Utica Comets Weeks in Review: January 23rd – February 5th

7 years ago

Photo Credit: Lindsay A. Mogle / Utica Comets

It feels like every time I gear up to write about the Comets, I’m talking about either a prolonged winning streak, or a prolonged losing streak. This is just about the streakiest I have ever seen a team play. After winning seven of nine, and then losing nine straight, and the winning eight of nine, the Comets have now lost four in a row. If they stick to the pattern, it looks like they’re in for a rough week. It doesn’t help that this coming week will be their busiest of the season to date – though at least they’ll be getting Brendan Gaunce back.

But before we look ahead, let’s look back at the weeks than were.

The Games

Wednesday, January 25th vs. Springfield: 2 – 1 Overtime Loss

Friday, January 29th vs. Wilkes-Barre: 3 – 2 Loss

Saturday, January 28th vs. Syracuse: 4 – 3 Shootout Loss

Friday, February 2nd at Hartford: 4 – 3 Loss

Player of the Week

He probably deserved it even more a couple of weeks ago when he had four points in six games, but Evan McEneny is continuing to put up points, so he’s a better-late-than-never recipient of the Player of the Week honours.

McEneny scored in back-to-back games two weekends ago, bringing his totals to five goals and nine points in 34 games. While those numbers are particularly gaudy on their own, seven of McEneny’s points have come in his last eight games. His sudden hot streak has put him in third in defensive scoring on the team, surpassing Chad Billins and David Shields, and trailing only Jordan Subban and Colby Robak. Perhaps more impressive (or more damning, depending on your perspective) is that McEneny has now tied Jake Virtanen in goals and points in just one additional game.

While this production is a pleasant surprise, it’s not entirely unprecented for McEneny, who recorded 34, 42, and 45 points in his three final OHL seasons, as well as 25 points in his rookie ECHL season last year. McEneny could very well just be finding his game and rediscovering the offence talent that Mike Gillis and his team saw in McEneny when they signed him following a draft year in which injuries limited him to just two games.

McEneny’s lack of draft position, in conjunction with an injury that cost him half a season last year and had him recovering in the ECHL for the rest of it, has likely contributed to him flying under the radar as a prospect. McEneny sat as an honourable mention in our midterm prospect ranking (ranked 24th by voting) and was XXth in the fan vote. But his jump in production in recent weeks has shot his pGPS projection up to 18 percent, which is higher than a substantial number of players ranked higher than him.

McEneny has clearly earned the trust of Travis Green’s staff, as he now not only skates a regular shift in the top four, but is frequently on both the power play and the penalty. In addition to his new status as an all situations player, he’s also apprently immune to the rotating healthy scratches that still afflict the majority of the defence core.

Roster Report

Lines:

Roster Moves:

The big news of the week is that Brendan Gaunce was reassigned by the Canucks. He’s in Toronto today and figures to get into the lineup. While my associate was a bit incensed with the Canucks for cutting him loose, I’m perfectly okay with this turn of events.

While it’s true that Gaunce’s underlying numbers have been very solid this season, and he isn’t costing them anything, he isn’t really making any gains either. That’s fine for your typical fourth liner, but I watched Gaunce last season in Utica and I saw more offensive potential in him than he’s demonstrated this season. If I were the Canucks, I wouldn’t want to settle for breaking even either. So I’m hoping that Gaunce, who can visit Utica waiver free, can benefit from this experience and regain a bit of an offensive touch – because zero goals in 47 games shouldn’t be good enough for Gaunce.

Tonight will be Gaunce’s first appearance as a Comet since the 2016 playoffs.

Up until yesterday, the only two roster moves for the Comets in this time frame occurred a couple of weeks ago: Jordan Subban was reassigned to Utica, having not played a game in the NHL, and Yan-Pavel Laplante was reassigned to to ECHL Alaska, having recovered from an injury.

