2021-22 Utica Comets and ECHL thread - part V

[Bad Goalie]

With OK called up it's still 2 to go for their full lineup with OK and Z.

They are desperate for Gauthier's return from injury. Never thought I'd be posting that, but he is instrumental in this team's success at Center and on the PK with Greer.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Last night Thompson was on the ice for 3 of the 4GA. The 2nd resulted directly from a pass he tried to make off hisa own half boards to the center of the ice. It weas cleanly interrcepted and deposited in the Comets goal for the tying goal.

I'm not a fan of +/-. I like to keep track of who is on the ice for goals against regardless of the situation and use the total with the the number of games played.

Comets are 1-5 in their last 6 GP and 3-7 in the last 10

Let's look at the team's goal scorers (Top10):
Zetterlund - 47GA/58GP, kills some penalties,but not many.
Has been in NJ during the last 5 games
+5
A.J. Greer - 44 GA/50GP, main PKer
Has been in NJ the last 5 games.
+13

Deleo - 47 GA/51/GP, kills penalties
In the last 5 games he has been on the ice for 9 GA
-3

Holtz - 46 GA/50GP, does not kill penalties.
In the last 5 games he has been on the ice for 7 GA
-4

Thompson - 20 GA/13GP, does kill penalties.
In the last 5 games he has been on the ice for 11 GA of which 1 was on the PK.
-3

Walsh - 57 GA/67GP, main PKer
In the last 5 games he has been on the ice for 5 GA
+9

Russo - 67 GA/67GP, main PKer
In the last 5 games he has been on the ice for 5 GA
+11

Foote - 28 GA/54GP, not a PKer
in the last 5 games he was on the ice for 6 GA
+16

Gauthier - 36 GA/51GP, main PKer
Injured for the past 5 games.
+17

Schmelzer - 34 GA/60GP, main PKer
In the last 5 games he has been on the ice for 2GA.
+11

Gambardella - 26 GA/61GP, main PKer
In the last 5 games he has been on the ice for 2 GA
+5

The other D-men
Bahl - 49 GA/54GP, main PKer
Has been in NJ for the last 5 games.
+15

Wotherspoon - 55 GA/51GP, main PKer
in the past 5 games he has been on the ice for 7 GA, of which 1 was on the PK
+23

Okhotyuk - 47 GA/63GP, main PKer
in the past 5 games he has been on the ice for 4 GA, of which 1 was on the PK
+10

Vukojevic - 35 GA/50GP/ kills penalties
In the past 5 games he was on the ice for 4 GA
+7

Groleau - 37 GA/46GP
in the past 5 games he was on the ice for 7GA, of which 2 were on the PK
-5
+/- can be very deceiving

+/- can be more deceiving when you pair season +/- with five games of stats.

 

[UticaHockey]

With OK called up it's still 2 to go for their full lineup with OK and Z.

They are desperate for Gauthier's return from injury. Never thought I'd be posting that, but he is instrumental in this team's success at Center and on the PK with Greer.

Gauthier has been the unsung hero for the Comets. He is so good on the PK and does a lot of very good work in the corners on the forecheck.

 

[Bad Goalie]

NJ has that issue too, so I assume it comes from trying to run the same/similar system.

Main point is that is not a "system". It's a way to fill the high and low slot, below the dots to the bottom of the circle, and the crease hoping nobody can get the puck through the congestion. It goes back to the wide open points and the opponent just keeps pressing for entire shifts.

That's how you avoid teaching a team full of kids a more difficult way of actually playing DEFENSE! Exactly how other teams are now defending them since they have gotten real good at it over the course of a full season. They will employ these systems in their quest for the Calder CUP. The Comets, not having been working on it themselves, haven't seen it on a daily basis. So, now that it's put before them game after game they can't figure out for the life of them how to dent it. They can't practice against it because they don't know how to mimic it,. The unfortunate result will probably be a short playoff run unless some kind of miracle can be hatched overnight.

They are frustrated beyond belief. They can't skate through it. Any lateral pass is picked or tipped away. Dumping it doesn't work because no one was breaking for it in the first place because they wait too long to do it and their mates have either slowed or stopped to avoid being offsides. The fix to that is to dump it too soon and get called for icing. The real danger in the lateral and dumps is getting it picked or blocked straight back resulting in odd man rushes, or worse, breakaways that are way too numerous every game. The goal results are killing them. They are squeezing there sticks hard enough to put dents in them and passing the puck to impossible targets to take the pressure off themselves. They have become a cross the blueline and shoot when challenged and retreat as the opponent breaks out with the missed net or prepare for a faceoff when the keeper holds on. They lose most of the draws so their Offense has regressed to 1 and done and it will never work. When they do manage to get possession shot after shot misses the net or gets blocked and they then get into multiple scrums and board battles to get it back and, regretfully, they don't have strong board battlers that can regain the puck. So, it's back down the ice.

