The Utica Comets Thread

[Ryp37]

I remember suffering a beat-down on these boards when I suggested that just maybe Carcone might end up being a player....but two years ago at the Canucks prospect development camp both Carcone and D'Aoust were standouts.....looking like they're morphing into solid AHL players at least. And if you add in Molino, MacEwan and Chatfield, all FA signings, somebody in the Canucks scouting department seems to be doing their homework.

A beat down from who? I remember a few posters being cautiously optimistic, I don’t think I was one of them but still

 

[Bad Goalie]

Yes well its easy for people to be negative and forget the pressure these kids must feel coming up. He wasn't given an ELC for his smile lol. His game is improving and if he hadn't been seriously ill at start of season I think his game would be a lot farther along at this point.

And they drafted Stewart for his good looks.

 

[Bad Goalie]

I remember suffering a beat-down on these boards when I suggested that just maybe Carcone might end up being a player....but two years ago at the Canucks prospect development camp both Carcone and D'Aoust were standouts.....looking like they're morphing into solid AHL players at least. And if you add in Molino, MacEwan and Chatfield, all FA signings, somebody in the Canucks scouting department seems to be doing their homework.

The time it takes some to begin to look decent is the reason the Canucks and Comets have an ECHL affiliation. Guys who just are not ready should get there initiation at a lower level. You don't cut your teeth on peanut brittle and rock candy. Spending 6o games in the AHL with 3 or 4 points isn't development. Carcone should have started there last year. Molino this year. Both are still separated from the puck at will.

I have gone in depth on MacEwen and you will just have to scroll back. He belongs here, but has a long ways to go to become NHL material. The same with Brisebois and Chatfield, though they would have been better served not being thrown to the wolves with all the D injuries and call-ups.

Carcone for all of his improvement is still probably no more than a 5-10% chance of becoming a Cancuk. He is in the class of a Hudon or Shinkaruk and they both are way more talented than he has shown thus far.

Like I keep saying, the verdict is still out on every one of these guys. Not a single one of them has shown the kind of stuff that screams NHL at you. They have a couple good outings and then get spanked and fall back into the disappointment stage.

You seem to want to praise Canucks management for their acquisition, but there is also a reason why 31 teams including Vancouver didn't draft Carcone in the first place and I won't illustrate all those reasons once again, many of which are still front and center every time he hits the ice.

Chatfield is much more impressive while still being t0o easily distressed and panic stricken when the **** hits the fan.

MacEwen is like the big kid growing into his body. His feint right and toe drag back to the left has failed on 19 of every 20 tries. He has to get a couple new moves.

I've liked D'Aoust from the beginning, but he needs more strength. He is very easily taken off the puck. You don't even have to hit him. The same is true of Carcone and Molino. Both have developed this stop and reverse you direction resulting in defensive zone turnovers that end up shots on goal and breakouts for the opponent from the offensive zone. Doubling back creates disaster because they are overrun due to their size, lack of strength, and less than elite puck handling skills. Putting it simply they are knocked down in their turn or stripped of the puck and many times both.

This is learning by the seat of your pants and if the Comets had normal AHL players instead of all the vets when camp broke, these new kids would have been brought along slower, sheltered by experienced line mates, and not had the chance to develop a lot of these bad habits that grow out of necessity to survive and will have to be untaught in order for them to progress to higher levels.

Incidentally, I think "beatdown" is a little over the top. Disagreement with you guys based upon on sight reviews is discussion. Because it disagrees with your views doesn't mean a beatdown even if some of my brethren are short and terse with their viewpoints. LOL.

 

[go comets]

Note to Canucks fans.... We here in Utica tell you what you need to hear, not what you wanna hear......

No team in this league would allow a fringe prospect 30 + games for Molino, and in Carcones case 1+ seasons and in Cassels case 2+ seasons to produce so little.

A combination on injuries, inept management, and no better prospects combined to allow this.

And keep in mind it's only a few games, the chance of this success continuing is somewhere between slim and none...... And I think slim is leaving town soon...........

