Canucks Weekly Prospect Report – January 16th, 2014

Courtesy of the Utica Comets

Welcome to this week’s Canucks Weekly Prospect Report.  In the past 7 days since we last looked at the landscape, the Comets earned their first point in nearly three weeks thanks to the #JensenTrain picking up some serious steam. Down in the Major Junior circuit there are a number of good success stories, while the NCAA is proving to be a boon; I wouldn’t be surprised to see 1 or 2 NCAA players sign with the team this offseason.

Now, about those prospects..

The week started off with a game in OKC against the Edmonton Oilers affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons.  It was mostly a great game for the Comets as they were leading 2-1 for the majority of the game while controlling play.  The Comets were only 4.2 seconds away from a win and Cannata earning a Quality Start.  With the Barons a 6 on 5 with their goalie pulled, the Barons score tieing up the game sending it to OT.  The first shot in OT goes in against the Comets and the Barons win 3-2.  Both Comets goals came from Jensen with assists from Sauve, O’Reilly, Grenier and Ferriero.  The PP goes 1 for 3 and the PK goes 2 for 3.

On Saturday the Comets played against the Texas Stars, the top AHL possession team in the league.  It quickly showed as the Stars dominated the first two periods.  The Comets fell down 4-0 as Morin earned the Comets first hat trick against, which included the first SH goal against.  Cannata was pulled and Corbeil came in relief where he made 17 of 17 saves and played great in his AHL debut.  Comets managed to score three more making it 4-3 including an assist from Jensen.  His great play in this game, making 17 of 17 stops as relief gave him the nod on Monday’s game.

Comet goals came from O’Reilly, Grenier and DeFazio with assists from Ferriero, Jensen, O’Reilly, Sauve and Mullen.  The final score was 5-3 for Texas as they scored on the empty net with 46 seconds left.  The PP went 0 for 3 and the #POWERKILL went 2 for 2, an improvement from last week.

Corbeil made his first AHL start tonight as the Comets choose to go with the hot hand rather than try Cannata again.  It didn’t start off great as it was 2-0 for San Antonio within 13 minutes.  After that Corbeil did not let in another goal and made a number of great saves including a big one in the third period.  Unfortunately for the Comets, the Rage’s goalie Jacob Markstrom played even better.  Despite peppering the Rage with shots, including 15 to 3 in the third, they could not get the go-ahead goal.  Jensen managed to score two goals to tie up the game and send it to overtime.  Markstrom continued to play extremely well not letting a single goal in during the shootout while Corbeil let in the lone SO goal.  The final score was 3-2 with the Comets walking away with 1 point (first point in almost three weeks).  Despite Corbeil giving a Quality Start to the Comets, they still have not managed to win on the road since November 30th.  With Corbeil’s good play I wouldn’t be surprised to see Utica staff having to think hard on who to send to the ECHL when Eriksson returns.

Ferriero, Pelletier, Huskins, and Tommernes earn assists on Jensen’s goals.  The Comets out-shot the Rage 36-24.  The PP goes 0 for 2 and the PK goes 1 for 1.  Jensen earned the third star of the game.

Players stats who have played at least one game with the Comets, (X) indicates not currently on the active roster, so far are:

Goalies so far:

Currently the Comets are in 15th place with 27 points (11-19-2-3).  They have been out-scored 83 to 111 (-28), and have been out-shot 983 to 1043 (-60).  They are controlling 48.52% (acknowledging score effects) of the shots, which puts them at 18th in the league, with an on ice shooting percentage of 8.4% and a save percentage of 89.6%.  A simple version of PDO puts them at 98.0% which has gotten worse in the last week as both Sv% and Sh% have decreased as well as their PP% has gotten worse. Their PP is currently at 18.38% (11th place) and their PK is 74.44% (30th place).

