John Bazemore - AP

Captain Shane Doan and the Coyotes look to continue their 5 game win streak. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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Well, the Coyotes play tonight against the Lightning.  Coyotes are an amazing 20 games over .500, and well on their way to the playoffs barring a major collapse.  In fact, the Coyotes number is 7...or 5.5...really, I'm not entirely sure, but I'll post the two links after the jump, you can review them yourselves and make your own judgment.  Either way, the Coyotes just need to keep on winning to ensure home ice advantage for the first round (and, who knows, maybe if the Sharks want to keep on losing...).

Travis will have the game preview up later...just be aware of the line of Steve Downie - Martin St. Louis - Steven Stamkos.  The Lightning played really well when they came to Jobing.com Arena earlier in the season, hopefully the Coyotes can return the favor.

LAST NIGHT'S NHL SCORES:  BOS 2 - NJ 3; EDM 3 - CLS 5; DET 2 - CGY 1

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After the jump - big days ahead for the Coyotes and Ice Edge Holdings, what exactly is the Coyotes magic number, Desert Ninja gets a star and Bryzzie's amazing year continues...

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More photos » John Bazemore - AP

Doubloon: "OMG - how awesome am I at this?" (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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Ok, seriously people - let's have Travis do the links more often - 2 days when Travis does the links, 2 Coyotes wins...need I say more.  And what nice wins.  Ilya Bryzgalov sets the team mark for shutouts in a season with 8 blanking the Hurricanes - extra chili cheese dogs for you!

Coyotes then turn it around on the next afternoon and get a big win in the shootout against the Thrashers!  Went to a shootout as the Coyotes couldn't seem to get things going early in the game and then got victimized later in the game on two power play goals by Atlanta.  Lee Stempniak (aka Desert Ninja) scored again - holy god Toronto fans have got to be pissed.  Matthew Lombardi had the other regulation goal off a great shot by Keith Yandle (who also had a great shot that led to the Stempniak goal)...he just continues to impress.  And then, of course, Adrian Aucoin (aka Shootout Master, aka Oakie, aka Doubloon (you all will support this nickname eventually!)) scores the game-winning goal in the 4th round.

Anyways, game recap from Travis here. [AP take via AZCentral (Gintonio not on road trip?)] [Bird Watchers Anonymous aka Thrashers coverage will be up at some point as well] [@YotesGurl's take is here - and it is hilarious!]

YESTERDAY'S NHL SCORES:  PHL 3 - NYR 1; WSH 4 - CHI 3 (OT); NSH 3 - LAK 2; COL 5 - DAL 3; TOR 1 - NYI 4; PIT 2 - TB 1; STL 2 - MIN 4; SJ 2 - ANA 4; CGY 1 - VAN 3 (that's it  Calgary - get back to losing and improving our first round pick)

After the break, Coyotes playoff potential, longest game in NCAA history and some of my favorite whimsy of the year...

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More photos » Karl B DeBlaker - AP

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I'm exhausted but have to get us up some links for today. It's an early early game (more or less) with a 2pm Arizona time start. Let's have at the links with previews and gamethread to come later.

The biggest link has to be from the Arizona Republic website. After I got a hold of Ice Edge yesterday Jim Gintonio followed up and got some more detail out of them. They're still optimistic and are just working out the kinks with Glendale to get this thing done. Hopefully it gets done both right and soon. Ice Edge CEO optimistic deal for Coyotes can be reached.

Saturday's Three Stars: Pronger's heroics, Bryz blanks Canes - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports
Puck Daddy gives Ilya Bryzgalov the 2nd star of the night. the NHL gave him the first star. Just outstanding work. 

Is Shouting "Stars" During The Star Spangled Banner Wrong? - Defending Big D
The Stars have a tradition of yelling STARS! at the same time the word comes up in the anthem. They talke a look at what people think about that.

Mile High Hockey Looks At The Calder Trophy Race - Mile High Hockey
Who is going to take home the hardware for NHL's top rookie? Matt Duchene, Tyler Myers, or Jimmy Howard? The Avs may or may not have a horse in this race.

See you in the preview and at 2 for the game.

More photos » Ross D. Franklin - AP

Hopefully a stronger effort on the road will let more lines get into the celebration this weekend... (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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Nothing to see here folks...no, seriously, there's almost nothing to see here.  Coyotes don't play until tomorrow night in Carolina against the Hurricanes as they start a big four game road trip (as discussed yesterday a little).  We'll have more about each game as they come up.  But it's a seriously slow day for news, so let's just jump into he little stuff we got to discuss...

