Detroit Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou is on track to make NHL history, and not in a good way.
During tonight’s game vs. the Montreal Canadiens, his plus/minus rating fell to a jaw-dropping -45, the worst in the NHL.
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Unfortunately, a couple of his teammates helped him round out the final five spots in all of the NHL in that category. Valtteri Filppula is next to last with a -40 rating, while Filip Hronek, Mike Green and Robby Fabbri are stuck at -32, -32 and -29, respectively.
A particularly troubling factor in Athanasiou’s rating is that he missed the entire month of January with an injury. He joins Rico Fata (PIT) as the only player since 1995 with such a low rating; his was a -46 in 2003-04.
At the same time, the awful ratings aren’t exactly a surprise. The Red Wings feature the NHL’s worst goal differential at -107, meaning they’ve given up 107 more goals than they’ve scored. Ouch!
GM Steve Yzerman will surely have improving the team defense on his mind heading into this offseason.
