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2016-17 Utica Comets Thread


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12 hours ago, alfstonker said:

He's our Johnny Hockey!! :) Reel him in Jim.

I actually never really thought of him like that. But that is a great comparison! If JB doesn't you know some other team will. He's having too good of season not to get signed. Keep your fingers crossed!

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The Syracuse-Utica-Vancouver Connection.     Besides being geographically close to one another - 50 miles - the Crunch and Comets share another connection - the Vancouver Canucks.   It was the Canucks who brought the AHL back to Syracuse in 1994 in the form of the Crunch, and the Canucks who brought the AHL back to Utica in 2013 in the form of the Comets.   While some may say the Canucks haven't provided the Comets with the best of talent, it was far worse for the Crunch back from 1994 to 2000.  I know because after losing AHL hockey when the Devils moved from Utica to Albany, many of us Utica Devils fans would attend several Crunch games and adopted them as our home team.  Jack McIlhargey coached the Vancouver-affiliated Crunch teams and didn't have much to work with.  The original goalie was Mike Fountain and some of the better players were one-time-bit-players in Vancouver: Lonny Bohonos, Larry Courville, Adrian Aucoin, Brent Sopel and Josh Holden.  If I recall, I don't think those teams produced a single player that enjoyed much success with the Canucks.   I think the Utica teams have had some better prospects and have certainly fared better in the Standings.  In McIlhargey's last season (and Vancouvers) the Crunch went something like 18-50-9 (ouch!).  

 

MY BAD - AUCOIN was more than a bit-player, he actually enjoyed a long NHL career and had some good seasons in the process including a 23-goal-season with the Canucks.  He was the best product to come out of the Crunch-Canuck affiliation.

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3 hours ago, UTICANUCK said:

The Syracuse-Utica-Vancouver Connection.     Besides being geographically close to one another - 50 miles - the Crunch and Comets share another connection - the Vancouver Canucks.   It was the Canucks who brought the AHL back to Syracuse in 1994 in the form of the Crunch, and the Canucks who brought the AHL back to Utica in 2013 in the form of the Comets.   While some may say the Canucks haven't provided the Comets with the best of talent, it was far worse for the Crunch back from 1994 to 2000.  I know because after losing AHL hockey when the Devils moved from Utica to Albany, many of us Utica Devils fans would attend several Crunch games and adopted them as our home team.  Jack McIlhargey coached the Vancouver-affiliated Crunch teams and didn't have much to work with.  The original goalie was Mike Fountain and some of the better players were one-time-bit-players in Vancouver: Lonny Bohonos, Larry Courville, Adrian Aucoin, Brent Sopel and Josh Holden.  If I recall, I don't think those teams produced a single player that enjoyed much success with the Canucks.   I think the Utica teams have had some better prospects and have certainly fared better in the Standings.  In McIlhargey's last season (and Vancouvers) the Crunch went something like 18-50-9 (ouch!).  

 

MY BAD - AUCOIN was more than a bit-player, he actually enjoyed a long NHL career and had some good seasons in the process including a 23-goal-season with the Canucks.  He was the best product to come out of the Crunch-Canuck affiliation.

Brent Sopel had a good run with the Canucks and went on to win a CUP with the Hawks.

 

Have always thought that Sopel and Tanev look alike. Not exactly a compliment for Tanev. :( 

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6 hours ago, UTICANUCK said:

The Syracuse-Utica-Vancouver Connection.     Besides being geographically close to one another - 50 miles - the Crunch and Comets share another connection - the Vancouver Canucks.   It was the Canucks who brought the AHL back to Syracuse in 1994 in the form of the Crunch, and the Canucks who brought the AHL back to Utica in 2013 in the form of the Comets.   While some may say the Canucks haven't provided the Comets with the best of talent, it was far worse for the Crunch back from 1994 to 2000.  I know because after losing AHL hockey when the Devils moved from Utica to Albany, many of us Utica Devils fans would attend several Crunch games and adopted them as our home team.  Jack McIlhargey coached the Vancouver-affiliated Crunch teams and didn't have much to work with.  The original goalie was Mike Fountain and some of the better players were one-time-bit-players in Vancouver: Lonny Bohonos, Larry Courville, Adrian Aucoin, Brent Sopel and Josh Holden.  If I recall, I don't think those teams produced a single player that enjoyed much success with the Canucks.   I think the Utica teams have had some better prospects and have certainly fared better in the Standings.  In McIlhargey's last season (and Vancouvers) the Crunch went something like 18-50-9 (ouch!).  

 

MY BAD - AUCOIN was more than a bit-player, he actually enjoyed a long NHL career and had some good seasons in the process including a 23-goal-season with the Canucks.  He was the best product to come out of the Crunch-Canuck affiliation.