 

[Bad Goalie]

+/- can be more deceiving when you pair season +/- with five games of stats.

I gave you their season's +/-. I also gave you their number of goals on the ice for in the total number of games they have played. I used the past 5 games since their game has completely gone off the rails in that time. I could have gone back 10 games where they are 3-7 or as far back to where Greer scored his single handed 4-goal victory. The goal scorers have dried up.
Defenses have addressed their style and they have no answer and Dineen hasn't even shown a glimpse of a means for them to attack the D systems that have shut them down. Look at the goals they have been scoring. Last night Deleo on a breakaway. Flynn skating across the crease and running out of a shooting space throws at the congested net front into the open side where the goalie was out of position. A opportunistic shot. They don't get these opportunities any more. How about Foote's wrister while crossing the blue line and it fluttered into the top corner vs Belleville on Saturday? The only goal they got. A goal that never should have happened in the first place. All season long they have won simply by outscoring their opponents. Give and give back until getting 1 or 2 more. That's no longer happening. They get and give back but don't get any more. Holtz's patented cross the blue line or circle out from the boards and score on a wicked wrister from somewhere at dot level or his one timer on a feed from anyone are now stopped with regularity because every team knows that's his MO. The keepers are now lined up when he takes the one timer and they expect him to shoot on his little swings off the boards or coming in on the rush. They are denying him passing lanes and the keeper is taking his net away and he is missing the net or hitting the keeper in the never to score spot, the 6-hole. The same thing was happening to Z before he got called up. I catalogued their number of games without scoring and the wins were coming from the goal scoring of Greer, Gauthier, Schmelzer, and defensemen not the talented snipers who were getting the job done previously. It's not happening any more and has not been coming with any regularity since around the halfway mark when they became a .500 hockey team. The only win in the past 7 games was spearheaded by D-men scoring the 1st 3 goals, Flynn's empty netter and finally when the Crunch were trying to get back on the bus, a shot for from the boards by Halonen who caught a Crunch keeper expecting him to dump to work on killing off the clock.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Scratches: Daws, Mitens, Wotherspoon, Thompson, Gauthier, McGrath, Stevens, Grasso, Van Whye

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Grasso in for Laberge.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Gourley got away with a trip on his first shift.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Bad giveaway by Russo bailed out by Schmid.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Talvitie crashes the net as Grasso digs the puck out of the corner to Gambardella.

1-0


Aarne Talvitie (12)
Joe Gambardella (20), Patrick Grasso (2)

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

SOG 9-7 Utica after one.

 

[Bad Goalie]

1st half of the 2nd has been all Cleveland.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Cleveland ties it 1-1.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Cleveland allowed to run into the puck from the blueline 3 times in a row bam, bam, bam and the 3rd one is in the net. The most nonchalant effort to play some D.

1-1.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Monsters score on the PP.

2-1

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Greer fight.

 

[Bad Goalie]

It is getting impossible to watch the ridiculous d-zone play by the Comets. ES, SH, PP makes no difference. They have no of defensive team concept.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Greer is having a tough time accepting the way his boys are playing.

Skeleton squad or not the effort is just not there. A division crown is on the line and they have back to back games against the last place team already eliminated from the playoffs and they just don't have the effort..

 

[Bad Goalie]

duplicate

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

DeLeo with a bad giveaway.

Grasso shot off the draw stopped by Cam Johnson.

SOG 21-17 Cleveland after two.

14-8 Monsters in the second.

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Gourley has been serviceable. Had a decent shot on goal. Doesn't look like he doesn't belong. Wrapped up a guy on the scrum like Bahl would have. Makes decent passes, simple plays.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Gourley opens the 2nd with a tying goal. Welcome to the AHL

2-2

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

Gourley with another decent shot. This one goes in from Talvitie.

2-2


Jarrod Gourley (1)
Graeme Clarke (13), Aarne Talvitie (10)

 

[Bad Goalie]

Deleo caps off another good shift and the Comets take the lead 3-2

Maybe somebody woke the boys up.