2021/22 Utica Comets and ECHL Talk

[Bad Goalie]

Small crowd of about 1500 but they were loud. About what I expected for preseason. Comets won 4-3 in a shootout with Foote and Clarke scoring in the SO and Daws giving up one.

Comets goals in regulation were...

Gambardella on a penalty shot.
Clarke on a PP
Zetterlund on a SH breakaway.

The Amerks roster was about half regulars and half names I didn't recognize.

I'm still learning the Comets names and spellings. Everyone you mentioned played. There were a few guys that may be Adirondack guys.

For a preseason game it was entertaining. All four lines played with pace and forechecked hard all night. If this is Kevin Dineen hockey it will be fun to watch. The forwards looked good but the defense was shaky at times.
Vukojevic and Bahl had trouble moving the puck against a heavy forecheck. I thought Walsh was the best defenseman. Daws was OK but only OK. Just seemed to be fighting the puck.

Tomorrow they are in Syracuse but we probably won't get much of a report being a preseason game.

Thanks for this. Much appreciated. The 12 I have ascertained are all going to be Comets without a doubt. Will likely be joined by Chase De Leo if he clears waivers tomorrow.

That's all of the players off my post #606 except:
Greer
Ohkotyuk
Talvitie
Irvine and I expect to add DeLeo tomorrow.
19 total

Still on the bubble in New Jersey (my guess):
Holtz
Boqvist
Studenic
Wotherspoon
Gauthier
White
Vesey
Thompson

So if none of those 4 played the Comets iced 6 that are not New Jersey Signed players. May have come form a mix of the AHLguys signed weeks ago, the Adirondack guys, and the college guys brought into camp.

 

[UticaHockey]

Thanks for this. Much appreciated. The 12 I have ascertained are all going to be Comets without a doubt. Will likely be joined by Chase De Leo if he clears waivers tomorrow.

That's all of the players off my post #606 except:
Greer
Ohkotyuk
Talvitie
Irvine and I expect to add DeLeo tomorrow.
19 total

Still on the bubble in New Jersey (my guess):
Holtz
Boqvist
Studenic
Wotherspoon
Gauthier
White
Vesey
Thompson

So if none of those 4 played the Comets iced 6 that are not New Jersey Signed players. May have come form a mix of the AHLguys signed weeks ago, the Adirondack guys, and the college guys brought into camp.

I didn't think the AHL website had boxscores for preseason but they do.

https://theahl.com/stats/game-center/1023755

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Weissbach with another strong game. He played well against the Devils at the rookie tournament. Interesting that Quinn is down but Peterka is still with the Sabres.

For the Comets, I'd imagine Gauthier eventually ends up in Utica along with a few more players.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Brian Flynn wore an 'A' with Schmelzer and McGrath.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

2 Vukojevic, Michael D
5 Russo, Robbie D
10 A Flynn, Brian C
11 Masonius, Joe D
13 A McGrath, Patrick RW
14 Irvine, Tyler F
15 Gambardella, Joe C
16 Schnarr, Nate C
19 Brink, Alex F
20 Zetterlund, Fabian C
21 Grasso, Patrick F
22 Walsh, Reilly D
23 Rivera, Nick F
25 Foote, Nolan LW
26 A Schmelzer, Ryan C
27 Long, Colin F
33 Kasel, Brandon G
34 Mitens, Mareks G
35 Daws, Nico G
37 Kaplan, Jordan F
38 Groleau, Jeremy D
39 Laberge, Samuel LW
44 Stevens, Luke LW
47 Hutchison, Nick F
77 Talvitie, Aarne C
88 Bahl, Kevin D
90 DiTomaso, Greg D
92 Clarke, Graeme RW

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Scratches:

Masonius
Irvine
Brink
Grasso
Rivera
Kasel
Long
Kaplan

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

The forwards looked good but the defense was shaky at times.
Vukojevic and Bahl had trouble moving the puck against a heavy forecheck. I thought Walsh was the best defenseman.

