Ayyyyyyyyy its Friday, last day of work until next Thursday so I can’t wait to crank out this Farmies, because we got a weekend of good hockey coming up for the Canucks and the Comets, where the teams face Winnipeg and Binghamton respectively.
Anyways I want to cut to the chase and say I hope the Comets just annihilate this team of bloody goons disguised as an AHL team called the Springfield Thunderbirds. Last time they played we got some of the trashiest shit I think I’ve ever seen in hockey. Example 1, example 2, example 3 … yah… safe to say I’m no fan of this team…anyways lets get into it because like myself I’m sure everyone is under the Xmas time-crunch and don’t have that much time on their hands as the clock ticks by until the 25th so LETS. GET. INTO. IT!
Starting Lineup
LW | C | RW |
---|---|---|
Jasek | Kero | Boucher |
Archibald | Gaunce | MacEwen |
Arseneau | Cameranesi | Gadjovich |
Lind | Darcy | Bancks |
LD | RD |
---|---|
Brisebois | McEneny |
Dirk | Blujus |
Sifers | Graham |
G |
---|
Richard Bachman |
RE: Benchings
Saucerman is on the bench again, makes sense, Dirk has been playing pretty solidly the past couple games…with Juolevi out for the season, and apparently Chatfield now out for “a few more months” there’s definitely room for him to slide in should Dirk fall-off, or should ANOTHER injury befall this tattered Comets blue line.
Benched | — |
---|---|
Saucerman | — |
RE: INJURY REPORT
Apparently Wacey Hamilton practice for the first time in months with the Comets in a no-contact jersey, apparently he looks to return pretty soon, but given how solid the team has looked without him, I wonder if he finds a place to slot in, or will Trent Cull just defer to Hamilton’s experience and just bench Cameranesi despite his serviceable gameplay?
Dahlen still remains out with a concussion…no word on a timetable for his return
Injury Report | — | — | — | — | — | — |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chatfield | Dahlen | Hamilton | Juolevi | Sautner | Sifers | Woods |
lower body | Concussion | concussion | Out for the season | his fucking faceeeeeee | lower body | lower body |
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.
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1st period
Comets in Blue
- 3 minutes in and the only successful zone entry for the Comets was off a Lukas Jasek(#9) dump-in
- Holy moly Comets just look late to the puck all over the ice. 7 minutes in and I think they’ve had one shot on net. 3 zone entries just led to them losing the puck along the boards.
- Reid Boucher(#24) pokes the puck off a springfield defender and leads a breakaway, but his shot goes wide
- Bachman stops a shot off Springfields’ Ryan Horvat; #notmyhorvat
- Jonah Gadjovich(#22) helps out Tony Cameranesi(#27) along the boards then moves to the net where he attempts to deflect a shot from Jamie Sifers(#26)
- Brendan Gaunce(#16) pick up a bad deflection from Springfield and gets a shot on goal from the bottom of the circle
- Springfields crowd is apparently mostly little girls in the midst of a One Direction concert]( https://streamable.com/5jzv4)
- Bachman with a clutch save on a huge Springfield scoring opportunity
- Kole Lind(#13) takes a high-sticking penalty with 7:40 remaining in the 1st
- Boucher(#24) chases the puck to the Springfields end, steals a pass attempt to set up Kero(#10) in front who gets absolutely robbed by former Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson
- Jasek(#9) leading the entry into the zone gets a crisp pass to Boucher(#24 )who fans on a shot attempt
- Bisebois(#55) strips the puck but then passes it into Jasek’s skates and into the hands of a Springfield player
- Gadjovich(#22) cuts to the boards when he see’s the T-Birds goalie going for the clear, and gets a quick pass to Vincent Arseneau(#18) who gets a shot on goal
- GOAL – UTICA – 1-0 Comets: Darren Archibald(#25) channels his Sedinery to go between the legs to open the scoring for the Comets…holy moly what a move from a guy you would absolutely NOT expect to see that from
- It took until 35 seconds left in the first period for Springfield to get up to their goon bullshit. Here’s Springfield’s Dryden Hunt crosschecking Lind face first into the T-Birds net
- Hunt then follows it up after play has been long whistled dead by shoving Lind in the back from behind because he wants to call him a pussy a couple more times…cool guy this Hunt is
- Boucher(#24) flips it to Kero(#10) who attempts to tip it pass the goaltender as the buzzer goes
Score at the end of the first period: 1-0 Comets
Despite a pretty rough start where the Comets were being outshot 7 to 1. They turn it around and end up leading 15-12 in shots against the T-Birds and open up scoring as well. Really irritates me that Hunt didn’t get an instigator penalty on top of his two cross-checking penalties…. *heaviest of east coast Canadian accents* THAT GUY’S JUST A FACKIN’ GOON DATS FUR CHUR!”
