Joseph Mantooth (through Carol) writes:
>> Defense: Defenseman Dan Trebil led Minnesota to two victories over Minnesota-
>> Duluth.
>
>   Carol, have we forgotten the most important defenseman,
>   namely the goalie...
>
>   I think your newspaper forgot (intentionally) the
>   performance by Michigan Tech's goalie, Luciano Carravagio (sp?)...
>   he had a stellar 51 saves with only 2 passing by him...
>   that's a 96.23% save percentage...I'd say that would be
>   phenominal by comparison for anyone, not to mention that
>   it was in a division more competative than ours (CCHA - LSSU)...
 
Well, it is certainly not right to claim that the Minnesota paper
intentionally left Caravaggio out.  These things are decided at the
WCHA league office and the Minnesota paper just reports them.
 
Here is an objective comparison of the two performances, just looking
at the numbers.
 
Trebil had two assists Friday night including one on the game winner.
He added a goal and 3 assists Saturday for 1-5--6 on the weekend -
darn impressive numbers for a defenseman.
 
Caravaggio stopped 76 of 81 shots on the weekend for a GAA of appr.
2.50 and a save % of .938.  Still pretty impressive, but, note that
you can't just take the LSSU game.  It's Player of the *Week*.
 
I would give it to Trebil too, because his performance came during a
pair of WCHA league games.  It's also *WCHA* Player of the Week.
 
Perhaps I should rewrite my ceramic dalmatian poll quip to include
Players of the Week.  We are going to hear complaints about these all
season long, too, from the various conferences.  It is funny, I was
talking to Tim Burton the other day about how he is going to do this
(for HE).  What you have to remember is that often the person making
the decision did not see most of the candidates play (and the
candidates are nominated by their SIDs).  I mentioned to Tim that no
matter what happens, he is going to hear it from some people, because
you cannot please everyone.  And he agreed.  It's inevitable because
the people who follow MTU are going to think that wow, Caravaggio was
so impressive, there's no way anyone else could have had as good a
week as he did - meanwhile a guy over in Minnesota who the MTU people
don't see is doing some equally impressive stuff, and in league games
even.
 
All you can ask is that the selector sets certain criteria and follows
them as closely as he can.  Many conferences put more weight on
performances in league games when selecting the players of the week.
I'm guessing that is what happened here with the WCHA.
 
The only question I would have is that Trebil seemed to have earned
his Defensive PotW for offensive prowess.  Unfortunately, although I
commend the WCHA for giving out such an award, it is so hard to make a
case for players other than goalies.  Trebil might have had a good
weekend defensively, but how can you make a case for it without seeing
the tape?
 
Maybe the WCHA Defensive PotW is intended to recognize defensemen and
goalies, who often fall by the wayside as offensive players with the
numbers tend to get selected.  Could be.  As such, a defenseman's
offensive totals could certainly be part of the criteria.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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