Weekly Summary

I had a busy week, so no time to update from all the games this week.

Monday: Ballard and Carcillo appeared to be the only 2 players to show up.
Once again the refs show their bias and send Carcillo to the box for shit calls. Ballard throws a nice clean hipcheck and injures a guy. Im sorry the guys hurt, but it was clean hit no matter what that the Canucks fans are calling for his head. It was not knee on knee. Carcillo scores the only goal for the yotes and has a lot of other close calls.

Tuesday: This game wasnt on tv, so i had to listen to the radio broadcast of it. Im not sure why Bryz was started. For whatever reason, he cant beat the oilers. Anyway he was pulled and Telly put in. Even though that wasnt that much better. We tied it 4-4 but somehow ended up giving up four more goals to make it 8-4. Very disappointing. Although the only good thing about radio only is i can listen to Louie.

Thursday: Kings. WTF? How did we give up a game to the Kings? In a shoot out of all tings. jeesh. This is the game that Carcillo got a game misconduct and a major interference call. BULL SHIT. The dude wouldnt have been injured if he wasnt wearing a visor. And since when is a small cut on the nose where the player comes right out next shift and scores a goal an injury? Its a freaking scratch! Ballard came through with the tying goal at the end of the game. Go Bally! In OT we have to kill a penalty but pull it off and go to a shoot out. Gretz rewards Bally by sending him out first. But none of our guys can put it past their swede. Damn that guy is going to be an amazing goalie.

Saturday: The ducks. Wow. How much did the ducks pay the refs? Must have been a pretty penny. Vrbata needs to do something. His stock is falling and fast. Kapi and Carcillo and Lisin had an amazing game. Those 3 have really developed some chemistry. Earlier in the year i didnt like Carcillo with Kapi but something has changed and they get some really nice passes to each other. Carcillo crashes the net and between him and Lisin are creating some great chances. Now if only our other lines could put someone in front of the net. Weller did an amazing job at that earlier in the year, why did he stop that?

Well, next up is the sharks on Tuesday. Hopefully we can still have a chance and win a few here. I dont care about draft position this year. We have a ton of picks and it seems like we have some good scouts. I want the guys to finish on a high note. Get some goals, get some wins, show the fans that you arent folding under pressure. At least we can be entertained if Carcillo has some good fights. His fight last night was AWESOME. He totally dominated that dude (who was 6'3!)

*sigh*

I am currently on an emotional rollercoaster with this team. So many ups and downs. But they are my team and I still love them.

Another loss last night. And too bad all the teams that would have helped us by losing, won. So we are currently 5 pts back from the 8th spot. Still do-able, but a strech none the less.

The guys just didnt seem to have any energy or jump at the start of the game. They looked slow and not as energized during warmups too.

The jerseys they wore are up for auction. When I looked this moring Gretzkys was up to like 659 or something followed by Carcillos at like 350. Then of course Mueller and Doan were up there (i think around 150-200) but most were still at the starting bid of 100.

I dont really have too much to say about the game. I have kind of blocked it from my memory. I do remember Yandle making a lot of errors and leading to Oilers goals. I remember he had a big hit though too. I remember some calls on the yotes that I was like WTF? And looking at the replay, there was nothing there.

Tomorrow we are up in Vancouver. Lets get the win and end the series 3-1 yotes. We totally dominated Vancouver the other night, lets do it again. Then its Edmonton on Tuesday. Hopefully are amazing road record contiues and helps us get the win in Edmonton.

Ok, thats it for today. Word.

The Boys Are On Fire!!!

And with Carcillo back in the lineup they had the jump and energy they needed to win this game.

Where to start? Pyatt was looking for a fight with just about every coyotes player. Vrbata got pissed and actually took a penalty. I swear he hasnt had a penalty in forever. He was way more noticable today but it looked like he made the same shots on Louongo all night. He should have switched it up and surprised Lou.

Lisin was awesome. Hes hitting, going in the corners, plus hes quick and skilled. He really took to heart the call-ups and send downs. Good for him.

Im really starting to like Hossa. Hes just good on PK and defensively. Hopefully he can get some goals for us. But if not, thats cool. I like what im seeing from him.

Carcillo's fight was awesome. He totally dominated and then tried to skate away and burrows pulled him back in. His little move after really got the crowd going. After that, they were much louder than the vancouver fans. He got a misconduct but so did Boynton. And Boynton put us more in a bad position because Yandle also got a 2 min penalty, so we were down 2 dmen for 2 mins and then 1 for 8 min. And Jovo was having one of his bad games. Just what we need, more jovo out there. And ballard and morris were already working their asses off. So I think Boynton should have known better and not gotten the misconduct which put them at much more of a disadvantage than Carcillos.