Injury Update:

Joe LaBate, Derek Hulak and John Negrin continue to miss time with injuries. Marco Roy rarely ever plays, though from what’s been said on the broadcasts, this all appears to be the coach’s decision.

The Stats

Skaters:

Alex Grenier was back to leading the Comets in scoring over the past couple of weeks, after getting into a bit of a mini-slump.
Curtis Valk was also productive, tallying three helpers in four games. Sign this young man to a contract dammit.
Evan McEneny continues to put up points, scoring a pair of goals over the past four games, while also putting an impressive 10 shot on net.
Jordan Subban missed one game due to being up with the Canucks, but scored a goal and an assist in his other two games. Subban is now typically on the second power play unit, as Robak has been moved to the top unit, which makes some sense given that the top unit uses only one defencemen. Subban and McEneny typically play the power play together, and the forwards have a tendency to rotate, meaning that the first unit isn’t always technically the stronger unit, or the one that hits the ice first.
Mike Zalewski picked up a couple more points, and is starting to look more like his old self – that is, the 2015-16 version of himself.
Jake Virtanen fell back down to zero points in this stretch, though he did have 10 shots on net. The kid looks good out there a lot, and he absolutely crushed Srpingfield’s Steven Kampfer with a devastating butt-check. Hopefully there’s more production and more physicality to come.
Ashton Sautner played in a pair of games in this stretch, while both the games he missed were the results of healthy scratches. Sautner hasn’t really been able to find his footing this season, especially after the concussion he received earlier in the year. He’s also been passed by Evan McEneny on the depth chart, which at points is making it difficult to even stay in the lineup.
Cole Cassels had no points, and only two shots in four games. Getting a regular PK shift is a nice bit of responsibility, but we’d still like to see some more offence from Cassels – part of that requires putting the puck on net more.

Goalies:

#	Player	GS	Record	TOI	GA	SA	Sv%	GAA
30	T. Demko	1	0-0-1	64.73	3	29	0.897	2.78
32	R. Bachman	3	0-2-1	176.35	9	78	0.885	3.06

As I’ve often mentioned here, the Comets success at the team level is often closely tied to how their netminders are performing. So it isn’t a huge surprise that this latest string of losses coincides with Bachman cooling off after his highly impressive run.

Travis Green has traditionally preferred to rotate his goaltenders going back to early last season, but he broke pattern in the wake of Demko’s illness from a few weeks back and then Bachman’s strong play, and rode the hot hand. Bachman has received eight of the last nine starts, but with Bachman coming back to earth, the goalies should figure to get back into a rotation – especially with a three-in-three coming up this weekend.

Thatcher Demko got into one game a couple of weekends ago, looking stellar in his new gear for the Save of the Day Foundation game – but it was his first start since January 11th. He allowed three goals on 29 shots, including two on the first three shots, looking decidedly rusty after all that time away from the crease. But he settled in and made some huge saves and carried the team to extra time – they eventually lost in a shootout as former Comet Cory Conacher was the only one of the six shooters to score.

Team Level:

It seems like just yesterday that we were noting what a disaster the Comets’ penalty kill was. Actually, it was about two months ago now, when Utica’s kill rate was literally the worst in the AHL. Fast forward to February, the the Comets just allowed their first power play goal against in 25 opportunities. With a ridiculous 96.3 penalty kill percentage over their last seven games, the Comets have brought their season rate up to 82.8%, which is 11th in the league.

Their power play isn’t nearly as rosy, but they did manage to pot three goals with the man advantage in their last three games, bringing their season rate up to 16.5%, which sits 19th in the league.

Looking Ahead

After sitting in a playoff position for the past couple of weeks, the Comets have fallen back below the bar. Their four-game losing streak certainly hasn’t helped, and neither has the fact that the Marlies appear to have finally righted the ship – they are the team that has overtaken Utica for the fourth spot in the North Division.

That’s what makes this week vitally important to the Comets: they’re scheduled to play Toronto twice in the next four days. With two other games to play this weekend, this is the Comets busiest week so far this season.