Red Wings @ Coyotes

So, the final score was 4-2 Wings, but the game was much closer than the score implies.

The first red wings goal, I am blaiming on Boynton. He seemed way out of position. And i think he knew it. as soon as the guy on his side got the puck, boynton raced to the net but it was too late. I dont really place the blame on bryz because he had his eye on the guy who just had the puck and probably thought his other dman was there, where he should have been. Also, this was a wings PP goal.

Our first goal was an amazing one by Jovo. Yes, I just put the words amazing and jovo in the same sentence. Crazy. But dont worry, the damn jovo will be coming back later in this entry. Jovo just came down the center of the ice and fired the puck right into the net. No wings players anywhere near him or his line of shot. Beautiful. Oh and congrats to Jovo on his 100th goal! (a lot of our guys seem to be reaching milestones this year, although not records, just milestones)

The next goal was a penalty shot by Vrbata. It was amazing. Even his break away was awesome. He was just flying down the ice with amazing puck control. It totally looked like it would have went in but a wings player was behind him and reached his stick around him. At first they just said penalty but I saw no one going to the box and I was thinking, are they giving us a penalty shot? Damn that would be amazing if they did. And god damn it, we got the shot! So that puts us up 2-1.

The next wings goal is total crap. Doan gets a crap interference call. Im so fucking sick of this call this year. We are always getting called interference for crap. And then Ballard gets called for slashing. WTF. He was just standing there. He didnt do crap. Hes been getting a ton of phantom calls lately. so, wings have a 5 on 3 and score making it 3-2.

Our guys continue to battle it out. Have a lot of good chances but just cant seem to capitalize on it. We pull bryz and then detroit gets the puck and score the empty netter. Although we fought to stop them on that goal it just wasnt enough to completly stop them so it ended up 4-2.

Ok, ballard had another off night. he attempted a hip check but missed by a whole lot. he was way out of position a lot. he did better when paired with morris but for some reason when he was with Z he just seemed off. Yandle was a scratch but he could have done more for us than Jones. Im kind of hoping either Jones or Boynton is traded. Im just not impressed with Jones lately. And as much as i love boynton for his toughness, hes just not doing so well for us. Hes scored on our own goalie i think twice this year and he just seems out of position a lot. And we will never be able to trade Jovo, so boynton and jones are the next expendable in my mind.

Jovo made a few good plays but he still turned the puck over a lot. He passes to everyones fucking skates. Then they have to fumble around and try to get the puck out and settled down and by that point they have 2-3 players from the other team there. And again i ask WHY IS HE PLAYING 1:30 ON THE PP?????????? Damn Jovo. Damn Jovo, Damn Jovo!

Ive decided I really like Joel Perrault. he seems to be doing really well. he seems to make a lot of chances. Im still undecided on Lisin. I feel like i need to see more of him to make a decision. hes shown some flashes of greatness but other times, i just dont even notice him out there. Of all our prospects, he seems most expendable to me. Im not attached to him so if maloney is able to flip him at the deadline (or before) Im not going to care, at this point. If i start to see more from him and i start to like him, I might not want him to be traded. But at this point there are so many other players on our team that I like and wouldnt want to see traded. I also wouldnt want to see some of our prospects traded (turris, wheeler, summers, porters). So yah, at this point I wouldnt mind if Lisin was trade bait.

Morris has really stepped up this year. I was calling for him to be traded last season but now, hell no. And last night he played really well. He seemed to be hitting everything that moved in a red wings jersey.

And speaking of red wings jersey, god damn some of their fans are obnoxious! There was a guy in front of me that every time a wings player touched the puck hed shout "BREAK OUT! BREAK OUT!" jesus christ, you cant have a break out when its 3 on 1! And I think Vrbata actually had the best break away (and maybe only one?) of the night. There were a lot of 2 on 1s and a few 1 on 1s but not complete breakaways. And then one of the kids he was with kept yelling coyotes suck! and other random stuff. It was so damn annoying, he was like 12 and his parents let him yell like that? Hell, my parents where in town and at the game and I was much more well-behaved than normal. Just in general wings fans are obnoxious. I hope next year we totally kick the wings' ass 4 times. I know we can do it. This was a close game. If not for the crap calls on Doan and Ballard, we could have won it.

