Plus-minus stats need a bit of context.(The Gazette)

DENVER _ If only Joe Sakic could take the ice against Montreal defenseman Patrice Brisebois every night.

Sakic, the Colorado captain, leads the NHL with a plus-41 (through Saturday). Down at the bottom of the plus-minus rankings, at No.990, you'll find Brisebois' name. He's minus-29.

It raises a couple of mildly interesting questions, dismissing the obvious one about whose idea it was to name Brisebois "Patrice." What is plus-minus? And are there really 989 players not as good as Sakic but better than Brisebois?

The plus-minus statistic will be cited relentlessly if and when Sakic wins the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player. It was last year, when St. Louis defenseman Chris Pronger led the league and won the award.

But the same stat used to argue which player deserves the MVP nod can be wildly misleading. Finding Greg deVries' name in the top 20 should serve as an exclamation point for that notion.

The concept is simple. Players receive a point for being on the ice when their team scores, and lose a point for being out there when the opponent scores. Power-play goals don't count, but short-handed ones do.

The idea is to measure a player's bottom-line impact on his team's success. In other words, what good is a player who scores 50 goals if his team gets outscored when he's on the ice?