12/22/18 – Utica Comets vs. Binghamton Devils

2018, December, FARMIES 13 Minutes

Evening folks welcome to the last Farmies edition before the Christmas break! Coming into tonight’s game at home, the Comets are riding a 7 game point streak; in their last 14 games they are 10-3-1-0 which is incredibly impressive given the shocking number of long-term injuries shaking up their d-core. Their opponent tonight, a familiar one, the Binghamton Devils, have won 3 of its last 5, and are 4-6-0-0 in their last 10 games but have lost 4 of their last 5 road games, a staggering 4-10-2-0 on the road…so the odds are in the Comets favor tonight as they look to go into the Christmas break on a high note!

 

Last nights game against Springfield saw the Comets lose Richard Bachman to injury, and is out indefinitely. He went down after getting clipped in the back of the leg, and appeared to be unable to put any weight or pressure on his leg as he was helped off the ice by his teammates. Joining the ranks of the Comets “all-name team” is PTO goalie Devin Buffalo from the Adirondack Phantoms… the Comets had to call up Buffalo as the Farms Farm the Kalamazoo Wings were last playing Fort Wayne and thus replacement goaltender Ivan Kulbakov could not make it to Utica in time for tonights game.

 

Returning tonight is Jonathan Dahlen, who had been out with a concussion, after a December 14th game against, who’d have guessed it, the FUCKING Binghamton Devils. The addition of Dahlen back into the lineup will provide some much needed powerplay dynamics as the Comets have struggled as of late with the man advantage…going 0/5 against Springfield and 0/3 TWICE against Charlotte. So here’s hoping the addition of Dahlen back into the lineup see’s a boost to their PP unit. With that lets get into tonight’s game!

 

Starting Lineup

 

LW C RW
Jasek Kero Boucher
Archibald Gaunce MacEwen
Dahlen Cameranesi Gadjovich
Lind Darcy Bancks
LD RD
Brisebois McEneny
Dirk Blujus
Sifers Graham
G
Thatcher Demko

 

 

RE: Benchings

Saucerman remains out, and probably will remain so until another injury hits the blue-line or should one of Blujus/Dirk/Graham have a noticeably bad game.

Benched —
Saucerman —

RE: INJURY REPORT

Wacey Hamilton apparently traveled with the team to Charlotte in their last road trip so I assume he’s making strides for a return; he’s yet to play this season after picking up a concussion in training camp.

Brendan Woods also remains out with a lowerbody injury, no timetable either for his return

Jalen Chatfield out a few more months according to GM Ryan Johnson

OJ48 is donezo until summer which blows

Ashton Sautner is out indefinitely as well after having his face butchered by Eric “fuckstick” Tangradi

Apparently Jonah Gadjovich picked up a lowerbody injury after blocking a shot against Springfield

Injury Report — — — — —
Chatfield Gadjovich Hamilton Juolevi Sautner Woods
lower body lower body concussion Out for the season his fucking faceeeeeee 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.

 

 

1st period

 

Comets in their Green/White alternates

 

 

Score at the end of the first period: 1-1 Tie

 

Comets with a pretty decent period, team looks WAY better WITH Dahlen in the lineup; going into the second period with about a minute left on the powerplay COULD lead to a goal, but its pretty amazing how bad their powerplay has been as of late. Really unlucky goal against for Demko too; just a weak shift from Cameranesi there in general that caused that goal. Hope that one doesn’t come back to bite them in the ass.

 

2nd Period

 

 

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

 

Utica heavily out possessed in this period, and the shots reflect it, getting outshot 10 to 6 across the period…once again bad discipline costs them as they take 3 penalties. Team REALLY needs to get some better shots on net, the chances for them are just so few and far between this game…can’t win off 6 shots a period.

 

3rd Period

 

 

Final Score: 4-3 Devils

 

Well the Comets outshot the Devils cleanly in the third period, but it just wasn’t enough. Not enough high quality scoring chances, abysmal powerplay continues and Demko has quite possibly his worst game I’ve seen out of him in quite some time, poor rebound control cost them two goals tonight and was the difference maker.

