Comets Unveil 2015-16 AHL Schedule
By Jeremy Davis
8 years ago
(From the Utica Comets Press Release)
The AHL released its full 2015-16 schedule today, and there are plenty of changes in store for the Utica Comets.
Due to all the tumult with the geographical location of the 30 American Hockey League franchises, there has been plenty of conference and divisional restructuring this off season. The Comets will visit buildings they’ve never been to and host teams that have never played in the AUD before, as well faceoff against plenty of old and new rivals, and partake in a couple of encounters with former teammates.
Let’s dive in and examine the particulars of the upcoming Utica Comets season.
For the 2015-16 campaign, the AHL had made a lot of changes. For starters, the AHL has opted to follow the NHL’s model of four divisions, with two 7-team groups and two 8-team groups, though the conferences remain in sets of 15 teams each.
(Source theAHL.com)
The Comets have moved from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference, though they have kept the only two divisional rivals from last season that remain in the league (Toronto and Rochester). They are joined in the Eastern Conference’s North Division by three more New York teams (Albany, Binghamton and Syracuse), as well as the St. John’s Icecaps (the site of the relocated Hamilton Bulldogs franchise). With four divisional rivals in New York, the Comets will play the majority of their games within a relatively friendly travel zone.
| Team | Distance (km) |
| Syracuse | 88 |
| Binghamton | 143 |
| Albany | 153 |
| Rochester | 218 |
| Toronto | 470 |
| St. John’s | 2350 |
Obviously St. John’s in Newfoundland is by far the worst bit of travel, but luckily they only play in St. John’s four times, over just two trips. Both are back-to-backs and padded with plenty of off-days on either side.
The Comets will play 76 games, all against Eastern Conference opponents, meaning there will be no visits to the new California teams, as well as no games against the Ontario Reign – the relocated Manchester Monarchs team that defeated Utica in 5 games to take the Calder Cup title. The Comets thus will play a total of 14 other teams, each a minimum of two times, and their divisional rivals many more times.
| Opponents and Affiliates Frequency | |||
| Team | GP | Team | GP |
| Albany (NJD) | 8 | Providence (BOS) | 2 |
| Binghamton (OTT) | 8 | Rochester (BUF) | 8 |
| Bridgeport (NYI) | 2 | Springfield (ARI) | 4 |
| Hartford (NYR) | 4 | St. John’s (MTL) | 8 |
| Hershey (WSH) | 4 | Syracuse (TBL) | 10 |
| Lehigh Valley (PHI) | 4 | Toronto (TOR) | 8 |
| Portland (FLA) | 4 | W-B/Scranton (PIT) | 2 |
Some Extra Schedule Notes
- The Comets begin the season just 4 days after returning home from their training camp in Lyon, France.
- The schedule contains 9 back-to-back-to-backs (8 of which require at least a little bit of travel)
- The schedule contains 16 further back-to-backs (14 of which require some travel to games, 10 require travel between games)
- Despite all these back-to-backs, the Comets players will spend just 21 nights in hotels (for road trips) this season, 8 of which are in St. John’s alone. The trips to St. John’s will be the Comets only two flights of the season.
- 17 of the Comets road trips involve them leaving and returning on the same day, accounting for such a small amount of hotel stays.
- For each team they play against, they will split an even amount of home and away games.
- Due to their switch to the Eastern Conference (and two teams relocating), the Comets do not play any of the teams they met in the Calder Cup playoffs even a single time.
- After playing the Adirondack Flames 12 times last season, there will be no games between these franchises in 2015-16 – the Flames have relocated to Stockton, California, and Adirondack is now home to an ECHL team.
- The Comets will visit Hartford, Hershey, Lehigh Valley, Portland, Providence, Springfield and St. John’s for the first time ever, and the teams from those 7 cities will make the first ever trips to the AUD in Utica.
- The Comets will play 26 of their 38 home games on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday – a nice benefit for the fans in Utica.
The website 100 Degree Hockey did some calculations to determine the diversity of each team’s schedule in the 2015-16 season. Utica ranks 12th in the AHL, the upper end of the middle pack, with a Schedule Diversity Score of 0.771. To find out what the means, I encourage you to read their post. Basically, they have a slightly above average score, which is based on number of teams played, how many times each team is played, and so on.
Mark Your Calendars
Assuming you’re a die hard Comets fan (and why wouldn’t you be?!), here are some dates to look forward to:
- October 10th, 2015 – The Season Opener, in Rochester against the Americans (BUF). The Comets will face off against former Comets All-Stars Cal O’Reilly (their most recent captain) and Bobby Sanguinetti, who were the team leaders both on and off the ice – they were also the Comets’ highest scoring forward and defenceman respectively.
- October 21st, 2015 – The Home Opener, as well as the game in which the Comets will raise their 2015 Western Conference Champions banner. The previously mentioned O’Reilly and Sanguinetti return to the AUD for the first time to witness the ceremony.
- November 7th, 2015 – the first appearance of the Providence Bruins in the AUD and the return of fan favorite Brandon DeFazio.
- February 1st, 2016 – The AHL All-Star game will be held this day in Syracuse, NY.
- February 9th, 2016 – the potential return of hometown kid
and noted power play specialistTom Sestito, assuming he doesn’t stick with the Penguins (or get released outright). Surely Uticans are waiting with bated breath. - April 16th, 2016 – the Season Finale, played at home against the Binghamton Senators.
As a Side Note
Trevor Linden talked in his appearance on TSN 1040’s President’s Week show about the benefits of keeping their AHL franchise in Utica rather than moving it to Vancouver or Abbotsford. Beyond the praise he heaped on the Utica Auditorium itself, he mentioned the benefits of having 5 teams within 500 km. Vancouver simply cannot compete with this – the nearest AHL team to Vancouver is the Stockton Heat, some 942 km away. Though Vancouverites often consider the travel between Utica and Vancouver for call-ups, the game to game travel is much more prevalent.
On top of that, going by the AHL’s travel adjusted schedule, a team in the Lower Mainland may only play 68 games (as the new California teams do), and since Canucks fans hate it when their prospects are scratched, I can’t imagine they’d enjoy their AHL players getting 8 less games than the currently do. As cool as it would be to see the farm team move closer, it might not be the best thing for the players.
One Last Thing
Along with the changes occurring in the AHL, the ECHL has been doing some rearranging as well. There is a push for each NHL to have just one AHL and one ECHL affiliate. Vancouver ECHL affiliate for the last several seasons, Kalamazoo, has confirmed that it will be staying sticking with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the upcoming season. Combine that with the fact that Vancouver has been removed from Kalamazoo’s affiliates list on the ECHL website, and it looks like the Canucks will be looking for a new ECHL partner for the upcoming season. Currently Colorado, Wichita and Alaska (gross) are available. There are still only 28 ECHL teams though, so some sharing will probably be inevitable, at least for next year.
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