Hello all, Farmies back at it again after what feels like FOREVER. Tonight is apparently a “big game” for the Canucks so I doubt tonight’s Farmies will generate too much traction so I’ll try to keep it short and simple!

 

The Comets are facing off against the Syracuse Crunch (Tampa’s Farm) for their 2nd matchup in 5 nights…little about the Crunch, they’re on an AHL worst, 5 game winless streak and in their last 2 matchups against the Comets have been outscored 7 to 4 (don’t look up the overall series scoring though…that 10-1 game really makes it look AWFUL haha).

 

Both teams come into tonights matchup, well rested and quite familiar with one another. Having surely gone over Sundays game tape thoroughly with their coaches, tonights game ought to be a much tighter contest than Sundays.

Looking over tonight’s lineup, it looks like we won’t have Jesse Graham slotting in as the final winger, so notch that into the + column for Trent Cull…but once again Lukas Jasek sits…again after having some of the best efforts from the Comets this season. So lets just get into it shall we….

 

Starting Lineup

 

LW	C	RW
Pyatt	Kero	Boucher
Dahlen	Gaunce	MacEwen
Bancks	Gaudette	Lind
MacMaster	Darcy	Gadjovich

LD	RD
Brisebois	Sifers
McEneny	Blujus
Graham	Saucerman

G
Ivan Kulbakov

 

Thank god, the Watson/Sauce pairing got broken up. Gaudette returning to the lineup means we could see some decent possession and offense from the Comets tonight…however…that being said, it looks like Cull has opted to continue benching Jasek and in the wake of injuries to Arseneau, Woods and now Wacey Hamilton… slots Tanner MacMaster back into the lineup who’d been benched for the last 7 games straight. Apparently Jasek has been ill and that’s why isn’t playing tonight…so good opportunity for MacMaster here to earn a spot

Also starting for the 6th straight game is Ivan Kulbakov… I wouldn’t think its concerning because he’s actually performed pretty well after numerous consecutive starts, and you’d have to think that with Michael Leighton being picked up on a PTO, that he’ll get some nights off eventually.

 

Benched
Watson
1

 

RE: INJURY REPORT

 

Injury Report	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Arseneau	Bachman	Chatfield	Hamilton	Jasek	Juolevi	Sautner	Woods
Undisclosed	Out for the Season	foot	Undisclosed	Sick	Out for the season	his fucking faceeeeeee	lower body

 

Sautner and Chatfield both skated together at practice together wearing red no-contact jerseys so theres signs of recovery coming, expecting them back later this month or February.

 

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 a green/black alternate tonight

 