Lets see, a fan got kicked out. One of the canucks sprayed water through the seam in the box and got a girl all wet so the fan decided to dump beer on him. Now, I dont believe that the beer should have been dumped, but the player should not have gotten away with squirting fans, especially a little girl. He should have been given an extra penalty or made to leave the game. its uncalled for. I mean Avery did something simialr recently (i believe he threw a water bottle into the crowd) and he was fined. I didnt see a single thing on this player being fined for this incident something should have some of this.

Speaking of things that should have come, Pronger needs to be suspended. He does a dirty stomp and gets CRAP. Simon does it, gets 30 games. Pronger gets away with a lot of shit and someone needs to call him out before someone gets seriously hurt. The NHL has been handing out suspensions like crazy, so why not Pronger?

Ott got a couple games. BGL got 3 games for his elbow to the head. He knocked a player unconcious. Theres a trade Im glad we made. BGL was a waste of space. He still is. As far as I know, he hasnt done much for the Pens either. The pens fans are all talking about how we got the better end of that trade and id have to agree.

FINALLY - A WIN!

Well, the coyotes beat the ducks last night 3-2 in a shoot out. Vrbata's move and Bryz's saves netted us the win. Doans shot started the comeback. I swear to god, even on the slow motion replay, you didnt see the puck until it hit the back of the net. Then Yandle was able to tie it up in the third. Ballard was showing our forwards how to screen and get in front of the net. Weller was doing that earlier on, lets get him back in front of the net! With Carcillo coming back tomorrow, we have another guy who will get in front of the net and look for the rebounds. Back to the game, I thought we were going to lose it when Doan got called for high sticking in OT but our PK was outstanding and they held on. Perrault was pushing pronger around again. Pronger went after Lisin by the net but all the guys came flying over to help Lisin out. Lisin played well last night. Much more impressive than earlier this year. Hes fast, hes going to corners, hes not letting guys push him around. He will either be a good player for our team or good trade leverage at draft day or later on.

Up next Vancouver tomorrow night. We are 1 and 1 with them in the series. Hopefully the good play from Tuesday comes through and we will get the win.

Senators and Game Night

It seemed the only good thing about the Seantors game was the second period. Well and my seats. Section 120 about 5 rows back. I had a good view of the goal. And Bryz for 2 periods. And I had a good seat, it was right on the corner so I had a little room on my right side and then no one sat on my left side, so I had plenty of room. But I digress. If the guys could have played like that the whole game, they may have won. Mueller and Wellers goals were awesome. Hanzal would have had a goal had we went high instead of going for between the legs. I wish Emery had played instead. But Heatly got taken out by a Ballard hip check right in front of me. That was sweet. There were some missed calls and some questionable calls. Perrault was right in front of me, he did nothing when he got a penalty. The non-call when Z went down right in front of me, that was definatly charging. The second Ottawa goal, Bryz was pissed. I thought he was going to break his stick. It seemed our d-pairngs and lines were getting juggled like mad. The powerplay was weird too. The usual second string guys were out first. We were back to using 2 dmen instead of 1 and Mueller playing the point. I got to go downstairs after the game and was able to meet Heatly and Emery. Plus a bunch of our guys.

Yesterday was Game Night with the Coyotes. That was a lot of fun. I got my picture with the Stanley Cup. While we were in line for the pic, and Bryz walks up with his kids. And they were sitting in the cup and getting some pics with it. It was cute. I was glad I was in line to see that. We got lots of pics and autographs. Grant Hill was there. We were walking around and all of a sudden my brother was like holy shit and i look over and its Grant Hill! Gretzky was there only for a short time. Of course his line was a mile long. Rhino signed my brothers UW hat and put his UW number on it (27 not 28). You were supposed to "tip" the players but most of them didnt care and sometimes their little people werent near them. I went to give it to Vrbata and he was like, no dont worry about it. Carcillo didnt know where his person was, so he was like just put it here. Maybe he wanted to pocket it. haha. Bryz looked so serious when he was walking around but in pics hes got a big grin on his face. Hanzal was hard to get and so was Mueller. I ended up not getting Mueller. He was the only one I wanted that I wasnt able to get. When I was standing in line to go inside Joel Perrault walked right by and no one seemed to notice. I saw this guy from a distance and I was like oh hes cute and as he got closer i was like damn thats Perrault. But no one around me was paying any attention. Winnik was a nice guy. I got my pic with him because my mom thinks hes cute. He was clean shaven last night. So was Boynton. Boynton had his kids with him. He was helping his little gril bowl. It was too cute. His wife/girlfriend/whatever she was, was there too. So was Weller's wife and Jones'. Jones' and Rhino's wife have baby bumps. When Carcillo was leaving some guy was asking him to pretend like Carcillo was punching him in the photo and then the guy went, actually you can punch me for real. I deserve it. I was cracking up. So was Carcillo. I didnt see if he did the fake punch as we were just walking by but it was quite amusing. Lisin was there too. He looked like a little kid and kind of out of place, like he really didnt know what to do (this is how hanzal looked too). Kapi and York were easily accessible. There was barely any one ever around them. TQ was wearing a Freddie Sjostrom hat. Hossa seemed like a nice guy. Ive determined him and his brother look very similar. Im still giving Hossa a chance. Hes coming back from an injury and hasnt had time to gel with a line. Hes been on a few different lines since coming here, so no time to get any chemistry. Hes definatly been more noticiable the last couple lines, once he was taken off the top line.

