I was talking to Bob Chase and Komets PR director Chuck Bailey before the game about the difference in officiating this weekend and someone, I wish I remembered who, came up with the thing that summed it all up. ``There's calling penalties and then there's calling a hockey game. Anybody who can skate and blow a whistle can call penalties, but can they call a game?'' That makes all the sense in the world.
Which kind of leads me to coach Pat Bingham's post-game press conference. Here are some excerpts:
``The guy hit Hansen from behind and three guys don't see it... I have a problem with that. I don't want to harp on officiating, but there are some things that are considered the dirtiest plays in hockey, hitting from behind, the leg check that happened to Goodwin, and hits to the head when you leave your feet (like with Voorhees). It sure looked to me like the guy who stepped up on... Sure, he was in a vulnerable position. He was reaching for the puck and everything, but from my perspective on the bench, the guy left his feet to hit him in the head, and he literally went overtop of him. I would think if he didn't leave his feet he would have stood him up or bowled him over, but he went ove the top.
``They're not going to see everything, but I do want them to enforce those... along with the new agenda of the hooking and holding and all that stuff to clean up the game and open it up more. When you do open up the game, you saw it tonight with big open ice hits as a result. People who are critical of new rules or whatever it really prevents you from holding people up and the whole idea was to stop them from running the crap out of you. I think we made the mistake a few too many times of throwing passes up the middle, trying to get cute, and their D guys took every opportunity to step up in the neutral zone and we paid the price for that. Like I said, it's up to the referee to take care of checks from behind, hits from behind, leg checks when you're trying to take somebody's knee out and hits to the head, jumping to take a guy's head off.''
Bingham also heaped praise on players such as David Hukalo, Pascal Morency, Martin Gascon and, Kevin Hansen for doing the little things better such as aggressive forechecking, hustle and getting the puck deep on line changes.
``All the other guys who have scored a lot of points know what they are doing for the team,'' Bingham said.
Comments
I wasnt at the game because of work, so I have a couple of questions... 1, since the ref's were not "noticing" these cheap shots and calling them, did any of the K's step up and show thier displeasure with the hits??? 2, If Kiyaga is gonna be in the lineup and only get a couple shifts a period why cant the K's sign a more agressive player to do the same??? That way when the cheap stuff starts you can at least use that player for something...granted I wasnt at the game 2nite so I dont know what kind of ice time Kiyaga got.
JR as far as Kiyaga goes, it is all about potential. He is a young raw player. When you are winning as the Komets are most nights you can afford to bring a guy like this along as long as the team continues to win. If he continues to improve, by the end of the season you could have a nice player.
The officiating situation will always be there. With one referee his eyes are going to be wherever that puck is and nowhere else because the minute he loses sight of it he is supposed to whistle play dead. So you either get a second referee out there or you give the lineman some kind of ability to whistle stuff away from the puck where alot of the cheap stuff takes place. Unfortunatly, neither will ever happen.
Hun???? Your mom-in-law reads the blog?
You know how it is when your at the store and you jump out of your line because the line next to you is moving faster. Then, when you move to it the line you were in starts moving faster. Sounds like Puhalski has a tough team and were with another year of Puhalski type hockey. I do not understand why someone will not climb over the boards and let the other team that were not going to stand for the cheap shots. Hell, the oldest, nicest, most level headed player (Dupuis) had to step in when ( I forget who) got nailed.
I think this team does very good at protecting the other guys on the team. They actually stick up for one another. That's something that last years team didn't do.
Now we got the call everything stopped -- therefore we just need to tweek it, we went from one extreme to the other, now we just need to find that happy medium, this is where film review and guidance from the league office can make a big difference, good first step, now we just need to take the goonie-ness out.
Flint really stinks, i hope Al Sims can find some good players soon.
