2018-19 Utica Comets, Pt. III

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go comets

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The Comets now occupy the fourth and final playoff spot in the North Division (though the teams around them have a few games in hand, so there's considerable work still to be done).

The Gagner/Carcone led Marlies are 3 points back with 3 games in hand.

Marlies destroyed by the Crunch at home tonight 8-1.... Crunch are looking like the elite team in the division along with Rochester.
 

orcatown

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Feb 13, 2003
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Some real positives in this game.

Liked

McEneny - very strong game every where. If he could skate a little better would be a very decent prospect. Very deft with the puck and his passing is excellent. Makes very good decisions with the puck. In this game had to bail out his team in their end numerous times. This was especially true when the hapless Camaneresi - Lind - McMaster - line was out. Asserted control over game from back end.

Graham - this player is an excellent skater who can use his wheels to control the play. Was a high end prospect going into Junior because of speed and agility. Was ok in Junior and was late NHL draft a few years ago. Since then has bounced around the minor leagues with mixed success. Issue has been his inability to handle people around his net b/c of lack of size. (as showed up in the second Providence goal in this game) Started the year in Utica poorly and was mostly benched but has come on in the last while and maybe the most improved player on the team. In this game was very good at pushing the play up ice.

Demko - looking solid. Did a much better job of sucking up rebounds and not fumbling with shots as he was when he first returned. Was the main factor in preventing Providence from converting all the chances they had on the PP.

Boucher - getting back to the form he showed before the injury. Besides the goals he moved the puck well and played ok on PK.

Did Not Like

McMaster - can't play at this level. Looked ok last year but he has done nothing this year. Not skating any where near as well as in the past. Supposedly an offensive player but can do very little with puck . Play just dies with him and he is brutal in his end. Needs to be gone

Lind - not ready at all for this level of play. Is not fast enough or not strong enough to compete. Seems like a player that was totally over-rated by Linden and the Canuck scouts. At this point has zero confidence with the puck.

Camaneresi - hasn't got a clue how to get the puck out of his end. Eliminated from the play with ease

Others

Brisebois - was given an increased role on the PK and was at least adequate. Seems to be throwing his weight around more and competing harder around his net. Loss of players like Sautner and Blujus might end up being helpful if a player like Brisebois can use the increase in time and responsibility to raise his game. Think he did so in this game

Gaunce - thought he was very strong in the early part of the game and used his reach well to break up plays. Skating tailed off in the second half of the game and he was less effective

MacEwen - thought he looked clumsy in the early going and was causing plays that led to some bad turnovers at his blue line (and these are the plays that lead to his minus totals and are the critical ones he must improve upon). Came on late and scored an a nice goal on an excellent shot. Question you ask is can he score like this at the next level?

Dahlen - was much better in passing the puck out of traffic. Did some good work leading to the first goal and forced the goalie into some outstanding saves. Showed again he is smart with the puck and has the skill to think out the best options. Play hurt by the number of Utica penalties leaving him on the bench for long stretches. I say put him on the PK.

Jasek - made a nice play on the second Boucher goal but otherwise pretty much AWOL.

Saucer man - guy isn't going to win skating contests or dazzle anyone with his wheels but overall he was fairly effective in this game. Like how he kept the play in front of him and moved puck quickly. Scored on an early seeing eye shot to get the team off on the right foot.

Kero - another good effort. Dependable player.
 

F A N

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Aug 12, 2005
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Speaking of nitpicking, trying to argue that the subtle shuffling around of cheap, <25 year old 7-13 forwards and 4-7 defensemen is some sort of downfall of this organization is absurd.
Oh snap! Lol
 

MS

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Mar 18, 2002
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Good gritty win with the team missing their top 2 defenders. PK came up huge in the 2nd period when the Comets took 6 straight penalties.

- Demko is just rock solid. I don’t think there’s been a legitimately weak goal on him since he came back from injury. Should be in the NHL and it should be an organizational priority to get rid of Nilsson for anything they can between now and the deadline.

- Archibald was the best Comet and was justly rewarded with an EN goal. Horse in both ends of the rink, several quality chances, yeoman work on the PK.

- Boucher does one thing but does it really well. Vulture in open space who can pounce on pucks and finish. 3 points tonight but still such a brutal skater. Is oddly effective on the PK, which I can’t really explain because his ES defense isn’t good.

- Dahlen continues to look really good on the PP and really invisible at ES. Rinse and repeat. Didn’t like a really selfish play late where he fired at the EN from his own blueline rather than pass it to an open teammate on his wing or take a hit to skate it to the blueline. Providence nearly scored off the ensuing icing.

- MacEwen scored but fought the puck tonight. Did think he skated well on the backcheck.

- Gaunce also skated really well and played an effective game.