Scoresheet

 

Period Team Goalscorer Primary assist helper type
1st Binghamton Conor Riley Michael McLeod Brandon Baddock 5v5
1st Utica Tanner Kero Reid Boucher — 5v5
2nd Binghamton John Edwards Kevin Rooney Colby Sissons 5v5
2nd Utica Reid Boucher Tanner Kero Zack MacEwen PPG
3rd Binghamton John Edwards Kurtis Gabriel Kevin Rooney 5v5
3rd Utica Darren Archibald — — PPG

 

Takeaways

  • Comets powerplay was 2/6 tonight, against the league’s WORST PENALTY KILLING TEAM…that simply isn’t good enough. Cull shortens his bench like fucking crazy on the powerplay and penalty kill, the guy has got to try trusting other players into his special teams, get Lind out there, the kid has great passing, trust him to know what to do…you can’t roll out Tanner Kero and Reid Boucher for both your penalty kill AND powerplay 1st units and expect them to have enough gas to provide even strength scoring
  • I URGE everyone to watch that fucking back checking highlight of MacEwen’s where he outraces everyone on the ice to deny the Devils any possession off a zone entry. That was at the END of a long shift…and then again watch that final highlight of the Farmies…I’m not joking…I rewound until I found the start of MacEwens final shift of the game…he was on the ice for the last 2 minutes and 50 seconds of gameplay…and HE STILL HAS THE FUCKING ENERGY TO ATTEMPT THAT SOLO DRIVE THROUGH THE DEVILS PLAYERS TO TRY EVEN THE GAME…the guy is a fucking animal…give him a decent chance with the Canucks at some point…I feel like MacEwen is the embodiment of everything they wanted Tim Schaller to be… call him up…don’t call up Gaunce or Archibald, get this kid up to the big leagues…because the kid is a fucking animal every shift…speed, size, skating, puckhandling, shots, effort, speed, hustle, powerplay, penalty killing, speed net front presence, wristers/slappers, did I mention SPEED? The guy does literally everything for this team and is fucking GOOD at it.
  • Demko had an uncharacteristically bad night. Tony Cameranesi single handedly caused two goals against. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that 2 of the goals tonight were completely on Demko’s lack of rebound control on specifically his pad saves. I don’t imagine this is something he would repeat in the future, and I’d expect more discipline from him later in that regards, but this might be the one time where his forwards were left trying to bail out their goalie than the reverse which is a first in a long time.
  • Archibald really does seem completely checked out…I know he’s riding a pretty good goal streak, but man does the guy just not put any effort on back checking or anything…
  • Trent Cull said after the game that a lot of the goals against were due to plays from youth and inexperience…I legit was baffled by this; the first two goals were legitimately due to errors from Tony Cameranesi, and then the last two goals were BOTH off poor rebound and puck control from Thatcher Demko. Unless he groups Cameranesi and Demko into the youth and inexperience crowd, despite Demkos 103 pro starts and Cameranesi’s 164 pro games? Either way maybe its just a handling the press thing, but I’d hope they addressed that the goals against were caused by easy to fix errors and aren’t just a blanket “it’s the rookies problem” bullshit.

 

Comets Three Stars

  1. Zack MacEwen – the offensive side
  2. Zack MacEwen – the defensive side
  3. Reid Boucher – 8 shots and a goal and an assist

 

Honorable Mention: I feel like I don’t clip enough of him, but Evan McEneny(#2) has been so incredibly solid on the Comets blueline in the absence of Sautner/Juolevi and Chatfield. He has easily the best passing game out of any of the current Comets blue liners and quite rarely makes any notable gaffes. Since Sautner went down he has easily been the Comets best defenceman.

 

What’s Next?

 

The Comets get a much needed layoff for the holidays and return next Thursday against the Binghamton Devils again. The time off will be welcome as a serious lack of discipline the past couple games has run Cull’s special teams to a level of exhaustion I’ve not yet seen this season. With the loss tonight, the Comets drop to 3rd in the North Division, just 1 point shy of the Cleveland Monsters, who have 36 points with 3 games in hand.

 

Until the 27th, the Farmies bids everyone adieu and wishes you a merry Christmas and a happy holidays. I 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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