Woo! A one game winning streak for the Phoenix Coyotes! Way to go! Kidding kidding, but it's time to get on a roll again and Rick Tochett and the Tampa Bay Lightning are just the team to make that happen tonight. The Bolts roll in to Jobbing.com Arena sporting a (7-4-6) record. What is it with teams and the OTL lately anyways? Whatever. I know this, I have a friend on the internet that is a cousin of rookie Lightning forward James Wright. So yeah. Take that!
Five for Winning:
Don't Be Slumpbusters: Vincent Lecavillier and Martin St. Louis only have 5 combined goals. Don't be the ones to get them out of the streak by giving up a bunch of cheap ones.
Sharing the Credit: Ilya Bryzgalov did great in goal on Saturday, by he shared the credit with the rest of the team. "The guys blocked everything, tremendous PK. They played so bravely, blocking everything, sliding in to the slot hard, just everywhere, competed hard." But we don't get that win without some great saves buy the Hot Dog King of Glendale. He's been the backbone of this team and we need him to keep coming up big.
Goals from unexpected places: The last few games we've gotten goals from Paul Bissonnette, David Schlemko and Keith Yandle. No offense to those guys, but we weren't looking for much offensive production outside of maybe some assists from them so that's been great. We'll need continued production form "unlikely" sources to do well this year, so it's nice to see some guys with early season goals.
...However we aren't getting goals from the usual suspects: Radim Vrbata got one against Dallas, Robert Lang got a couple and Scottie Upshall did a few games ago, but our "Big Names" have been pretty quiet as of late. Shane Doan has gotten some assists, but hasn't found the back of the net consistantly, Peter Mueller hasn't done much since getting his first of the year and others like Petr Prucha, Matthew Lombardi and Martin Hanzal have played well, but just haven't gotten the puck to go in. We need to start seeing some more goals for soon.
Just get rolling again: We've been a streaky team all year. We NEED winning streaks, and not to be giving up a game everytime we win one. The Lightning have some talent, but are certainly beatable. They have 2 points we need, so let's go get 'em!
Note: Kevin Porter has been recalled from San Antonio. No word on if he'll be in the lineup for tonight's gome or if he'll be a scratch.
GO YOTES!