Now, the +/- stat doesn't hold very much water, I know that, I'm just curious. From the famed PPG line, there is a large disparity in the +/-.
Getzlaf +17
Perry +12
Penner -2
Were the lines shuffled a bit? I was under the impression that was a set line for most of the year, but I have no idea, really. Is Penner just that bad defensively? Did he play on a different PP unit and give up a lot of shorthanded goals?
The PPG line wasn't a fixed entity. Getz and Perry were often paired with Fedoruk, Thornton, or Parros. Sometimes Kunitz.
Penner spent long stretches not being good enough to get the ice time, and had a lot of fourth line nights. That's where his minus comes from. He's a mediocre backchecker. Not entirely his fault - he spends his shifts deep in the opposing zone, and when the puck goes the other way, it's sometimes tough for him to lug his big ass out and back quickly enough.
He played the first part of the year mainly with Marchant and Shannon. It really wasn't until Marchant starting having abdominal problems in the second half of the year that the PPG unit was put together consistently.
It wasn't until the end of the season he played with Getzlaf and Perry. He played on a line with Marchant, while there haven't been an legible right winger as Thornton, Fedoruk, May, Parros and Shannon has been used on that line.
I believe it was when Marchant got hurt longtime he took place on the Getzlaf & Perry line, and when Marchant came back he was stuck on that line.
For further reference, I think Fedoruk was the regular member with Getzlaf and Perry at the beginning of the season. When he got injured (and subsquently dealt) it was a bit of a revolving door at left wing. When Marchant got injured, Penner entered that revolution and he stuck there.
