Guess who’s back? Back again? Farmies back! Tell a friend!

But no actually, guess who’s back? Why, I can’t believe it! It’s “Why is nobody taking” Kole Lind. Tonight should be an interesting one, the team is on its first real streak of the season and are getting back some major regulars in their lineup. Darren Archibald returns as well as Tanner MacMaster, Brendan Woods, and the aforementioned Lind. Lot of guys returning from injury, so it COULD be a rusty night for the team as they get back to the old dynamic, but hopefully the returning boys look to continue the fire the team was showing in the past couple games and are able to push the win streak to 4. Their opponent tonight, Binghamton, is a team that like Utica is on a streak of their own, only theirs for the worse, as they have lost 4 straight, and will be looking to impress at home with a statement win against Utica to turn things around. Should be an interesting one!

 

Starting Lineup

 

LW	C	RW
Dahlen	Darcy	Archibald
Gaunce	Kero	Jasek
Carcone	Cameranesi	MacEwen
MacMaster	Woods	Lind

LD	RD
Sautner	Blujus
Brisebois	Sifers
McEneny	Graham

G
Thatcher Demko

 

Returns

The team will be expecting Reid Boucher back in the lineup in the coming days, after a VERY brief stint with the Canucks, where he played something like sub-5 minutes of the game, hopefully he isn’t discouraged by the limited look when he re-enters the Comets lineup and is able to return to his scoring ways for the farm!

Recalls

The team recalled defenceman Brandon Anselmini from the Kalamazoo wings to replenish the teams depleted blue-line; With the uncertainty of Juolevi’s injury, the team will need an extra body in the event an injury should happen during one of the Comets usual Friday/Saturday back to back games.

Demotion

Sent down after Saturday’s game was Reid Gardiner, who registered 0 points after 5 games with the Comets. Personally, I’m not too bummed about this move as he wasn’t really contributing much on the 4th line with Gadjovich and Palmu/Kile, but that’s not to say that he looked BAD or anything; with such a sudden large amount of forwards returning to the regular lineup, Trent Cull and company just have too much to play around with and thus can afford to send some of their non-Canuck-roster forwards down the the Farmies Farmies.

I will say I spent my Sunday creating a macro board to help speed up writing up play-by-plays, so I was fairly miffed at having to re-do my macro-board to accomodate the new call-ups and send-downs haha

 

BENCHED	—	—	—
Reid Boucher	Jagger Dirk	Jonah Gadjovich	Petrus Palmu

 

Injury Report	—	—	—
Arseneau	Chatfield	Hamilton	Juolevi
Hand	lower body	concussion	knee

 

Streamable Clarity Improvement Notice

 

Continuing with last issues theme, going to be Players full name (jersey number) – place in streamable (if not outright obvious) then every sub sequential play featuring that player it’ll be last name(jersey number) – place in streamable (if not outright obvious) I’m also going to reduce the amount of hyperlink in the GOAL streamables, since that’s what I think MOST people are here for.

 

1st period

 

Comets in Blue

 

• Fucking LOL, Binghamton sends the puck over the glass off the draw and Utica is on the powerplay within the first 10 seconds of the game. GREAT START.
• Also sadface, Eddie Lack was SUPPOSED to start tonights game but they switched to MacKenzie Blackwood last minute
• Kole Lind(#13) behind the net with a great centering feed to Brendan Woods(#21) in his first game back
• Jamie Sifers(#26) has a shot blocked, and on the ensuing breakaway, Guillaume Brisebois(#55) just can’t out-muscle his man before he gets a clear shot on net, fortunately Demko is there to make the blocker save
• Tony Cameranesi(#27) goes rinkwide to Michael Carcone(#58) who fans on a shot, but Zack MacEwen(#15) is there with the shot on goal, nice play from Cameranesi(#27)
• GOAL – BINGHAMTON – 1-0 Devils a shot from Nathan Bastian trickles its way past Demkos left pad to put the Devils up by 1
• Jesse Graham(#64) fans on the puck on a Comets powerplay which leads to a breakaway for the Devils. Demko with another good save off a Comets error
• Good shift from Jasek(#9) some nice positioning, awareness and an active stick as he does what he can to stifle the Devils offense.
• GOAL – UTICA – 1-1 tie: Brendan Gaunce(#16) with a nice play as he drops off a pass that gets tipped by Darren Archibald(#25) to Jasek(#9) who gets a quick cross ice feed to Graham(#64) for the one-timer, and the Elite Sniper himself who set this whole play in motion taps it in to tie the game at 1.
• Also this is why I don’t trust a lot of AHL stats, but they originally credited the Utica goal to Tanner MacMaster(#19) who was quite clearly, nowhere near the play.

