12/5/18 – Utica Comets vs. Rochester Americans

2018, December, FARMIES 11 Minutes

Well this is gonna be a tough write-up folks. After recovering from my hangover, I picked up a pretty gross cough, and just assumed it would go away, but this morning that cough decided to turn into a full blown flu; and with it, so went my plans for having a thorough pre-game pre-amble pre-written, as there was quite a lot of stuff leading in to tonights game that I’d hoped to have discussed and written about before I went into re-capping the game! So this will probably end up being a bit ranty in the beginning so apologies, but it needs to be said

But first, the announcement of Olli Juolevi’s 2-3 minimum absence due to knee injury, Leipsic getting picked up by LA and the trade of Michael Carcone to the Marlies…I mean boy, could the lead-up to tonights games get any more miserable!? That being said, keep in mind, against all odds the Comets came out on top of the Laval Rocket in a high scoring affair, in a game devoid of defense, so who knows, maybe with all this negativity stacked against them, the Comets will be able to pull out the W for their fallen brethren.

 

First things first though,

 

The Trade

 

I can’t not share my thoughts on the trade of Michael Carcone. I haven’t watched every game of the season, but I feel like I’ve recapped enough of the Comets games, and gotten to know the team and their players enough to just not be able to understand why this trade works for the Canucks OR their Farm. For those that don’t know, after waiving Brendan Leipsic, GM Jim Benning traded Comets LW Michael Carcone to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Josh Leivo; JB then later announced that the team would be loaning Sam Gagner back to the Toronto Maple Leads following his brief call-up stint with the Canucks.

*Deep breath*

Where

To

Begin…

On the outset, Leivo is a great pick up for JB and the Canucks, given the right icetime (as per most media and TOR fans speculation) Leivo could easily be a 40-50 point getter. Thats good! However the more I think about the trade itself the more I think its just very poor asset management from the Canucks brass.

It is quite publicly known that Kyle Dubas’ Maple Leafs had a # of contracts issue coming up, where they needed a spot available to make way for Willy Nylanders return to the lineup, but obviously, like any sane GM, did NOT want to lose a player for nothing. With Josh Leivos current ice-time and role assignment under Babcock, it was easy to assume that Josh Leivo would be the most likely player exposed to waivers to make space for Nylander.

JB on the other hand ALSO has a contract issue, he has Beagle and Sutter returning to the lineup from injury, and thus also needs to ditch some contracts, so naturally the under performing Brendan Leipsic was the first to go and fortunately for the already overflowing number of wingers in Utica, was picked up by LA. JB’s other problem is, Baertschi is out indefinitely, he could be gone the entire season for all we know, and thus BOHO needs a new wingman to produce with since every single winger he HAS been paired with so far has led to middling success.

Moving to the day of the trade (this was confirmed by the various media after the trade was complete), GMJB first calls up Dubas and says, “hey I know you’re going to lose Leivo to waivers, what do you want for him?”

Dubas, incredulous, thinks to himself, “did he just offer me something in exchange for a player he acknowledges is leaving?” and so says, “Gee well, I guess we could take Michael Carcone.”

GMJB thinks he’s made the steal of a lifetime, he’s got a guy who (with the right icetime) could be a 20-30 goal scorer by most Toronto fans/media accounts, so despite the fact that he’ll STILL have to paper someone after making this proposed trade, says to Kyle Dubas, “SURE THAT SOUNDS GREAT!” he hangs up laughing, and can’t believe he just got Utica’s fastest offensive forward in exchange for a player he was going to lose REGARDLESS.

But then….Jim Benning realizes he STILL has a contract issue, once Sutter returns, he’ll then be awaiting Baertschi’s return. Sending Gaudette back down to Utica is the most likely candidate, but by all accounts GMJB and Travis Green want Gaudsplan up in the big leagues where they can monitor his development closely. This means that they will most likely have to trade or put on waivers, one of Goldobin, Schaller, Roussell or Motte. Not wanting to admit that he picked up Leivo and lost an asset because his EXISTING assets he picked up in free agency have been complete failures…JB announces that Sam Gagner will be loaned back down to the Marlies to do HIS family a favor. DESPITE the fact that Gagner has been logging like 17-19 minutes a game…powerplay time….as many points as Erikkson, Schaller and Roussell combined…  again, I get doing your vet a favor by keeping him close to home…but it still lends your Farms rival a terrific NHL quality player to mentor THEIR rookies instead of your own.

 

Look, I’m not a fantasy hockey guy, I can’t tell you whats a good call…but getting a placeholder winger that doesn’t solve your contract issues for the big team at the expense of your farm team losing its BEST. SCORING. WINGER. TO YOUR FARMS DIVISION RIVAL! No less… along with sending said division rival an EXPERIENCED, bonafide, effective powerplay centerman for the Maple Leafs prospects to learn and develop off of playing with… is simply MADDENING….MADDENING!