With Corrado back in Utica, looking at his NHL #fancystats (courtesy of ExtraSkater.com) he has 41.1% Corsi For on six games with an average TOI of 8.4 minutes.  The game against the Ducks and Kings last week really hurt that number.  I would expect it to continue to regress with more time.  Ferriero looks much worse with a 15.4% Corsi For on 2 games, averaging 4 min a game.

Jensen has really stepped up this week.  He looks faster and has managed to score 5 points (4-1-5) in the last three games.  This is the Jensen we have been wanting to see.  Let’s hope it is not just a small sample size.  It should be noted that Cal O’Reilly got hurt on Monday so Jensen has been seeing more TOI and has a higher QoT.  With Archibald being sent back to Utica it is rumoured Jensen will finally get the call up to Vancouver.  I wouldn’t mind them giving Grenier a shot too.

The Comets play on Friday at home vs Albany and then head to Hamilton for Saturday to play the Bulldogs.  The Comets head back home for Monday to play the old Canucks farm team, the Chicago Wolves.

Watch Comets play the newlywed game [Utica]

Ranking the Utica Comets callups [Pass it to Bulis]

The AHL has named their All-Star Game roster and no Comets have been named [The AHL]

Bo Horvat returned to London and goes right back to scoring for them with 3 points in his 3 games.  Canucks AGM Laurence Gilman had some good words on his WJC play.  Check out a goal by Horvat this week which Pass it to Bulis goes on to describe in detail.

Watch the latest episode of Quest for the Cup with the London Knights as they try to win the Memorial Cup.

Dane Fox has become the first player in junior hockey to score 50 goals in a season doing it in 43 games.  @TysonGiuriato points out Fox is on pace to score 81 goals which has only been eclipsed once in OHL history by Ernie Godden who scored 87 goals.  Godden went on to play a total of three pro seasons including a total of 5 games in the NHL.

What Does the Dane Fox Say [Canucks]

In the OHL East Oshawa is first with 58 points, Kingston is third with 52 points, North Bay is 4th with 47 points and Belleville is 10th with 28 points.  In the West Erie is first with 70 points and London is 4th with 61 points.

And so far this year the stats of these players are:

In the Dub things are quiet with Shinkaruk’s injury.  Cederholm earned a point this week in 4 games and Portland Coach tells @TysonGiuriato that Cederholm with continue to play with Pouliot when Dumba joins the team.  Portland is 2nd in the West with 61 points and Medicine Hat is 4th in the East with 51 points.

And so far this season the players stats in the WHL are:

The NCAA had a couple of featured games last weekend including an outdoor game with Maine and one with Harvard vs. Yale at Madison Square Garden.  In the game Hutton scored another 2 goals and notched 4 shots.  Maine plays this weekend on Friday and Saturday.  Yale beat Harvard 5-1, McNally was pointless and shotless and Beattie did not play (Beattie has missed the last few Yale games).  Both Harvard and Yale play on Friday and Saturday this weekend.  LaBate earned 2 points in last weekend’s 3-1 victory over Michigan with 1G and 1A and 5 SOG.  Wisconsin does not play this week.  Williamson has played in one of the two Penn State games this week and recording 3 SOG.  Penn State plays on Friday and Saturday.

Also, don’t forget to vote for Ben Hutton for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award.

Much like Cassels from earlier this season, Steven Anthony’s success has cooled off.  His SOG/G and PPG are decreasing every week.  St Charles plays on Friday, Saturday and Monday.  In Kalamazoo, Blain is still on the IR, Blomstrand was a Medical Scratch in their last game after having earning 12 SOG in the previous 3 games.  Pacan earned 4 assists in 4 games this week.  The K-Wings play on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Monday.

Not much news from Europe.  Ronalds Kenins scored 1 assist this week in 2 games while Rodin has earned no points in 3 games.

It’s been an extremely busy week for Canucks in the AHL, OHL and NCAA, with plenty of activity everywhere else.  Make sure to follow me at @nuckprospects for all the latest in Canucks Prospect news.  Until next week!