No time off for the bruises, Rockford will want to win Wednesday, we need to be ready.
dont know what game you were watching last night komets29, but i only saw the guys step up for one another once, and nobody did anything on the real bad dirty hits. this team has everything going for it except the real tough part. there were two flint guys last night who should have been hammered on, becasue they were asking for it allnight, but how many big hits and fights did we have?? 0 if we cant send a message when we are up four goals then whats gonna happen when were in a close game and the other team starts cheap shoting our players?
Wait a second, did Hit just say sommething nice about someone on the blog? Gasp! (Grabs chest starts to keel over). He must be sucking up for a Christmas gift. Either that or he's in BIG trouble for something else.
It probably depends on your definition of stepping up. After Voorhees got hit, Goodwin defintely stepped up right after that and nailed four Flint guys on the next shift. Voorhees came back a few shifts later and just nailed two guys. There was some definite head-hunting going on, but it was legal -- and the game was still in doubt at the time.
In the locker room after the game, Syrocynzki was talking about he went after Flint No. 3 three times and asked him to go, but he was smart enough at the time not to take an instigator penalty. Then he was told to back off by his coach late in the game.
Maybe you guys would rather have Puhalski back as coach. Last year through 10 games the Komets had 12 fighting majors, this year they have six. Not bad for a coach who supposedly didn't want physical play or aggressive teams.
i've seen a lot of this, this year
http://www.kometsphotos.com/Flint/FLT_0258.JPG
i don't remember seeing that until the playoffs in the past.
We have a special team this year.
Blake we had Worlton at the time and I bet 8 of those Majors were his..and we don't have anyone who is just an enforcer on the team...Syrocynzki maybe the guy who will fill this role and if he was looking for a chance to go with someone Hyman for Flint is their "tough" guy so I am sure he would have been more than willing to go with Syrocynzki. Will Elmira coming to town there will plenty of willing guys to fill Syrocynzki's dance card.
Heck No to having Puhalski back! I wouldn't change a thing about how the team is coached this year!!!
The guys are out there to play hockey, not to get into fights during every game. We have guys that will drop the gloves when coach wants them to. We don't have any so called goons and that's a good thing.
The days of the guy who is a total thug and can't play are dead. Thank the Lord! Everyone on this year's team can play.
I wanted to give a shout out to Larry for a great job of playing a few different songs this game. (Thanks for playing a LITTLE of The Peanut Vendor, dang scoopguys cutting the song short!)
And I would like to give a big thumbs down to the punk kid and his family sitting in the row in front of us for letting the kid throw a coin into the crowd. Then the usher came up and told him not to throw anymore stuff. ANYMORE??? How many things do you get to throw before you get kicked out? I should have just kicked him in the head...
Also, I've got to thank Larry for playing "Do I play hockey?!" before the game. I definitally hope that becomes a main stay.
Well I play hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey!
larry did another fine job of getting great songs into the mix!! i wasnt talking about a goon. we dont have to have a goon if everyone is willing to go to back up his brethern. we had more majors last year because of worlton and guys trying to make the team. this year we have guys who know and understand their roles! i just dont like seeing guys get cheap shoted and noone doing something. maybe our guys were being smart and maybe coach said wait and maybe flint wouldnt accomadate. the real test will be the first time someone runs st pierre. then we will see the true makeup of our toughness. i just wished it woulda happened last night, cause they were dirty.
i thought that little punk willis ran frenchy friday night, he also ran the goalie last night -- forget who they played.
Tony, Is Kiyaga goimg to grow 5" and put on 50 lbs.??? Because if he isnt he will still be getting pushed around out there come the end of the season. I am not trying to bash the guy I just believe he is playing out of position. If the K's wanted to bring him along at forward I could see it; but they are not so I would like to see six d-men the coach can use so the guys dont get tired. When Bozoain comes back who do you think sits...Kiyaga, Bozoain, or Honkanen???
I definitally hope it's not Honkaden, he pushes everyone out of Frenchy's way after a play and no one gives him any crap when he comes along from behind and moves them along. He's got size and intimidation.
I cannot believe this team is being compared to last years Puhalski team! Are you people never satisfied with anything? These players do stick up for one another, I believe they are being smart about when to fight. These guys get into other players heads and make them take stupid penalties and then put the puck in the net. This team is far better than Puhalskis guys last year and I still can't believe there is even a comparison.