 

When I started the Farmies, I wanted to give the r/canucks, canucks/discord fam a look at our young prospects, see how they excel, see where they improve, see what they do good, see what they don’t do good; a whole lot of optimism, while trying to not be a pessimist. But the past weeks events coupled with the fact that Trent Cull, keeps. benching. the. fucking. KIDS….is really killing my vibe. FUCK IT…lets get into it!

 

Starting Lineup

 

LW C RW
Archibald Kero Boucher
Dahlen Darcy Bancks
Lind Woods Gaunce
MacMaster Cameranesi MacEwen
LD RD
Sautner Blujus
Brisebois Sifers
McEneny Graham
G
Thatcher Demko

 

INJURIES/RECALLS/BENCHINGS

 

Olli Juolevi was confirmed out for 2-3 weeks, and Chatfield isn’t expected back till around Christmas, so no pressure Demko! Lukas Jasek was benched for the 2nd game in a row which is again, fucking ridiculous, Kole Lind had one of the worst games I think I’ve ever seen from one of the young-guns while doing the Farmies, so I’m QUITE amazed he didn’t get a seat on the bench. Comets reporter, Ben Birnell confirmed that Jasek isn’t banged-up or injured, so it really does just look like it’s a straight benching. Jagger Dirk might as well be sent back down to the Wings since he isn’t likely to see any ice-time with his stay.

 

BENCHED — — —
Jagger Dirk Jonah Gadjovich Lukas Jasek Petrus Palmu

 

Injury Report — — — —
Arseneau Bancks Chatfield Hamilton Juolevi
Hand upper body 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 and don’t want some gaudy blue taking up the screen.

 

1st period

 

Comets in Blue

 

 

1st period score: 1-0 Rochester

 

Utica outshot 11 to 5. Some pretty bad defensive work from the team, a lot of overskating passes that would almost always lead to odd-man rushes going the other way. Jesse Graham has been pretty good tonight so far in those situations though and has helped out Demko quite a bit. Forwards struggling hard to get any kind of chemistry going passing wise.

 

2nd Period

 

 

The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 3-0 Rochester

 

Comets still STRUGGLING to get any form of chemistry; Kero has been invisible so far, the only ones creating anything have been Woods, MacEwen and Graham. Shots were, somehow, even in that period 9-9, Rochester seems to have had more prime scoring opportunities with the number of odd-man rushes they had. Utica struggling to find space out on the ice to try to get anything going so we’ll see what kind of changes they make going into the third (if any)

 

3rd Period

 

 

Final Score: 5-2 Rochester Americans

 

Scoresheet

Period Team Goalscorer Primary assist helper type
1st Rochester Victor Olofsson Rasmund Asplund Brendan Guhle 5v5
2nd Rochester Matt Tennyson Sean Malone Alexander Nylander 5v5
2nd Rochester Andrew MacWilliam Rasmund Asplund Victor Olofsson 5v5
3rd Utica Reid Boucher Evan McEneny Darren Archibald 6v5
3rd Rochester CJ Smith Wayne Simpson — EN
3rd Utica Jonathan Dahlen Zack MacEwen Evan McEneny 6v5
3rd Rochester Wayne Simpson Rasmus Asplund Matt Tennyson EN/SH

 

Takeaways

  • Wellp the Comets looked about as good as a team that just had its best offensive winger taken from them and given to their division rival
  • Lind had a bit of a bounce back game, still a bunch of brain-farty moments, but he’s trying his darndest to score a goal, so I mean…there’s that!
  • Glad to see Dahlen score a goal, the guy tries so hard to set up plays but nothing comes of them, so it’s nice that he can pot a goal tonight to at least shut people up for the next week or so.
  • Thatcher Demko could honestly replace Marky or Nilsson at this point as far as im concerned, the guy plays with such confidence on a team that is just abhorrent defensively, any other goalie (take Bachman for example) would play with fear constantly, and it shows in their styles, Demko plays like he knows he’ll make all the key saves needed. Practically every goal against he’s had no chance on.

 

Comets Three Stars

  1. Thatcher Demko
  2. Thatcher Demko
  3. Thatcher fucking Demko
  • Honorable mention – Zack MacEwen because he gives’er a 110% every shift, and still looked good despite losing his main LW in Carcone.

 

What’s Next?

 

Who cares.

But seriously though, the Comets return this Friday to face the Florida Panthers farm team, the Springfield Thunderbirds. The T-Birds are coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (NY Islanders farm team) where they were down 4-1 in the 2nd period, and rallied to force overtime. The Thunderbirds have not had their top offensive winger traded to a division rival yet, so this should probably be a blowout at home unless the Comets are able to find some kind of line chemistry in practice that works, but after tonights game where lines were being shuffled every shift; it’s hard to keep the faith, but alas, I’ll still be tuning in so that we all get our dose of the Farmies!

 

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!

Published by Cody Severtson

Published

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