 

[orcatown]

Would agree with the general sentiments that the players we are talking about here - the Carcones, the Chatfields, etc... have ways to go before they can be considered likely NHL material. Comments are just an on-going assessment from my viewpoint of how they are doing presently or in recent games.

 

[Cupless44]

Just want to say thank you to all the Utica boys. We appreciate you taking the time to keep us informed. Keep up the good work and keep giving us the real picture!

Cheers!

 

[EliasFTW]

5 years the Comets have been in Utica and yesterday was the first time i have made it to a game. What a game i got to see.

 

[MS]

Good to see Carcone producing after his oddly poor start. After a good finish to last season in the AHL (11 points in his last 22 games) and very strong prospect camps, he seemed like a player primed to break out at this level ... only to fall on his face in October-November.

Now 4-1-5 in his last 6 games with 19 SOG after only putting up 14 SOG in his first 15 games.

 

[UticaHockey]

 

[go comets]

Good to see Carcone producing after his oddly poor start. After a good finish to last season in the AHL (11 points in his last 22 games) and very strong prospect camps, he seemed like a player primed to break out at this level ... only to fall on his face in October-November.

Now 4-1-5 in his last 6 games with 19 SOG after only putting up 14 SOG in his first 15 games.

Carcone was sick for 2 weeks of November and lost a lot of weight in that period.

 

[MS]

Carcone was sick for 2 weeks of November and lost a lot of weight in that period.

Thanks, that explains a lot.

 

[Bad Goalie]

At the risk of being disrespectful while Cederholm, already in Utica (Vancouver 2-way), and Moynihan, just recalled again (Utica contract), are not PTOs. Both were assigned to Kalamazoo and are thus ECHL recalls. So the Comets currently have 8 ECHL players on their roster and of the 6 in town Wednesday, 4 played in the game. Only Cederholm and Watson, both D-men, watched from the sidelines while PTO Blujus played in the 6th D-spot.

I am assuming the recall of Moynihan and the signing of Arseneau are due to the fact that Woods and Megna are going to miss the game tomorrow with injuries incurred Wednesday night. Chaput will move back into the lineup for Woods, one PTO will have to replace Megna, and the other 3 will be right back in as the 4th line. That line was broken up with the injuries and were seen mostly one at a time filling in on lines as Cull mixed and matched the 10 forwards he had left to work with. That will put just one of them in the seats. I would guess Moynihan. He was completely ineffective in his last stint here.

Would guess the 2 sitting D will sit once again since Blujus has played better than Cederholm or Watson and Cull has a history with him.

Would expect a very motivated Marlies squad tomorrow night. The effort the Comets exerted Wednesday will have to be cranked up even higher. I don't know if that's possible.

You have to hope with all your might that the PTOs can put up some points, but it is a must that they hold up their end defensively. If they can play a game and not be on the ice for any goals against, mission accomplished.

ECHL forwards come into AHL cities with impressive numbers and very rarely show any of that ECHL prowess. It's small numbers here thus far but:

Moynihan - 19 ECHL GP 8-6-14Pts/ 3 Comets GP 0Pts
Brassat- 21 ECHL GP 11-12-23Pts/ 3 Comets GP 0Pts
Cameranesi - 20 ECHL GP 4-14-18Pts/ 2 Comets GP 0Pts
Lowry - 26 ECHL GP 14-17-31Pts/ 1 Comets GP 0Pts
Arseneau - 19 ECHL GP 11-6-17Pts O Comets GP (He hasn't even been announced yet in Utica as a roster addition. He is listed on Eliteprospects as a Comet.

In past seasons the ECHL point totals in Utica rarely get much better even when the total GP increase and some have played a lot of games.
e.g. '15-16
Marino 30 Comets GP 4Pts (ECHL top point getter in 13-14)
Pereira 17 Comets GP 2Pts
Bubela 8 Comets GP 1PT (NCAA ATO)
Hanson 7 Comets GP 0Pts (14-15 ECHL Kelly Cup MVP)

 

[UticaHockey]

Arseneau has been better known for his fists than his hands in his AHL career. Could be a reaction to the dirty hit that Toronto injured Megna on.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Arseneau has been better known for his fists than his hands in his AHL career. Could be a reaction to the dirty hit that Toronto injured Megna on.

