??? Karen/Greg Ambrose <[log in to unmask]>
??? 11/13/97 08:58pm >>>
??? ... penalties are a factor which interrupt the
??? flow of a game but, unless there is a power
??? play goal, have no relevcance to the outcome
??? itself.
 
Now your talking, Greg. All too often, penalties
are evened out by the referee. You get no *REAL*
indication from a list of penalties as to what the
game was really like.
 
In fact, to assume you can really derive a good
sense of a game from a penalty listing is sort of
a foolish idea.
 
The only thing that really matters and can be
presented in a box score, is how well a team's
power-play or penalty-killing team did. Thus 3/6
power-play for one team versus 1/6 for the other
tells me all I need to know. Unless I personally
witnessed the infraction (which I often miss even
when I'm there), then I'm not foolish enough to
make any assumptions about the player's discipline
or the possibilitity that the penalty was taken
"for the team".
 
Referees call penalties and more often than not,
the job they do is questionable. Therefore a
listing of "questionable" calls is not something
I'm going to put a lot of weight in.
 
- Paul.
 
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