Mike Peca was another..played half a season with the Crunch and was traded next year to the Sabres.

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2 hours ago, Boudrias said:

Brent Sopel had a good run with the Canucks and went on to win a CUP with the Hawks.

 

Have always thought that Sopel and Tanev look alike. Not exactly a compliment for Tanev. :( 

Lol, true. That long ratty greasy hair look. I was a fan of sopel back in the day as well. 

IMG_3569.PNG

IMG_3570.PNG

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Thought this was a great write up about the ahl all star game. I did not know the success rate of players that attend the all star game that graduate to the nhl is 93%!!?? Bodes well for grenier and our boy subban!! .....

 

The 2017 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Capital BlueCross will feature the top young talent in the American Hockey League: since 1995, more than 93 percent of All-Star Classic participants have gone on to compete in the National Hockey League, including Jake Allen, Artem Anisimov, Patrice Bergeron, Ben Bishop, Troy Brouwer, Ryan Callahan, Zdeno Chara, Logan Couture, Braden Holtby, Tyler Johnson, Martin Jones, Chris Kunitz, Zach Parise, Tuukka Rask, Pekka Rinne, Bobby Ryan, Cory Schneider, Patrick Sharp, Jason Spezza, P.K. Subban and Mats Zuccarello, as well as former Lehigh Valley Phantoms representatives Nick Cousins, Brandon Manning and Anthony Stolarz.

In operation since 1936, the American Hockey League continues to serve as the top development league for the players, coaches, managers, trainers, executives and broadcasters of all 30 National Hockey League teams. More than 88 percent of NHL players last season were AHL graduates, and more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent time in the AHL in their careers. In 2015-16, over 7.1 million fans attended AHL regular-season and playoff games across North America, the highest total attendance in league history.

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No score yet, both teams trading PP chances with no luck. Comets are running Bancks-Valk-Kunyk Grenier-Robak on the first unit and Archibald-Pelletier-Zalewski Billins-McEneny on the second unit. However, Virtanen did replace Bancks on the first unit for the second Utica PP (probably because Bancks was out killing the Syracuse penalty in between). Virtanen also had a nice hit on Mathieu Brodeur just a few seconds into the game but hasn't played much due to the penalties.

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Still no score at the end of the first, but the Comets will start the second on a full two minute PP after a scrum at the whistle resulted in a roughing minor to Jeremy Morin. Shots are 8-6 Utica through one; not a lot of action in the opening frame. McEneny had a nice chance creeping in from the point on the right side but was turned aside. Billins also made an excellent play to break up a Syracuse 2-on-1 by sweeping the puck off of Peca's stick. Bachman has been solid on the shots he faced but wasn't tested very much.

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26 minutes ago, stonecoldstevebernier said:

Still 0-0 at the end of two, shots are 14-13 for Syracuse. This is one boring game, basically nothing happening so far. A few more penalties in the second but neither team's powerplay threatened at all.

Seems like the Comets playing essentially the same style as the Canucks. For some reason the term "structured" is used to describe this defensive style of play (as if offensively oriented systems don't also have a structure).

 

Not blaming the Canucks or the Comets. That is the best way for a team without much offensive talent but with good goaltending to compete.

 

But the NHL really has to do something to increase scoring and to improve the flow of the game (which of course the AHL would follow). Not only is the amount of scoring less than it used to be, but the nature of the goals has changes. Most goals are the result of screens, deflections, goal-mouth scrambles, or lucky bounces. Not many really nice plays any more. Goals like Henrik's last night against Florida are rare.

 

Years ago goalies used to look relatively small in the net. Now they dominate the net. They are bigger, quicker, and more athletic, and have big equipment. The NHL is apparently moving to smaller goalie equipment, but raising the cross-bar a few inches and widening the net a few inches would add quite a bit to the scoring area.

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The Crunch pull their goalie with 3 minutes to go but Archibald seals the deal with an empty netter and its 4-0. Grenier and Valk the assists.

Amazing third period by the Comets here after two periods devoid of any action at all. The Comets are going to move to 8-1 in their last 9 games.

EDIT: And that's it, 4-0 the final. The Comets win streak extends to six games and Bachman makes 20 saves for the shutout victory.

 

1st      
No Scoring
2nd      
No Scoring
3rd      
10:42 UTI Cody Kunyk (6) ASST: Tom Nilsson (1), Pascal Pelletier (8)
 
10:58 UTI Evan McEneny (4) ASST: Carter Bancks (7), Jake Virtanen (5)
 
16:19 UTI Cole Cassels (5) ASST: Cody Kunyk (12), Mike Zalewski (5)
 
16:54 UTI Darren Archibald (12) ASST: Alexandre Grenier (19), Curtis Valk (15) (EN)
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