Quote of the Day:
"I just about crapped my pants. I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. And I kind of jumped the rail and talked to him for about 10 minutes. It was incredible, it was unbelieveable. He was really down to earth. It was one of the highlights of my hockey career." - Kyle Turris on meeting Steve Yzerman

That sounds just like the Kyle I met at rookie camp. He was just so excited about everything. I was talking to him at the meet the rookies and he was so excited that I had Badgers merchandise. He couldnt beleive it. And when I asked for a pic, he practically jumped over the table! It was pretty funny. He seems like a great kid and I cant wait for him to get here. Im thinking he will be at Wisconsin at least 2 years.

DAMN JOVO

Ok, so the wild beat us 3-2. It was a game we could have won. All 3 goals came on Wild PP. Our penalty kill is desperatly missing Ziggy. He wont be at the game tomorrow night due to the death of his grandfather. My thoughts will be with him.

Anyway, back to the game. We are missing Weller and Carcillo. We have no one to stand in front of the net and get the rebounds/screen the goalie. Doan and Sjo will sometimes do that, but not always. No one was crashing the net. Thats why with 48 SOG we only got 2 in. The energy also has seemed off these last couple games. I dont know if thats because Carcillo's out or we are at home or what.

Ok, so what the hell is Jovo doing playing 1:45 of a PP when everyone else has changed lines twice. And he kept turning over the puck. Damn Jovo. He cant keep the puck in. Why Gretz keeps giving him PP time is beyond me.

I think our PK is missing Ziggy. And our face-offs too. Our other guys just arent as good. I think hanzal is too tall to take the faces offs.

Doan reached his 500th point with the assist on Lisin's goal. Congrats to him!

Quote of the day:
“He’s playing well, and he’s skating,” said Gretzky. “When you’re skating and not turning pucks over and not giving pucks away, you’re going to play.”
(This apparently does not apply to Jovo)

Note:
Damn Jovo is my friends and I new catchphrase. It started out just when Jovo would mess up and its just grown from there. Look for it to be showing up in this blog from time to time.

News!

Lisin called up from San Antonio.

I guess we will see if he has really improved his overall game. He also may give the team another offensive spark. Im not sure what line I see him on. He is a RW as opposed to Carcillo on the LW. I doubt he cracks the first two lines, as we have doan-rhino-mueller and vrbata-hanzal-sjo pretty well set.

That leaves DW (C - has been playing RW), Kapi (C or has played wing, but I dont know which one - I think R), Ziggy (C but I think hes played a wing), Tj (LW), York (LW) and Weller (RW). Weller and Ziggy have been scratched. Im not sure if weller is better now or not. So we got 3 centers, 2 LW and 2 RW. So Im guessing it will be something like Ziggy scratched (as has been the case lately) and Weller out due to concussion. DW and Kapi have been together so you could throw York on that line. And then have Tj and Lisin on a line with either Ziggy (if hes not scratched) or double shift someone. I believe thats pretty close to what we were running. I believe York was with Tj and Kapi. I feel like Im missing someone. Who was playing right for Carcillo-Winnik? Was it Kapi? Then who was on the 4th line, Tj and York and ???? I swear it was Kapi. Oh well.

And heres to hoping for a speedy recovery for Carcillo. His energy was surely missed in the Vancouver game. It will be again when we play the Wild and Detroit. He had one of his better games against the wild earlier this year (2 goals, and very nice goals at that).

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe christmas!

Next up, the Wild on 12/27, look for an update then. Not much going on now anyway.

I got a new toy...

And I had to play with it tonight at the game. This is Vrbata scoring on Luongo in theshoot out.

I took some pics of Pyatt during warm-ups. He's my favorite canuck. and he just happened to score the game winner. So, Im not so sure I like him anymore. totally kidding. I got some of Luongo warming up too.

Then it was to the upperbowl for the game (yah, im poor). I took some good pics. Some of the faces are a bit blurry when i tried to do too much zoom. But overall I am quite satisfied with my new camera.

