Other than a few bumps and bruises, coach Pat Bingham reported Sunday that everybody came through the weekend healthy. Now the Komets have five days to practice before Saturday's home opener against Quad City.
“We'll have this week to use some video and show them some clips
of good and bad,'' Bingham said. “We'll do a lot of teaching, and hopefully
we'll be making fewer errors, have more intensity and be ready to go right from
the beginning.''
There may also be a few lineup changes for Saturday depending on
how Bingham feels his players are learning.
Some of the good things the Komets saw this weekend included the
play of goaltender Kevin St. Pierre,
some excellent penalty killing and the willingness and ability to play a
hard-hitting game. No one looked totally lost on the ice.
Some of the weaknesses included poor defensive coverage, a
willingness to take too many lazy penalties and an obvious unfamiliarity with
Bingham's systems. No one looked totally comfortable on the ice, either.
“There's a lot to our systems, and they all tie in and make sense
and require a certain amount of ability from your players,'' Bingham said. “As
soon as they learn and understand what they are supposed to do, we'll be able
to gauge even better where we stand. Nobody has it all down pat. I just think a
week from now everybody will have a better understand of what is expected in
every situation.''
There's plenty of build off individually. Center Bruce Richardson
already had four assists, and defenseman Mario Larocque has three points.
Forward Daniel Goneau has a goal in each game.
But Goneau has also taken five minors, and the power play has one
goal in 12 tries.
“The shifts where all five were on the same page and making the
decisions at the right speed were the exception rather than the rule,'' Bingham
said. “We're a long ways from really getting it with the decision-making,
recognizing the play for what it is and the intensity you have to have to attack
it.''
Bingham also said he needs to find out more about his players
such as who else can kill penalties. He stuck with a main core of players and
admits he might have worn them out over the weekend.
“There were a lot of positive things as well,'' he said. “We're
not overwhelmingly more talented or deeper than the teams we played, but we're
not way behind either. There were a lot of solid efforts. Guys stood up for
each other and showed a willingness to learn.''
Now they just have to learn it.
Comments
Any chance the guys who are sitting out might get a chance to play in the next couple of weeks like Kelly Miller?
There may also be a few lineup changes for Saturday depending on how Bingham feels his players are learning.
I got you Smart Butt....Lineup changes could also mean changing up player combinations too.
Obviously he's not going to say on Sunday what he intends to do on Saturday so I can't answer your question any other way than to tell you what he told me.
Let me ask in a different way then....Guys that are on the inactive list, do they have to wait for the number of days to go by before they can play or are you allowed to just take them off at anytime?
Oh, sorry I misunderstood. They have to wait, but they will all be eligible for Saturday because you can back-date the time they went on the list. That also means someone else would have to go on IR or be cut, and I really don't think they are ready to make any more cuts, yet.
Thanks Mr. Sebring....Who is going to be the next Cub Manager? LOL
Who would you pick if you were the GM?
I say Joe Girardi...but only if they are going to make a commitment to him that he can have some say in the direction of players and player development. I think there was a huge problem when Dusty basically refused to deal with the Minor League system and didn't care to play younger guys when he needed to. How much can your team benefit from playing Neifi Perez game after game.....LOL
Sorry...back to hockey talk.
I like Girardi, too, for those exact same reasons. I don't trust Pinella. That said, I think Hendry will sign Pinella because it's a safer choice with more immediate impact.
GO CUBS
itll be lou cause the lazy cubs neeed their butts kicked. joe is too close in age to the players and lou should sign him as his bench coach and then joe will be ready to jump in when lou gets fired after his first major blowup..
Hire Pinella and have Zimmer be his bench coach. What an entertaining pair those two would be!
As far as the team goes, training camp is not nearly long enough especially for this level when you know there is going to be roster turnover every year.
It will be Joe because Lou will sit out a year and hope the Yankees don't win it again so he can take that job next year.
PS Go Komets!
I agree with Tony, but that's the way the league wants it. Owners don't want to be paying out too much money when they don't have it coming in that much from exhibition games. To make up for it, the league doesn't schedule too many games in October.
gee if they only charged five bucks for a seat they might get alittle more interest and attendance
Chuckitt how many folks do you think would show up on a weeknight for an exhibition game even at $5? And when you look at the full economics of it I am not sure they can open the arena doors at that price. I will assume the Komets pay some sort of rent per day used at the Coloseum? Does that include electricity? Then you have to pay the employees, and I would bet there is some kind of game day liability insurance etc. Little things like Zamboni upkeep etc. All kinds of little things. Now if you think that 10,000 would show up I might tell you that it is a good idea but I am not sure that even at $5 you would get more than 5000 in the building.
