You're creating a straw man. Polak is terrible 5 on 5. People"say" his main redeeming quality is on the PK, but if the PK is fine with him or fine with out him he has no reason for playing as he's a liability 5 on 5. You're Matthews argument is terrible because
1. Matthews is the best scorer in the league 5 on 5 so why on earth would we not dress him.
2. JVR's unit isn't going to play the PK for a whole 2 minutes anyway. So, not having your best player on one of the 2 units seems ridiculous.
I'm not trying to argue Polak is good ES AT ALL, I am simply responding and making an arguement that he does NOT hurt the PK. The numbers show this - maybe the eyeball not so much. Anyways, all I have said and tried to show is that, according to the numbers, he HELPS the PK and that even if he was not the best PKer, he is still on a PK team that is 5th in the league, so, that means ALL the PKers are doing a pretty good job.
Again, I'm not arguing Polak should play ES more minutes, I'm just trying to show he does NOT hurt the PK, and it seems the numbers support this.
IF he was the worst PKer on the team, but, the team had the 5th best PK in the league, which they do, then, you have to say, well, he's not as good as the other PKers, but, he contributes to making our PK better.
How is that different from what I said about the PP and Matthews.
Matthews is great - I LOVE HIM - I'm just saying, if there is someone better on the PP, in this case JVR, who, when he in on the ice, the team has a better PP%, then, you could say, well, Matthews does not have any effect on the PP because our PP is worse with him - I'M NOT SAYING THAT - but that is the argument against Polak - WHICH IS WRONG.
Polak, whether or not he is NOT the best player on the PK or not, still helps the PK, the same way Matthews helps the PP.
This is NOT about anything else.
I responded to a poster 20 posts ago or more who said that we are worse with Polak on the PK with him than without him and I disagree with that and have been trying to show that and that ONLY.
I'm talking ONLY about the PK - so, your stuff about Matthews is that and that is not relevant to this argument about whether Polak hurts the PK or not.