 

1st period score: 1-1 Tie

 

This was a weird period for the Farm. They looked good in the opening 5-10 minutes, then it was like they just hit a wall offensively and got absolutely nothing going until that final powerplay goal from Gaunce. Really bizarre period from them, but they even it up and make this anyone’s game! Shots on goal in favor of Utica 10 to 7

 

2nd Period

 

• Archibald(#25) wins the faceoff draw and Jonathan Dahlen(#54) quickly snaps a pass to Ashton Sautner(#6) who gets a shot on goal
• GOAL – BINGHAMTON – 2-1 Devils Binghamton doesn’t let their dismal 5% powerplay record hold them back on this one as John Quenneville puts it past Demko to make it 2-1.
• ^ originally my factoid about Binghamton’s absolutely terrible powerplay % was going to just be to shit on them, but then they scored…so maybe I’ll save the sass till after XD
• the big MacDaddy MacEwen(#15) takes a charging penalty for this hit on Binghamton’s Colton White
• GOAL – BINGHAMTON – 3-1 Devils: Some pretty slick tick-tac-toe from the Devils gives them the two goal lead
• Utica outshot 7 to 1 so far in the second period at the halfway point
• MacMaster(#19) takes the puck up the wing and sets up Woods(#21) for Utica’s second shot on goal of the period
• GOAL – UTICA – 3-2 Devils: MacEwen(#15) chips the puck past Binghamton’s Colby Sissons and gets it past netminder Mackenzie Blackwood to put Utica within 1. Beauty goal from the big guy
• Graham(#64) banks it off the end-boards to a racing Jasek(#9) who gets a shot on goal
• Gaunce(#16) wins the draw then seconds later gets a shot on goal that Jasek(#9) attempts to deflect in net
• Some nice aggressive forechecking from MacEwen(#15) leads to a Graham(#64) shot on goal
• re: the above gif’s close-up…don’t ask…for whatever reason AHL cameramen will zoom in on the play, and its just completely jarring, still quite unsure why they do it.
• Comets on the powerplay for a Binghamton faceoff violation; Beginning to think Evan McEneny(#2) has a problem with passing to his right

 

The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 3-2 Devils

 

Once again another period where the Comets really look lost offensively for a majority of the period, but seem to find their footing in the latter half of the period. Still really impressed by MacEwen’s solo effort last game, the kind of stuff this team needs to see to get some fire in them to find the win.

 

3rd Period

 

• Comets starting the period with 54 seconds of powerplay time
• Oh boy, Dahlen(#54) picks up the puck through traffic and gets it to MacEwen(#15) who tries to go through his legs on Blackwood, but his puck his shot is blocked
• A nice shift on the penalty kill from Cam Darcy(#11); a real gud aggressive forecheck that kills a lot of time for Utica
• Puck bounces over McEneny’s(#2) stick and he freezes which leads to a massive breakaway, fortunately Graham(#64) and Demko are there to bail him out on the blunder
• Cameranesi(#27) and Sifers(#26) combine for some nice passing to MacEwen(#15) who rifles a shot on Blackwood who appears to have no idea where the puck is]( https://streamable.com/fpomh)
• Lot of end to end play but not a whole lot of shots are even remotely on target. Binghamton much more successful with their break-in attempts, Comets really REALLY trying to make the long-ice/cross-ice feed work on their break-in attempts but usually the team can’t follow up when they actually get the pass right in the zone.
• Check out Kole Lind(#13) getting a shot off while crowded by two Binghamton players, then gets a gorgeous centering pass from behind the net, but Woods(#21) is tied up and can’t get a shot off
• Brandon Gignac with speed gets stopped by Demko
• GOAL – BINGHAMTON – 4-2 Devils: Carcone(#58) gets stripped of the puck as soon as Demko hits the bench for the extra attacker, and Binghamton buries the empty netter to make it 4-2.

