Coyote Tracks - WHITEOUT Monday April 26 Edition

Well, this has been a heck of a series.  The Coyotes came out strong and overcame some early penalty issues and even scored an early short-handed goal to lead their way to a victory at Joe Louis Arena yesterday forcing the first game 7 (thus far) of what's been a very exciting Stanley Cup playoffs all-around.

Shane Doan remained injured and did not play and you could tell from the clips they showed of him watching warm-ups that it is killing him not to be out there.  You have to wonder how serious this injury really is - would you be at all surprised to find out that Doan has a separated shoulder and the day-to-day nature of it is solely because of the situation and what a bad-ass MOFO Shane Doan is?  I wouldn't.

The role players stepped up big time: 3 powerplay goals, Mathieu Schneider and Robert Lang with some nice plays on the 2nd and 3rd goals.  Keith Yandle had another solid game (despite taking some punches from Justin Abdelkader who really wanted to "send a message" for Game 7), and the team showed a ton of character.  5 different goal scorers for the Coyotes - just impressive effort all around.  This more than made up for Game 5 where the Coyotes seemed to carry play and just not be able to put one in...

Ilya Bryzgalov had one of his most solid games of the series, if not his most solid game.  That being said, we've yet to see the Ilya Bryzgalov who is a Vezina Trophy finalist this series, and maybe, just maybe, he's saving the best for game 7. Neither home team has looked terrific in this series, with the road teams taking 4 of the first 6 games, but both these teams were very good at home all season.  It's going to be a dog fight, so get some rest and get ready for Tuesday at 6 PM local time...it's gonna be a doozy.

LAST NIGHT'S NHL SCORES:  PHX 5 - DET 2 (Series tied at 3); VAN 4 - LAK 2 (Vancouver wins series 4-2)

Recaps for Yesterday's Coyotes' game: [Ghost's take below] [AP via ESPN] [AZCentral's Gintonio] [MLive] [Winging It In Motown]

After the jump, some preview materials for Game 7, a little whimsy, maybe more...

azcentral.com blogs - Ice Chips - JimGintonio - Red Wings goalie Howard says Coyotes 'got lucky'
Glad that Jimmy Howard felt the need to give the Coyotes some more motivation for Game 7.  There's nothing lucky about scoring 5 goals, same as there's nothing unlucky about failing to score goals in the prior 2 games.  Who knows what will happen in game 7, but it will have a little luck, but players will create some of their own by bringing the intensity Tuesday.

Jimmy Howard lacks fire after Red Wings fail to get it done in Game 6 against Coyotes | - MLive.com
Jimmy's comments also bothered some of the Detroit press..picky picky.

Phoenix Coyotes' power play boosted by Mathieu Schneider, Robert Lang
A couple of old-timers and ex-Detroit teammates put fresh look on Coyotes' power play Sunday.  Let's hope that it continues on Tuesday...

Video: Puck goes missing in Niemi's pads, Toews saves the day - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports
Ok, everyone's probably seen this already, but this is a pretty funny video from Saturday's Chicago-Nashville game.

Eulogy: Remembering the 2009-10 New Jersey Devils - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports
And as the playoffs seasons end for teams, Puck Daddy will allow the fans that know them the best (and hate them the most) to provide the eulogies.  Our friends at Broad Street Hockey provided the first such eulogy for the vanquished New Jersey Devils.