I plan on getting some coyote warm up pics at the game on New Years Eve. I'm not sure if I will take any at the Wild or Wings games. Im also going to get some at the Nashiville game (Suter) and Ottawa (Emery, Spezza, Heatly)

But the first 2 periods tonight were pretty boring. No score for either team in those periods. there were, i feel, a few missed penalties on vancouver. and there was at least one yotes penalty that I dont think was deserved (god forbid i remember what one it was!)

The third period had vancouver score at about the 9 minute mark. At that point i heard some ass hole behind start yelling about how we cant win at home. dude, we have 9 minutes left, we can still win it. And we at least tied it. Z got his first goal of the year! Go Z! Jovo practically jumped into his arms and knocked him over.

OT was pretty boring and then it was the shootout. Vrbata scored for us (as you can see above) and Pyatt scored for Vancouver. I dont remember who the other person was that scored for Vancouver. I was like I like Pyatt, I just dont want him to score right now.

Overall, it was a good game. The teams were well-matched. I dont know what was going on after awhile. Both teams got real tired looking and sloppy. I figured the coyotes were tired from all the travel and it seems gretz had the flu last week, so maybe some of the guys were battling that. Also, they were short a forward, so instead of dressing Ziggy (who seems to be a healthy scratch) they decide to dress an extra dman. So we got forwards double shifting ALL night and musical dmen going on. The dman pairings were so fucked up tonight. I saw Jones on the bench, but I dont think he played. Ballard was with Morris and Z. Jovo was with Z, Boynton, Dmo, and Yandle at different points. Ballard checked his own teammate at one point. He totally whiffed on a pass but luckily the canucks couldnt gain control of the puck. At another point he was so out of position, Z had to cover his side and then they almost turned the puck over when they went to switch sides of the ice. Ballard had a BAD night. And not one hip check. I think the dmen were messed up by the 7th dman and not having the same partner and that was in turn reflecting on the forwards play too. Also, Im sure Carcillo was missed in the line up. He was at the game even though we thought he might not come in, seeing as hes probably on pain medicine and Im guessing he can't drive (it was his right knee).

Ok, well I am off to bed. I need to get up and clean tomorrow. Yah, loads of fun.

Good News!

Carcillo just has a sprain. He will be out probably 6-8 weeks.

From Jim G's blog:
Coyotes rookie LW Daniel Carcillo, walking gingerly but without crutches, began a 6-to-8 week rehab process Saturday morning.
He was frustrated that he will be out of the lineup, but he was upbeat about working hard and getting his sprained knee healed.
He said he did not blame Sharks C Jeremy Roenick for the injury that occurred during one of several fights on the ice

Ok, the no crutches thing is probably a good sign. If it was really bad, they would have him not putting weight on it. And that shows some maturity and just knowing that game about not blaming Roenick.

Hopefully Carcillo will be back in the line up soon. But not too soon. Make sure hes completly healed before he comes back so as not to re-injure and be out longer.

He will be missed in the line up, thats for sure. Yes he brings some skill but he brings an energy and intensity to the team that can not be filled with a call up from San Antonio

Tonight I will be attending the first home game in about 2 weeks. Hopefully we can continue this win streak and beat Vancouver and Luongo. I will try to update tomorrow with game notes.

Quote of the Day:
"This was a huge win for us. In the previous game we lost, they scored only one goal . . . and I see tonight, this team fighting again, our guys feeling like we can win this game and fight at the end, and we were rewarded." - Coyotes Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov

Coyotes 3 Sharks 2

Ok, I said I was going to write a blog about this game but I only saw the first 2 periods. And those were the boring 2 periods.
Heres the highlights (from what ive read/heard):
went into the 3rd tied 0-0
huge scrum near the end
Carcillo injured his knee (MRI was done today, should know results today or tomorrow)
Doan tied it with 4o seconds left
No goals in OT
Mueller gets the first goal in shoot out
Bryz owns the sharks in shoot out

the only game on tv that i dont watch the 3rd period of and thats when it gets good. damn it.

but this should show the yotes that they are just as good as other teams out there. we beat the devils, rangers, flyers, and sharks all in a row.

I did watch the replay. I think JR definatly should not have been grabbing carcillo around the neck. and carcillo was on his knees, in that position anyone should know its not wise to pull a guy back, he should have tried to pull him up instead.

Quote of the Day:
Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "I was just so proud of how hard my guys played tonight. They played with a lot of heart and character."