While you all got me fired up, I sure wish we wouldn't have signed Ruid he sure is soft! You people are never satisfied! I still can't believe that one.
My friend was right, we sat up there watching the game Saturday night and he said you all would be on the blog talking about how we aren't tough enough and no one stands up for anyone! The only thing that could have made last nights game better for the blog is if they would have run on Frenshy and we could hear all about how everyone runs our goalies!
I'm beginning to wonder why any of you still go to games as nothing the K's do is ever good enough for any of you!
JR, If all goes well, once he gets used to the speed of the game and gets himself into better positions on the ice he will be fine. He is certainly a project player and a challenge for coach Bingham who I believe takes pride in developing raw talent. I am not saying keep the guy if he doesn't improve but he is a young player probably making very little money and fills a rookie roster spot. Lets see where he is after 20-25 games. Every team has at least one week link. At least in the case of Arthur it is due to lack of experience and not lack of effort.
Sniper, this isn't bad. Wait until the Komets have the nerve to lose two games in a row! There will be a suicide watch in the MC parking lot!
Tony, can the K's afford to wait 25 games for Kiyaga to catch up??? This is a d-man we are talking about NOT the extra forward... I just dont want to see our veteran d-men get worn out because they are basically playing with 5 guys.
Well Sniper as long as people pay the money they do to see the K's then we all can have a discussion of what we think is wrong and right.
JR that is the million dollar question. Let me ask you, do you think there are any rookies floating around that are going to be much better. Don't forget coach Bingham has a fairly complex system and so anyone you bring in is going to also look out of place for awhile. I heard on the radio Mr Franke saying they are looking for another rookie right now and if that happens then you have an extra and you can work both guys in as well as see if the new guy has a better learning curve. Right now Arthur does not get many minutes and since this team backchecks well, they can cover for him while he gets his feet wet. I think he is going to continue to improve. I am also sure that the Komets have their eyes out there just in case something can fall into their lap.
This is starting to sound like a hen party.
this team is nothing like "MR" NOBODYS team.
GOOD JOB KOMETS
They like Arthur for quite a few reasons. He's very smart and out of all the players he probably plays the systems the best. That's what Bingham said, not me. He's also fast. He's going to get better, in fact the players think he already is getting better. He's also a great guy that his teammates respect, and I can tell you that hasn't always happened with rookies in recent years. He works with Guy and Richardson almost every day extra in practice.
You can't blame him for the puck deflecting oddly off the glass Saturday night. There's nothing anyone could have done about it and it could have happened to anyone.
Let's step back a bit and realize he's a rookie and there's a tremendous learning curve here. Every team in the league is going through a very difficult time with its rookies.
It's also extremely difficult to get rookies to come to the UHL becaues their agents are all telling them they need to go to the ECHL because of its affiliation with the AHL. Arthur is a diamond in the rough, and I think by the end of the season this discussion will be completely forgotten.
I guarantee if the Komets dropped him, someone else would pick him up in a heartbeat because everyone is always looking for defensemen.
arthur is a rookie and that alone will help him stick. he has a lot of raw talent and he will come along, the question is how long the ks will give him. youre pretty funny sniper, you put us down for having some constructive criticisims but its ok for you to trash ruid. thats typical of you people who see everything thru rose colored glasses. sat game was one where we needed to stand up and make a statement and we didnt. yeh we won, but we won a lot last year and then got run out of the playoffs. we just dont want to see that again. as a former player i will continue to voice my opinions when i see something i think is wrong. blog is for discussion not for always blowing kisses.
I think the problem with being tough goes along with how the penalties are being called. There's so much inconsistancy that players aren't sure what they can do and not do, so right now they are playing it safe. If the league looks at the hits the Komets want them to and not hand out suspension then I think there will be payback in later games, if suspensions are handed out then that might pacify the guys for a while.
great comment greg!! go komets