2022-23 Utica Comets and ECHL thread

[Bad Goalie]

Clarke 1G/1A
Comets lose 5-4 in OT.
Came back from a 4-0 deficit with 2 in the 2nd and 2 more in the 3rd. The even up score by Foote at 19:06 with Schmid on the bench.
Halonen and Schmelzer had the Comets other 2 goals.

Schmelzer (2) None
Clarke (10) from Gambardella (9) and Vukojevic (1)
Halonen (5) from Hutchison (3) and Russo (9)
Foote (10) from Walsh (13) and Clarke (13)

Schmid 21/26
He could have been the difference, but didn't come up with stops on a couple he might have been better on.

Clarke stretched his team leading point total to 5 over Pinho who keeps slipping. No points in 3 games while Clarke just keeps putting up multi-point games.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Clarke with 3 points tonight? Kid is on fire

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

I feel Holtz will be heading to the AHL while Clarke gets a call up.

 

[Triumph]

Clarke with 3 points tonight? Kid is on fire

He had two points tonight, both were secondary assists.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Schmid didn't face a lot of shots, but still sounds like a good bounce back for him

 

[Bad Goalie]

12/30/2022
Lehigh Valley Phantoms @ Utica Comets

Final score:
Utica 3 Lehigh Valley 1

Forwards:
Vidmar (27) Schmelzer (26) Dugan (10)
Gambardella (15) Stevens (21) Clarke (92)
Foote (25) Hutchison (91) Johnsson (11)
Halonen (24) Talvitie (77) Senyshyn (90)

D-pairs:
Geertsen (55) Walsh (22)
Gourley (60) Groleau (75)
Vukojevic (2) Russo (5)

Goal - Schmid (93)

Scratches:
Daws (BU)
Pinho
Laberge
Blujus
Chukarov

Comets with a true skeleton crew tonight.
Okhotyuk and Wotherspoon in New Jersey
Gourley, called up from Adirondack, has stood in for OK and played all 3 games since OK left.
Geertsen has become the stand in for Wotherspoon playing both games at LD since Tyler was called up.
Groleau has been on the ice in Nemec's spot.
Churakov, from Adirondack was signed to a PTO, took warnup, but did not play.
That's 3 new regulars on D with a depth D called up.
The Comets only played 5 vet status players and 2 were Vet Exempts so that means that Blujus has been eligible to play as the 6th vet, since Wotherspoon left for NJ, but Dineen has opted not to use him. Maybe he is injured or sick, but I haven't heard that's the case.

Pinho was a scratch and is another unexplained absentee as was Laberge. Both played in the Rochester game on Wednesday.
Johnsson became the Pinho replacement instead of filling Thompson's slot.
Every other available Comet forward was in the lineup and call-up Sebastian Vidmar made the 12th forward in place of Laberge. He was not close to a viable replacement for either of those 2 missing forwards.

The Comets play again tomorrow. Interesting to see the status of Pinho and Laberge.

Scoring:
Foote (11) from Walsh (14) and Schmelzer (13) PP
Foote (12) from Walsh (15) and Clarke (14) PP
Stevens (9) from Russo (10) and Clarke (15)

All 3 goals originated from the point. Walsh released 2 PP slapshots.
The first ended up partially blocked and a scramble ensued and Foote pushed it home. Schmelzer was there trying to do the same and was originally credited with the goal. It was later determined it was Foote's goal and if Schmelzer did touch it it was well across the line when he did.
The second slapper was tipped in by Foote. Foote showed tonight he belongs in front on the PP, period!

Russo started the 3rd with a shot and Stevens buried the rebound.

SOG:
LV 3 - 7 - 6 = 16
Utica 6 - 5 - 11 = 22

PP:
LV - 0/2
Utica - 2/3

The game was closely contended with both teams crowding the puck, blocking shots, and limitting their opponent to few shots. Schmid only faced 16 shots, but many were of the big stop variety.

Nagle in the Lehigh net didn't have much of a chance on the 1st, none on the 2nd, but whiffed with his glove hand on the 3rd.

Those with a vote on the 3 stars agreed with me as Schmid was #3.
3 Stars:
#1 - Nolan Foote (Utica Comets) 2 G
#2 - Reilly Walsh (Utica Comets) 2 A
#3 - Akira Schmid (Utica Comets) 15/16

I have been posting how tightly packed the 7 teams in the North are. 2-7 have been separated by anywhere from 3 to 7 points for some time. Utica has moved from #6 to #3 in the past 6 games with a 5-0-1-0 record.