- Lind is just awful right now. Probably even worse than Gadjovich who was somewhat surprisingly scratched after his best game. Simply can’t skate. Had one opportunity with 2 minutes left in the first to have a semi-break down the wing and was just skating in sand and reeled in so easily. Gets the puck on his stick in his own zone and is constantly caught and stripped before he can make a play. Out of his depth at this level.

- Saucerman is hilarious. Looks like a tubby beer league player or fat Christmas elf with a giant beard and stubby Hodgson legs. So distinctive on the ice. But actually played a really solid game and looks like an excellent PTO (unlike Dirk, who is awful). Moved the puck well, put shots toward the net, and defended aggressively and tried to push the play. Cull seemed to have confidence in him and played him a bunch including straight into the PK rotation. Suspect he might be around for awhile.

- if you slammed a drink every time Brisebois sent a bouncing puck to nobody when he had no ideas under a bit of forechecking pressure, you’d be tanked by the first intermission. Defensively is rarely out of position, but also rarely makes a great play to win possession or break up a play and push it forward. Always on the back foot.

- Graham looks like a completely different player from his first few games. Is really skating well and generating offence in transition for the team. Not a prospect but actually useful. 6 points in his last 9 games.
 

MS

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Mar 18, 2002
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Relax man. No need to feel shame.

But I didn't take you as someone who is in disbelief easily. Try going out more.



Damn. You seriously got to relax. So you don't think they are good NHL players. That's fine. Like Benning, they really don't deserve you calling them names and calling them turds.

So yes, you have nothing to contribute as usual.

I’m sure they’re nice people. They’re really bad NHL hockey players.
 
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MS

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Mar 18, 2002
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Calgary played Granlund in the nhl mostly. He scored 19 goals in a injury shortened year. He is a nhl player. A good one? maybe no but multiplecoaches and gm's think he is a nhl player. I have not watched Kero. Kero has not got the same love through the difference between top ahlers and bottom nhl players is small. Though i believe you have argued Gaunce is as good as Sutter which I do not agree with so no benefit of the doubt with this comparison.

Why is Granlund an NHL player?

Again, literally every metric you can imagine tells us that this player is not NHL caliber at any aspect of the game. His offensive production is abysmal. He bleeds goals defensively. He’a wretched on the PK. He stinks on the PP. He can’t win faceoffs.

The only reason he’s an ‘NHL player’ is because this team has shot itself in the foot by keeping gun on an NHL roster for 3 years.

And I’m not advertising Kero as a world-bearer or anything like that. But he can do better than the trash we’re getting from Granlund and has done better in the past.

Speaking of nitpicking, trying to argue that the subtle shuffling around of cheap, <25 year old 7-13 forwards and 4-7 defensemen is some sort of downfall of this organization is absurd.

Who has argued that?

The downfall of the organization is the completely incompetent GM who can’t evaluate talent or manage a salary cap. Who shits the bed in free agency every year. Who hasn’t found a capable NHL defender in 5 years.

However, this is a pretty in-depth discussion board where topical smaller issues are discussed and the role and progression of everyone in the organization is analyzed. And the idiocy of some of these smaller moves or decisions on lesser players is a Rosetta Stone into understanding how badly this team is run.
 

F A N

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Aug 12, 2005
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So yes, you have nothing to contribute as usual.

Did your spreadsheet tell you that? =P

I’m sure they’re nice people. They’re really bad NHL hockey players.

So you like to call nice people turds or question their mental capacity. Got it. Nothing new from you here.
 

Ryp37

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Nov 6, 2011
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Yeah don’t think taking the moral high ground on a hockey forum works for you FAN

Good to hear Yukon Cornelius had a strong debut
 
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Catamarca Livin

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Jul 29, 2010
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Another win? what is happening? Demko must be more important than the lack of centers.
Sad about Lind thus far not sure nhl players start this bad in the Ahl. Hopefully OJ can come back strong and progress.
 

Jyrki21

2021-12-05
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Good gritty win with the team missing their top 2 defenders. PK came up huge in the 2nd period when the Comets took 6 straight penalties.

- Saucerman is hilarious. Looks like a tubby beer league player or fat Christmas elf with a giant beard and stubby Hodgson legs. So distinctive on the ice. But actually played a really solid game and looks like an excellent PTO (unlike Dirk, who is awful). Moved the puck well, put shots toward the net, and defended aggressively and tried to push the play. Cull seemed to have confidence in him and played him a bunch including straight into the PK rotation. Suspect he might be around for awhile.
Speaking of Saucer-Man and Gritty, get a load of his Halloween costume:

 

tantalum

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Another win? what is happening? Demko must be more important than the lack of centers.
Sad about Lind thus far not sure nhl players start this bad in the Ahl. Hopefully OJ can come back strong and progress.