 

Final Score: 4-2 Binghamton Devils

 

Scoresheet

Period	Team	Goalscorer	Primary assist	helper	type
1st	Binghamton	Nathan Bastion	Michael McLeod	Colby Sissons	5v5
1st	Utica	Brendan Gaunce	Jesse Graham	Lukas Jasek	PPG
2nd	Binghamton	John Quenneville	Colby Sissons	Michael McLeod	PPG
2nd	Binghamton	Egor Sharangovich	John Quenneville	Marian Studenic	5V5
2nd	Utica	Zack MacEwen	Dylan Blujus	Ashton Sautner	5v5
3rd	Binghamton	Ryan Schmelzer	Kevin Rooney	—	en

Takeaways

• Comets played a very bizarre dump and chase type of style tonight that hey had sort of abandoned in their last couple games. I think the long-ice passes doesn’t really work with their team because of the discrepancy in skating speed between line mates
• Carcone, Kero, Darcy and Archibald were quite invisible tonight. I’m willing to give MacMaster/Lind and Woods a break since they’d been out so long with injuries; Still hard to have your top line basically phoning it in every shift
• Dahlen continues to struggle in getting offense going, hopefully with Boucher’s return, they will be paired together again and Dahlen will re-gain a linemate who can actually put pucks in the net
• Would ideally like to see Dahlen, Cameranesi and MacEwen on a line because MacEwen fulfills a lot of the holes that Dahlen is missing in his usual linemates. Someone with speed and power who can get to the net and who can actually shoot the puck; Cameranesi is also lowkey a very good playmaker on the team and has been a pretty successful call-up IMO
• Lukas Jasek continues to impress, the guy hustles every single shift and although the points weren’t there for him tonight, the guy was aggressive on his checks and was making a difference for the team all on his own
• People on this sub tend to shit on Gaunce like he’s a joke because he wasn’t lighting up the NHL, but I think if you watched the Comets games, you’d realize just how good he is, he’s head and shoulders above everyone else on the team. After watching Archibald play tonight I kind of wondered if his lack of effort and ability to contribute means he’ll likely be sliding down the call-up sheet. Because at this point Zack MacEwen is contributing everything he SHOULD be contributing as an established hockey vet…goals, power, aggression…the guy was coasting tonight, and MacEwen was (like Gaunce and Jasek) head and shoulders the best player on the ice tonight.

 

Comets Three Stars

1. Zack MacEwen – 1 goal and 4 shots on the night. Aggressive forechecking. Lot of prime chances created, probably cemented himself as the next call-up for the Canucks should they need a fill-in at RW
2. Lukas Jasek – 1 assist and 2 shots. Aggressive on the boards, good hustle on every shift, was consistently making a difference whenever he was on the ice
3. Jesse Graham – 1 assist and 4 shots – he had to bail out Evan McEneny a couple times tonight, and despite his -1 he had a great game tonight Honorable Mention: Demko because he tried his best considering the majority of his team no-showed tonight.

 

What’s Next?

 

The Comets will be looking to bounce back this Friday when they visit the Belleville Senators for their 2nd of a 4 game road stint. The last time the teams met was a pretty exciting 4-2 win for Utica, with Cam Darcy getting a fantastic out-of-the-box breakaway goal to win it. The team will hopefully be looking to erase this loss from their memory, and look to return to a more controlled style of gameplay that got them their first win streak of the season.

 

Hope you guys enjoyed this edition of the Farmies, any feedback, improvement suggestions, content or highlights you’d like me to focus/pick out during games, let me know and I’ll do my best to provide during the next Farmies! This Friday’s game against Belleville will be delayed until Saturday night (hopefully) due to work Christmas Part shenanigans on the 30th…(a Xmas party in November…I know…). Then depending how the hangover and review of Fridays game goes, I’ll ideally have Saturdays game against the Rocket up late Saturday night, or Sunday night the latest.