
Photo credit: Lindsay A. Mogle / Utica Comets
For the second time in their three year history, the Comets are headed to the Calder Cup playoffs. Their journey will begin tonight as they take on the Albany Devils, the AHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils in a best-of-five series that kicks off in Albany, New York.
Today we’ll break down the two teams, their top players, and their head-to-head season series.
The pre-sale code for discounted tickets to Games 1 and 2 in Albany expires at 5pm.
Link: https://t.co/AM7mtRQbLi pic.twitter.com/Dr3PyjtTph
— Utica Comets (@UticaComets) April 20, 2016
The Comets will be garnering increased attention for a couple of reasons. For one, the Canucks are finished for the year (duh). The same goes for pretty much every other prospect in the Canucks organization, with the exception of Kyle Pettit, who is playing a defensive centre role on a power house Erie Otters team. Other than that, the Comets players are all that Canucks fans have to root for at this point.
Another reason is that they’re coming off a season in which they went all the way to the Calder Cup Finals. They were the best team in the AHL’s Western Conference in both the regular season and the playoffs. Relying mostly on the goaltending of their workhorse netminder Jacob Markstrom, the Comets dispatched a number of strong teams before being run over by the eventual champions, the Machester Monarchs, affiliates of the Los Angeles Kings (surprise).
This season is considerably different. The Comets finished the season as the seventh best team in their conference, and are considerably weaker than the 2014-15 iteration. For one thing, they lack the elite goaltending they received last year, as well as game breaking youngsters like Sven Baertschi and Hunter Shinkaruk, and a veteran presence that was both experienced and productive (Cal O’Reilly, Cory Conacher, Bobby Sanguinetti).
With that being said, they do have two of their better playoff performers returning in Brendan Gaunce and Alex Grenier. Last year’s playoff run was a bit of a coming out party for the two of them, and for Gaunce in particular, as he become one of the Comets’ most relied upon all-situations players deep in the playoffs.
The Comets are also benefiting from some of the best coaching in the minor leagues – in spite of playing most of the season with large numbers of injuries and call ups, as well as a constantly rotating veteran crew and an abundance of tryout contracts, the Comets were one of the AHL’s best puck possession teams all season long.
Time to move on to the series at hand: Utica versus Albany. Let’s check out how these two teams performed as a whole this season.
Team Performance
Utica Comets | Standard Stats | Albany Devils |
38-26-8-4 | Record | 46-20-8-2 |
88 | Points | 102 |
0.579 | Points Percentage | 0.671 |
224 | Goals For | 212 |
217 | Goals Against | 167 |
Utica finished in third place in the AHL’s North Division. Because they finished in seventh in the Conference rather than eighth, the team below them (the Bridgeport Sound Tigers) is forced to cross over and face the Toronto Marlies, while the Comets move into the middle intra-division battle with the Devils, the North division’s second place team.
The Devils finished the season on a roll, winning seven of their final ten games, and their last three. The Comets dropped their season finale, but had won six of the nine games before that.
This is a battle of the possession juggernauts, as the Estimated Fenwick-Close metric pegs the Devils and the Comets as the AHL’s first and third strongest possession teams, respectively. Albany’s Est.FC% on the season was a dominant 55.8 per cent, while the Comets weren’t far behind with a very strong rating of 53.3 per cent. The numbers suggest that both teams regularly outshoot their opponents early in games when scores are closer.
Albany’s PDO is middle of the pack at 100.48 (14th). Their team shooting percentage (9.1 per cent) is right in the middle of the league, while their team save percentage (91.4 per cent) is in the top ten, which is what gives them a little boost over 100.
Utica on the other hand has one of the league’s worst PDOs at 99.18 (25th). While their team shooting percentage is only slightly below average at 8.9 per cent, their goaltending has sunk them much of the year – their team save percentage of 90.3 per cent is the fifth worst in the league. You can bet that they’re missing Markstrom now more than ever.
Despite their sub-par goaltending, Utica has been able to keep pucks out of their net due to some fantastic shot suppression. Only two teams are allowing less shots per game than the Comets – unfortunately, one of those teams in the Albany Devils. The Devils’ shot suppression, in conjunction with solid goaltending, is what has allowed them to give up just 2.17 goals against per game, the second lowest rate in the league.
Here’s a breakdown of the Utica and Albany’s team stats:

Forwards
Time to move on to the individual players and see who has the advantages in various positions.
Utica Comets
Utica is boasting something of a patchwork roster at this point. At various points in the season, they have carried a number of NHL fringe players. At the beginning of the year, those including Linden Vey and Alex Biega. Later on it was Chris Higgins and Brandon Prust. Now, all four of those players are unavailable to the Comets. Add to that a couple of AHL-for-NHL player trades losing the Comets Hunter Shinkaruk and Nicklas Jensen, and the Comets are left with one of the weaker rosters that they’ve had all season.