LAST NIGHT'S NHL SCORES:  BOS 5 - PHL 1; PIT 3 - CAR 4 (OT); EDM 4 - MTL 5 (SO); STL 2 - NYI 1 (SO); TB 3 - TOR 4 (OT); ATL 1 - CLS 2; MIN 1 - DET 5; FLA 0 - COL 3; OTT 0 - CGY 2; NSH 5 - SJ 8

Unbelievably, almost every one of these games went against the way the Coyotes would like them to...jeez.  C'mon eastern conference teams, beat your western conference brethren (except for the Coyotes, of course).

Phoenix Coyotes' Derek Morris, Keith Yandle reunited on blue line
I think they are now roomates too, if I recall correctly...

Roundup: Blind-side hit rule reveals hockey’s other headaches - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports
A comprehensive collection of thoughts on the NHL's proposed blind-side hit rule...as we've been saying a lot, it looks like it might create more questions than it solves...

Will President Obama Attend a Caps Game & Barack The Red?
I know that Senator McCain has been pimping the Coyotes on his twitter feed throughout the year (and apparently he's come to some games, not that I've seen him)...hopefully the First Fan will make an appearance to see what is the dominant force in the NHL this season.

Enjoy the two games this weekend...I'll be back with more links on Monday!  See you in the comments...

More photos » Ross D. Franklin - AP

Dabloon!!!! Shootout Master!!! (Au-coin = Gold coin...get it? No? Gah!!!) (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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Well it was a packed house last night at Jobing.com Arena to see the Canucks and Coyotes do battle.  Unfortunately, that crowd was split far closer to 50-50 in terms of Canucks and Coyotes fans than I would like...but the Canadians were generally pretty nice...and they did help to drown out the god awful national anthem singer...where, oh where, was Patrick Lauder?  Seriously...he's the official anthem singer for a reason, people.

As for the game, Coach Tippett said it best in his presser, the Coyotes were lucky to come away with any points, let alone 2.  Although defensively, they played pretty solid, mental lapses by various players (I'm looking at you Ed Jovanovski and Derek Morris) and just simply getting outworked along the boards was par for the course.  Travis will have much more about all of this in his game recap, I have no doubt.  The important points to remember are the Lee Stempniak (aka Desert Ninja) had a HUGE game with 2 goals during regulation and then another in the shootout.  Adrian Aucoin continued his role as shootout master, and Ilya Bryzgalov was good enough to get the Coyotes their 2 points. 

Now for the Coyotes, a four game swing through the Southeast division while avoiding Washington (the one team that you really don't want to play in that division).  Hopefully they can continue their winning ways.

LAST NIGHT'S NHL SCORES:  NYR 3 - NJD 6; DAL 3 - BUF 5; CAR 3 - WSH 4 (OT); LAK 2 - CHI 3 (OT); VAN 3 - PHX 4 (SO)

Recaps of last night's Coyotes win...Travis' take here.  [AP via ESPN] [AZ Central's Gintonio] [Nucks Misconduct - it'll be there at some point] - As an aside, thanks to all the folks from Nucks Misconduct that made their way over to the comments yesterday and chatted some hockey.  Good people - best of luck the rest of this season, except when we play you again ;)

After the jump, why Stempniak should've had a hat trick, NHL's GMs make a decision on head shots (sort of), a Congressional logo mishap and more....

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More photos » Ross D. Franklin - AP

I am Bryz - I stop your shots! (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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Hey hey...Canucks in town tonight...time to show up folks and keep "the true north strong and free" out of our arena!  Seriously, Vancouver travels very well into the valley and we need to counteract these HNIC lovers...Vancouver made a big comeback last night scoring 3 against the Avalanche to win 6-4...this is the final game of Vancouver's LOOOOONG road trip (14 games! - albeit with the Olympics break)...hopefully it was pretty exhausting and the team just wants to get home and the Coyotes can keep those creepy Sedin twins in check tonight...

Speaking of creepy Sedin twins:

As creepy as it is, I do love that commercial...that whole season of NHL commercials were pretty solid, actually...

Anyways...LAST NIGHT'S NHL SCORES:  NYI 2 - PHL 3; BOS 3 - TOR 4 (OT); NSH 2 - ATL 1; CGY 4 - DET 2; TB 3 - MTL 5; FLA 3 - MIN 2 (SO); VAN 6 - COL 4; OTT 4 - EDM 1; CLS 5 - ANA 2 (I had the result right...)