Blake do you think you could get the Komets to give you a list of their gameday expenses? Even without the dollar amounts. Just an idea of everything they have to write a check for at the end of the day.
2 of my favorite officials I hate finished 1 - 2 for the idiot of the week award.
John Searle 41 for 140 minutes
Mike Mondalek 34 for 124 minutes
Now Adam Fish who Blake said was very good, did call the fewest this weekend 19 for 38 minutes.
The K's are leading the league in minor penalties after the first week, which i know, we'll get better as time goes, but just imagine if we would have had Searle or Mondalek, it would have been whistlefest '06.
9 UHL games, 9 Different Ref's.
On another subject, Goneau 2 goals on 4 shots and he had the flu, can't wait to see him in action healthy.
I know most of it, and $5 would never come close to covering it. The housing alone for 30 players for two weeks kills most of it, then there's food, equipment, travel expenses, physicals, insurance, etc. Exhibition games are what they are. They'll never change.
The thing is, Burgee, those two officials did exactly what the league wants them to do, call everything so the players have to make adjustments. I'll bet you every penalty the komets got this weekend was because they weren't moving their feet.
I'd love to see the league stick with it so the players must make the adjustment. The hockey will be a lot better because of it.
Tony, i'll e-mail a sheet i put together from public info i scrounged, the amount of expense i calculated is pretty high and i used low numbers. other than the players i counted 51 (not including coliseum employees)people needing compensation per game.
When the Komets were in the IHL, they said publicly how much they lost one year, something like $2 million, and I was able to come within $100,000 from what I knew of their expenses.
J.F Labarre should get cut this week with Besner guy to take his place
sorry but those road uni"s are brutal,, it looks like a roller hockey team out there,
i even almost had to scrap, i heard them call us the ft wayne flamers.
Blake, any chance we get that dman from Hershey anytime soon?
heres the way i look at the exibition game.. they get $$ on avg about 15 from season ticket holders which makes them about 45,000 if they only charged 8 bucks for the game and get in 5000 then that almost equal the $$. but in terms of goodwill it would go a long way. all the people who complain about the full price ticket could go at half price and think they got a deal and think of all the people who mnight go for the first time and might get hooked and want to come back. it wouldnt hurt them to try something different instead of always giving the impression they are gouging the fans and are cheap. i dont like to hear that stuff and i myself call them on things like not haveing enough programs and other things but i want them to do right and i want them to make as much $$ as they can, but at the same time they have to leave a good taste in the mouths of the people who pay out the money if they want them to come back. i know quite a few season ticket holders who arent comming back this year because of the non entertainment from last year and the "perception" that the frankes didnt do any thing about it. right or wrong thats the way it is. as i know in business perception is what counts, the customer sees and believes what they perceive and its the job of the business to make things right so the perception of the customer fits the plans of the business. charging full price at basicly intrasquad games is not a way to build positve perseptions, thats all im trying to point out.
First, I hope the sCrUBS hire Lou Piniella. For God sake, PLEASE get him off the TV telecasts. He's got to be the WORST color man in history.
As usual, chuckitt makes good points. But, I would suspect that most of the fans with enough interest to get off of their fat (fannies) to attend a midweek exhibition game were the season ticket holders who got the game as part of their season ticket package.
I doubt that there would be significant walkup regardless of the cost. The fans who want to come, generally will.
If you are charging, say, and average ticket price of $15 and reduce that to $5, you have to draw three times as many fans to breakeven.
chuckitt's comment (the business term he was looking for was "perception is reality") on the part of the customer is a valid point.
I did see chuckitt at the exhibition game and, sorry JM, but it sure looked like HE is the one who got that last beer. And a few prior to that one, too.
Exhibition games are hard enough to keep track of when there are not ample roster sheets available, the last thing I needed was to be drinking all of Chuckitt's beer. I'll be catching up as the season progresses. Port Huron looks a little more exciting this year, so I'll have to find a new opponet to tie on the 6 beer games.
I too am interested if the Dman from Hershey is getting here anytime soon..