• Reid Boucher(#24) starting us off early by getting a takeaway off a Crunch exit attempt and feeding Tom Pyatt(#20) with a nice backhand pass for a shot on goal
• GOAL – UTICA – 1-0 Comets: Boucher(#24) with a quick feed to Kero(#10) who’s driving to the net; Kero then gets a slick no look backhand pass to Pyatt(#20) on the doorstep who shelves it past Eddie Pasquale to give the Comets the 1-0 lead 25 seconds into the game
• This one got an actual “oh my god” out of me; Jonathan Dahlen(#54) chops the puck along the boards down the left wing, and Zack MacEwen(#15) scoops it up, breaks the legs of a Crunch defender, baits the goalie to go down on his stomach only to have Taylor Raddysh get his stick on MacEwens at the last second to prevent the shot on goal ….holy moly if that was a goal…GMJB woulda called him up in between periods
• Kole Lind(#13) picks up a puck being fought for by Adam Gaudette(#17) and Carter Bancks(#34) and gets a great quick pass to Colton Saucerman(#39) who sets up Jesse Graham(#64) who opts for a shot to an inbound Gaudette who tries to deflect it in. good battle from Gaudette to set this one up
• Jonah Gadjovich(#22) in spite of his skating gets a pretty decent zone entry, finishes his check and pins his man so Cam Darcy(#11) can come in and try retain possession alongside Tanner MacMaster(#19)
• Gadjovich(#22) follows that up with a near identical move on Syracuse’ Ben Thomas to gain the zone for Utica
• oh boy Pyatt(#20) with a nasty tip pass to Kero(#10)
• Tones of chances from Utica early holy moly
• im sure parents love glow in the dark night at Comets games
• Dylan Blujus(#8) with a giveaway but makes a nice recovery to disrupt a Syracuse passing attempt
• Kulbakov with a quick setup and pad save after a failed clearing attempt
• Lind(#13) with great puck handling to retain the zone for Utica, then pinches the boards to retain possession; Gaudette(#17) tries to saucer a pass to Guillaume Brisebois(#55) but its tipped by the other Gaunce
• Lind(#13) with a chip pass to Bancks(#34 )to enter the zone, then draws a tripping penalty to put the Comets on the powerplay
• 1st unit: Dahlen/MacEwen/Kero/Gaunce/McEneny
• 2nd Unit: Gadjovich,…yes Gadjovich…Pyatt, Kero, McEneny, Gaudette
• Looks like putting Gadj out on the powerplay was a good call; Gaudette(#17) sends it to Pyatt(#20) who’s shot of Pasquale lands right on Gadjovich’s(#22) stick, and his rebound attempt goes off the post and is covered
• 3rd group: Gaudette, MacEwen, Pyatt, Graham, Lind
• check out MacEwen’s stride here after taking a hit to the body. Great speed and distance travelled
• Crunch with their first bit of sustained pressure in the Comets zone; Gadjovich(#22) with relatively impressive footspeed to chase down Cal Foote and the puck to the Crunch end; didn’t clip it but Gadj after this was able to fight for the puck in the neutral zone, get a clean dump in to allow for a Comets change
• Brendan Gaunce(#16) loses possession that leads to a Taylor Raddysh drive to the net but Brisebois(#55) gets a nice poke check to disrupt the scoring attempt
• Dennis Yan picks up an elbowing minor in a puck battle along the boards and the Comets are on their second powerplay of the night
• Evan McEneny(#2) holding the line like a champ leads to scoring chances off quick passing from Kero(#10) and Dahlen(#54)
• Gaunce(#16) for the second time tonight loses track of the puck and it leads to an odd-man rush for the Crunch where they get their second and third shots on goal;
• Cam Darcy picks up a slashing minor so Comets will go the penalty kill…without Hamilton and now Darcy to play the PK it’ll be interesting who Cull chooses to replace Bancks and Gaunce (his other two most reliable PK’ers)
• Gaunce DOES get a chance for his patented breakaway, but after being doubleshifted on the PK he just doesn’t have the gas to get to it
• after the breakaway Gaunce goes to shift off and Cory Conacher decides, that will be a good time to hold Gauncer’s stick and picks up a 2nd minor for unsportsmanlike conduct to boot
• Comets on the 4 minute powerplay
• Pyatt(#20) gets cross checked face first into the boards…yikes that coulda been bad
• there should be a sign at the aud that says “stop no-look backhand passes”; here’s Dahlen giving up possession on the early 4-on-3 powerplay off said no look pass
• GOAL – UTICA – 2-0 Comets: Dahlen(#54) catches the rebound of his own tip-in attempt from a Kero(#10) pass to give the Comets the 2-0 lead.

 

Score at the end of the first period: 2-0 Comets

 

Damn this was pure domination from the Comets, barring a couple dispossession’s and odd-man rushes…the Comets were sound defensively breaking up nearly every Crunch chance in their own end. Comets outshot the Crunch 13 to 5

 

2nd Period

 

