Hockey score related question related to a number line, maybe. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Spider-the-man]

This problem has me stumped:
A hockey player whose team scores the same number of goals as the other team scores has a rating of 0. What is the rating for a hockey player whose team scores 5 goals less than the other team scores? Explain your answer.

I set up a number line to "graph" the relevant info, but to me, the question doesn't correspond to the right comparison of data. So, my understanding is, there's a hockey player who's rated at "0", and whose team has scored the same number of goals as another team. Okay, what would the rating of a hockey player on a another team whose team scores 5 less goals? I'm so confused. I just guessed -5 because the rating of the first hockey player is zero, and I made the assumption that ratings are tied to team goals scoring, so five points less might bring a rating down from 0 (the base rating) by five...I don't know. Can you shed some light? Thanks.

 

[tkhunny]

This problem has me stumped:
A hockey player whose team scores the same number of goals as the other team scores has a rating of 0. What is the rating for a hockey player whose team scores 5 goals less than the other team scores? Explain your answer.

I set up a number line to "graph" the relevant info, but to me, the question doesn't correspond to the right comparison of data. So, my understanding is, there's a hockey player who's rated at "0", and whose team has scored the same number of goals as another team. Okay, what would the rating of a hockey player on a another team whose team scores 5 less goals? I'm so confused. I just guessed -5 because the rating of the first hockey player is zero, and I made the assumption that ratings are tied to team goals scoring, so five points less might bring a rating down from 0 (the base rating) by five...I don't know. Can you shed some light? Thanks.

One tiny suggestion, Same ==> 0, is hardly sufficient to develop any sort of pattern. Just pick any value you like. Seriously.

 

[Spider-the-man]

One tiny suggestion, Same ==> 0, is hardly sufficient to develop any sort of pattern. Just pick any value you like. Seriously.

Thanks, I'm in sixth grade, not a math guy, and I didn't think there was enough info to answer this, so I guessed. Okay...I thought maybe there was something I didn't get. I needed someone else to tell me. My dad said the same thing, but he's not a math guy either. Thanks!

 

[Steven G]

I think that there is even a problem with the rating of 0. Suppose this player A is amazing (Brad Park for example), his team scores at least 3 goals per game and the other team never scores a goal WHEN HE IS PLAYING. Now further suppose that his team stinks and the other team always scores many goals when this player A is not playing.

A true rating of player A should only count when he is playing. He should have a rating of say 27 (after 9 games +3 points per game).

This has to be the worst worded problem I have ever seen.