Will be interesting to see what the pairs look like once Okhotyuk and the rest of the final cuts arrive from New Jersey.

Imagine one or two (White, Jaros?) may spend time in NJ until Smith and Severson are ready to go. Wotherspoon is also a possibility.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Link for this afternoon's game.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

2021-22 Utica Comets Season Preview

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Bad Goalie]

Chase De Leo is now a Comet. He has been added top the roster sheet in post # 606.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

2 Vukojevic, Michael D 0 0 0 0 0
11 Masonius, Joe D 0 0 0 0 0
14 Irvine, Tyler RW 0 0 0 0 0
16 Schnarr, Nate C 0 0 0 0 0
17 Greer, A.J. LW 0 0 0 0 0
19 Brink, Alex F 0 0 0 0 0
21 Grasso, Patrick F 0 0 0 0 0
22 Walsh, Reilly D 0 0 0 0 0
23 Rivera, Nick C 0 0 0 0 0
37 Kaplan, Jordan F 0 0 0 0 0
38 Groleau, Jeremy D 0 0 0 0 0
44 Stevens, Luke LW 0 0 0 0 0
47 Hutchison, Nick F 0 0 0 0 0
77 Talvitie, Aarne C 0 0 0 0 0
82 Okhotiuk, Nikita D 0 0 0 0 0
88 Bahl, Kevin D 0 0 0 0 0
90 DiTomaso, Greg D 0 0 0 0 0
92 Clarke, Graeme RW 0 0 0 0 0

34 Mitens, Mareks 0 0 0 0 0 0
35 Daws, Nico 0 0 0 0 0 0



7 Ryfors, Simon C 0 0 0 0 0
9 Fortier, Gabriel C 0 0 0 0 0
14 Crawley, Brandon D 0 0 0 0 0
15 Huntington, Jimmy C 0 0 0 0 0
20 Jones, Ryan D 0 0 0 0 0
23 Element, Shawn C 0 0 0 0 0
24 A Raddysh, Darren D 0 0 0 0 0
39 Goncalves, Gage C 0 0 0 0 0
40 A Dumont, Gabriel C 0 0 0 0 0
45 Koepke, Cole LW 0 0 0 0 0
51 Cajkovic, Maxim RW 0 0 0 0 0
55 Hudon, Charles F 0 0 0 0 0
57 Green, Alex D 0 0 0 0 0
74 Day, Sean D 0 0 0 0 0
78 Dureau, Jaydon LW 0 0 0 0 0
84 Lohan, Kevin D 0 0 0 0 0
85 A Walcott, Daniel LW 0 0 0 0 0
88 Morand, Antoine C 0 0 0 0 0

33 Lagace, Max 0 0 0 0 0 0
60 Alnefelt, Hugo 0 0 0 0 0 0

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Masonius ejected for hit to the head.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Greer, Groleau, and Okhotiuk wearing the 'A's.

 

[Bad Goalie]

0-0 after 1 period

SOG 11-6 Crunch
Most shots came on the 5-minute PK.
The Comets had trouble clearing the zone when they got the chances. Daws was the best penalty killer. Radysh at the point QBed the PP very well.

D-pairs:
Groleau/Okhotiuk
Vukojevic/DiTomaso
Bahl/Walsh

Tough to get a handle on the lines since it's hard to get numbers with this feed. Then the Masonius ejection has led to the lines getting all screwed up between PK forwards and then the missing forward.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

0-0 after 1 period

SOG 11-6 Crunch

D-pairs:
Groleau/Okhotiuk
Vukojevic/DiTomaso
Bahl/Walsh

Tough to get a handle on the lines since it's hard to get numbers with this feed. Then the Masonius ejection has led to the lines getting all screwed between PK forwards and then the missing forward.

Masonius is a D. Dineen dressed 11/7 today.

Daws looks good.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

Comets in red jerseys and Crunch in blue , love to see that.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Bad Goalie]

Masonius is a D. Dineen dressed 11/7 today.

Daws looks good.

