Believe it or not, I too have had a John H sighting. It occurred when I looked into the mirror this morning... Seriously, I'm sorry for the lack of communication with everyone, both on and off the list. Call off the search parties, eh. :-) HOCKEY-L Yes, for the most part I have stopped posting to Hockey-L. There are many reasons for this, but two prominent ones are: (1) The tone of replies to posts, including responses to the list and private ones. The most effective way to remove this from one's life is to discontinue posting. (2) Time. I have a life away from hockey (what a concept!) and it's gotten busier and busier. Even without the pressures of (1) above, I don't have the same amount of time to commit to Hockey-L that I did in the past. Fwiw...I've cut back on other related projects as well. I've ceased producing BLUE ICE, my own college hockey publication, and I've drastically reduced the amount of freelance and other writing I do. I *really* wanted to be involved with my friends at US College Hockey Online too, but I'm simply unwilling to commit the necessary time. :-( MICHIGAN'S PRESENCE ON HOCKEY-L There are *plenty* of other Wolverines on Hockey-L that are very capable of stepping up their contributions (if *they* have the time). We've already heard from Roger Spurgeon and Josh Kleinbaum this week and I look forward to reading more from them...and I know there are others out there. The maize and blue won't go unreported on here. MICHIGAN'S PRESENCE ON THE ICE It hasn't been much. I didn't make it to UND/MSU this past weekend, but I did see their first five contests including those in Fairbanks (whoa!). The Wolverines are 6-1-0 and are struggling to find themselves, IMO. Hopefully they'll be a little more well oiled with their first taste of home cookin' this weekend. PLUS/MINUS *From my perspective*: +1 (to on-ice members of the scoring team) and -1 (to on-ice members of the scored upon team) are awarded for EVERY non-power play goal. This would include even strength goals, shorthanded goals, empty net goals where the scoring team is otherwise not on a PP, etc. Penalty shots are essentially power plays. Most leagues I'm familiar with record penalty shots as power play opportunities/ goals. There is no +/- awarded for a penalty shot goal. Also, most leagues do NOT include goaltenders in the +/- statistic. I simply refer to goaltenders' +/- as "not applicable." I know that some ACHA (club) teams do include goaltenders when awarding +/-. One thing worthy of note is that +/- is not recorded consistently from league to league, team to team or even within the same team if you have a different scorer for a particular game. One example: Team B has the puck in Team A's zone. Team A digs the puck out behind their own net, gains possession and begins to breakout. As Team A's forwards rush up ice, Team A's defensemen go to the bench for a change. Team A's forwards make a couple of nice passes and eventually score, by which time the defensemen have changed. Who gets the pluses...the defensemen that where on the ice to begin the play out of the zone or the defensemen that are now on the ice when the goal is scored, even though they had no part in the play? I've seen this go both ways. Imagine if one of the defensemen made a clearing pass and is going to get an assist on the play, but he wasn't *literally* on the ice at the time of the goal. Can you give someone an assist on an even strength goal and NOT give that player (non-goalie) a plus? This is a VERY inconsistently recorded statistic. Lastly, for fun, I know it doesn't mean much given the inconsistencies, but does anyone know of an (un)official NCAA +/- record? The highest I can remember in the CCHA (overall stats) in the 1990s is Michigan's David Harlock, who was +48 in 1992-93. I know that Maine's Chris Imes was around +60 one year. Any others of note? To all of my friends on the list: THANKS for the concern. I'm still around, just not as noticeable. Best wishes to all... John "the lurker" Haeussler [log in to unmask] HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.