I understand once you get past the first dozen picks in a draft you are often drafting based on some aspects a player does really really well at their current level. Lind was an offensive force so I understand that aspect and not knowing much about the player it seemed a good pick. It's clear that in addition to those things a player does really well they should also have acceptable skating ability. It doesn't appear Lind does. If he wants to progress in hockey beyond his first contract he's going to seriously concentrate on his skating.

And really he can look at his teammate Reid Boucher to see how skating ability is the difference between spot duty in the NHL and a $5+ million dollar guy in the NHL (honestly, despite his defensive issues if he could skate he'd be a 30 goal scorer in the NHL every year).
 

UticaHockey

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Feb 27, 2013
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From the reports it sounds like saucyman plays pretty much just like biega does in the nhl
But without Bulldog's wheels. I forgot how well Biega skated until he came back down to Utica fr a couple games in October. Saucerman has been a fun story and scoring his first goal added to the growing legend but watching him skate told me why he is on a PTO with his sixth AHL team and has never played more than a few games before being released.
 

MMB

Registered User
Nov 17, 2018
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Finally made it through the much-discussed 7-4 win from Saturday.

The ‘boo boo, wimpy Comets, no toughness’ arguments really need to be put in the proper context, which starts with the November 28 game between these two teams. In that game, Utica was the team running around physically and Zack MacEwen absolutely demolished a couple Devils players (including one on a very dirty charging/boarding play that could easily have been a 5 minute major) with no response from Binghamton. And they obviously heard about it because they came out looking for a pound of flesh.

Game was handled terrible by the refs right from the start where two seemingly legitimate goals were waived off, one for each team. If you’d have asked me yesterday, I would have assumed that in order to work as a referee one step away from the NHL, you’d first spend years in the CHL/ECHL/NCAA honing your craft. But it turns out Carter Sandlak (son of Jim, which is actually kinda cool) could retire as a professional player at the end of the 17-18 season and be working in the AHL as a referee the very next season with absolutely zero experience. Which is just insane to me. And the game looked like it was being reffed by guys who had never done the job before. Ridiculous.

- Sautner will be a huge loss for the team. I’m not sold on any NHL potential because he struggles passing the puck but he is a defensive rock for the team sucking up tough assignments. Awful injury and will be out for a long time.

- best Comet (especially early) was MacEwen. Skated extremely well and was much more direct and precise. Made accurate plays at speed to create chances for himself and his linemates. Should’ve had 3 points but a goal that deflected off his skate was ruled a kicking motion when it wasn’t remotely.

- Dahlen was a bit better. Seemed a bit lighter on his skates and was extremely good on the PP. Still generated zilch at ES and faded out of the game when the physicality ramped up.

- Kero could definitely do the job of Granlund and probably do the job of Beagle, and do it for $600k.

- Jasek really generated nothing despite being on the top line. Doesn’t seem to have great vision of the ice or ability to use his linemates. Goes in fits and starts with an isolated good play followed by a lot of nothing.

- Gadjovich was a bit better, or at least had the puck on his stick a bit more. Does have 3 assists in his last 5 games, but all were very secondary types.

- Brisebois has now played almost 100 AHL hands and is still just ‘getting by’. No confidence with the puck on his stick and you can see he just has no ideas. So tentative. A player who is always reacting and never assertive about taking control of moments and situations. Very hard to ever see him being an NHL regular.

- Blujus the best defender, as he is basically every night. +/- isn’t the best stat, but when you’re playing the toughest minutes on the team and have churned out these results, it’s a bit eye-opening:

Blujus +10
Sifters even
Sautner -1
Graham -7
Chatfield -11
Juolevi -12
McEneny -15

- Lind and Palmu healthy scratches again. Mildly surprised Palmu was out as he had been a bit better in his previous game and was showing some progress.
Blujus couldn't buy a spot on the roster at the beginning of the year. So to compare his +- to the other D isnt really a fair assessment.
 

tyhee

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Feb 5, 2015
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Another win? what is happening? Demko must be more important than the lack of centers.
...

It seems to me that the addition of Demko happened within a game or two of the switch of Gaunce to center.

With Gaunce finally moved to center, the Comets have a solid top six center in Kero, a middle-six (possibly better?) center in Gaunce and a depth or 4th line center in Darcy. It's still below what it should be, but if the team could add Gaudette or Hensick and keep everyone healthy and on the Comets (dreaming the impossible dream) the centre position would be ok.

Adding Gaunce at the center position means Darcy doesn't have to play so far over his head on the second line and the Comets don't have to play someone who really doesn't belong in the league on the 3rd line as well as the 4th.

This ship has sailed, but add Gagner to Kero and Gaunce and imo the position would be a team strength.
 
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