2nd Period
- Ice looking a little wet…
- A pass from Lind(#13) almost turns into a scoring opportunity off a bad bounce
- Mario is a wholesome character who dare they desecrate his namesake by playing a power-up sound off that fucking goon Hunt re-joining the game
- Cam Darcy(#11) takes a super soft hooking penalty to put Comets on the penalty kill
- GOAL – UTICA – 2-0 Comets: LOL Gaunce(#16) with his staple move, the shorthanded goalscoring opportunity that he capitalizes on. Seriously what can we do to get THIS Gaunce? The confident speedy PK monster, Gaunce?
- Dylan Blujus(#8) gets called on a delay of game penalty and the Comets get stuck on a 5-on-3 penalty
- Springfield showing that a bunch of fucking goons don’t know what to do with an advantage if gifted one
- also I keep thinking the Camera with the green/red light, right below the main camera’s field of view is a crazy cat staring right into the camera every time It passes by.
- Archibald(#25) with a nice saucer pass to MacEwen(#15) who gets a shot on goal
- Jagger Dirk(#4) in a 1v1, forces Springfields Paul Thompson to turn then blocks his ensuing shot attempt
- Matt Marcinew gets called for goaltender interference lol
- Evan McEneny(#2) fans on his pass which leads to a breakaway shorthanded chance for Springfield’s Harry Zolnierczyck, but Bachman comes up huge with the save
- Jesse Graham(#64) gets muscled to the ice while trying to be fancy and gets dispossessed leading to ANOTHER shorthanded breakaway chance for Springfield that gets stopped by Bachman
- Gaunce(#16) with a nice quick pass to Lind(#13) who sets up Jasek(#9) for the tip in goal but it goes wide
- Comets on their 4th powerplay of the night; puck goes past Jasek(#9) and Graham(#64) denies a long ice feed to Harry Zolnierczyck with a nice backhand
- Jasek(#9) with a nice feed through traffic to Guillaume Brisebois(#55), but it hops over his stick at the last second; Graham(#64) ends the sequence with a one timer from the blue line
- Boucher(#24) with numerous chances and then absolutely devastates Dryden Hunt with a hit
- alternate angle of Bouche(#24) throwing the shoulder and Kero(#10) taking a cross-checking penalty
The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 2-0 Comets
Shots were even this period, 9-9. Comets powerplay has struggled hard tonight, going 0-4 on the night. Springfield doing a good job to keep the puck away from Zack MacEwen all night and have done well to stifle his offense; Reid Boucher looking real dangerous most shifts too, should be on the board but Springfield’s goalie is bailing them out hard.
3rd Period
- Good image quality to start the 3rd
- McEneny(#2 )throws it to a dangerous area, where a Springfield player gets a shot on Bachman…the rebound goes into another T-Bird players skate but he can’t control it and slips (most likely due to the ice quality)
- Kero(#10) gets stripped of the puck behind the net, and leads to a huge scoring opportunity for Springfield; Bachman absolutely clutch all night tonight
- Comets on the powerplay off a tripping penalty but struggling to even get it out of their own end.