And I found this on the yotes website (under 10 things to be thankful for):
5. The Hip Check is back with Keith Ballard who has mastered the old school move! “KB2, The Destroyer” has been leaving a trail of sore bodies all over the NHL this season with highlight reel clean hits which have SportsCenter Top 10 written all over them. Ballard is more than just a marksman with the hip; he is arguably one of the most underrated defensemen in the league. This is a guy who will do anything for his teammates and may someday wear the captain’s “C” on his chest. All you need to know about Keith Ballard is that when he drops the gloves, he immediately removes his helmet and visor. This throwback plays with honor.

There is also a little blurb on the rookies. We have 3 rookies in the top 10 scorers. Mueller at #2, Hanzal at #5 and Carcillo at #9

OT Loss

So, last season I thought I liked the point awarded for the OT loss. but now this year its really bothering me. This might be because last year the coyotes needed every damn point they could get. This year, we are the only team that has not lost in overtime/shootout. I believe we have gone to OT twice. Once we won in OT, the other in the shoot out.

Why are we rewarding a team for lsoing? No other sport (that I know of) does this. Could you imagine the nba saying, well you tried really hard in that first OT, so we are going to give you a point. Ummmm, no. I could just see the NFL taking this on too. Good try out there boys, just for tying it in regulation, we are going to give you a point for losing in OT.

Currently the coyotes are in 24th in the league. Being we have no OT losses, I decided to see where we would stand if there was no extra point awarded. Not giving the extra point would move us up to 23rd. But this was my math, so you know, might not be accurate. But it moved a hell of a lot of teams down. When you get 6 points for losing in 6 OT losses it can really boost your points total! Like we are playing the sharks tonight and they are 8 points ahead of us but 4 of those points come from OT losses. I just dont get how that is fair.

Therefore I think if the coyotes are going to lose, lets make it to OT at least. Then we get a point for not sucking as bad. Just kidding. Id rather win in regulation than lose in OT. How can you be proud of a point you were giving for losing? I wouldnt be.

I say we get rid of the point for losing in OT. It makes sense.

Anyway, the Coyotes at Sharks game will be starting in about 20 minutes, so I am going to go watch that. I will post an update tomorrow night about the game.

Quote of the Day:
I think Vrbata has been a big influence on Hanzal,” said Head Coach Wayne Gretzky. “He’s a true professional, and for Martin to have him as an influence in his hockey career is nothing but a positive. And Freddy has been one of our best players over the last five or six games.”

That one will have to do, I couldnt find the one I was looking for. It had to do with the VHS line, something about just press play. I saw it somewhere in the last couple of days but dont remember where. But i like that quote because i think vrbata has been good for the team and for hanzal.

Coyotes at Flyers and Chris Simon

First off, I just want to say the suspension handed down to Chris Simon is retarded. He gets 30 games, which means he could be back in March and in time for the playoffs. This is also the longest suspentsion given by the nhl. The person who had the previous longest suspension? Chris Simon. Earlier today one of the articles I read said that Coach Ted Nolan called the suspension "extreme". And stomping on Rutuu's foot was not extreme? Nolan can support his player and still support the NHLs decision. I have no respect for the Islanders organization.

Now for the good news, Coyotes continue their win streak by beating the flyers 3-2. I was getting a little worried during this game as we were down 2-0 and usually we arent able to come back and win. But to those who say it was just luck, fuck you. At least two of those goals were pure talent. Yandle started it off by just being able to see the ice, see Biron didnt know where the puck was, and jumped in and hit it in. Then Doan started out on a breakaway, Sjo comes flying down the ice and Doan totally tricks the Flyers out by passing to Sjo and in it goes. And the last goal was a beaut from Mueller. There was a hooking penalty against Jovo, that so was not a penalty. All he did was take the puck away from a Flyer.

In other news, the Flyer fans didnt seem as rude or retarded as the Devil fans. They actually blamed their players and coach, not "oh the coyotes are just lucky" blah blah blah. A few of them of course had to say stuff about the coyotes sucking and getting luck, but you expect that from a few.

Tomorrow night we battle the Sharks in San Jose. They have definatly been a problem for us this year. Hopefully we can pull this one off. We are on a roll and have had tons of energy and played hard. Im going to guess it will be another close game.

