American Hockey League records from yesteryear are notoriously difficult to break.
The AHL has changed rapidly in recent history, let alone in the twenty years of this century.
Expansion to a record high of 31 teams (soon to be 32) and an emphasis on developing high-end talent has led to a vast improvement in the playing standard across the board.
There is a greater turnover of players between the NHL, AHL and ECHL, with teams often suffering from a lack of continuity, especially when the big club requires impact players for a length of time.
I would argue that the AHL is more competitive than when I started following the league around fifteen years ago.
If any team were to set a record this season, the smart money would not have been wagered on the Utica Comets.
With the Vancouver organisation opting to move their farm team to British Columbia, the New Jersey Devils opted to shift their affiliate to Utica, keeping the Comets name in the process.
Moving an AHL affiliate in ‘normal’ times is a tough enough job, let alone the complications brought about by doing so amid a pandemic.
New Jersey has had a poor record with their AHL affiliates in recent history.
Poorly performing teams watched by small crowds is not a good recipe and you could lay a good deal of the blame with the NHL club.
New Jersey hired Kevin Dineen as their head coach. A veteran of the AHL who has been there, seen it and got many t-shirts.
The team he ‘inherited’ at the start of the season wasn’t exactly of the blockbuster variety.
A pair of rookie goaltenders in Nico Daws and Akira Schmid.
A young defense core with five of the seven blue-lines aged 20-22.
The forward group wasn’t laced with high-end talent and there had to be doubts about what kind of impact rookies Tyce Thompson, Aarne Talvitie and Alexander Holtz would make.
What transpired to begin the 2021-22 campaign was nothing short of remarkable, somewhat unbelievable but thoroughly deserved.
An opening day 6-2 spanking of a highly-touted Rochester Americans team laid down a marker.
That was followed by narrow 2-1 victories against Providence and Syracuse with overtime required for success over the Bruins.
A 5-2 win against the struggling Lehigh Valley Phantoms gave Utica a perfect 4-0-0 record through October.
Even a three-in-three weekend in November was not a problem. A road win in Syracuse was followed by victories against Toronto and Laval, with the Comets scoring a combined 15 goals in the process.
The schedule then threw up six days in ten days, with 50% of those on the road.
Syracuse, Laval and Belleville were despatched, outscoring their opponents 12-5.
Utica had now reeled off ten successive victories to begin the campaign and had the AHL record in its sights at this stage.
The 1984-85 Rochester Americans won twelve games at the start of the season, and the current version attempted to stop Utica at this juncture.
The Comets kept on rolling and recorded a come-from-behind 3-2 victory after trailing at the midway stage of the game.
Having now tied with the 84-85 Amerks, a two-game homestand weekend provided New Jersey’s affiliate with a chance to set a new American League record in front of their fans.
The Charlotte Checkers attempted to play party poopers, scoring just 63 seconds in and leading 1-0 after twenty minutes of play.
Utica struck three unanswered goals in the middle frame and added an empty-net tally to register their 12th successive victory.
Unlucky thirteen? Not for these Comets’ who duly ran up five unanswered goals in the space of 34 minutes against Rochester.
Utica held on for a final 5-3 victory but would again face the Americans in their attempt to extend the win streak to fourteen.
Despite another hard-fought performance, falling two goals behind in fourteen minutes, Utica succumbed 4-2 to Rochester on November 24, having gone over a month unbeaten.
Setting an AHL record aside, what has impressed me is how Utiuca has responded to losing their first game this season.
A 5-2 victory against Charlotte sandwiched between a pair of shutout wins against Belleville and Charlotte.
There is little doubting that the new incarnation of the Utica Comets are ‘for real’ and are a force to be reckoned with this season.
Not only has it been a tremendous team effort, but it’s also been a squad of players who have played their part with Kevin Dineen dressing 26 skaters at the time of writing.
Not only does Utica has the best defensive record in the league (thirty goals allowed in seventeen games), they’ve manufactured offense across the board.
Not reliant on one or two lines, or superstars at this level, six players have attained double figures in point and nine are registering at 0.71 PPG or above.
The story of the two rookie netminders is as remarkable as anything Utica has achieved this year.
Akira Schmid owns a perfect 8-0-0 record, recorded two shutouts and has an otherworldly 0.956 save percentage.
Nico Daws almost pales in comparison with a record of 8-1-0 and 0.929 save percentage.
When the Comets first began in 2013 as the affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, they stumbled out of the gate with a 0-8-2 record.
If you require any further evidence as to just what an incredible start to this season by this ‘new’ Utica Comets team.
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