• Comets with MORE sustained pressure from MacEwen(#15) and Dahlen(#54) to start the period
• GOAL – UTICA – 3-0 Comets: Bancks(#34) picks up a MacEwen(#15) rebound off the boards and Gaudette(#17) is there to tip his shot past Pasquale for the 3-0 lead
• GOAL – SYRACUSE – 3-1 Comets: Kulbakov goes to glove down the puck and loses control (similar to the last game) despite a bunch of Comets crashing the net to keep it out, the ref has seen enough and rules it a goal…bizarre call as far as I’m concerned, it really doesn’t look like it goes in
• GOAL – SYRACUSE – 3-2 Comets: Crunch with back to back goals…this time Blujus(#8) and Sifers(#26) appear to fight eachother for the puck and take a tumble, in the ensuing chaos Gabriel Dumont strips his own man, Boris Katchouk of the puck, fooling Kulbakov who moves to his left side to stop what he thinks is a Katchouk wraparound…leaving Dumont all the space in the world for a Dumont goal
• GOAL – UTICA – 4-2 Comets: I can’t even keep up with these back-to-back-to-back-to-back goals… Gaunce(#16) and Dahlen(#54) combine for a give-and-go with Dahlen finishing the sequence off by roofing it over Pasquale’s glove-side…slice ass saucer pass from Gaunce
• 3 goals in 2 minutes and 38 seconds lol
• Lind and Gaudette on the ice is almost a guaranteed controlled zone entry…the possession from these two and the puck handling is insane
• Naturally, as I compliment him, Gaudette picks up a slashing minor to put the Comets on the penalty kill
• MacEwen(#15) with some wicked hand-eye co-ordination as he disrupts the Crunch’ possession in the Comets end and leads a shorthanded rush with none-other than Gaunce(#16) and gets a shot on net; really look at his speed to get to center, and then his puck control at center as he enters the Crunch zone…so good
• After killing the Gaudette penalty, Comets are then back on the PK off a Brisebois holding penalty
• Kulbakov with two huge stops on the Comets penalty kill
• lol Gaudette picks up his second penalty with a hooking minor to put the Comets on a 5-on-3 penalty kill… yikes…
• Brisebois(#55) leaves the box off his penalty and picks up a Crunch pass and enters the zone for a shot on goal that gets blockered aside
• GOAL – UTICA – 5-2 Comets: THE DROUGHT IS OVER! Kole “why isn’t anybody taking me” Lind(#13) picks up a Eddie Pasquale rebound and gets his first AHL goal to regain the Comets 3 goal lead…. Also note Gaudette’s(#17) effort to gain the zone TWICE for Utica in short succession…. ALSO peep that absolutely nasty pass to Blujus(#8) from Lind.
• Cory Conacher picks up his 2nd unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of the game after he knocks down a puck with a high stick and then, despite knowing the stoppage in play to come off touching the puck, slaps a shot at Kulbakov
• Pyatt(#20) sets up Gaudette(# 17)for a slapper on Eddie Pasquale on the Comets powerplay, Lind(#13) tries to backhand one on net but puts it wide

 

The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 5-2 Comets

 

Absolutely nutty second period after the Crunch get some early momentum going off some weird goals…the Comets rally to show the same dominance they had in the first period and absolutely pummel the Crunch with shots, outshooting the Crunch 14 to 13… I genuinely wonder if exhaustion will start settling in after some seriously poor discipline from the Comets led to 4 penalty kills from players who are some of their best at even strength…we’ll see how the third plays out!

3rd Period

 

• GOAL – SYRACUSE – 5-3 Comets: a misread from Blujus(#8) as he pinches to far on the right wing, leaving Gabriel Dumont all the space in the world to race down the Kulbakov’s left side to rifle an absolute laser of a shot above his glove-side
• Boucher(#24) hits a Crunch player, and appears to be hon the receiving end of a blatant knee-on-knee shot from Andy Andreoff but no call from officials
• 5 minutes passed and Comets haven’t had a shot on net
• after he works on his footspeed, his follow up on his zone entries like this will be much better… Still the only guy in the third period to have a successful zone entry
• Comets get dinged for too many men and are on the penalty kill again…oof…that exhaustion setting in like I warned about…
• GOAL – SYRACUSE – 5-4 Comets: Oh boy…Crunch manage to make this a 1 goal game after being down by 3… powerplay tally goes to Alexander Volkov who tips one under Kulbakov
• 10 minutes deep and despite a zone entry from MacMaster(#19)… Comets haven’t had a single shot on goal this period
• Jesus Christ….Bancks(#34) takes a tripping penalty to put the Comets on the penalty kill for the second time this period…OOF
• Darcy(#11) with a nice job on the Comets penalty kill to strip the other Gaunce of the puck; pretty sure this is registered as the first shot on goal in the period for the Comets
• Comets successfully kill their 7th penalty of the night
• Carter Verhaege gets a shot from down the middle that gets gloved down by Kulbakov
• Lind(#13) tries leading a zone entry and gets tied up hard by Nolan Valleau drawing the hooking penalty and putting the Comets on a late powerplay; that shot from Saucerman at the end of the sequence registers the Comets SECOND shot of the period
• HEAVY aggressive forecheck from the Crunch and almost a minute into their powerplay and they still haven’t gotten past the neutral zone
• this is the Comets powerplay….brutal effort here…. Like what the fuck is going on…..how can you have 5 Comets defending from 3 Crunch players cycling
• Powerplay over, no shots on net… you’d think they were crushing beers between periods…team from the first two periods has not been here for the 3rd … team is running on fumes right now, but still holding together defensively for now
• Bancks gets dinged on this tripping penalty… I mean dude…you’re the teams best penalty killer without Wacey Hamilton….get your shit together
• Bancks(#34) from out of the powerplay box blocks a shot with his stomach…ooh boy that couldn’t have felt good
• Bancks immediately heads down the tunnel to the dressing room at the stoppage in play
• Kulbakov with a huge pad save under pressure

 

Final Score: 5-4 Comets

 

Scoresheet

 