You may be correct, but often they will dress a guy listed as a certain position on the roster submitted by the team, but play them in another position. Comets have often played a D-man up front while he was listed as a D-man.

I'm going to dig deep, but I think Dineen has made every effort to get every guy who was in town into one of the 2 games.

Only 10 skaters played both games:
Vukojevic
Schnarr
Walsh
Groleau
Stevens
Hutchison
Talvitie
Bahl
DiTomaso
Clarke

Daws and Mitens split game 2.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

You may be correct, but often they will dress a guy listed as a certain position on the roster submitted by the team, but play them in another position. Comets have often played a D-man up front while he was listed as a D-man.

I'm going to dig deep, but I think Dineen has made every effort to get every guy who was in town into one of the 2 games.

Only 10 skaters played both games:
Vukojevic
Schnarr
Walsh
Groleau
Stevens
Hutchison
Talvitie
Bahl
DiTomaso
Clarke

Daws and Mitens split game 2.

Yeah you're right, I went back and looked at first period. Masonius was on with Vukojevic and DiTomaso.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Okhotiuk fight.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Comets get 1 with 4+ seconds left to make it look good.

The Comets were outclassed in this one. Mitens held them in it in the 3rd.

Syracuse Crunch 2 Utica Comets 1

SOG:
Comets: 6 9 6 = 21
Crunch: 11 7 20 = 38

PP:
Comets: 0/4
Crunch: 0/5

Utica Scoring:
Greg DiTomaso (1) from Michael Vukojevic (1) and A.J. Greer (1) 19:55 of the 3rd

Nico Daws:
28:43 11/12
Mareks Mitens:
31:12 25/26

The Comets lineup today was much weaker than last night.
None of the vets signed for the Comets were in the lineup. Brian Flynn, Joseph Gambardella, and RobbieRusso all played last night and Chase De Leo just cleared waivers at 2 pm.
Nolan Foote
Fabian Zetterlund
Ryan Schmelzer
also all played last night and were not in the lineup tonight along with AHL signings Patrikck McGraith and Samuel Laberge.

The fresh bodies were:

Tyler Irvine
AJ Greer
Joe Masonius
Alex Brink
Nick Rivera
Patrick Grasso
Jordan Kaplan
This group replaced the 7 forwards mentioned above. They are not the same level of players they replaced.

Nikita Okhotiuk - replaced Russo

and they were joined by players from last night:

Luke Stevens
Nick Hutchison
Greg DiTomaso

Michael Vukojevic
Kevin Bahl
Reilly Walsh
Jeremy Groleau
Nate Schnarr
Aarne Talvitie
Graeme Clarke

5 of the guys who played both games were D-men and Okhotiuk replaced Russo.

The offense shown by the Comets was basically 1 shot and done and many of the shots were from long range. Their ozone passing was poor. Many passes in all 3 zones were forced again resulting in turnovers or recaptures forcing them to start all over again. Their game was basically boring. Lots of bad giveaways in their own zone by the D (and the forwards weren't innocent either. Bad passes in attempts to create breakouts resulted in more pressure against.

Can wipe this one from the memory banks other than to have recognized those poor passes can't be repeated. The team we next see in a game will be the best of both of these groups. A few of these guys outside of the best 18 will remain as depth. The rest will be in Adirondack or released.

There will be a few more assigned here by the Devils meaning some of the top 18 won't come from the best currently here. Those that get replaced won't be going anywhere. they will become the bulk of the depth players.

The Syracuse PBP guy was saying he has heard that many of the AHL teams will carry 3 goalies this year. He said the NHL has no taxi squad and the moment they lose a keeper the top guy in the AHL goes up and the AHL management groups feel they have to have a backup on hand that is ready for the chore.

Blackwood is dictating that issue for the Devils/Comets coming out of the gate. If Wedgewood has to remain in NJ that turns Daws into the #1 instead of a trainee under the mentorship of Wedgewood leading to a shared role between the duo. Mitens and Schmid would be the 2 making up the trio of AHL keepers in house. All 3 need to be in Utica pronto to get a competition going if this truly ends up becoming the story.