Coyote Tracks - February 9th
Big win over the Oilers last night, and a week full of games ahead before the Olympic break. We've got th Wild on Wednesday, Avs on Friday and Dallas again on Saturday to close out the pre-break run. Lots of news that will be coming out today about the COyotes, hopefully including that all our injured players from last night are A-OK. Shane Doan, Vernon Fiddler and Joel Perrault all had "upper Body" injuries so loook for updates from @walshtodd on twitter.
Fox 10 Sports anchor Jude LaCava also said last night via his twitter account "Nice crowd for a monday night for the Coyotes...special announcement may be coming tomorrow...... No idea what that special announcement could be but really the only big things would be an Allstar Game or Ice Edge getting it's deal to get the team done. If nothing happens his twitter is @judefox10 and you should yell at him.
Some quick links:
The Copper & Blue - Edmonton - Phoenix Post-Game: The Pitton of Despair
When the highlight of a game is a fight between a 5'10" guy and a 6'0" guy, it was a pretty miserable game. The Copper & Blue reviews the Coyotes and Oilers game.
Vanna Go? I’m a Bad Ass Mutha Czech Street Fighter! " The Good, The Bad, The Coyotes - Yotesgurl does here usual recap including bad paint skills and Czech love.
Monday's Three Stars: Lombardi, Stewart with career nights - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports
Puck Daddy says Lombardi was the star of the night with 5 points.
Edmonton Oilers lose 6-1 to Phoenix Coyotes - Vancouver Sun
Nobody would have blamed Edmonton Oilers head coach Pat Quinn if he had yelled, "Call off the dogs,"
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Coyotes Find Their Offense and Bury Oilers 6-1
The game wasn't at all as lopsided in tempo or puck possession as the 6-1 score would have you believe, but the goaltending was awesome for the Coyotes with Ilya Bryzgalov making toe saves, glove saves, hitting the puck out of the air with his stick saves and everything in between. Edmonton's goaltending was just awful and their defense didn't really help that much. Jeff Deslauriers Got beaten by a couple good chances, but at least 3 of the goals against were just having his glove in the wrong place. He had eyes on the puck but did nada.
Matthew Lombardi had a career night with 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 total points a career high. Jim Vandermeer added his fourth of the year on a bouncing puck from the blueline. Radim Vrbata scored one nice goal on a breakaway chance in which he faked out Deslauriers and put it right past his skate as he lay prone on the ice. Robert Lang added a late goal on a fluke backhander that seemed like it went right through Deslauriers' chest. Dustin Penner unfortunately ended the shutout bid with less than five minutes remaining in the game as the Coyotes backed of the throttle and forgot that they actually had to play the rest of the game.
Several players left the game, all with various upper body injuries. Shane Doan got hurt in the second period and was wincing on the bench. Coyotes PR man Sergey Koncharov told fans via twitter that Doan seemed okay in the locker room after the game, but will be reevaluated tomorrow. Joel Perrault, a recent call up from San Antonio, left after a had hit into the boards that he didn't turn right on and Vernon Fiddler left, but I don't have details on what happened there. Dave Tippett said in the postgame that all the players at least played while they were hurt so the injuries shouldn't be to severe. Hopefully it was all precautionary with the team being up by so much late.
Comments of the night from SBN Oilers Site Copper and Blue:
Announcers
If we could combine Strader and Debrusk and drop Quinn and Nash, we might have something here.-Derek Zona
If only. Debrusk was great in his time here when he did radio with Bob Heethus and the postgame shows on FSN.
What’s that thing Bryzgalov did where he put his body in front of the puck and it didn’t go in the net? Do we have any guys who can do that?
-Benjamin Massey
I think "Save" is the word you were looking for there.
Video Highlights courtesy of NHL.com
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Coyotes vs. Oilers - Game #60 Gamethread - Less Greasy
AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
LET'S GO COYOTES!
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Phoenix Coyotes vs. Edmonton Oilers - Game #60 Preview - It's a Trap!
The Coyotes return home tonight, after a disapointing game in Dallas on Saturday, to face the Edmonton Oilers in what sould be a highly exciting, hihgly attended game... okay, maybe not, but I certainly can't blame anyone for not coming to see this team, and by this team I mean the Edmonton Oilers.
The Oilers have had what can, at best, be described as a terrible season. With the offseason signing of Nikolai Khabibulin and some talented young players, they were at least expecting to be in the mix in this part of the season, or at least not to be the league's worst team going into the All-Star break. I'm pretty sure most 'experts' expected that team to be, well, us. Instead the Oilers have battled injuries to Key players like Khabibulin, Sheldon Souray and Ales Hemsky. Fernando Pisani was out for quite a while and now Sam Gagne is headed back to Edmonton tonight with another injury. They just can't catch a break, or rather, they're catching too many breaks. While some of the callups have done okay, when you're playing half an AHL team against full NHL ones it's not going to end well.
The Coyotes on the other had have done more than anyone could have thought this year. Going into game 60 with as many wins as they had last year, dodging *knock on wood* too many injuries and rolling to 5th place in the West with some separation now from the teams fighting for 8th. While Kurt Sauer and Scottie Upshall are out long term, the majority of the team has played night in and night out. After a terrible showing in Dallas the Coyotes had better be hungry and not look past the Oilers though.
The Starting Goaltenders
Bryz has been solid in net (yes, even in Dallas) and he's needed to be. With the Coyotes scoring only 1 goal in the past 3 games the offense has dried up.
Deslauriers is 2-2 in his last fours starts, but on the road he hasn't fared as well with a 6-9 record. Overall the Oilers are not good on the road with a 7-17-2 overall record. It's not been pretty.
