Veterans help young Comets learn to fly
Before the Utica Comets faced the reality of squeezing a pair of wingers into the lineup with solid NHL experience, the AHL squad was already facing a tricky question: How to fit three goalies into a rotation that would keep everyone happy?
The Comets have a pair of veteran netminders in Zane McIntyre and Richard Bachman, plus a face of the future in Mike DiPietro.
The Comets are now five games into their AHL schedule and have managed to hand McIntyre a trio of starts and DiPietro two. Bachman has dressed as a backup but has yet to actually appear in a game, but so far so good, Comets general manager Ryan Johnson said over the phone.
“Everybody understands the situation,” he said. “With our schedule being light we wanted to get Zane up and going. And the plan was to get Mikey his first start; he made some saves when he had to, didn’t face a ton of shots, was very composed.”
DiPietro’s transition to his first full season of pro hockey has been far smoother than his actual pro debut last year, when he made an emergency recall start against the San Jose Sharks. The Canucks lost 7-0 on that night — the young goalie saying it was as big a learning opportunity as he could have imagined.
“This is very minimal compared to last year,” Johnson said, with a tone that implied a grin and the acknowledgment of just how unconventional DiPietro’s first NHL game was. “He’s got a maturity to him. Mikey wants to learn, he’s a sponge to everything thrown at him and has been since we drafted him. He’s got such a positive outlook on anything and everything.”
And he doesn’t lack for support around him.
“Between Zane, Richard, (goalie coach) Curtis Sanford, he’s got a lot of good people around him,” he noted.
It’s a similar story with the Comets’ forwards. The team was already going to have to juggle things some before both Sven Baertschi and Nikolay Goldobin were reassigned to the Comets.
Baertschi has played 285 NHL games in his career; Goldobin has
skated in 124. Both have been making an impact since moving back down to the AHL. They missed the season opener Oct. 5 while waiting for their U.S. work permits to be approved, but have feasted on the opposition in the four games since: Goldobin has nine points, Baertschi eight.
Goldobin’s efforts saw him named the AHL’s player-of-theweek.
Their professionalism has spoken volumes to their young teammates, Johnson believes. Side note: This is the youngest group the Canucks have ever placed in Utica, N.Y. The average age is 24.6 years old, a full year younger than last season’s roster. A large driver of this is the young defence corps.
“One thing that was very important that I talked with Sven and Goldy about is we’ve spent a lot of time on our culture here,” he said. “It was important for me that I discuss with them what they were walking into. Obviously we were very sympathetic to them, understood they might be disappointed. ‘We need the buy-in from you for us to help you get back to where you want to be,’ I told them.
“Both players have experience here and know us ... and they’ve been nothing but excellent. It’s a great example for all of our group: that in the face of adversity, that there might be displeasure, but that they’re handling it so well.”
One of the young players who will benefit from exposure to a pair of players with NHL experience is Kole Lind. From a results perspective, his first pro season was a difficult one: He had scored at every level but last season managed just five goals in 51 games for the Comets. It was a surprise to see a player who many scouts and analysts thought was a strong dark horse in the Canucks’ prospect stable struggle so much.
Through five games this season he already has seven points.