The plus/minus stat can be misleading, and is overrated, I feel. If a player steps on the ice when his teammate makes a bonehead play, he's a minus. If his teammate scores when he's on the ice, he's a plus; whether or not he had anything to do with the play. I guess it all might average out over a season...
I have stuck up for Rivet in the past, when he was leading the team with a -9. I just felt he was being unfairly judged by this stat, and chose to defend him.
Rivet was -8 and being booed by the fans in mid-November. (He played terrible and went -9 in a ten-game stretch from Oct 25th to Nov 13th, as the team went 2 - 7 - 1.) He then played much better and was a respectable -1 over a 26-game stretch, from Nov 15th to Jan 10th. Still, he was criticized many times for being - 9 overall. Now he's +7 in the last three games, and receiving praise. And what has Rivet done lately to earn a +7 in three games? Mainly he's been fortunate enough to be on the ice with the Ribeiro line a lot of the time. Which one is the real Rivet? Probably the one who went - 1 over 26 games.
But plus/minus stats....I don't know. There's another thread on this board about Komisarek being sent down, because he's not playing very good. Well, he's +5 in his last three games. Or how about this....Boullion (who I feel is playing great) is +6 at home, and -8 on the road. What does that tell us? That he can't play on the road? Probably just that he's a victim of circumstance.
Rivet is younger and faster than Quintal. He's younger, tougher and cheaper than Brisebois. He wears the A, and is more experienced than Komisaurus. He's tough, versatile, and has leadership skills, which I feel will serve us well down the stretch. The last 10 games of this season, and the first round of the playoffs can/will be brutally tough. Teams will be scratching and clawing to make the postseason, or trying to improve their playoff position. I think Rivet can be a valuable addition to our team from here to season's end.
Great post... and quite true... 
