Well it's official. No Shane Doan today for the Coyotes. After his spill into the boards following a trip over Jimmy Howard he'll get this game off at least. Vernon Fiddler will play in his place as he's finally healed up after the hard fall he took in game 2.
The Coyotes will have to come out early and set the tone just like they did in game 3. Sure, they don't need to score just seconds into the game (Though I'm not ruling it out), but with or without Captain Coyote in the lineup they have to go out and assert themselves. The new forward line of Wolski-LombardiStempniak should be a good one if they can break free of the Detroit defense. The Czech line, okay Petr Prucha, really asserted themselves on Sunday as well and we'll look for a resurgence there.
The biggest help to the Coyotes though has been the Red Wings. Between defensive miscues, bad line changes, and other tough breaks the Red Wings just didn't look like the Red Wings in game 3. Nicklas Lidstrom had an especially rough night being on the ice for 3 of the 4 goals against.
Starting Goalies
People were waiting for this version of Bryzgalov to show up. He had a couple goals against him, but none of the "That was a terrible goal he let in" variety. He got top shelfed for one and got a fluke pinball go up his leg and bounced through the pads. He's zeroed in.
Howard on the other hand got beat by some very nice plays. Though with the exception of the 4th goal they were more defensive lapses than him being totally outplayed. That pretty Prucha goal was more beating everyone than Howard being the weak link. He's still playing well and the Coyotes will have to keep the pace up to beat him.
Key Players
After being out for game two he'll have to step in to replace the now injured Shane Doan. He's scrappy and is almost just as good about getting into the heads of his opponents. Everyone is chirping at the guy. We'll see what he's able to do.
Two "goals" waived off last game. He's also a total dweeb. Check him hard!
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