Defense is something that needs to be learned by the players who excel at offense, even if it limits offensive production, but once you got defense down, you go back into the offensive mold you once were.

Every player in the league has one bad year or a few in their careers, but changing from an offensive system to defensive also hurts offensive players a bit.

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Just to play devil's advocate here, what about Vanek's league leading +/- minus season on a line with Finny and Roy(who were by far the teams 2 give-away experts at the time)??

I think it kind of proves that that stat is complete and utter BS. Neither of those guys will EVAR win a Selke(V and Finny). LOL

If anyone wants to take a stab, they are welcome to try to explain to me why that line was ACTUALLY so great defensively.

I'm not saying Mac is great defensively, but people are throwing his +/- around like it's PROOF he's one dimensional.

+/- isn't necessarily proof.

But out of all the forwards, Mac is the one I least often see stealing a puck on the back check.

Positionally, he gets lost in the defensive zone as well when a cycle is established.

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Wheelhouse

Hecht, Sekera, Rivet.

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+/- is not that deceptive as long as you know the game fairly well. I think we all know when a player like Drury or John Madden are hovering around even, it's because they are matching against the other team's top line and hanging tough with it. Otherwise, players like MacArthur that are never matched against top lines and are still -12, it's a clear indicator.

Vanek, Roy, Max (and Stafford) were in a unique situation as a legit scoring 3RD line. There weren't many (any) teams that season or since that could match up with three scoring lines, so the Vanek line dominated while the "new" NHL was still in effect. Their +/- skyrocketed because of their point production, not because of defensive play.

This theory does not take into account line matching. If they were the 3rd line, then they would often be facing the other teams top line when on the road. Seeing as how Roy and Finny gave away the puck on a silver platter, it must mean they were at LEAST doubling the production of the opposition's 1st lines half the time(on the road). I mean what coach wouldn't want his top line out against the other teams give-away line??