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When the Yotes Go Marching In.
Happy Monday, folks. Seeing as we've all had a long weekend, it feels great having The 'Yotes back home, and a struggling Edmonton Oilers team in town. Coach Tippett isn't planning on taking them lightly though, almost implying that an animal that's wounded makes it only more dangerous.
Tonight on FOX Sports Arizona: Coyotes vs. Oilers, 7 p.m.
That being said, the hockey/ Super Bowl comaparisons / analogies/ bullsh metaphors have been in abundance these past few days. Someone over at Puck Daddy called yesterday's Caps/Pens matchup " The Super Bowl of the regular season". After wiping the spittle from gagging, it struck me that the Coyotes actually have a lot in common with the New Orleans Saints, in terms of trials and tribulations. hear me out
------ A team uncertain of it's future, not sure if it would play in it's home stadium the following season.
---- Players committed to a resurgence, leaning on each other when times get tough in order to stay the course.
------ A no-nonsense coach committed to winning, methodical in every way of evaluating the opposition, and his own team.
----- Traumatized fans, rallying around their team. I realize that the woes of the 'Yotes fans pales in comparison to the atrocities of Hurricane Katrina. But on the sports side of things ( THE SPORTS SIDE! NOTHING ELSE OKAY?!), 'Yotes fans and Saints fans both know the feeling of asking ' What will we do if we lose our team' ? And as you'll see in the next bullet point, the answer is simple: We rally around them, and we win.
As of today, the Coyotes have 75 points, 4 LESS THAN ALL OF LAST YEAR.. If you didn't think people were taking notice.... You better think again: Coyotes ratings up 50 percent over last year's average
Welcome back, fans. Let's keep it up.
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Here's a nod to all of our hockey loving military service men and women near and abroad... If you have to get deployed, this looks like the best place in Afghanistan:
And for all you ladies out there: If you buy me a pair of "Smittens" for Valentine's Day, your stuff will be on the curb:
Short day today, if anything pops up between now and gametime, I'll re-up this afternoon! Moridon should be back tomorrow, If you're going to the game, let us know in the comments! If you're not, come party with us in tonight's game thread!
Go 'Yotes! ( Go Pack go? Go Yoteys?) Leave a comment!
AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
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Coyotes Come Out Flat and Get Trounced 4-0 Against Stars
Well we couldn't extend the winning streak but we at least went 3 for 4 on the roadtrip which is good enough. I'll take 6 wins followed by one loss all season long. All that optimistic stuff aside, I really don't have a whole lot of postive things to say about this game. Shane Doan and Ilya Bryzgalov played fairly well, but it seemed like the team in general wasn't able to get moving at all. Everyone seemed to be 2 or 3 steps behind the play. The defense was still going after the guy who touched the puck last instead of the one with the puck. Just lazy lazy play. The Stars were very good about making the Coyotes pay for their mistakes though striking early and often. I'm just going to go to the bullet points...
- The entire defensive unit looked slow and tired out there. From the top line to the bottom it was just bad. Zbynek Michalek was caught missing the puck, Ed Jovanovski was turning things over and making weak passes. James Vandermeer was caught behind plays, Sami Lepisto wasn't doing well possessing the puck, Adrian Aucoin got caught chasing the puck instead of taking his man. Even Keith Yandle wasn't all there though he skated well, nothing was happening.
- Our energy line was doing okay, but wasn't it's normal intense self. Winnik, Fiddler and Korpikoski each had individual efforts that looked good, but they were all at different times and just didn't click.
- The Czech line got some shots on, but was largely a non factor. Turco turned away the one quality chance that Vrbata had in the second.
- Top line had some speed early with Mueller and Doan playing well. Lombardi tried to make some plays on his own late to no avail.
- Pyatt also had a couple early tries, but that whole 4th line was pretty invisible and i'm going to slash Lang on the hand if he makes any more cute drop passes. They DON'T WORK!
- Bryz didn't deserve to have a GAA of 4.00 tonight. He just didn't have any help clearing pucks out.
- No one was winning the one on one battles. The Stars came away with the majority of the pucks from the corners and found the puck constantly.
Not a lot else that I can say about this one. Back home Monday to face the Oilers where we can hopefully get past this speed bump against, frankly, the worst team in the league.
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Coyotes @ Stars - Game #59 Gamethread - 7.
LET'S GO COYOTES!
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Phoenix Coyotes at Dallas Stars - Game #59 Preview - Make it Seven... WINS!
If only we were playing a Canadian team tonight, that title would have so much more meaning... In any event, the Coyotes look to extend their winning streak to seven games and give a perfect ending to this four game roadtrip. The Coyotes are coming off another big shootout win, this time with Jason LaBarbera in goal. That makes for a well rested Ilya Bryzgalov to face a Dallas team that is still trying to break into the playoff race.
The Stars have beaten the Wild 4-2 and lost to the Blue Jackets on Thursday 2-1 since our last meeting this past weekend. The Columbus game was an odd one where the Jackets scored in the empty net and the the Stars came back to score one after the empty netter. Not a lot of luck going Dallas' way lately.
Starting Goaltenders:
It kind of scares me to say this, but Ilya Bryzgalov seems to have completely regained his early season form. It scares me because I don't want to jinx it, but he just saving everything. As evidenced by yet another shutout in his last apperance. Can't ask form more than perfection :P
This is the first time we've seen Turco in quite a while. The last time we saw the Dallas defenseman goalie was back on November 27th when the Coyotes took the Stars down 5-2. He lost in his last start against Columbus, but only gave up one goal in the 2-1 loss.
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