Canuck Weekly Prospect Report – October 17th 2013

In this last week of Canuck Prospects things have started to get a but busier.  The Utica Comets and Comettes had their first games, the ECHL and CHL have started pre-season play and the OHL/WHL are quite busy in their schedule already.  As always, follow me @nuckprospect for day to day updates on Canuck Prospects.  I will post #fancystats on them when I can, though the data is not always there.

The Utica Comets finally started playing their regular season the first two away games, unfortunately both where defeats.  In their first game back the Comets lost to the Rochester Americans 4-1 despite outshooting the Americans 31-21.  Cannata was in net for the first game and it did not sound like he was playing at the best of his ability.  The lone and first goal in Comets history was scored during even strength by Pascal Pelletier and assisted by Andersson and Biega.  Archibald led the team in shots with 5 with Tommernes and Ferriero behind with 4.  Archibald also was involved in the first fight in Comets history with Colin Jacobs.

In their second game despite a loss to the Albany Devils it appears they played much better.  The final score was 3-2 for Albany with Albany leading in shots 29-25.  Eriksson was in net and it sounds like he had a great game.  Goals were scored by Grenier and Ferriero with Grenier, Sauve and Mullen each getting 4 shots on net.  Lain was involved in the only fight and besides that he has been quiet on the scoreboard.  The Comets were 100% on the Powerkill this game! 

Coach Travis Green had this to say about his team: "We have no superstars but weíve got to find a way to generate more goals."

Stats of all players who were in at least 1 game; small sample size but it’s great to see Grenier doing really well.  

 

The next game will be at Rochester again this Saturday the 19th.  The first home game will be on the 23rd hosting Albany.

Most recently the Comets have signed Kelsey Wilson to a PTO.  Local Comet analyst @fearthemoose44 isn’t too impressed with the signing saying he wont add offence but will put fans in the seats.  He did win the Most Peanlized Player Award with the Austrian league back in 2009.

In the first game the scratches were Blain, Guimond, Friesen and Negrin.  Guimond was scratched for both games which surprises me how well he did this summer in the Canucks training camp.  It will be interesting to see if he plays so soon.  With all these players being scratched and the signing of Wilson I would expect a few more players to be sent to the ECHL/CHL.

Nicklas Jensen is still injured and should be back within a week or so.

The Canucks.com Weekly Comet Report.

The OHL has been fairly busy with Canucks prospects playing nearly every night.  McEneny is back from his injury and ended up having a great game against London on Monday, getting the assist on the game tieing goal and then scoring the GWG in OT on the PP. Every day this weekend will features games in the OHL with Canuck Prospects.  Cassels and Horvat will face off Friday night, with Belleville playing Friday and Saturday, Oshawa playing again Sunday, London playing back to back games Saturday night and Kitchener playing just Friday.  Make sure to take Miles Liberati’s +/- with a grain of salt as he is playing with Domi and Horvat.

In the last week this is how the OHL prospects have faired:

And this is the season summary of the OHL prospects so far:

Nothing exceptional in the WHL for the prospects except that Hunter Shinkaruk keeps dominating.  It is hard to say something special about Shinkaruk when every night he has a dominating performance. I am not sure yet on Cederholm, he has never been a higher point scorer and that trend is seeming to continue here on the smaller ice.  Without seeing him in person it’s hard to comment on his defensive abilities.  On Wednesday night in the 4-1 victory over Tri-City, Cederholm was on the ice for the only goal against and was not on the ice for any goals for. 

In the East Medicine Hat is tied for first with three games in hand while in the west Portland is down in 7th tied with 8th but with three games in hand.  Friday night will have both Portland and Medicine Hat playing and on Saturday will be Medicine Hat playing a back to back game. 

Only 1 game was played for both teams in the last week.  Not too much to report on.

The NCAA has started pre-season games with the regular season starting shortly, depending on the conference.  Ben Hutton and the University of Maine have started off the regular season with two losses to St Lawrence despite a win in the pre-season against Dalhousie (and an assist for Hutton).  Yale has not yet played a game but will be playing their first against Ontario Tech on Saturday. Harvard’s first game wont be until October 26.  Penn State did play the first game on October 11th and beat Army 4-1.  Williamson was not in the line-up, I am unsure if he is injured or was a scratch.  Their next game will be on Friday and Saturday night @ Air Force.  Joseph Labate and the Wisconsin Badgers have played two games already, winning both and Labate scoring their first goal of the season.  The Badgers play both Friday and Saturday at Boston College and Boston University.  As I will be in Boston this weekend I will try and go to a game and do some scouting of Labate and try and track some #fancystats.  If I do I will report them next week.

Kalamazoo played three pre-season games winning 2 of the 3 (5-2 and 5-1) and lost to Toledo 3-0.  Their first regular season game will be on Saturday night at Evansville.  In St Charles they will host the Missouri Mavericks in their franchise home opener on Saturday night.  In preseason play the Chill beat the Mavericks 2-0 with Corbeil getting the shutout. 

And in Europe, not much new to stay here.  I did forget to mention Ronald Kenins last week, he is a Canuck prospect playing in the Swiss League.  Here’s an update on Canuck Prospects.

Until next week, keep watching out for Canuck Prospects in other leagues.  I will update you weekly with the news I find.  Make sure to follow me @nuckprospects for daily updates!  If you have news I haven’t written about, feel free to send it my way.