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UticaHockey

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Everything posted by UticaHockey

  1. Two very nice "goal scorer's" goals for Jake last night. A beautiful snipe top corner on a power play and a nice one timer on a 2 on 1 where he got his hips open and in great shooting position to accept the saucer pass from Valk. Besides the two goals Jake was active all game and played the body well.
  2. I think Travis Green gets more love from the CDC posters than he deserves. In my opinion he is a mirror image of Willie D who most posters want to see gone. The people who don't like Willie because of perceived lack of playing time for the kids certainly wouldn't like Green any better if he ever gets promoted. Case in point from this weekend which was another 3 in 3 with 7:00 pm games on Friday and Saturday followed by a 3:00 pm game on Sunday afternoon and all of the games on the road. Friday the Comets beat Albany 2 - 1 in a shootout but never scored a real goal as the goal in regulation was scored on a penalty shot followed by two more penalty shot goals in the shootout. Saturday the Comets lose 5 - 1 to Syracuse. So come Sunday with a tired team that has only one real goal for the weekend so far what does Green do with his lineup? Well he inserts the "high scoring defenseman" John Negrin into the lineup who hasn't played in 2 1/2 months with an injury and rolls with 7 dmen and 11 forwards.....that should spark the offense. The result was a 2 - 1 loss to the WBS Baby Penguins. He had healthy forwards Brett McKenzie up from the OHL, Max French a college ATO and Emerson Clark picked up at the AHL trade deadline. But Green won't use any of the kids over inserting Negrin as a 7th D probably because they haven't practiced 10 times learning the finer points of Travis Green chip and chase grind it out hockey. It was probably a good thing that Boeser signed with Vancouver and not an ATO with the Comets because at least Willie is playing him. Travis would have him either watching from the press box or playing on the 4th line with Wacey Hamilton and Carter Bancks.
  3. Demko looked like a very tired goalie Saturday night in the 5 - 1 loss to Syracuse. Green has overplayed him in all of these 3 in 3 weekends and it showed. He did get a rest on Sunday afternoon when Garteig got the start. They still have two more 3 in 3 weekends coming up which include Sunday afternoon games followed by a 3 in 4 final week to the season. Ideally Demko would get the Friday night and Sunday afternoon games and Bachman the Saturday games.
  4. You're making the assumption that Utica will make the playoffs which is far from being a given. They are 3 points out with 9 games left and haven't managed to climb out of 5th place even when they were hot and now they have cooled off again. In the 3 games over the weekend they scored a total of 2 goals if you don't include the penalty shot and shootout goals. If Goldy doesn't come down till the final weekend the Comets may be eliminated by then. I'm not saying that the Canucks should play shorthanded just to help the AHL team I'm just saying assuming he can gain some playoff experience in the AHL is probably a bad assumption.
  5. The points percentage ranking was created specifically for the Pacific Division where some teams play 68 games and others play 76 games. They show the entire league standings based on points percentage for consistency but at the end of the season all of the other three divisions will play 76 games each so points is what really matters in the end. The Comets may have shown a few 100ths of a percentage higher than the 4th place team because they have a game or two in hand but until they actually catch up and pass in points they are really in 5th place. Games in hand are only a positive if you win them.
  6. Yes he can next season but for this year he cannot. Any player that signs an ELC after the trade deadline cannot play in the AHL at all this season. No different than any other NHL player that wasn't papered down to the AHL on TDL day. He would have to sign an ELC starting in July and an ATO with the Comets for this year. Plus he gets to free agency a year early and everyone happy about the signing now will be questioning it a couple years down the road.
  7. It is also the exact same thing that Green does in Utica.
  8. NHL GMs need to plan a few years ahead with every decision that they make. Getting these college draft choices to sign an AHL ATO when their college season ends benefits both the player's development and is in the best interest of the NHL team. Burning a year of the ELC is something that the NHL team will regret down the road when managing the salary cap. Most college players are taking the AHL first route and Benning should be trying to convince Brock that this is in his best interest. I know everyone wants to get Boeser signed but he is only a sophomore and the urgency is not that great right now.
  9. Or the AHL like the development plan for both Nylander brothers.
  10. Don't forget that entry level contracts can be mutually agreed to be terminated which is done with players buried in the ECHL. Jeremie Blain is the most recent example of this with the Canucks. Mackenzie Stewart is a waste of a NHL contract right now and Vancouver should find the right dollar amount to make him go away.
  11. Benning was quoted that he would like to get Dahlen signed over the summer and have him play in the AHL next year. I wonder if this changes that. Parts of two seasons in the AHL certainly didn't hurt Will Nylander's development.
  12. Hutton signed a PTO with the Comets in March of 2015 and his ELC with the Canucks starting in the 2015-16 season. That made him eligible for the AHL. If a player signs an ELC after the trade deadline for the current season they burn off a year of their ELC but they are not eligible for the AHL until the following season.
  13. Demko looks like a confused goalie right now. He is getting beat high on the glove side consistently and from what I see he is going down too early and playing too deep in the net. The better shooters are picking corners on him. Everything I've read about Rollie is that he likes his goalies to play deep in the blue but it isn't working right now with Thatcher. I would like to see him more aggressively attacking the shooter to get some confidence back.
  14. A little snow isn't going to stop me from going lol. I'll start with Gaunce - I was a little concerned that he would come down pouting which other players have done in the past. Completely the opposite because it looks like Gaunce came down on a mission to get called back up quickly. He and Archibald were the Comets two best players during the three games this weekend. Friday Gaunce had a goal, an assist, a +3 with 7 shots on goal and was hitting everyone in sight. He followed it up with solid games on Saturday and Sunday. Virtanen - Had a very good game yesterday but still needs to bring that compete level to every game although he is improving in that facet. It's disappointing that it hasn't resulted in any points. I do think he needs line mates that can match his speed and skill but painfully they do not exist in Utica with a roster devoid of much skill. Cassels - Defensively he plays well but brings virtually nothing to the table offensively. He had a couple of good offensive opportunities last night that he fumbled away with poor stick handling skills and went off the ice visibly upset slamming his stick against the boards at the bench. Looks like his lack of offense is starting to wear on him.
  15. I don't think there were any Canucks brass at the game in Utica yesterday. We had over a foot of snow and the Aud was half empty. Linden was at the game in Springfield on Saturday but the Northeast got hammered with snow on Sunday so I imagine Linden joined the team in Buffalo yesterday and skipped Utica. Western NY didn't get hit as hard as we did.
  16. Andrey played very well upon his most recent return from Vancouver without the typical moping that has been noticeable after past demotions back to Utica. Hopefully its a good sign that he is starting to "get it".
  17. A couple concussions. Hasn't been the same since.
  18. And risk messing up our 13.4% power play? Blasphemy!
  19. I saw some improvement in Jake's play after the first two weeks here but that improvement has not continued. The quote from Bad Goalie on HF I agree with 100% and is hard to add anything to. Jake just kind of floats around waiting for the play to come to him. Right now I wish Vancouver would call him up and give the Comets back someone else. But that wouldn't be the right thing to do for his development. I'm just looking at it from a selfish point of view.
  20. There was another reply from behind the Albany net that they showed on AHL Live that they should have included in the highlight. You can't see it above but just before shooting Jake freezes the goalie and dman with a little head fake like he was going to pass instead of shoot. A very high end play.
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