Period	Team	Goalscorer	Primary assist	helper	type
1st	Utica	Tom Pyatt	Reid Boucher	—	5v5
1st	Utica	Jonathan Dahlen	Tanner Kero	Reid Boucher	PPG
2nd	Utica	Adam Gaudette	Carter Bancks	Zack MacEwen	5v5
2nd	Syracuse	Alex Barre-Boulet	Carter Verhaege	—	5v5
2nd	Syracuse	Gabriel Dumont	Boris Katchouk	Taylor Raddysh	5v5
2nd	Utica	Jonathan Dahlen	Brendan Gaunce	Zack MacEwen	5v5
2nd	Utica	Kole Lind	Adam Gaudette	Dylan Blujus	5v5
3rd	Syracuse	Gabriel Dumont	Taylor Raddysh	Nolan Valleau	5v5
3rd	Syracuse	Alexander Volkov	Cal Foote	Dennis Yan	PPG

 

Takeaways

• Once again exhaustion hit the Comets like a fucking sack of hammers….just 2 shots in the third period to the Crunch’ 16….3 penalties….0 shots on the powerplay….I mean holy moly they won tonight, but they were seemingly on the verge of losing until the Dahlen/Lind goals and then again after the Volkov goal to put the Crunch within 1.
• Per the above, Cull needs to start trusting his rookies some more and putting them into penalty kill situations…you can’t expect guys like MacEwen and Gaunce to shoulder your 1st unit penalty kill and 1st unit powerplay when it’s a game where discipline is blatantly a huge issue. Get Gadjovich out there for a shift, Gaudette I mean why the fuck not…your team suffered huge because of how much special team time was spent on just a few guys.
• Lind and Gaudette, discipline aside, had VERY impressive games…I wish the AHL had advanced stat tracking, because oh man their ability to enter the zone is far and away the best on the team. Great vision from Lind on his first career AHL goal, great pass to Blujus to start the whole thing in motion too.
• Ivan Kulbakov once again gets kind of a raw deal tonight aftera bullshit first goal, and then his team just leaving him out to dry on a few of those other ones. A few bad defensive reads from Blujus tonight lead to a couple goals against…but otherwise…30 saves on 34 shots is really impressive, and honestly he had some clutch saves late in the third to make sure this wasn’t an embarrassing loss where the Comets give up a 3 goal advantage (the worst lead in sports) to lose. Really been impressed with this guy, given the workload he’s received once again as a call up to the Comets
• MacMaster….man I was hoping he’d kind of prove why he should be in the lineup tonight, but yikes…guy was pretty invisible tonight…which is a shame because his linemate Jonah Gadjovich was leading the team in zone entries, dump-ins…Not a good look if your just the odd man out on a line. IMO whatever reasons that specifically kept him benched for 7 games….werent exactly proven wrong tonight… I would hope Lukas Jasek slots himself back in Mac’s place because everywhere MacMaster fell short tonight are areas where Jasek has constantly looked good…playmaking, passing, puck control, vision, board work… I think time with the Kalamazoo Wings is in order for the struggling winger.
• Dahlen had a great first two periods, but third period was totally invisible. Then again, could say the same about Kero, Boucher, MacMaster, Pyatt…every player really. But there were times when I was certain Dahlen was being benched for the third until that final powerplay which generated no shots, and probably the most embarrassing team streamable I think I’ve ever created.

 

Comets Three Stars

1. Ivan Kulbakov
2. Kole Lind
3. Gadjovich

 

What’s Next?

 

Next up on the agenda is a back-to-back series, Friday and Saturday, where the Comets face the Binghamton Devils followed by the Belleville Senators…I can’t begin to tell you how much I’m going to struggle with avoiding referring to Belleville as the Devils, or Binghamton as the Senators…bloody B’s…

 

The Devils are 4-0-1-0 for the month of January and come into Saturdays game winning the season head-to-head record 4w-2L and having outscored the Comets 20 to 18 in that time…The Devils play a very heavy and physical game and practically every outing has seen some brutal hits that lead to injury against the Comets…the Comets outside of Vinny Arseneau (who’s been out with injury numerous times this season) don’t have much “toughness” to their core…so the size differential always seems to fuck them up pretty hard. So they have to utilize their speed and effectiveness to get away from the boards as fast as possible if they don’t want to get annihilated physically or on the scoreboard.

That prep aside, the Comets actually find themselves tied for 1st in the North Division, edged only by the Rochester Americans who have the same amount of points with 5 less games played. Again schedule in the AHL is pretty nutty haha.

 

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!