Temperatures plunged to minus-40 and worse in Nick Leddy’s home state of Minnesota last week, matching a dubious benchmark the defenseman reached on the ice last season with the Islanders.
Plus-minus often is considered a misleading statistic, but Leddy ranked last in the NHL in that defensive rating in 2017-18 at minus-42 as part of the Isles leading the league in goals allowed under since-fired coach Doug Weight.
“I tried to block it out as much as possible, but for me the whole year was very frustrating,” Leddy said after practice Monday. “When you’re up there for top in the league — or the bottom, I guess — especially as a defender, it’s tough to digest that, because I knew that wasn’t me.