[QUOTE="Bad Goalie, post: 158845245, member: 215689"
Let's get it all straight. The Comets did not make the playoffs their first season. Henning readjusted the roster after the Comets nearly set a for futility at the start of a season for a new AHL team. From January on, the Comets were close to the best team in the AHL barely missing out on the playoffs.
It was year 2 when Henning built a top AHL contender and led the Comets to the AHL Calder Cup Finals.
Then Benning went to work. He fired Henning and no one was named to head the Comets.They have made the payoffs twice and failed to qualify twice, counting this season the next 4 years.
After the second season of Benning ineptitude he had to answer to the Vancouver press as to why Virtanen did so poorly offensively and he said it was because Utica had no play making centers and that would have to be fixed.
Enter GM Johnson who also has done nothing , but serve as a front for Benning.
It's been 4 years of no centers and this was the worst. Gaudette played 14 games and that was 14 more than I expected.
Kero was accompanied by Darcy and Woods, after proving not to be sub-AHL quality 1n '17-18, Hamilton who has never been anything but a 4th line checking center who kills penalties, and should never leave the ECHL Gardiner.
The rest of his vet players were seldom worthwhile in comparison to those on their opponents. Fedun on D, Holm as a PP point man, Boucher and Goldobin were exceptions. Archibald was a contributor, but Benning never signed him after the '14-15 season until the Canucks were desperate in '17-18. Then after the exposure, he became trade worthy and was lost to the Comets with Tom Pyatt returning in his place. Not close to an even exchange.
The saving grace for the Comets has been goaltending.
'15-16 Cannata/Bachman.
'16-17 Demko/Bachman
'17-18 Demko/Bachman
'18-19 has been a Goaltending/Defensemen nightmare.
Goalies:
Demko - Injured for the first 17 games. Then called up to Vancouver after only playing 16GP.
Kulbakov - 24GP
Leighton - 18GP
Bachman - 9GP and then injured for the season.
LaCouvee - 3GP
Mazanec - 6GP
The Comets have played 18 different players on D this season.
The Comets have played 70 games.
So,
5 have played 62-64 games.
5 have played 50-59 games.
1 has played 49, 1- 48, and 2 - 47
This informs you that there have been a ****load of injuries.
392 man games lost, unofficially calculated game by game by me. There are more counting illnesses I haven't been privy to. I only see that guys are scratched and the injuries are known. The illnesses are not always reported.[/QUOTE]