After the jump, Moyes to countersue(?), Coyotes potential losses, consistent NHL goalies and more...

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Paul Connors - AP

11 days ago: Phoenix Coyotes right winger Lee Stempniak, right, is congratulated by teammate Lauri Korpikoski, of Finland, after Stempniak scored against the Colorado Avalanche in the first period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, March 4, 2010, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

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The remarkable thing about crazy rumor-mongers...they just don't know when to quit.  I won't link to the article, but our favorite village idiot preaching the Coyotes are on their way to Winnipeg "imminently" was defending his story on his site...good luck with that one.  Anyways, with the Coyotes sitting in solid position for a playoff run, I'll just give this as little thought as I possibly can.  Well, actually, I will confirm that the NHL is coming back to Winnipeg:

Tickets available to see NHL greats play police - Winnipeg Free Press
Drive safely this week and you may score free tickets to watch NHL greats play a police hockey team...yeah, found that from a Twitter post (don't recall who, but s/t anonymous twitterer)

No Coyotes game until Wednesday when the Canucks come to town following a Tuesday night matchup with the Avalanche.  Hopefully, they will be nice and tired and we can beat up a bit on those creepy Sedin twins...but there's still links to report about and Coyotes news...

First, LAST NIGHT'S NHL SCORES:  DAL 4 - WSH 3 (SO); CLS 0 - LAK 6 (after 2nd period, I'm not staying up for the end of this one)

After the jump, the Mueller redemption story(?) and some nice articles about how Daniel Carcillo has started to thrive in Philadelphia after his deadline deal...

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Ross D. Franklin - AP

9 days ago: Phoenix Coyotes' Vernon Fiddler (38) scores against Anaheim Ducks' Jonas Hiller (1), of Switzerland, as Coyotes' Anders Eriksson (22), of Sweden, and Ducks' Steve Eminger look on in the second period of an NHL hockey game on Saturday, March 6, 2010, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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What a nice weekend.  Coyotes dominate the Ducks on Saturday night to the tune of 4-0.  Ilya Bryzgalov gets his 7th shutout of the season, and 34th win setting a franchise record.  With 16 games left on the schedule for the Coyotes, they sit at 83 points, 10 points ahead of Calgary sitting in 9th position (full standings here).

Then today, Coyotes Carnival was good times.  Got to speak with Dave Tippett for a little and thank him for what he's done with this team.  He, naturally, gave full credit to the team who has he said "has worked really hard."  No doubt they will be pushing hard for these last 16 games and then into the playoffs. 

As we learned on Friday night, Darren Pang (@Panger40) reads the site - Hey Panger!!!; as I learned yesterday so do Dave Strader (@TheVoiceDS) and Bob Heethuis.  Hope we can keep providing coverage of this great team that is worth their support.  Along those lines, we are still tracking the NHL's suit against Jerry Moyes, and hopefully we will track down a copy of the complaint early this week.  You know we'll have it up as soon as possible.

YESTERDAY'S NHL SCORES:  DET 5 - CHI 4; BOS 1 - PIT 2; VAN 4 - NSH 2; CGY 5 - MIN 2; CAR 4 - ATL 0; NJ 0 - EDM 2; TOR 1; PHI 3; BUF 2 - NYR 1 (OT); MTL 4 - ANA 3 (SO)

A lot of folks may have seen the ridiculous story on a website to remain nameless here about the "imminent" move of the Coyotes to Winnipeg.  Needless to say, at the Coyotes Carnival various sources confirmed from GMDM and Doug Moss that this wasn't a bit true...notably, it even would've been news to the Winnipeg Mayor:

Winnipeg mayor denies NHL rumours | Hockey | Sports | Calgary Sun
If the NHL is on its way back to Winnipeg, Mayor Sam Katz says he doesn't know about it.

azcentral.com blogs - Ice Chips - JimGintonio - More nonsense from north of the border
Even Gintonio is laughing at these folks...

Coyotes see uptick in fan attendance - Phoenix Business Journal:
And why not - this team is looking playoff bound and the crowds keep getting bigger...keep on showing up folks, make this just an entirely moot point!!!

Last, but not least, this is the play of the day yesterday that will be getting the most press.  I think Puck Daddy breaks it down nicely for your perusal...

Video: Savard stretchered off after Matt Cooke head-shot - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports

Coyotes have a few days off until Vancouver comes to town on Wednesday...I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about between now and then...