Coyotes Roast Ducks 4-1 In First Preseason Game

Game one of the 2010 preseason is in the books and the Phoenix Coyotes have downed the Ducks 4-1. The game started off pretty sloppy like with quite a few early penalties. They weren't even good ones. They were sloppy holding and hooking penalties that will get you in trouble with the coaching staff in a hurry. Brandon Gormley, Sami Lepisto and Maxim Goncharov all had early penalties that didn't look all that great. On the upside the Coyotes were solid on the penalty kill negating all the 1st period penalties. Jason LaBarbera also looked solid getting the start stealing several chances from the Ducks early. 

The second period may as well have been the entirety of the game as it was the only period that saw any scoring. Kyle Turris got things rolling early with a snap shot from the wing. Shortly thereafter Andrew Ebbett who is part of Turris' competition for center (but not really) increased the lead to 2-0. Bobby Ryan answered back 42 seconds later with a bomb of a slapshot. The scoring wasn't done yet though as both Brett MacLean and Viktor Tikhonov got goals to push the game to 4-1.

The scoring may have been done, but the 3rd period ticked up the physical play with some big hits and a couple of fights. Paul Bissonnette dropped the mitts with Mat Clark (Only one t? For shame...) and from accounts of those at the game dropped him pretty easily. Looks like BizNasty knows what his job is and has fun doing it. Later after a big hit by Nolan Yonkman, that was called boarding, Aaron Voros thought he'd drop them, but was the one that ended up getting dropped. 

(More on the prospects and such after the jump.)

Who Looked (sounded) good?

Kyle Turris - Goal and an Assist on the night and from what I heard on the radio was playing well. 

Viktor Tikhonov - Goal and there were several times he made plays to try and breakaway or board play that the announcers commented on.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Solid defense from everything I could tell. 

Scottie Upshall - Hey, he's skating again. That's a plus.

Who looked not so good?

Alexandre Picard - Dumb penalties, tried to be a pest, but was more just kinda annoying. 

The young defense (at least early) - Holding and hooking penalties are weak sauce. 

If your favorite or least favorite player wasn't mentioned thus far that's because they were invisible to the lame Ducks radio broadcast so I have no idea if they were just floating or if they were making critical plays. I can't wait for the games to actually be televised. 

If you've got observations that I didn't mention, please, that's what the comment section is for. Get to it.