Whats up everybody, hope Santa spoiled you all, and if he cheaped out then I hope you were able to get something for yourself! You’ve all earned it! The next couple weeks or so the Farmies is going to be on a pretty tough track, with both the NHL AND World Juniors happening at the same time…so I’m going to link up the last edition I did right below, because I thought it was a fantastic statement game for Zack MacEwen, to make his pitch to be a call-up to the Canucks and a really interesting Farmies to see just what that guy is capable of.
Link to the last Farmies here
Tonight the Comets faceoff against the Binghamton Devils for the third time in a row! With their loss last Saturday, the Comets dropped to 3rd in the North Division. Last game the team struggled hard in the opening two periods to generate consistent possession numbers, tonight after some rest and relaxation, I’d hope the Comets will have worked out those kinks, and will look to start this insane, 3 game in 3 night stretch to close out 2018!
Eric Tangradi is NOT in tonight’s lineup for the Devils, so in theory, NO ONE should be going down with horrific assault injuries. So lets get into tonight’s lineup!
Starting Lineup
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
| Jasek | Kero | Boucher |
| Archibald | Gaunce | MacEwen |
| Dahlen | Darcy | Bancks |
| MacMaster | Cameranesi | Lind |
| LD | RD |
|---|---|
| Brisebois | McEneny |
| Blujus | Saucerman |
| Sifers | Graham |
| G |
|---|
| Thatcher Demko |
RE: Benchings
Despite several successful games in a row for Jagger Dirk, he sits so Colton Saucerman can play…I wonder if that’s because they need to sell some more of those “get sauced Utica” t-shirts they made to capitalize on the viral sensation
| Benched | — |
|---|---|
| Arseneau | Dirk |
RE: INJURY REPORT
Nothing new on the injury front besides Richard Bachman going down with an Achilles injury in last Friday’s game he has been declared out indefinitely which required the Comets calling up Ivan Kulbakov to be Demko’s relief for the foreseeable future.
| Injury Report | — | — | — | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachman | Chatfield | Gadjovich | Hamilton | Juolevi | Sautner | Woods |
| Achilles | 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 Blue
- Zack MacEwen(#15) continuing from his last impressive game; here he is with some nice strides from behind the net to catch up to and disrupt a Binghamton player’s puck handling
- So many whistles to stop play after the first 3 minutes. Tones of offside and icing calls
- Jonathan Dahlen(#54) with two slick feeds to Tony Cameranesi(#27) who has his one-timer in front stopped by Devil’s tendy Cam Johnson
- Nice quiet takeaway from Tanner MacMaster(#19)
- Jamie Sifers(#26) has a great feed off the boards to MacEwen(#15) but the angle isn’t quite right enough for Mystic Mac can’t get his stick on it
- Comets on the powerplay; MacEwen(#15) behind the net tries to get some lift on the puck to bank it off the back of Cam Johnson
- Also every time Joe Roberts brings up the fact that the Devils have the worst penalty kill in the league, the Comets just completely shit the bed against them on the man advantage…Comets have been successful 4 times in their last 24 powerplays
- Meaningless as it didn’t result in much but here’s Guillaume Brisebois(#55) and Lukas Jasek(#9) with a good backcheck on an odd-man rush at the conclusion of the Comets powerplay
- Facing pressure from 2 Devils players, Reid Boucher(#24) calmly passed to Jesse Graham(#64) who gets a nice pass to Sifers(#26) who gets a shot on net
- Graham(#64) facing pressure from Devils Ryan Schmelzer, uses his footspeed to get away to center to before dumping it
- Brendan Gaunce(#16) with some great puckhandling while under pressure by 3 Devils players
- Cam Darcy(#11) gets a takeaway and draws a penalty on his way to the net; nice one-timer on net from Dylan Blujus(#8) at the end of the play
- Boucher(#24) dumps the puck into the Devils end on the powerplay and it takes a hard bounce off the end wall to ricochet off the linesman’s skate right in front of the Devils net; would’ve been legitimately insane if that somehow went in
- Gaunce(#16) throwing his body around on the Comets penalty kill to clear the zone
Score at the end of the first period: 0-0 Tie
Dominant first period from the Comets even if they didn’t score…2 powerplays, 15 shots to the Devils 5…if I had access to possession numbers, I’m sure it would be like 70/30 in favor of the Comets. Liked what I saw from the lines; I didn’t expect much from a Lind, Cameranesi, MacMaster line, but they’ve looked pretty decent when used! All in all, a really solid period of play from Blujus, Graham and Jasek!
