I'm alarmed by this.

These were the comments of new IHL commissioner Dennis Hextall, during Greg Halbleib's wjbc.com broadcast of the Komets' 3-1 victory over the Bloomington PrairieThunder on Saturday night:

"Tonight, the fight (between Colin Chaulk and Ryan Finnerty) was spontaneous. It happened immediately. Both got through some pretty good punches. Something got resolved in that fight between those two. That fight likely didn't start there. Things had built up.

"What I call kind of 'staged fighting' is something that'll start in the end zone. Helmets come off. Gloves come off. They skate out to center ice and put a show on. I don't think the game needs that. I think it belittles the game. But in no way am I saying to take the fights out of the game."

I don't totally disagree with Hextall, but it doesn't seem he's on the same page with his governors, who very much seem to want theatrical fighting.

They added a 19th skater this season with the intent of teams having enforcers. Both Muskegon and Fort Wayne built up recent games as grudge matches, implying there would be fighting, which was smart marketing on both teams' parts and led to big crowds.

But Hextall doesn't seem to appreciate what the fans and the owners seem to: The bouts of Brad MacMillan, Jason Lawmaster and Derek Parker, which tends to get butts in the seats.

Again, Hextall isn't wrong, but I think he's got ideas that differ from those who hired him, and that's interesting. Or, I could be reading a lot into that quote.

As for the game tonight, the Komets' offense continues to struggle a bit. The Komets got goals from Keith Rodger, Leo Thomas and an empty-netter from Justin Chwedoruk. Fort Wayne has 10 goals over the last five games.

But the defense is awfully stingy, having allowed 8 goals over the same span.

They say defense wins championships. If the Komets are going to win another one, based on how they look right now, that had better be true. But I don't think the offense will continue to look this stagnant.