Tailing The Komets

I’m afraid the books are getting delayed again. There have been more problems at the printer in Tennessee and I’m going to have to pull back and start over, which means Legends of the Komets won’t be out until the spring most likely. If anyone has any extra weight they’d like to lose or hair they need to fall out, I’d suggest book publishing because this has been incredibly stressful. The book was delivered in July, and ever since then it’s been out of my control. No more. I’m pulling it back and I’ll probably self-publish it.

So I apologize to all of you who wanted it for Christmas. Lloy Ball’s book will be out within the next few weeks, and we’re almost finished with Bob’s book. I don’t think either of those will be out by Christmas, either.

I’ll keep  you posted, and again, I apologize for the delay.

Can be read here.

Playing without Curadeau and knowing Boucher was banged up, the Komets got out-shot 46-19 and still won 5-3 in Port Huron. Dominic Osman had the hat trick and has scored nine goals on 26 shots in four games this season. 3-7 on the power play and 0-8 on the PK.

It’s been a pretty remarkable two games for the Komets. Tim Haun is playing tonight in Huntsville and will either drive overnight or drive up tomorrow to back-up Nick Boucher from here.

David Hukalo on Thursday’s game: “There’s a lot of stuff we have to work on mentally. The hard work is there, but metally it’s not always there I don’t think. You need to be able to use your heads or the hard work isn’t for much. That’s given us some problems in the last six, seven games. It’s creating problems for us.”

Al Sims on starting four rookie defensemen: “You have to play them and let them make mistakes and then show them their mistakes on video and work with them in practice. You have to try to make them better players in March than they are right now, and I think all our guys have potential to have great upside because they are all great skaters except for Danko and he’s probably got the best defensive instincts of any of them. Boulay and Holladay and Warner can really skate. That’s a big part of it.”

Mathieu Curadeau on getting called up: “Last year I was probably more nervous (going to Worcester), but here they know me already and what I’m able to do so it’s a little bit different. Last year I was just going to a place where I didn’t know anybody and I was just trying to make a surprise. Here I was already able to show what I can do, and when they released me at the beginning of the year, they told me when they were going to call me up they wanted a player who was going to make a difference in the game. I have to go there and think that way.”

Mathieu Curadeau has been called up to Norfolk of the AHL for at least two weeks, according to coach Al Sims. He leaves first thing in the morning. The Admirals called Thursday morning, and wanted Curadeau to leave during the day, but there were no flights available.

Nick Boucher also told me he suffered a rib cage injury during the game, but thinks he can stll go tomorrow. The Komets are trying to call up Tim Haun who was here in training camp from Huntsville of the Southern Professional Hockey League. Parris Duffus is unavailable this weekend because he has to work.

I just talked to David Franke who told me he has not heard from Haun yet, and doesn’t expect to until morning. He thinks Tommie Shears may make the trip to Port Huron as the emergency back-up once again.

The Komets don’t believe much in fate, but their luck has certainly changed.

Last year the team used only 25 players all season because of the parcity of injuries. This year they can’t stay out of the training room and have already used 24 with two emergency back-up goaltenders. The latest to hit the injured reserve list will be goaltender Sebastien Laplante who has what is believed to be a stress fracture in his collarbone. Laplante suffered a bruised collarbone last week off a shot from P.C. Drouin that caught him up high and caused Laplant to miss two games.

Laplante returned to practice this week and thought he was ready to play when he awkwardly caught a shot from, ironically, Drouin during Thursday morning’s practice, breaking his collarbone in the same spot it had been bruised in. He’s out indefinitely and former Northrop goaltender and cancer survivor Tommie Shears has been signed as an emergency goaltender. Shears worked out with the Komets in the preseason.

Defenseman Jake Pence has been diagnosed with three broken ribs and has been placed on the 45-day IR list. Defenseman Kevin Bertram is out of tonight’s lineup with a sore knee.

The Komets announced the signing of veteran center Adam Lewis before Thursday’s game. Right wing Dominic Osman also returned to the lineup from a broken foot.

Here’s today’s story.

Mike Field is driving again because he has been waived by the team, according to GM David Franke. The Komets are negotiating with Adam Lewis and should have him ready to go by Thursday. Sebastien Laplante and Dominic Osman are both expected to play Thursday. Osman skated last Friday and will skate all week in practice.  Shafranov is having his hernia surgery tomorrow, and the Komets will wait to talk to the doctor to determine what kind of IR list they are going to put him on. You’ve got admire him for trying to play through it.

You can read it here.