Inside the Zone for this week

Super Fan....Quick question.

Is there a deadline for players that have their rights protected as far as you either sign them or they become unprotected. I was thinking it was January....but can't find it on the IHL site. For instance, we have Mitch Wood's rights protected I believe.....when does he become unprotected?

It's the first 90 days of the season.

Thank you,

I might know who the Komets are going to sign next then for toughness.....

He is BIG unlike his name. There is my clue.

I don't know Hit, Jordan Little could be interesting. He's big, can play, but if he got released in the CHL, I'm not sure how that fits in the IHL. We'll see. I know one thing for sure, he and Brent Henley did not get along too well.

By the way....

This clue all stems from a rumor that has been flying around that the Komets were to sign a familiar player to all of us IHL fans that would sure up the toughness with this team...the signing was supposed to come after the first of the year...hence the 90 day rule....and it would be a BIG signing in size, but not by name.

Great guess Super Fan.

People are saying that he has all ready been signed or maybe approached by an IHL team.....I hope it is us and not Muskegon. If they get him, we are dead meat.

Actually, it's been my experience over the 15 years I've known him that Brad Jones is very thorough and consistent in his rulings. He takes his time and talks to as many people as he needs to.

Let's face it, it's a rotten job that doesn't pay 1/10th what it's worth in aggravation. It doesn't matter what he rules, 99 percent of the fans will still ridicule him.

Super Fan being the 1%???

LOL

Sgroi would destroy little

Isn't Jim Sorgi out for the year???

In the 20 years I've covered the Komets, I've never seen a dean of discipline who works harder at it or talks to more people to get input so he can make the call. I've known him to send tape to other leagues and NHL reps to get their input so he makes sure he gets it right. I have a lot of respect for him and the way he does his job. He never ducks a phone call, and often calls people back no matter what time of day or night. Look at the way he handled the penalty shot last year during the playoffs. Not every league official I've dealt with over the years would do that. I know I could not do his job because I don't have the patience. I think he shows a lot of class in an impossible job knowing a lot of people will dislike him just because of the job he has.

Admit it -- has their ever been a person in charge of discipline you liked? Exactly.

My Jr High Principal, he didn't take any crap and gave me the ankle grabbing board without listening to my side of the story!

Yes he is out for the year/ little would help with the toughness, I think flint has his rights from k-zoo draft.

Little is a half rate toughguy.. I'm just saying it now before he becomes the next great thing then gets beat down all over the internet when he loses a fight. I've heard he's going to Muskegon.

I could be totally wrong on this, and if I am, please correct me and explain it to me, but there is quite the debate on here between scorers and big tough guys. Muskegon has a bunch of big tough guys and they are at the top of the league. We have some of the best (if not the best) puck handlers and skill players in the league (Shaf, Chaulk, etc.) and we're down in the rankings. I guess where I'm lost is aren't the standings showing the answer that a team needs at least a couple of these tough guy types of players?

Frozen they do have some of the best puck handlers and skill players. The problem is that up until this weekend, they rarely showed it the first part of the season.

Frozen, Muskegon's goal scorers, to be blunt, right now make ours look sick.

The top 3 scorers point wise are Bouchard, Robinson, and DiPace, in that order, and they all play for Muskegon. Between the three of them they have 43 goals and 73 assists. So far Muskegon has scored 90 goals.

Our top scorer is Chaulk, tied at 8th next is Druin tied at 12th. That's it in the top 20. Our top goal scorers are Thomas 10, Chewy 6, and Druin with 5. That's a total of 21 goals.

The Komets have scored a total of 66 goals to Muskegon's 90.

Muskegon's goalies are rated 2 and 3 in the league. Right now Haun is our best and he is at 5. Give Bush some healthy time and he'll probably improve on that.

Muskegon is at the top not because they have a couple of tough guys, they are at the top because they are good at scoring goals and preventing other teams from scoring goals. The toughness helps but it isn't the key here. Compare some PIMs if you want to go into it deeper.

Fort Wayne is good (so far) at preventing other teams from scoring goals but we are bad at scoring goals and that's what wins games.

and one of the biggest reasons we are not good at scoring goals is because we have hardly any toughness at all...they show very little life....YAY we beat and maybe out muscled the last place team....barely....

Steve--I like your brake down.

So from what I'm reading from the responses I've seen, it's a combination of both, right? By the way Steve, great information and thank you for the stats. While I agree Muskegon's top three are great scorers, wouldn't you say it helps that other teams know not to try anything too physical against them or else they'll release the hounds on people? It just seems watching the Komets that no one has a fear in the world of any type of repercussions from getting physical with any of our players. Getting laid out each time you have the puck makes it harder to score goals I would think? I can't say I'm on the bandwagon to totally goon out this team, but I am thinking more and more one or two of these guys would help. Besides, if the vets we have are as talented and untouchable as people seem to say they are whenever talk of cutting one of them comes up, we should be more than able to make up for not having one of them around.

You can say all you like about how nice and how hard working Mr Jones is, but that 15 game suspension for Mac was so logically flawed that I have no respect for Jones. He said he did it because a previous call was missed - therefore Mac got 15 games for a penalty that was never called. With that kind of logic, Lawmaster should have gotten 15 also because he wasn't given a penalty for his second fight, not to mention the goalie, Bouchard and others who jumped Mac behind the net and didn't get penalties. Heaven help us all with people like that making judgements. Good luck to Mac.

Komets91- By toughness if you mean someone paying the price by creating traffic in front of the crease, I agree, although we've seen more of that finally in the last couple of games.

To go along with what Frozen is saying, yes I agree, it is a combination. I don't think this league is pushing fighting as much as it is physical, hard hitting, in your face hockey. In that aspect we are slacking off. I think it is part of the modern day era of hockey, kids aren't taught that style anymore so if they come to this league they have to pick it up. Finding the balance between physical presence and puck handling skills I would imagine is one of the hardest things to do.

I keep in mind that the Komets have won two Turner cups in a row, three under Al, and he's taken us to the finals a couple of times beyond that. He sure must know what he's doing, but even so we are bound to have off seasons.

10 of Mac's 15 game suspension was for leaving the box to fight. That's an automatic, no choice by Jones 10 game suspension. The other 5 were for abusing an official. The issues of penalties that weren't called has to be taken up with the people who call the penalties, the ref and at times the linesmen. I'm not disagreeing that more penalties should have been called, I'm just pointing out that it's not Jone's fault they weren't.

mitch woods signed tuesday.

Steve--I like what you have the say and how you say it. If I may steal a saying "Ditto". :) ;)

Thanks Dschebig.

I wouldn't say that Little is the big tough defensemen we need. If I remember right either Mac or Woods broke his nose last year or the year before in a preseason game.

That was BigMac who broke littles nose. It was against Kalamazoo last year in the preseason.

Ever notice how Glenn never fails to have his eyes closed and Blake never fails to be flashing that trademark grin in the still shot?