We’ve gotten a bit into March, so I thought it would be a great time to check on the standings for my favorite unimportant statistic: plus-plus (+/+)!
For those not in the know, plus-plus is described in more extensive detail in this article, which features its debut for the season, but the short version is that it looks at which skaters are on the ice when the most goals happen: for or against their team. If you want to see goals in a game and don’t care which team is scoring, its best to tune in when these players at the top of the plus-plus standings are on the ice.
The last time we looked at the +/+ standings was near the start of February as part of an international break viz roundup. Without further ado, let’s take a look at how the new standings compare:
Ella Shelton, the +/+ leader from last time, has been relegated by her teammate Alex Carpenter, with Carpenter boasting a +/+ of 39 compared to Shelton’s 37.
However, despite two of their players sharing the top spot, PWHL New York’s utter dominance of the +/+ standings from last time, where their players claimed all of the top five slots, has been broken up just a little bit. Now, five of their players have to share the ten joint spots comprising the top five places. Rounding out the PWHL New York contingent are Abby Roque, Jaime Bourbonnais, and Jessie Eldridge, who claim three of the five tied fifth place spots with all having a +/+ of 34. The other two of the tied fifth slots are claimed by Erin Ambrose from PWHL Montréal and Sarah Nurse from PWHL Toronto.
PWHL Toronto is making their own run at +/+ dominance; alongside Nurse they are represented in the top ten by Renata Fast claiming the third spot, just one behind Carpenter with a +/+ of 36, and Natalie Spooner in one of the two joint tenth places with a +/+ of 33. The other tenth place spot went to Marie-Philip Poulin, joining her teammate Ambrose to round out the PWHL Montréal representation on the list.
Sneaking in there at fourth is Savannah Harmon, the only representative from PWHL Ottawa in the top ten. This follows the prediction from last time, where Harmon claimed a tied eighth despite having two games in hand compared to most other players. Now, with PWHL Ottawa all caught up, she sits comfortably in her spot with a +/+ of 35.
Notably, there are two teams unrepresented in the top 10: PWHL Minnesota and PWHL Boston. Taking a look at the top +/+ skater for each team:
Judging by +/+ per games played, it seems like the one game in hand for PWHL Boston’s Megan Keller makes her seem further from the top ten than perhaps she should be. She has a +/+ of 32, but with her +/+ per games played of exactly 2.13 you could extrapolate that with that one game in hand she could maybe be at 34, which would place her in one of the many joint fifth spots in the top ten.
On the other hand, PWHL Minnesota seems less concerned with the +/+ crown. Their top skater, Kelly Pannek, boasts a +/+ of 31, which is not outrageously low but is definitely a good distance away from the top ten spot at the moment.
Overall, PWHL New York continues its claim to title of “team whose games a goal-loving neutral should tune in for”, but PWHL Toronto is making a run for it themself, and the competition for the +/+ title between Alex Carpenter and Ella Shelton has heated up. Also interestingly, the split between forwards and defenders at the top of the table remains relatively even. We’ll see if that all still holds the next time we check in on my beloved, useless but (hopefully) fun little statistic. (Which, thanks to the PWHL’s new inclusion of time on ice in the stats lineup, should hopefully feature instead +/+ per 60! So you, that’s something to look forward to if you’re like me.)