Hockey fans who follow analytics love to talk about shot attempts and puck possession - they swear by Corsi and Fenwick numbers - and frown on plus-minus statistics, which measure whether a player is on the ice when a goal is scored for or against his team in even-strength situations.
It says here that all of the stats, including plus-minus, are meaningful to a certain degree. They are far from perfect, but they give us a tool to measure a certain aspect of a player's game.
For instance, Flyers captain Claude Giroux was not happy with his defensive work in the season's first eight games - and openly pointed to his plus-minus rating as a fair representation of his struggles.