Monday's column

I'd like to give a big "congratulations" to Justin Chwedoruk who scored the first two goals Saturday night. He scored the only Fort Wayne goal against Port Huron in the previous home game ( a 4-1 loss ). He almost had two more goals Saturday, also. A power play goal and a shorthanded goal put the K's up 2-0. He works hard and maybe now his slump may be over. If it is, and the K's have all three lines scoring, the team will be tough to handle. The "d" needs to play a little smarter ( Warner ) and the penalties ( veterans ) need to be eliminated.

Alan, how dare you talk poorly about Warner! He carries this team and should, under no circumstances, ever be referred to in any negative manner. Warner should also never be associated with any type of negative play in any shape or form. We all know how fantastic he is, since he is from around here, and the massive asset he is to this team (whether it is when he is letting passes go right past his stick out of the zone on a powerplay or when he is shooting slapshots from just inside the blueline although there is an open man in front of the net). He is such a versatile player, able to play both offense and defense and, according to at least one blogger, at an AHL level.

I expect the defense to play better now that Phillips is back in the lineup.Whats the story with Woodard?Not real worried about what's going on, just curious.

FW:
LOL, Here I thought that I was the biggest Warner fan.

You forgot to mention that he get's out muscled when "trying" to clear out the front of the net like in the Flint game. (granted he wasn't the only one that had this issue. he was the one that stuck out the most)

I think there are politics behind keeping Warner on the roster.

Yep, he was also plus-3 last week with two points. Lynch him!

How about maybe questioning how the forwards were sneaking up ice and didn't do a very good job of getting back Saturday night?

If you want to go by points, Brandon had six during February to rank second on the team among blueliners.

I've seen EVERYBODY letting passes go right by them. So I just don't get the point of singling Warner out. :S

Blake, do you have his poster on the ceiling above your bed so you can see him each night before you sleep too? What are his season totals? I still don't buy into the whole +/- thing. All that means is he happened to be on the ice when someone else got the job done. It just seems like a cheap way to keep stats so no one has to break it down by player. If there was a great line and I was thrown on it and skated around in circles with no attention being paid to the game whatsoever, and my line scored all the time, I'd be a hell of a hockey player according to +/-, whether I was deserving of it or NOT.

Al had some interesting lines he was putting out during the power plays the other night. Not so much when we were killing them, but when we were attacking. Shaking it up a bit I guess.

now remember.. you can discuss the Komets all you want. Just do not, (for the love of God), have something negative to say about any of them, or you will be lynched. So if in your opinion someone "dropped the ball" in a couple games you went to just keep the name of that player to yourself. Otherwise Blake and company will bring the wrath down on you!! ~~shiver shiver~~

IMO Warner has done a so-so job.. have seen many mistakes.. My boy and I were pointing them out left and right last game. Please don't throw stats at me! He may be the second leading d man scorer twice removed in the third week of January 09', but from a couple recent games I went to, I saw some holes in his game.. so people pointing them out IMO is completely justified.. Obviously more than 1 person has seen something there.

You guys are crazy....Bertman and Robin are the best Dynamic Duo Defensemen in the league.

Duh silly!!!

Just because they give the puck away and Al f-bombs them loud enough that 10,500 could hear him doesn't mean that someone isn't inflating their +/- stats for them. If you watch the games, you can tell who is good, and who isn't. I don't need +/- OR a player passing the puck to a play maker to pass it to a goal-scorer to muddy my vision.

I agree though, Chewy is getting rewarded for his hustle and hard play. If all three lines keep clicking, and if they could figure a way to make the net 5 times bigger for PC......lol.....then they will be ready for a playoff run, maybe.

The tone of this blog has become interesting in the last few days.

I agree with a lot of whats said above.

Danke schoen, JM.

And just so I'm not accused of hating the Komets, I would also like to LOUDLY echo the above posts about Chewy's hustle, hard play, effort, and recent rewarding goals. Heck, even the guy who sits 10 rows above me has quit calling him "Chessy" and has learned to scream "Let's go, Chewy!" each time he hits the ice.

I also can't get enough of watching Schrock on the ice. To me, SCHROCK is the hometown player I'm proud to brag to people about. When we have friends in from out of town and take them to games, I usually keep my mouth shut when Warner hits the ice. Phillips also gets some boasting from me to the out-of-towners.

When it comes down to it, I guess we all have different favorites. Those we'll defend, and conversely, those we won't. I'm not saying anyone on the team isn't a good person, because I'm sure the majority of them are, I'm just saying I'm not going to act blind when even us "casual fans" can see all the mistakes.