The Comets’ most talented forward is undoubtedly Brendan Gaunce, once known mostly as a stout two-way player, he discovered an extra gear and an offensive touch in his two years of pro hockey. Though several teammates have passed him in points, he leads the Comets in points per game with a mark of 0.83.
The Comets leader in actual points is 24-year old Alex Grenier, who got a cup of coffee with the big club this season, though it didn’t go quite as well as one might have hoped. Still, he’s been a dominant force in Utica since his March demotion, putting up 11 points points (three goals, eight assists) in 12 games, including a seven-game point streak. He’s also managed 2.5 shots on net per game in that time, and Grenier is typically more effective when he’s piling up shots.
Other Comets leaders up front include fringe prospects like Mike Zalewski, Ronalds Kenins, and Alex Friesen, as well as playmaking centre T.J. Hensick, who was acquired at the AHL trade deadline. Hensick has come through so far, putting up 15 points in 19 games since the trade. The Comets have also been getting solid production out of AHL contracted players like Carter Bancks, Wacey Hamilton, and Canucks Army favourite Curtis Valk, who has six points in 11 games since being promoted to the AHL from Kalamazoo. Somewhere down the depth chart is Cole Cassels, who typically centres the Comets’ fourth line – Cassels was a noted playoff performer in his OHL days, and now would be a great time for him to break out.

Albany Devils
While Utica’s average age is actually a tad higher than Albany’s, the Devils are more driven by veteran forwards than their counterparts are. All five of Albany’s top five scoring forwards are 25 or older, while the same can be said for only one of the top five scoring Comets forwards (in terms of points scored with the team, rather than AHL season totals for mid-season acquisitions). That being said, Albany’s sixth highest scorer may be the most dangerous player on either team, and he’s only 22 years old.
That would be Reid Boucher, New Jersey’s 99th overall pick in 2011. With 19 goals in just 34 games this season, Boucher has a goals per game of 0.56 that leads both teams. The Comets only had two players this season with goals per game rates above 0.40, and neither of them will be playing in this series (Hunter Shinkaruk and Chris Higgins). Boucher has bounced between the NHL and AHL the last three seasons, and in 2015-16 he played more games in the NHL than the American League for the first time. His 39 NHL games this season leads both teams, as do the 19 NHL points he collected.
Aside from Boucher, the Comets will also have to be on the lookout for the newly arrived Pavel Zacha. The sixth overall pick in 2015 joined Albany at the end of the AHL season. This was following a 64 point season with the Sarnia Sting in the OHL, and a brief cameo with the New Jersey Devils, in which he tallied two assists in his NHL debut. In three games with the Albany Devils, Zacha picked up a goal and two assists.
The team has a number of dangerous veterans, including 25-year old Matt Lorito, who led the team with 54 points, and 27-year old Mike Sislo, who led the team with 27 goals – both of those totals are greater than any possessed by a Comets player. They also boast 27-year old Brian O’Neill, who was the AHL’s scoring champion last year when he played with the Calder Cup champs, the Manchester Monarchs. That’s not even mentioning the fact that they employ the league’s longest and most fun to say name in Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond.

Defencemen
Utica Comets
The Comets got more production out of their defencemen this year than the Devils did, in terms of both goals and points. Utica got 50 goals to Albany’s 25, as well as 183 points to Albany’s 135.
The Comets were led in defensive scoring by 20-year old rookie Jordan Subban. Subban had an outrageously strong rookie season, scoring 11 goals and 37 points, leading all defencemen, and all rookies, in both categories. Subban has done this mostly from Utica’s third pairing. That doesn’t mean he was underused however, just that he and typical partner Jon Landry were often third in the rotation for even strength ice time – though both were mainstays on the second power play unit all season long. Still the Comets scored more even strength goals with Subban on the ice (51) than any other defenceman – unfortunately they also allowed more goals when he was on the ice (52) than with all but one other defenceman (Travis Ehrhardt). That he was such a high event player is why he was generally sheltered at evens.
The Comets also got strong production from veteran Taylor Fedun, who scored eight goals and added 25 assists in 63 games in his first season with the Comets. The 27-year old was brought in as a replacement for the departed Bobby Sanguinetti and did an admirable job of quarterbacking the Comets admittedly underwhelming power play.
The Comets premier shut down defenceman is Canucks prospect Andrey Pedan, though the 6-foot-5 Lithuanian added some offence to his game this season, scoring seven goals and adding 14 assists with little-to-no power play time. Later in the year he was frequently paired with rookie Ashton Sautner, whose defensive game is ahead of his offensive game at this point.
Albany Devils
The Devils’ highest scoring defenceman is none other than Marc-Andre Gragnani, who is most notable for coming to Vancouver as part of the infamous Hodgson-Kassian trade. As a leader on Albany’s blue line however, Gragnani put up 31 points, of which all but one were assists. In fact, no Albany defenceman scored more than four goals this season, with Reece Scarlett, Brandon Burlon, and Dan Kelly tied in that regard.