2nd Period
- Eric Gryba throws a late hit on Lukas Jasek(#9) behind the play and gets called for interference
- Comets register a single shot on the powerplay and have two odd-man rushes to defend….pretty weak powerplay game against supposedly the worst penalty killing team in the AHL
- Comets heavily out possessing Binghamton this period, but aren’t generating nearly as many shots. Binghamton relying heavily on outmuscling the Comets to deny them chances
- Really craft play from Boucher(#24) here as he angles it hard off the boards into Cam Johnsons net, forcing Johnson to cover and helps avoid the icing
- 11 minutes down and only 3 shots on net
- A well placed Demko pad prevents a huge Devils scoring opportunity
- Colton Saucerman(#39) loses the puck, but his shot on goal upon regaining it nearly gets tipped in
- I’m not exactly sure WHY Dahlen has been relegated to playing with Bancks and Darcy….he’s completely wasted here
- Tanner Kero(#10) goes off for interference; Comets on their 2nd penalty kill of the night
- Darren Archibald(#25) and Gaunce(#16) get an odd-man rush going the other way and after taking his shot gets called on a pretty obvious interference penalty of his own
- Blake Pietela goes goalpost and out on the Devils 5-on-3 powerplay
- Sifers(#26) shoves Nathan Bastian into Demko who in turn gives him a whack; Ref’s call Demko for slashing
- Comets once again on the 5-on-3 penalty kill; Penalty being served by Tony Cameranesi
- Really solid penalty kill from the Comets though
- Demko jumps on an uncontrolled rebound on the Comets 5-on-3
- Sifers(#26) has been on the ice for BOTH Comets 5-on-3 PK’s and gets a little physical to help Brisebois(#55) clear the zone
The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 0-0 Tie
A slow burn of a period…only 8 shots between the two teams until the extended Devils powerplay where they extended their shot differential 8 to 4. A patience testing period as the Comets really got nothing going with any of their zone entries but still managed to hold possession for the bulk of the period…that final penalty kill though will have exhausted some of their players pretty hard though…they REALLY need to shore up their offense in the third if they want to try and put this game away.
3rd Period
- Suffocating gameplay through the first 3.5 minutes of the third period. Not a lot of open ice to work with for anybody
- Evan McEneny(#2) with a nice pass to Brisebois(#55) who wrists it into Johnson’s glove
- McEneny gets called on a slashing minor and puts the Comets on their 5th penalty kill
- GOAL – BINGHAMTON – 1-0 Devils: Comets on the penalty kill; a shot from Michael Kapla gets tipped in front by John Ramage to give the Devils the lead
- Gaunce(#16) with a shot off Cam Johnson’s pad but no one is there to bat in the rebound; looks like Gaunce was intentionally trying to play it off Johnsons pad
- Devils are just completely negating the Comets play with their physicality. Just getting outmuscled on every zone entry
- 6:37 left in the game, Comets outshooting the Devils 7 to 1…but that 1 shot against is the one that went in so ….it’s one of THOSE games
- Utica peppering Johnson with anything to try and even this one up; shots from Brisebois and Boucher
- Demko saves a risky uncontrolled rebound
- Demko to the bench; Kero with a diving catch to prevent the empty netter
- Comets get hosed on this play that does NOT get called for icing…
- Last second scrambling from MacEwen(#15) as he has a shot on goal blocked in front then gets a wicked back hand pass right in front of the net but no one can get it past Johnson
Final Score: 1-0 Devils
Despite outshooting the Devils 33 to 18 across three periods, the Comets just couldn’t get anything substantial offensively against Cam Johnson. Physically, the Devils just dominated the Comets, at least 50% of the Comets zone-entry attempts ended with the Coments player sandwiched against the boards while another Devil cleared it…rinse and repeat for 60 minutes and the Devils eke out a victory despite getting badly out possessed.
Scoresheet
| Period | Team | Goalscorer | Primary assist | helper | type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | Binghamton | John Ramage | Michael Kapla | Brandon Gignac | PPG |
Takeaways
- Comets powerplay was once again completely abysmal against the AHL’s WORST penalty killing team… The team has scored only 4 times in their last 34 powerplays…Time to change it up, because it isn’t working, you can only roll out 5 left hand shots with one right hand shot (Boucher) and expect your opponent to not see the one-timer setup to Boucher coming. Its so telegraphed, no wonder the Devils had no problem against the Comets tonight as their coaches know who to physically shutdown in order to succeed
- The Blueline was the only effective thing about the Comets tonight
D # of Shots McEneny 2 Blujus 3 Saucerman 3 Brisebois 2 Graham 1 - Jasek, Kero, MacMaster, MacEwen, Lind and Dahlen were held to 0 shots….with any shot attempts made, being blocked or deflected wide from the goal… MacMaster had a golden opportunity down the wing but literally dropped his stick, or had it slip from his hands…whichever it was it was not a compelling argument to continue playing him at this capacity, because he’s simply looked out of his depth when it comes to generating offense for the team
- The Devils were particularily VERY physical with Jasek tonight, I think the coaching staff knew that Jasek is this teams unsung hero, a brilliant playmaker and passer that if shutdown, pretty much blows up that lines ability to create meaningful offense.
- Despite Darcy’s one takeaway, I felt he was pretty invisible tonight, Bancks as well. Dahlen is pretty much wasted playing with these two as neither are strong enough to battle along the boards to retrieve the puck, nor fast enough on a zone-entry to get anything collectively going.
- Would like to see Dahlen slot back in with Gaunce and MacEwen. Archibald is back to phoning it in if a period isn’t going his way. Get someone with MacEwen who can take a pass and MAKE a pass instead of taking the selfish play 90% of the time.
- Please fix the powerplay…
Comets Three Stars
- Jesse Graham
- Dylan Blujus
- Colton Saucerman
Honorable Mention: same as last game, Evan McEneny, who after having his last season wrecked by a leg injury, is making a decent campaign for himself as being a reliable call-up for the Canucks blue-line. Solid back-checking, very rarely takes bad penalties, can PK and is solid on the powerplay as well.
What’s Next?
The Comets are back at it again tomorrow night against the Syracuse Crunch, and then AGAIN on Saturday against the Division leading Rochester Americans. First and foremost though, the Syracuse Crunch are second in the North Division with least games played, and will be coming in tomorrow night’s game on a 3 game win streak. The Comets need to shore up their offense if they want to even have a chance to win this one.
For now! this has been it for tonight’s Farmies, but I’ll be back again tomorrow! As always 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!