- Jasek(#9) passes to Lind(#13) who’s one timer gets tipped wide by a stick
- Nice saucer pass from MacEwen(#15) to Boucher(#2 4)who leads a zone entry
- Darcy(#11) and Archibald(#25) with some great penalty killing
- Bachman gets bumped into by Harry Zolnierczyck and goes down with injury…struggled to put weight on his knee
- shame for Bachman who was looking lights out tonight, 26 saves on 26 shots
- Comets kill off a Graham(#64) high sticking penalty
- GOAL – SPRINGFIELD – 2-1 Comets: with 6 minutes remaining in the 3rd, Josh Brown lasers a shot from the blue line that gets past Demko
- Arseneau(#18) levels Josh Lowry with a big shoulder hit
- Alternate angle of the Springfield goal showing just how screened Demko was…no tracking on this puck whatsoever
- Lind(#13) with some nice puck handling through traffic
- Defensive draw, and Dirk(#4) blocks a pass that disrupts a possible one-timer attempt
- T-Birds pull Hutchinson with a minute 30 left. But Comets good at getting the puck to the neutral zone to cause the Thunderbirds to reset
- A hectic last 20 seconds faced by Demko and the Comets
Final Score: 2-1 Comets
Wasn’t too much clippable content from tonight’s game…Comets were hemmed in their own zone for a majority of the first and third periods…in the third period specifically the comets got outshot 17 to 5. When Demko subbed in for Bachman, with 10 minutes and change remaining in the period, he ended up facing 11 shots. Across the game, Utica was outshot 38 to 29, and boy did it feel like the Comets were just getting nothing of note with their shots on net.
Scoresheet
Period | Team | Goalscorer | Primary assist | helper | type |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | Utica | Darren Archibald | Brendan Gaunce | Zack MacEwen | 5v5 |
2nd | Utica | Brendan Gaunce | — | — | SHG |
3rd | Springfield | Josh Brown | Paul Thompson | Joel Lowry | 5V5 |
Takeaways
- Bit of a weird one tonight, team looked drained coming into the first period, and in the third they just had nothing left in the tank. Having to kill 7 penalties, and running 5 full powerplays I guess exhausts your top lines when guys like Boucher and Kero are used in BOTH special teams first units, but man it was just a huge difference in gameplay from tonight compared to the games against Charlotte. I wonder if burnout is starting to factor in due to the burden being put on the special teams now that a majority of their top end talent is out with injury?
- I’m pretty bummed for Bachman; he was absolutely lights out tonight. I wish he didn’t get injured and was able to secure the shutout because man he made this game winnable for the Comets, if it wasn’t for his several clutch saves this is probably a blowout from Springfield because they were all over the Comets tonight.
- Once again Brendan Gaunce notches himself a couple penalty kill breakaways where one leads to a goal…I wonder if this year was going to be HIS year in the NHL and he was finally going to make that leap…because the guy I’m watching right now in the AHL feels like a completely different player to what I’ve seen with the Canucks. I wouldn’t be terribly opposed to him being called up if he could show the kind of aggression and offensive instincts he’s shown since returning to the Comets lineup this season.
- Bit of a quiet night for guys like Lind, Gadjovich and Jasek, not to say they didn’t play poorly or anything, but it looks like the team collectively had an off night, bailed out by goaltending so I wouldn’t put any stock into it. I think those efforts in Charlotte REALLY took a lot out of them.
- During tonights game I realized how little the Comets hit. They are really NOT a physical team. That isn’t to say they dont finish their checks or anything, but compared to a team like Springfield it just seems like the Comets are very anti-hitting and more of a playmaking squad who want to beat you with skill rather than toughness…which is fine…but again there were some hits tonight where I think there SHOULD have been some kickback/pushback but just didnt get any…
Comets Three Stars
- Richard Bachman
- Brendan Gaunce
- Darren Archibald
What’s Next?
The Comets, inch themselves a bit closer to that 1st place spot in the North Division of the AHL; 3 points shy of the first place Rochester Americans who lead the division with 3 less games played than the Comets. The Comets find themselves on a pretty solid streak here though; 7w-1L-1otl in December, with 4 of those wins and the overtime loss coming on the road. I feel like if the team can shore up their discipline (lot of hooking and tripping penalties) and give their special teams guys a bit of a break from that end, and with Demko playing like a monster, and Bachman providing solid backup games like tonight, this team could make a run for the Calder Cup, but I don’t think they can be having too many of these offnights where they get outshot 17-5 in the third period of a 1 goal game.
Next up the Comets face the Binghamton Devils on Saturday, right now the Comets have split their series against the Devils 2-2; most recently winning 5-2 and 7-4 in the month of December…with the Devils main goalie Mackenzie Blackwood called up to the big team, they’ll be relying on Cam Johnson who will be starting his 4th game straight. In theory this should be a winnable game for the Comets; at home, against an ECHL goalie, with the bulk of their core healthy and producing as of late. Now that I’ve said that though, I expect the Comets to lose 17-2 in a game where they are outshot 68-13
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!