You think they went out and got a player to come in here and specifically go get the guy that hit Megna? Wow! If so, that's going back 40years in the game of hockey.

If you mean to put a little u-u-mph and grit in the lineup for future games, okay. Problem is the guy has to be a good enough hockey player to warrant a spot on the 12 man game roster. Kurtz was an example of a guy taking up too much valuable space for the service he rendered. Arseneau's production in his AHL stints wasn't good enough to warrant keeping him around.

I will admit that since Archi has been out a lot of teams have taken liberties with the the Comets.

Laplante would step right in, but he's been injured for some time now as well.

LaBate seems to have withdrawn into some kind of private inner shell since it's become obvious the Canucks have no plans for him. Instead of busting his *** to make himself valuable to someone else, he has regressed to nothing more than he was when he first arrived 3 seasons ago. He's ****ing a way whatever chances he had left. Not that he was ever a fighter either. He proved that in most of the pugilistic endeavors he engaged in.

So, it is obvious the Comets don't stick up for themselves and assessing the makeup of many of these guys, they probably can't. However, you want guys like Archi who can play the game as well as keep people honest. Those guys are getting harder to find.

MacEwen's Jr. #s show he must have thrown 'em down a few times. PIM hovering around the 100 minute mark usually indicates such. Going down the roster, I'd say those are the only guys who might step up, but none really have thus far.

Maybe this guy can light a spark that catches on with the rest, but rugged, hitting, tough players who take care of their own problems are not in the Vancouver family period. I'm not one for fighting in the game, but hitting as you are hit usually limits the unnecessary boarding and hits of that nature. No team wants to receive those kind of hits and if you play a team willing to give as it gets, that kind of crap is usually not a frequent occurrence. Toronto went after the most serious offensive threat on the Comets if you went down the roster. No effort was made to hit back in kind against their star power, Smith. Will be interesting to see if there is a target there tomorrow. We have never seen anything like that under Travis.

 

[go comets]

I did see that the Marlie player that boarded Megna on Wednesday was suspended for two games including tonight's rematch.

 

[Bad Goalie]

I did see that the Marlie player that boarded Megna on Wednesday was suspended for two games including tonight's rematch.

Shows the sound judgement the AHL refs use when witnessing those kind of hits. We have seen Comets given 5 and a game for hits not even coming close to that one. They assessed Miro Aaltonen a 2 -minute minor after conferring in front of the penalty box and doing the,

"I didn't really see it, but you called it."
"Well, I think it was a penalty, but I didn't really see the actual angle and the severity of the hit, so I'm just going to call it 2."
"Your call. I'll support it."

Then the league takes a look and the guy gets 2 games for a hit that should have been a major, a game, and the suspension.

I've seen nothing but incompetence from these guys and the number of times they conference to decide everything from match penalties to icings to where the faceoffs should be are ridiculous. They aren't just trying to get it right. They actually don't know what to do until a 4-man conference makes the call and then one guy doesn't have to take the blame.

Any official word as to the severity of Megna's injury and what exactly his injury is?
Looked very concussion-like to me.

How about Woods. This guy seems to be very injury prone or else the one he just came back from wasn't actually better yet.

 

[Bad Goalie]

12/22/17
Toronto Marlies @ Utica Comets

Toronto 4 Utica 3

SOG:
Marlies 7 10 11 - 28
Comets 9 11 7 - 27

PP:
Marlies 0/4
Comets 0/3

Forwards:
LaBate/Darcy/D'Aoust
Bancks/Chaput/MacEwen
Molino/Cassels/Carcone
Arsenau/Cameranesi/Brassart

D-pairs:
Sautner/Blujus
Wiercioch/Chatfield
Holm/Briesbois

Goal - Bachman 24/28
10 GP, 2-6-2-0, 39GA, GAA/3.89, SV%/.858

Scratches:
Injured-
Archibald
Hamilton
Laplante
Megna
Woods
McEneny
Sifers

Chatfield left the game injured

Boucher and Goldobin are in Vancouver

Healthy-
Moynihan
Cederholm
Watson

Arseneau (1) from Wiercioch (6) and Bancks (11)
LaBate (5) from D'Aoust (5) and Blujus (2)
Cassels (2) from Carcone (2) and Brisebois (4)