The Devils are deploying a relatively young defence group including 22-year old Reece Scarlett (a sixth round pick in 2011), 22-year old Vojtech Mozik, and 23-year old Raman Hrabarenka. The Devils also currently have 21-year old Damon Severson listed on the roster. Severson has spent the last two full season in the NHL, though he finished this season with three games in Albany.
Despite the lack of production from Albany’s defence, they’ve shown that they can be adept in other areas. Albany allowed fewer shots than any other team in the American League this season, and that doesn’t happen without a defensive group that is very solid in their own zone.
Goaltending
The Devils have a pretty clear advantage in this category. If the Comets have had one glaring weakness this season, it’s been between the pipes. As mentioned averaged only a handful of teams have stopped pucks at a lower rate than the Comets (90.3, 26th), and their mid-ranked goals against per game (2.80, 13th) is buoyed because of how good they are at suppressing shots.
The Comets’ best goalie this season was, unsurprisingly, Jacob Markstrom – of course that was only in a two-game conditioning stint. For the majoruty of the season, the Comets have been alternating between Joe Cannata and Richard Bachman game by game. Bachman has historically had some pretty solid AHL numbers, but this year he’s been largely outplayed by Cannata.
Name | GP | Record | GAA | Sv% |
Joe Cannata | 40 | 20-13-6 | 2.52 | .909 |
Richard Bachman | 35 | 17-12-5 | 2.75 | .900 |
I think it’d be a fair guess that Cannata will get the start in game one tonight, though with another game tomorrow, it’s quite likely that the rotation continues into the post-season.
On the Albany side, the Devils have a pair of goalies to choose from that both have better numbers than either of Utica’s options. Yann Danis has made the lion’s share of starts for Albany this season, posting a record of 28-12-5.
Scott Wedgewood played fewer games in the AHL, but his numbers were considerably more dominant. In fact, Wedgewood’s NHL numbers were actually better than Cory Schneider’s this year, albeit in a very small sample size (four games, 1.24 GAA, .957 save percentage). At just 23, Wedgewood certainly has more upside, and will likely be the starter for Albany in the playoffs for as long as he can carry them.
Name | GP | Record | GAA | Sv% |
Scott Wedgewood | 22 | 14-3-3 | 1.55 | .933 |
Yann Danis | 47 | 28-12-5 | 2.22 | .908 |
Head-to-Head Record
The Comets and Devils face off eight times this season, with the Devils winning six times, including twice in overtime – both of Utica’s victories came in overtime as well. All told, the Devils outscored the Comets 28-15.
Date: | Visiting Team | Visiting Score | Home Score | Home Team | Utica Result | |
Sat, Oct 31, 2015 | Utica | 1 | at | 6 | Albany | L |
Wed, Dec 30, 2015 | Utica | 2 | at | 3 | Albany | L (OT) |
Thu, Dec 31, 2015 | Albany | 4 | at | 1 | Utica | L |
Sat, Jan 16, 2016 | Albany | 0 | at | 1 | Utica | W (OT) |
Fri, Jan 29, 2016 | Utica | 4 | at | 3 | Albany | W (OT) |
Sat, Feb 20, 2016 | Albany | 3 | at | 2 | Utica | L (OT) |
Sat, Mar 12, 2016 | Utica | 3 | at | 4 | Albany | L |
Sat, Mar 19, 2016 | Albany | 5 | at | 1 | Utica | L |
Jim O’Brien was an absolutely dominant force in the head-to-head series this year, picking up 11 points in the right games between the two clubs, including seven goals, one of those being an overtime winner. Matt Lorito also had seven points in the series, while several other Devils had four points.
On the Comets side, Jordan Subban had six points, while Ronalds Kenins, Mike Zalewski and Jon Landry each had four points.
The Albany Devils are clearly the stronger team of the two combatants – that much could have been determined by their regular season record alone. But it’s hard to count the Comets out of a series, especially with their ability to stay in games all season and outshoot opponents even when icing dreadful rosters.

How to Follow Along
You can watch or listen to Comets games in several different ways.
First, all games are available for viewing on AHL Live. For a single team, it’s $45.99 for the first two rounds of the AHL playoffs (that’s U.S. dollars, though). It’s a little steep, but it does come with the ability to browse the archives and re-watch earlier games from this season, if you’re into that. With Hockey Streams going dark and AHL games disappearing off of onhockey.tv, this is unfortunately the only way to watch Comets games at this point.
If you just want to listen, you can head on over to 94.9 KRock, the Utica radio station where all the games are broadcast on. You’ll get to hear Brendan Burke calling the games, which is always a treat – he’s a high quality, very detailed and informative play-by-play guy.
Whichever method you choose, this is a team worth following, whether it’s to keep an eye on the Canucks prospects, or to get a glimpse of Travis Green’s coaching style, or just because you miss hockey that has some sort of affiliation with Vancouver.