The standings now look like this:
1 Toronto - 40
2 Rochester - 34
3 Utica - 31
4 Syracuse - 30
5 Laval - 28
6 Cleveland - 27
7 Belleville - 26

Every single team in the 2-7 spots has been in and out of the 4th playoff spot and it looks like it could continue on like this for some time.
No matter what happens tomorrow night the Comets will finish 2022 in a playoff spot. That position is very tentative, but from where they were when the month started it has been a well earned accomplishment and they have blown points in several games which would have them right there or above Rochester. Thank the hockey gods for this division where every night is anybody's game.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Nolan kind of night. Two for Foote. One for Stevens.

And the win for Akira.

 

[Triumph]

12 of Clarke's 15 assists are secondary. Glad to see him on the board scoring goals though.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Foote scores the game winner. Seems like be is heating up?

 

[Mgd31]

Foote scores the game winner. Seems like be is heating up?

Yea he’s one off his goal total for last year in like half the games

 

[Bleedred]

I've always liked Foote, but I don't think he's very highly regarded by the organization as a future NHL'er.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I've always liked Foote, but I don't think he's very highly regarded by the organization as a future NHL'er.

I think his skating is the issue, but he seems to be finding success as the net front presence on the PP, which is a role the big club could use.

 

[Bad Goalie]

12/31/2022
Belleville Senators @ Utica Comets

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Final Score
Utica 4 Belleville 3 OT

Comets 2nd straight game with the skeleton crew and won both of them. Jarrod Gourley was replaced after playing his 3rd consecutive game last night by the other Adirondack Thunder D-man added to the roster, Ivan Chukarov.

Last night's game was a more solid performance.

Tonight the Comets took a 3-1 lead into the 3rd period and self destructed allowing the Senators to tie it up and force OT. Belleville entered the game starting 11 forwards an 7 D. They would lose another forward in the 2nd.

Foote took a needless neutral zone slashing penalty and the Sens scored.

Slightly less than 3 minutes later the Comets surrendered a short handed goal on breakaway and it was tied.

They tried to give it away completely in the OT with some brutal passing resulting in changes of possession, a SOG, and then an icing on a pass nowhere near its intended target. They won the draw but coughed it up and stole it back near their blueline on a play the Sens would go ballistic on after Foote scored the game winner on the 2 on 1 that resulted from the play on the boards.
The 2on 1 was with Johnsson and Foote. they passed it back and forth 4 times and Foote punched in the final cross crease pass near the attacking left post.

Johnsson seems more than happy playing here. After Foote put Johnsson's final pass into the net, Johnsson raced across the ice to leap into Foote's arms in joyous celebration. He beat the bench clearing Comets to Foote.

It was the Comets 6th win in the last 7 games that saw them get points in all 7 with an OT loss in Rochester.
That extended their streak of the longest stretch of consecutive games with a t least a point, 13 points in 7 GP.
They actually picked up 2 points in their game in hand with Syracuse who were idle tonight. The win pushed their hold on 3rd over the 4th place Crunch to 3 a whole 3 points, LOL. It also extended their lead over idle 5th place Laval to 5 points. It was 1 of 4 games they had in hand with Laval. They still have 3 left.

As an aside, Walsh had his 2nd bad game in a row. He made some brutal mistakes tonight trying desperately to score a goal. Hepassed up passes to open men to take his own shots that were not high danger shots and you could see him talking to the open guys after the whistles seeming to apologize or explain why he didn't give them the puck. He needs to let the the game develop chances instead of trying to force them. It would lessen the number of errors he commits. His D-zone play is suffering.

Forwards:
15 Gambardella/ 21 Stevens/ 92 Clarke
24 Halonen/ 77 Talvitie/ 91 Hutchison
27 Vidmar/ Schmelzer 26/ Dugan 10
25 Foote/ Senyshyn 90/ Johnsson 11

D-pairs:
55 Geertsen/ 22 Walsh
6 Chukarov/ 75 Groleau
2 Vukojevic/ 5 Russo

Goal:
50 Daws

SOG:
Bville - 8 9 10 1 > 28
Utica - 13 12 3 1 > 29

PP:
Bville - 1/4
Utica - 0/3

Scoring:
Groleau (1) from Talvitie (5) and Hutchison (4)
Dugan (5) from Geertsen (2) and Schmelzer (14)
Senyshyn (4) from Russo (11)
Thank God the Comets got scoring from the gallery tonight until the OT winner.

