orcatown - Last post on the previous thread
Good push in the third period and with a little more accurate shooting could have made it real close. However, were absolutely out-played in the first two periods. Springfield was the best team they've seen and they just man-handled the Comets with Dustin Jeffrey toying with the Comets at some points.
Bachman should have had couple of the early goals gut he was more or less left on his own. Defense was poor - most noteably Negrin (who sunk back to previous form) , Ehrhardt and Subban. Also Pedan got forced into bad plays by the Springfield forecheck.
Would say that Subban redeem himself with a strong second half as his speed and passing ignited the offense. Once this player gets wound up and moving ahead, he is a force. But there are still a lot of issues to clean up in how he plays the defensive blue line and covering players coming out of the corner.
Shinkaruk converted the neat back pass from Grenier on a nice little play the Comets work but in much of the rest of the game got smothered. As BG has pointed out this is the key to Shinkaruk moving up. He has to find ways of competing when he faces the kind of veteran and large defense he faced in this game.
btw Aulie very much contributes to this size and it would have been great had the Comets given him a PTO.
Thought Vey was better although still not strong in his own. Also Bancks was very good.
Outside of the defensemen some others who struggled were Gaunce, Hamilton, LaBate and Cassels.
Gaunce looked very poor in transition and was caught standing still at center ice on several occasions. Easy to blame the defense but Gaunce was not covering back well at all and this was the one of the main causes of the frequent early odd man rushes. Also, he fumbled with the puck (especially on the PP) and mostly looked slow and awkward. Too bad as he was coming off a very good game. Might be as the speed goes up, Gaunce begins to have problems.
Gaunce did get a shift at center in the second as Green tried to get the team going with some line changes.
Cassels was again not able to compete on any kind of sustained basis. Play is too fast for him and players too strong. Looked like he wanted to fight late in the game which may have been a result of frustration.
LaBate - another player poor on the backcheck. Also very limited on the offense.
I'm not going to wade into this one like normal, but I've got a few things to add.
The Comets came out in this one as if their last game proved how good they are. By the time they woke up it was 6-1. Not sure if their third period push was as much them as it was the Falcons figuring it was over. Probably a bit of both. An overall poor performance by all of them.
The team defense was porous. The actual D-men were not stellar either, but the Negrin/Subban pairing just cannot happen. They were on the ice for two of the first 3 even strength goals. Then Subban was also out there for the next one, this time with Ehrhardt. Biega and Ehrhardt both got caught on the ice with him for the first ES goal. Negrin was also out there for a third with Biega. It's becoming a curse to be paired with Subban. Two of those goals can be directly put on him as he gave the puck away on both of them, one in which he couldn't control the puck, got it swiped and then watched the guy go score. The second he made a direct pass to the goal scorer.
He may have turned up his offensive game in the second half, but it will never make up for his his ineptitude in his own end. Maybe the Stewart project is being tried on the wrong guy.
Biega - Looked very rusty. Was also out there for 3 against, but Subbie/Negrin were the main culprits on all of them combined with brain dead, lead footed forwards.
The forwards are not contributing effectively in their own zone. They are waiting for the D to capture the puck and get it up to them and then they lose it if the D does get it to them. They are not aggressive on the puck in their own end. Too much stationary play. The gap is very poor on movement up the ice (forwards too far ahead) and coming back up the ice (forwards too far behind).
Shinkaruk - This was the type of game I've been talking about that Hunter has to also learn to play. He was invisible most of the night at even strength. Green actually put Archi out in his stead on several shifts. He has to learn how to create space for himself against bigger stronger forwards and particularly D-men. The Springfield D was big and mostly a veteran crew who were very effective in denying Hunter access to the hot spots. It doesn't help that Vey won't go anywhere near guys like this either.
Jensen - Nick worked hard once again and was not intimidated by the Springfield D. He scored and had several good opportunities throughout the game. Good effort on his first game back after injury. He was on the Shink/Vey line. If he could find success, no reason his line mates couldn't.
Gaunce - Last night we saw the emergence of Gaunce's problems last season. When he has to skate and maneuver against teams that play the man well and deny space, he gets lost. When people are faster than him, he gets caught in limbo. He doesn't get too deep because he can't get back, but that takes him out of the offense and he ends up standing around and the game passes him by in both directions.
Cassels - Same old same old. Either he can't skate, which makes no sense based on his past, or he is in over his head vs. men, because he makes no impact at all when on the ice. Patience is one thing, but he has to show he deserves the patience with a concerted effort which reveals he has a sense for the game. He has been too good in Jrs. to believe he doesn't get the game. Something has to click here pretty soon. He needs to show some signs of life.
LaBate - I've been skeptical of Joe since his arrival last season. He just seems too slow and almost clunky. His puck handling is nothing to write home about either. He has a good shot as proven in practice. Problem is he never gets into a situation where he can use it in a game. He seems to spend most of his shifts in the neutral zones. The rush gets ahead of him and he's trailing the play back up the ice. Not LAZY, just not keeping up.
Hamilton - Wacey wasn't all together last night either. He is not a turnover type guy, but he was doing it with uncanny regularity last night. Some nights it just goes all to Hell and it seemed that way for him last night. I don't expect that to become a norm.
Bancks - Carter was an anomaly last night. He was a Comet who played a strong game in both ends. His goal was due completely to his own hard work and extra effort. Too bad nobody joined him.
Hope we see a better effort vs. the Crunch tonight. It is a theme with the Comets to play a real good game following a stinker. Problem this season is they are playing way too many stinkers. The .500 record is indicative of the two headed Comets.
