounds had I need some comeback to my cousin in MK. Mind you Haringeys biggest battle was probably off the ice. For the last couple of seasons our star player had been Zoran Kozich. As they are totally amature Haringey have always had trouble running the club so Kozich thought he'd take over. While he brought in some sponsors (including Enron) and a few pro players he ruined the balance of the team and the only match they won all year was the 1st of the season at nottingham. He may be great on the ice but he knows puck all about running a team. In his "mission statement" he said anything other than top 3 would be a dissapointment. We finished rock bottom, below the england U20s. Around November is became obvious he was becoming increasingly frustrated when you looked at the penalties he was taking. It came to a head, literally, at the match at Romford when he unleashed a vicious head high slash, leaving one of the romford player in hospital. He was banned for a year and as he wasnt in the team the sponsors he brought in left. We were forced to release the pros but for a while there were rumors the hounds would be unable to complete the season. In the end we made it, giving swindon and solihul a scare by taking the lead early and keeping the game close to the end. However the best result of the year when Invicta came to the palace the 2nd time. If they won they would be champions but the hounds took an early lead. Invicta soon equalised but the hounds refused to fold and regained the lead. In the end the difference in fitness levels between invictas pros and the amatuers showed and the ran out 5-2 winners, but at least we mad them fight for it. That was one of the few peaks to the season which was one big trough, including a 17-1 home defeat to romford in the cup (on my birthday as if the loss wasnt already bad enough) and letting in 18 in a loss at the isle of wight. Mind you that wasnt too disasterous considering we had to borrow 2 of their youth players in order to play with 2 lines. So few players made the trip (thats the problem when theres a long away trip and the players have work the next morning).
As the season was so disasterous Haringey want to put it behind them and start rebuilding the team to the level it was before Zoran messed things up, needless to say I dont think he'll be welcome back once his suspension ends). In order to help erase the trauma of the season just on the teams decided to change its name to the Racers, who were the other (and more sucessful) team to play at the Harringay arena before it closed (I think) in the 50's, before being ressurected in the modern era as Haringey when they built a rink at Ally Pally. We may not be sucessful now, but we have a history and hopefully we'll now be able to build to a respecatble premier league team. Hopefully the league will allow us to stay in the EPL, but should the racers be moved down the aim will be to return as soon as possible.

Hey y'all!
I've been watching Ice-Hockey just cos I like the violence and well basically the whole game but to be honest being a English 17 year old gal their aint many local teams near me so I dont get the satisfaction of watching Ice-Hockey only when its on real late.
I'm also not sure on what things like "Power play" is??
It must be when a player gets ent into e sin bin for 2 mins thats when the P/P kicks in??
I love whatching Team Canada play and also Mighty Ducks,Dallas Stars etc..
Top Teams in the NHL.

Yep, a power play is where a team has an extra player on the ice as an opponent has had a penalty. Do you watch the hockey on channel 5 often? If so think back about a month, maybe a bit more. Remember the canadian the have from the knights wasnt there for a couple of sundays (I think one of the matches was NJ Devils) so they had someone else replace him. The guy they got in was Steve Fullan, whos been the Haringey captain for the last couple of years.
Where do you live, I might be able to tell you if theres a team near you. Its bigger in this country than you'd think. There are 4 leagues (Superleague, British National, English Premier and lastly the English National Hockey League North\South) each with between 7 and 12 teams in it so theres a chance theres a team near you. Alternatly you could check out the web page for British hockey, I think its icehockeyleagueukcom although I cant remember so you might be better off doing a search of looking at a teams page (eg. london knights), and they might have a link to it.

And as for you liking team canada, I was delighted to see super Mario get the gold. In the nhl my teams the pens (dont mention the play-offs, what do you expect when they lost jagr, and Lemieux, Kovalev, Straka, Land and too many more to mention have been injured for long spells).

Lets hope GB can make it to Turin!!!

Wicked!Thanks
I live n West Yorkshire near Bradford/Leeds.
I know their is a Hockey team in Sheffield,Sheffield Steelers but thats kinda far for me to travel with not knowing where I'm going!
I dunno if their is an Ice-Hockey team in Bradford but they do have an Ice-rink which I visit quite regular.

I cant think of a team near you off hand, but I'm pretty sure there must be one, though that could be a 50 mile radius. Try asking at your local rink. Even if they dont have a team in the league they may have a rec team you can go and see. I couldnt tell you what to expect in terms of quality from a rec team though, some are better than league teams, some will let anyone with pads and a stick play. Anyway hope that helps a bit, sorry I couldnt be more specific.

Hello, all.

A voice from Detroit here (Go Wings!) to say hello to all you very brave hockey fans. I'm sad to see that hockey has such a ridiculously bad rep over there. Methinks the fellow who wrote that article either hasn't seen a game since 1973, or just rented the movie Slapshot and called it research.

While *I* certainly approve of hockey being played the way it is intended (ie, blood, sweat, and game misconducts for all,) the nambly-pambly owners of the newer teams (those cities like Phoenix and Tampa Bay that should never have been given teams) have their hearts set on emasculating hockey. ;P Therefore, the reviewer is painfully out of date for the most part.

For a UK team, I root for the Coventry Blaze, as I've got an online friend who lives there, and it only seems fair =)

Obviously, my NHL team is the Red Wings; the unofficial religion of Michigan.

Anyhow, fight the good fight and if you see the puck coming, DUCK.

Kristen

I goto the "steelers" quite ioftner if you are interested in going let me know in [email protected] its easy to find the sheffield arena isn't far from the m1 or is easy to get to from the train station via tram