Well said FW

Inflating +/- stats for them? Gee FW, you're not accusing our off ice officials of padding stats are you?

Sorry, that was Hit's comment about inflating stats....

The +/- is a stat like any other. It's something to look at. It doesn't mean everything, but it does mean something. Why? Because lest we forget, hockey is a team sport. If you have one defenseman skating in circles and not even paying attention, the reality is that not only will that line not score very much, they probably will get scored on. I don't care if they have Ovechkin himself. One weak link is all it takes. So a when a line does well, everyone gets rewarded. If it doesn't, everyone gets a "demerit", if you will. And yes, a player can get lucky by coming onto the ice at just the right moment, but they can also be unlucky in that respect, so those situations should more or less cancel each other out. Just my 2 cents.

Eh, I'm still not buying into it. Every time Lebron James gets a block, rebound, or throws down a monstrous dunk, Delonte West doesn't get some positive stat for standing over in the corner of the court. How many +/- does Jeff Saturday get each time Peyton Manning connects with Dallas Clark for 20 yards and a first down? What kind of stats does Gregg Berhalter get when David Beckham scores a goal? I know it's a great way to hide your favorite player's mistakes, but when it comes down to it, the stat is pretty comical as that it grants you recognition just for coincidentally being on the ice when someone else scores, whether or not you just let the other team catch you out of position or no matter how many passes from teammates you let slide past you out of the zone on a powerplay.

Okay FW, you lost me when you stated talking about Posh Spice's old man... There has to be some kind of blog foul for soccer talk.

That being said, I agree to an extent with your +/- arguement. But, it would seem that if a particular player sucks on the PP or PK, he'll generally suck all the time.

I say trust your eye over stats. A savvy fan will recognize a player that is constantly out of position, taking bad angles, and coughing up the puck... no matter what his +/- is, you can see how he's playing.

JM: I agree, I was reaching a bit when I brought up Beckham and had to even do some Internet research to find out the name of one of his teammates, but I needed another team sport to try and prove my point. Sorry, I was always taught to try and have at least 3 pieces of supporting evidence when I was going through my education. I'll have to shoot a foul back your way though for knowing his wife's name.

I guess my original post started this "Warner" thing. From where I'm sitting I have learned ( from watching him play ) to flinch a bit every time he touches the puck. I can't help it because I've seen too many poor decisions. You know, I also posted about too many penalties and I put the word "veterans" in parenthesis and no one, apparently, had a problem with that statement. I think the K's have a great group of forwards, but if I didn't, I would consider putting Warner up front and off the "D" permanently.....the +/- statistic is one that I look at but don't really put a lot of weight on it. So many things can affect it. Are you playing against the other team's first line, are your linemates as skilled as you would like, are you gassed because you had to stay out on the ice after an icing call? So many intangibles.

Something I learned a long time ago, Yanks seem much more obsessed with stats then Canucks. This applies not only to hockey but baseball and football.

The only exception in the Great White North might be someones record in playing Beer Hunter.

Funny thing.....the guy sitting next to me Saturday was talk-talk-talking about "Mr +/-" Bertram and whining about how "bad" he has been for the team. Then Guy Dupuis made an error that let in a goal about 2 shifts later. I had to laugh at that, and I love Guy as much as any other player on this team. He shut up after that. It's just one stat. I agree with whoever above said just watch the player, take it as part of the whole. My son is a defenseman. His +/- is enormous, around 25 for the season (I missed a couple plays so I am unsure on the exact number). He's not been on one consistent line this entire season, so it means squat when it comes to that. Some days his linemates are good at scoring, and some of the other defensemen suck at letting goals in (they are kids, after all). My kid has his bad days when he gets beat by a forward like any other defenseman. He has also had days when he has had up to 4 assists (like last Saturday's game, awesome!), and he scores too, so I think he's contributing a whole boatload to that team. He also took down a kid who was pestering his forwards (no check league, so he put him on his butt....oops, total accident. yeah...) You have to look at everything. What does the guy contribute to the team, not just what is ONE stat? If that's the case, then why not can Chwedoruk for not scoring like we did for Varone? We need to make a roster move soon, right? He's not been contributing, and if it's only one number that counts, then....he can go. I'm only using him as an example. I like his hustle, sure, but if you're gonna use a single stat for a defenseman to prove their worth, then use one for a forward, and scoring better be it. What better one could there be?