Foote (13) from Johnsson (11)

3 STARS:
#1 Nolan Foote (Utica Comets) 1 G - GWG
#2 Ridly Greig (Belleville Senators) 2 G
#3 Nico Daws (Utica Comets) 25/28

Graeme Clarke's point streak ended at 6 (10Pts /6GP)

 

[Better Call Sal]

I truly want Foote to get an honest shot next year on the team. He should have a chance with the number of winger contracts coming off the books.

 

[Mgd31]

Pretty impressive streak by Comets despite the fact the goaltending has been pretty meh this year

 

[Bad Goalie]

I truly want Foote to get an honest shot next year on the team. He should have a chance with the number of winger contracts coming off the books.

He needs to skate his balls off with a super power skating coach. Right now he so often looks like he is skating in mud with a plodding gait. He tries to power himself down the boards between said boards and an opponent. Inevitably he fails, loses the puck and very often ends up on the ice. Hardly the effort you want from a "power forward". It would be hard to find a way to carry a player on every gameday roster for the sole purpose of standing in front of the net on the power play. He is good there for the Comets , but the NHL D in net front coverage are much better than the AHL D.

Like all Comets fans, I hope he makes it to the NHL along with all of the other prospects, but reality is most of them won't. The Devils have a lot of high selection prospects so, maybe a few more than many other teams will arrive in the NHL, but beyond the blue chip-can't miss top selections, again, most won't beyond a look-see or 2 and maybe a part of a season or 2 and that will be it. Just like most of the prospects in most NHL prospect pools.

The Comets currently have a perfect example in a #1 failed prospect in Zach Senyshyn. At the AHL level we see lots of prospects from our own franchise as well as every team that visits here. During the past 10 years with we witnessed a bunch more from both Vancouver and New Jersey:

Alexander Grenier (3rd round)
Nicklas Jensen (1st round)
Yann Sauve (2nd round)
Zach Hamill (#8 OA selection)
Alex Mallet (Round 2)
Bobby Sanguinetti (1st Round)
Hunter Shinkaruk (1st Round)
Adam Clendening (Round 2)
Andre Pedan (Round 3)
Cole Cassels (Round 3)
Danny Syrvet (Round 3)
Nikolay Goldobin (1st Round)
Colby Robak (Round 2)
Anton Rodin (Round 2)
Guillaume Brisebois (Round 3)
Dylan Blujus (Round 2)
Jonathan Dahlen (Round 2)
Mathieu Brodeur (Round 3)
Kole Lind (Round 2)
Olli Juolevi (#5 OA selection)
Justin Bailey (Round 2)
Michael DiPietro (Round 3)
Will Lockwood (Round 3)
Jett Woo (Round 2)
Steve Santini (Round 2)
Evan Fitzpatrick (Round 2)
Jon Gillies (Round 3)
Frederick Gauthier (1st Round)
Tyler Wotherspoon (Round 2)

Chase DeLeo (Round 4, but has been an elite AHL player who just can't squeak onto an NHL roster)
AJ Greer (Round 2, but only got 47 games at the NHL level in 6 seasons. This season has already played 25 games with the #1 team in the NHL. Maybe he will make it this time.)

Current NJ )or ex-NJ) prospects who MAY (Don't beat me up with your opinions, these guys are struggling and MAY)) end up on this list:
Alexander Holtz (#7 OA selection)
Reilly Walsh (Round 3)
Nolan Foote (Round 3)
Nate Schnarr (Round 3)
Graeme Clarke (Round 3)
Michael Vukojevic (Round 3)
Kevin Bahl (Round 2) May get left out in the dark with OK, Nemec, and Hughes looking very promising. Might end up making it elsewhere.)


Some of these guys on both lists still have hope. Others don't. Age and years in the game will knock a few right out. For others they are still young enough to get better. Others have simply shown they didn't or don't have it.