Quote of the day:
"My son calls him 'Fast Freddie,' everybody does. Right now, he's hot and makes things happen." Shane Doan on Fredrik Sjostrom

New Line Combos

So, I went over the the Coyotes website this evening as an easy way to get to the Thrashers website (i discovered a new dman today, a rookie and had to check out his stats) and what I saw was this:
"The VHS Line Recording Numbers"

They were of course refering to the Vrbata-Hanzal-Sjostrom line.

So I was emailing a friend and some new line combos just came to me (please keep in mind, i just put together last names, not positions, plus the yotes change positions like they change their underwear)
Doan-Vrbata-Reinprecht
Carcillo-Reinprecht-And-Perrault

get it? ahahaha I amuse myself sometimes.

Ok, I just need to make a post so I remember to hit these topics in the near future. It wont make much sense to most people at this point...
Refs
OT Loss
Bryz
SA/Call Ups
Trades

Bunch of Crap thats been on my mind lately...

I might be a bit of a homer (im not gonna lie, i love my coyotes) but this quote was totally unnecessary:
"I'd rather coach against a Wayne Gretzky team than coach against a team he's playing for." - Ted Nolan, New York Islanders coach
Wayne has been doing a lot better this year than years previous. And that game ended up being fairly close, but the Islanders got a little dirty. Especially DiPietro. And he used to be one of my favorite goalies. That scrum at the end (and the penalties dealt) was totally one sided. Jovo had 4 Islanders on him, including DiPietro who earlier punched Boynton and then Doan, twice.

In other goalies news, Cujo may be coming back! I love Cujo. Im a little disappointed that the rumors have him going to the Pens. I was so not impressed with them December 3. Armstrong is a complete joke. Gets caught by a Ballard hip check, so he trys (key word: trys) to fight Ballard. Ballards a solid guy and a pretty good fighter. Ballard dominated that fight. Then later in the game, Ballard barely touches him and he goes diving to the ice. Yah, he did that a couple times. And Crosby's whining? Dude, your the captain, step up and be a man. So, basically glad Cujo could come back but wish hed go somewhere else. Lots of teams need goalie help.

I think Chris Simon should be suspended forever, not allowed back in the NHL. His 25 game suspension last season obviously didnt teach him a lesson. I read this about his skate stomping: "Upon further review, it appeared Simon positioned Ruutu's leg before the stomp, which suggests this violent act was calculated." And the replay I saw, it looked like he did it on purpose. Totally uncalled for. And for him to do something this low twice is complete bull shit. Suspend his ass. He's just going to keep doing this kind of crap. Its not needed and its what gives the NHL a bad name.

I think thats it for now. I may post a rant/ramble about the refs so far this season at some point. And about the point for losing in OT.

Oh and I will leave you with a line that made me laugh. Its Wayne Gretzky on why they are scoring more:
"Maybe they're eating a lot of carrots," Gretzky said before breaking out in laughter. "Better eyesight."

The Basis of this blog

I tend to email/text my "hockey" friends alot (and i mean alot!) and decided to start a blog so their inboxes werent inundated with crap from me. This way, they can pick and choose what they want to read.

The focus of this blog will be on the Phoenix Coyotes. As they are my favorite team. I think they have a very good future ahead of them, and damn am I excited.

I also discuss my opinions of other goings-on around the nhl, such as trades and signings etc. I like to keep people updated. I spend a lot of time on tsn.ca and nhl.com getting info and sharing it. I dont think a lot of people will read this, but Im putting it out there anyway. And I know people will disagree with some of what I say, but keep it positive, keep it non-condesending, keep it civil or I will delete it.

The whole name thing comes from one specific Coyote player, Keith Ballard. He likes to put the hip checks out there and it seems other players get pissed when he does it. Some announcers have said that those hipchecks are dirty. Last I checked, hip checks were still legal in the nhl. Ballard has never been called for throwing his hip out there but he has had a few throwdowns because of it. To those players who get mad when hip checked by Ballard, you obviously didn't do your homework. Get over it. And look out for it next game.

And by the way, I dont use a lot of punctuation. Im sorry, Im a child of IMs and text messages. I only use punctuation when its formal writing. Get over it. :)