utica may get reinforcements!
As I have previously mentioned, the reinforcements are at the moment, the 6 players returned from NJ.
Stillman arrived injured and has yet to skate.
Mukh has a long journey to get here and the Comets play Tuesday, May 10. It's already May 5. He will have to arrive on skates. Forget jet lag. If the Comets don't dispose of the 1st opponent, he will have come a long way simply to visit beautiful downtown Utica.
Hope he finds it to be a wonderful place because if he doesn't make the Devils, word is he has no interest playing in the AHL and NJ won't press the issue, so back to the KHL again. IF he finds Utica to be a very welcoming place in a short visit maybe he changes his mind, but on a fixed salary ELC, he makes more moolah in the KHL even if it's in rubles. Money talks.
I'm just glad they have their basic team back together.
Studenic would have been a valuable physical force that the Comets are short on.
Schnarr was playing well when traded (13G/13A/26Pts/43GP) and filled a valuable spot at center. His absence + Gauthier's injury has left the team weak up the middle and on the PK. Normally teams are only as good as their strength up the middle.
The Comets were lacking at center to begin with. There are no centers in Utica meant to become key pieces in NJ, meaning the team was center weak, wing strong to begin with. The non prospect acquisitions all arrived with a C after their name.
Gauthier turned out to be a very valuable #3, but of late had been playing #2, taking faceoffs with all of the lines, killing penalties, and playing against the other team's best.
Gambardella has been a wing period and a very good one, but without a lot of offense. Therefore, he has been all over in regards to lines 1-4.
Flynn is far better on the wing.
Schmelzer has become sort of a fill in the blank every night. Sometimes at center, some nights at RW, and some of those nights he was center Talvitie's RW.
It was obvious from the get-go that Dineen wanted Deleo on the wing and he was very productive, but as the season moved on, Schnarr was traded, injuries hit the center position, and he was forced back into the middle and became the #1 more often than not. He has performed there just as well as he has on the wing. He has turned out to be the best non-prospect period.
Schnarr was a prospect center and is gone.
Talvitie is a prospect center who will likely never be anything more than an AHL player and has basically been the Comets 4th line center until recent injuries have moved him up and down but #4 has been his bread and butter.
Thompson has been a center in his career, but it's obvious the Devils want him on the RW where he has played most of his limited nights here, but he has also been a center a couple of times.
Clarke got a taste in the middle, but has primarily been a bottom 6 RW. He hasn't shown the kind of play that makes him a valuable player to the Devils' future.
Sticking brand newbies into the lineup without any kind of chemistry whatsoever usually doesn't produce much for awhile, especially without even having a chance to practice with those they need to be developing that chemistry. The Comets will have to advance along through the playoffs in order for that to occur. The 6 guys who have rejoined the club had already established said chemistry and will meld right back into the mix.
Deleo, Zetterlund, Foote, Gambardella, and Greer are the LWs unless Deleo (likely) is slotted in at Center. The LW is set without him.
Now wthe RWs are Holtz, Thompson, Flynn, Clarke/Stillman.
Centers:
Deleo
-Gauthier- Flynn
Schmelzer
Talvitie
If a regular gets scratched it would between Flynn and Clarke and at this stage of the game my bet would be Clarke. He would join Laberge. Laberge, Clarke, Irvine/Halonen, and then all of the ECHL additions to whom I would add McGrath (26GP/0Pts/67 PIM). The college boys, Halonen and injured VanWhye have not impressed enough to date to replace a regular. If one of them gets penciled it it would be Halaonen (2G/1A/3Pts/12GP). VanWhye has only played 1 game. Stillman is a coach's choice, but he, like Shakir, would have to replace one of the regulars.
Shakir as a LD would have to displace a guy who has been there all season. The pairs before all of the late NJ call-ups
basically looked like this:
Okhotyuk/Russo
Wotherspoon/Walsh
Vukojevic/Bahl or
Okhotyuk/Bahl
Vukojevic/Russo
Wotherspoon/Walsh
or any combinations of
1 Bahl LD/RD
2 Okhotyuk LD/RD
(However, both are LDs)
3 Vukojevic LD
4 Wotherspoon LD/RD
5Walsh RD
6 Russo RD
7 Groleau LD/RD
Shakir would have to make one of the everyday 6 sit.
Groleau and Vukojevic rotated that #7 spot early on, but in a short order there always seemed to be someone on the injured list so the game night 6 was always a combination of 6 of these 7 and a rotation from RD to LD occurred between a bunch of them with Walsh and Russo the only 2 always on the right side and Vukojevic was almost exclusively a LD.
Shakir comes to a team that is hurting for a natural RD and instead he just gives them another LD.