3 Stars:
1 - Ben Smith (Toronto Marlies) 2G/1A
2 - Dmytro Timashov (Toronto Marlies) 2A
3 - Vincent Arsenau (Utica Comets) 1G

Consecutive sellout #107

 

[Catamarca Livin]

Bachman seems to be one of Utica'a biggest problems. A pro goalie cannot have a .858 save percentage at Christmas. A lot of close games lost while he has been in net. Good news is he will likely rebound as he has been a very goid ahl goalie in the past.

 

[Bad Goalie]

12/23/17
Utica Comets (12-12-4-1) @ Syracuse Crunch (15-11-1-2) 7:00 PM EST

Last game for the Comets before the X-mas break. It won't be a long vacation as they return to the ice for a pair of games vs he Providence Bruins next Wednesday and Friday at the Utica Aud (Adirondack Bank Center). Syracuse has won 7 of 9 in December and won 8-2 last night in Belleville.

Syracuse got their captain, Condra, back after a 14 game injury recovery. He only put up 3 points last night in his 1st game back.

Comets might want to pay close attention to holding down the score. The Crunch are 14-0-0-1 when scoring at least 3 goals and 1-11-1-1 when scoring less than 3. Tall task to ask of the shorthanded Comets, but Thatcher will be back in the net so there's that. He won his only start against the Crunch 3-2 on 10/14.

I'd say the Comets scorers need to get back on track except, Boucher is in Vancouver. After that Chaput has 8 and D'Aoust has 7 then it's a potpourri 5 or less. Chatfield is the only Comet with significant GP who has not scored a goal, but 10 Comets who have played a lot have 2 or less. They are miles from having a balanced scoring attack. Arseneau scored in his first game as a Comet and his 1 goal either ties or betters the output of 7 Comets most of whom are regulars.

 

[Hansen]

And they drafted Stewart for his good looks.

I'm pretty sure that's why we acquired Gudbranson as well

 

[Bad Goalie]

I didn't get the lines from the start, but I have piece mealed them together the best I could.

LaBate/Cassels/D'Aoust
Molino/Chaput/Carcone
Bancks/Cameranesi/MacEwen
Arseneau/Moynihan/Brassart

Holm/Brisebois
Sautner/Blujus
Wiercioch/Cederholm

Goal - Demko

Scratches:

Injured:
Forwards -
Archibald
Hamilton
Laplante
Megna
Darcy
Woods

D-men -
Chatfield
Sifers
McEneny

Hey Vancouver, think you have injuries? Every one of these 9 guys is injured!!!!!! 8 of them were regulars until injured. Laplante was a 13/14th man who all of a sudden was to become one of the 12 and down he went.

Healthy:
Watson

This is by far not the most desriable Comets lineup. 4 PTOs and 2 ECHL call-ups in the lineup tonight.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Chaput and Erne go at it and Chaput decks him.

Comets to the PP.

MacEwen
Brisebois/Bancks/Carcone
Holm

Nothing doing. back to 5 on 5.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Now the Comets to the PK.

Bancks/Molino

Sautner/Blujus
Holm/Brisebois

Period comes to an end and the score is 0-0.

SOG are being questioned by Zilch, but the scoreboard says:

9-0 Utica! Are the Crunch sleepwalking?

I don't remember any Comets team ever shutting an opponent out of shots for a full period.

EDIT: SEE Post 613!!

 

[Bad Goalie]

Jordan Subban has scored his first for the Ontario Reign. That would be his 1st goal of the year period. He has only played 2 games for the Reign. He was injured when traded so that may be some of the reason for that.

 

[Melvin]

Jordan Subban has scored his first for the Ontario Reign. That would be his 1st goal of the year period. He has only played 2 games for the Reign. He was injured when traded so that may be some of the reason for that.

Awesome news. So happy he got out of this garbage organization.