Awhile back Robert Discher, from the Wings site The Production Line (TPL), contacted us about doing one of their 5 on 5 posts. The 5 on 5 is where the folks at TPL exchange five questions with another hockey site. Given the recent history between the Red Wings and the Coyotes doing a 5 on 5 with TPL seemed like an excellent idea to us. With the teams final regular season meeting coming up on Monday there is no better time than the present to talk about the Wings.

Head over to The Production Line site for our answers to the questions they posed to us.

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The Phoenix Coyotes had three prospects participating in this year's IIHF U-20 World Junior Championships. Defensemen Brandon Gormley, forward Alexander Ruuttu, and goalie Mark Visentin all played important roles for their respective squads. Below, draft expert Corey Pronman from Hockey Prospectus, goalie scout and writer Justin Goldman from The Goalie Guild, and yours truly give our brief thoughts on the player's performances. When reading the comments below please keep in mind these are comments about a player's performance in a handful of games at one point in time and in part are based on the expectations based on each player's projected ceilings.

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Two days before Christmas, Phoenix sports fans will be treated to a nostalgic holiday gift. Recent fans only know the red sweaters, the home in Glendale, and associate the moniker Captain Coyote with Shane Doan. Older Valley puck heads likely associate the title of Captain Coyote with a player nicknamed 'Walt' who wore a kachina inspired #7 jersey, played at a place called America West Arena, and mentored a young Doan. Like watching an old familiar holiday movie, Friday's ceremony commemorating former Phoenix Coyote Keith Tkachuk's entrance into the team's Ring of Honor will likely bring tears of joy to many in Coyotes Nation.

The rise of the position known as the 'power forward' coincided with Tkachuk's arrival into the National Hockey League (NHL). The league was changing from the offensive flair of Wayne Gretzky's Oilers and Mario Lemieux's Penguins to a style of play filled with the trap and other defensive strategies which slowed down the pace. In order to combat all of the obstruction and holding going on, teams needed forwards who were strong enough to fight through all the clutching and grabbing. Walt's size and ability to both absorb and deal out physical contact were perfect for this style of play. Add in a skilled set of hands and you had the prototypical power forward. Few were ever better at camping out in front of a goalie and causing havoc; his 'office' was right outside (and sometimes inside) the crease.

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I'm not going to lie - I'm not a hockey scout, or prospect expert, so I won't pretend to have any tremendous observations to have after observing most of the first day of training camp for the Phoenix Coyotes. What I will say, it felt tremendous to have hockey back in the Valley. I would encourage everyone to watch some of the videos on the Coyotes' official team site that will have some highlights and comments from Dave Tippett and others on the coaching staff.

But here are a few of the things that excited me from where I was sitting:

-Andy Miele really wants to make this team. He was fighting for every puck during the scrimmage (when I arrived) and was winning every heat during the final skate conditioning drill...oh, and Ray Whitney seemed to enjoy having someone his height on the team as well.

-Oliver Ekman-Larsson looks like he worked on his strength during the offseason. He still is skating smooth as all else, but he seemed to be able to do a better job of keeping forwards from parking themselves in the crease during certain drills. I really liked him paired with Adrian Aucoin which seemed to be the usual pairing. Speaking of Aucoin, the old man was schooling the kids during the conditioning drills at the end.

A few more thoughts, and a personal highlight of the day after the jump...

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The on-ice portion of training camp for the Phoenix Coyotes starts tomorrow. This year's camp opens with a bit of mystery surrounding the team.  And I'm not talking about the ongoing ownership adventure.  Let's to a look at what the plot points are likely to be over the next three weeks.

Goaltending

Will someone set them self apart and be named the starting goalie to start the season?

No position will likely be watched more closely than the netminder position this coming season.  Veteran Mike Smith was brought in this off-season and will compete with Jason Labarbera for time in net.  Coach Dave Tippett has made it clear that it is an open competition.  While it is highly unlikely anything will be resolved in camp, it will be interesting to see how each looks in net and whether or not goalie coach Sean Burke can bring consistency to Smith's play.

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While the national hockey media and , have focused on small crowd numbers at select Coyotes games, what they haven't focused much on is the atmosphere in general at Jobing.com.  Like a number of arenas around the country the atmosphere is at times is too corporate and boring and that is only partially due to the size of the crowds. Last November the esteemed boss man around these parts offered up a must read piece about supporters clubs as part of SBN's Enhancing the Fan Experience series.  Travis made the argument that the type of energy supporters clubs bring was exactly what was needed at Coyotes games.  Since the piece was posted there have been a number of developments surrounding the subject across the league.

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The SB Nation iPhone app is now available in the App Store! And it's Free!

Now you can stay on top of all the latest news and commentary for Five for Howling and all 300+ SB Nation blogs from your iPhone. With the SB Nation iPhone app you can:

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FAQ

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5. Want to see how it works check out the video.

There have been a fair bit of rumors and speculation being tossed around on the Phoenix Coyotes ownership front over the past two days. We have (and will continue) to be lax on our rumor-mongering, but this merits a bit of discussion considering the primary source.

As has been widely circulated, Coyotes Chief Operating Officer Mike Nealy reported to the Arizona Republic's Lisa Halverstadt that NHL and the City of Glendale have been meeting/having discussions with two groups that are potentially interested in buying the team. Both groups have remained officially anonymous, although it has been widely speculated that one group is led by the seemingly ever-present Jerry Reinsdorf.  

As the only local radio talk station that seems to cover this stuff, Roc and Manuch had a bit more information that they reported on their show this afternoon, as hinted on Roc's twitter feed. For those that weren't listening, it seems as if both groups are prepared to make an offer to the Glendale City Council when they return to session in a few weeks and both offers will contain some form of out clause. The specifics of the out clause (time and trigger) remain unknown according to their report.

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