Remeber also that GM Fitz is trying to build a contender around his core and that means that some on this list or even currently playing with the Devils could end up being traded. Then we'd have to assess what those teams have and how these guys might get a bigger shot at nailing down an NHL job.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Edit wrong thread

 

[nugg]

Pretty impressive streak by Comets despite the fact the goaltending has been pretty meh this year

And no skilled centers....

 

[Bad Goalie]

1/3/23
Utica Comets @ Toronto Marlies

Forwards:
11 Johnsson/25 Foote/90 Senyshyn
67 Parent/21Stevens/92Clarke
27 Vidmar/26 Schmelzer/10 Dugan
24 Halonen/77 Talvitie/91 Hutchison

D-Pairs:
2 Vukojevic/5 Russo
23Wotherspoon/75 Groleau
55 Geertsen/22 Walsh

Goal - 93 Schmid
Period ends with the score:

Utica 1 Toronto 0

SOG:
Comets - 11
Toronto - 11

No PPs

Geertsen (1) from Hutchison (50) and Halonen (5)

Since moving to D we have seen a different Mason offensively. He has a bomb of a shot from the blueline. When he keeps it down it is very dangerous. Firing shots inside the pipes mid-shin level or lower they are potential goals, tippable, Creates rebounds, and what we have seen a lot of net front chaos. Those attempting to block it have been hurt. 2 such cases vs Belleville on Saturday. He had the same shot on Friday, but it was too high and also too far wide of the net. His goal tonight was a wrist shot.

Comets have been on top of the Marlies and their D have been turning it over. Dugan took a turnover in the slot, walked to the net front, went forehand backhand and had to get his backhander up and it would have been a goal, but he didn't and Woll had it covered on the ice.

They have suffered from their most common offensive zone maladies... poor decision making, inability to handle passes, and flubbed shots. In spite of that they put 11 on net, but Woll wasn't called upon to be a star in stopping them.

The skeleton crew is still out there. Tonight Xavier Parent joins fellow Adirondack Thunder team mate Sebastian Vidmar up front. Foote has been moved to center with Johnsson and Senyshyn on his wings. The 3 were together on Saturday, but it was impossible to tell who was playing where as all 3 were all over the place as they adjusted to wherever the puck was and they and they simply worked where they were all playing both wings and the middle. They even all took faceoffs. The only time they seem to settle into a set [position is when lining up for faceoffs.

 

[Bad Goalie]

2nd is under way.

Comets take a penalty early.

They kill it and Russo has good chance coming out of the box, but Woll stops him.

Faceoff in the Comets zone and right from the draw McMann takes the faceoff pass and shoots from hashmark and beats Schmid. Looked like he beat him cleanly.

1-1

 

[Bad Goalie]

Clarke >>>>>>>>>>>>>G.....O.....A.....L!!!!!!!!!!!

A little net front magic from Johnsson. He had the puck on the right side low in the circle. Faked a shot. The D-man bit. Johnsson moved inside and towards the net. Drew the keeper to him passed to Clarke wide of the post on the left side and Graeme made no mistake firing it home before Woll could get all the way across.

2-1 Comets at 9:19

Clarke was pointless on Saturday stopping his streak, but hopefully he is has begun another one now.

 

[Bad Goalie]

The Comets have defensive black holes/weaknesses on all 4 lines.
Halonen and Hutchison. Simply cannot handle the puck and neither is the least bit physical.

Parent not familiar with the system period and iffy with Clarke and Stevenson who are sometimes good and other times turnover machines.

Dugan has been poor all year and Vidmar just can't be counted on.

The Foote line tries to do too much and skate the puck out. Stick checkers and only Foote gives himself up to blaock shots.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Vukojevic losses his stick in the high slot and the Marlie with the puck goes at him. He tries to set himself up as a blocking wall, but the guy shoots it past his screen. There is a Marlie right in front of Schmid down low and it goes in. Dugan was beside Vuk and instead of charging right at the opponent to rescue Vuk he just stood there trying to figure out what to do. IQ less. IQless.

It might have been tipped by the guy in front as it bounced up going into the net. Shooter has been credited at this point.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[Bad Goalie]

G----------O-----------A------------L!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tie doesn't last long.The Comets break in 30 seconds later. Wothersppon sends Johnsson up ice and into the zone. He passes it across to Schmelzer in the left circle and as he heads to the net he fires a pass across to Johnsson who buries the pass.

Johnsson goal and point #2 on the night.

3-2 Comets in a back and forth adventure flick.