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2021-22 Utica Comets and ECHL thread - part V

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Bad Goalie

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Jan 2, 2014
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Hockey Sports Fan said:
Utica’s in a bit of a rut, yes? Seems like they were beating the odds early and it’s catching up to them.
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8-8 in the last 16 games.

The Comets have now played 54 games and have 18 remaining.

Scoring in the last 5 has really been absent from the big guns.
Holtz 1 (1st of the 5)
Greer1 (2nd of the 5)
Zetterlund 0

Holtz has been trying to set up others while hitting the goalies or the boards on his shots, but often has been trying to do too much on his own resulting in turnovers.

Zetterlund has been trying to be a 1-man team whenever in possession. Flying up the wing and getting run off to the boards and turns it over when trying to blindly get it back to the point or shooting at the net when the keeper has the angle and no screen or shooting it into a shot blocker or crowds when he has no net in view. Bad decision making and questionable hockey IQ.

Foote, now injured is the best Comet at missing the top corner with Schnarr right behind him.

Deleo's recent absence from the lineup has been noticeable to the team's offense.
Have to conclude Foote is a missing link as well. Bring those 2 back into the lineup and McGrath who does nothing for the offense won't be in the lineup.

Of late before the injuries to those 2 with all healthy, Dineen was using Laberge as the extra guy to enable him to give guys a game off one at a time. Laberge has been the 13th forward and there has most often been one guy out all the time forcing him into the lineup on a regular basis with McGrath serving as depth. Laberge has 4 goals on the season. He has not been so good that he has to be a game day roster player.

All goals scored in the last 3 games have come from guys not known (this season anyways) to score:
Russo 2 (#4 on the season, 2 in the last 2 games, #2 on the season came in Game #26 - #3 didn't come until game #53)
Talvitie 1 (#9 on the season, but this was his first in14 games)
Walsh 1 (#7 on the season, 1st in 16 games)
Bahl 1 (#3 on the season ( a big OT winner in Game # 53 the game before this one and the first since Game #38)

Gauthier (#6 and Schmelzer (#13) have been key for the Comets of late.
Gauthier's 5th on the year was the game winner in game #51 and he also scored unassisted last night.
Schmelzer has tried his beat to boost the Comets chances of late having 1 in a 3/2 loss to Syracuse on the 9th (game #50) and 1 in the 3-2 loss to Rochester on the 12th (game #52). Going back to February 27th (Game #47, but in the 16 game streak we are talking about he potted 2 in a 3-1 win over Hershey.

Greer is the only 1 we can now add to the big guns. He has been a very hot commodity. He has scored 10 of his 18 goals (1 was an OT wiiner and doesn't count in his in his goal totals) in the span of theses 16 games. He scored all 4 in a 4-2 win over Rochester and the next night scored the OT winner against Lehigh Valley.

The team looks to have lost focus on what they are doing. The intensity comes in short bursts. Their puck management over the past 20+ games has been absolutely horrendous.

Their passing has also been very bad.

I would swear their stick supply has been tampered with. It's as if their sticks were made of rubber. Pass after pass all game long bounces off their sticks, are miscued to begin with, or the stick just go to pieces on attempted passes, clearing attempts, or wrist shot attempts when they have a clear HD scoring chance. It's even happened on breakaways. When the passes work we see them go way to far ahead or behind the intended or worse, into their skates setting them up for crunching hits while they look down to their feet to find it or more often it just ricochets off their feet to nowhere. These issues don't occur just once in a while it's 1 or 2 o r more of them every single shift.

The PP has been a joke. They have extreme difficulty getting into the zone and turn it over at the blueline when met with opposition, often it looks like a 4-man fence across the paint. When they dump it, it's because they ran into a jam at the blueline and the dump is a desperation move. Nobody can get to the dump ahead of the defense because they weren't skating at the blueline and back down the ice it goes. The D shoots the puck into guys challenging them at the blueline or tries to force the puck cross ice. Both circumstances resulting in turnovers leading to odd man rushes and breakaways. In many cases they get pinned in their own end by a 2-man forecheck. When they do get into the offensive end, they misplay the puck, make bad passes, don't shoot when open, or force shots when covered. The bad passes result in clears or puck challenges along the boards where they lose most of the battles. When they set up, there is little movement while passing around the perimeter looking for the cross ice 1-timer that it now appears every team they play knows it's what they want to do. The points shoot as if the net was 10 feet wide, the 1-timers are missing wide and often right out of the zone, slot passes miss the man or are blindly centered to the slot where there is no Comet, and finally it's as if the keeper was wearing a bullseye vest and they are trying to hit the center dot.

These issue are not new. They simply scored enough goals in the past to not be bothered by them. Now that the scoring has dried up as teams are more stringent in allowing open ice and stretch passes to guys up ice and playing much more man to man tight D in their own zones, the Comets can't overcome these maladies. In trying to change their fate they try to do too much on their own. A lot of that is because earlier on they were successful at ti. Not any more because teams are much more disciplined in denying those kind of one-man shows. Teams seem to be saying we know what you want to do. Can you beat our system to combat it or even better, can you adjust and attack us in a different manner? At the moment the Comets seem to be saying we will force the square peg into the round hole and you can't stop us. Lower scoring games and a .500 record seems to be saying, "No, you can't!"

It's up to Dineen and his staff to jack these guys up. NJ could give them a boost as well. Most of the other NHL teams will do such either through papering guys down in the next couple of days, picking up a player or 2 in their TDL moves, and even AHL trades. The College and Jr players that teams aquire are not usually a big bost to a playoff AHL team unless a really high draft pick that has been knocking the socks off of the league he's been playing in. I don't see that kind of player available to NJ.
 
Tao Jersey Jones

Tao Jersey Jones

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Sep 28, 2003
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Tao Jersey Jones said:
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The four last place teams in each division.

Cleveland - 10 points out of the playoffs with 19 GR and one game in hand over 5th place Syracuse

Tucson - 8 points out of the playoffs with 16 GR, 7th place San Diego has one game in han d over the Roadrunners

Lehigh Valley - 6 points out of the playoffs with 19 GR and one game in hand over 6th place WBS

Iowa - 2 points out of 4th place (I'm going with this over the last 5th place playoff spot because it's easier than figuring out the Pts%) with 16 GR, 4th place Rockford has three games in hand over Iowa

We'll see where the standings are in a week, but LV and Iowa are probably going for it and thus wont be likely to make moves.
 
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