In other good news, according to AZC, Carcillo will be back either Tuesday or Thursday. So hopefully that will give the team some jump again.

Well, I think I wrote enough for now. Tuesday is Ducks at Coyotes. Thursday Canucks, Saturday Oilers. We will see how we do in these next games. By the time these 3 are done we should have a good idea if we are going to make the playoffs. The way weve been playing lately, it seems unlikely. But there is still hope!!!

The NHLs Most Hated Ref

I just had to take this pic last night. The announcement of his name is always followed by boos. There was an online petition last year to get him fired (I never heard what happened with this, obviously nothing mnuch though). People are always asking when is Magoo going to retire? Any call against the home team is booed when Magoo is on the ice.

Well, I will do a game/game night update later. I have to finish watching the Caps/Pens game. Im hoping the Caps win. Ever since I saw them play in DC, they have become one of my teams. And since they are in the east, I can root for them all I want! No matter who they play (well i dont know who i want to win when they play buffalo). There are times I hope the Preds lose, even though I like their team. Ok, enough rambling.

A disappointing loss

The boys played really well for about the first 50 minutes or so against the Canadiens. Then they kind of lost it and took a lot of stupid penalties. We ended up losing 4-2. There were a couple spots where it seemed like Jovo forgot he was on the ice. He was kinda just standing there, then a puck (or player) would go by him and hed be kinda like "doh, im playing hockey".

I have now added a new favorite goalie to my list. Price. Damn that kid is amazing. I took 3 pictures (and then my battery was dying). Heres one of him, just kind of chillin like a villain. And the kid is just 20 years old. Very impressive.

Tonight its Ottawa. Im hoping we can get a win here. The senators have kind of been on a downward spiral this last half of the season. Although I am excited to see Spezza Heatly and Emery. I am really hoping emery plays. I think Gerber started against LA (and lost), so Im thinking (and hoping) Emery gets the start.

New Hiring at Coyotes HQ

Sean Burke was hired as "director of prospect development". Neither azcentral nor the coyotes website states what that is. My guess (and appears to be the guess of others) is that he was hired to help montoya, tordjman and maybe some of our other goalie prospects. Someone said he might have been at the Rampage practice, but she wasnt sure if it was him or not as she didnt get a good view. He also has the time to help in business operations as a liason for corporate customers and season ticket holders. Again, job description not included. Im not sure if his liason to STH includes all or just corporate STH. Or exactly what it is he is going to be doing for the corporate customers/STH.

I have never had a huge problem with my ticket reps. The only problem i had was when there was poor planning and decision making at the Bobby Hull signing. And even then, my ticket rep addressed the problem right away and got me the two autographed figures I waited in line for but did not receive. So, I was satisfied with that service. I think some of it boils down to how you approach your reps. Ive only heard one person complain and Ive seen this person in action and after having been in customer service/retail I know that the way this person goes about it, isnt the best way. People are willing to do things for you and give you things if you treat them with respect. But I digress.

In other news, Carcillo has a torn PCL. His quote from Jim G's blog on azc:
"It's a bit better, just frustrating," said Carcillo. "It was a complete tear of the PCL -- I guess that's the one you don't need when you play hockey, that's what they're telling me. I don't imagine how you don't need a ligament in your knee to play hockey, but I don't know.
" ... Obvioulsy, I don't want to have surgery, nobody ever does. It's kind of a last-case scenario, but I definitely want to come back and help this team get into the playoffs, but it might not be in the cards this year. So I've just got to wait and see."
It also said in the article he skated Tuesday and that it felt better. I guess we just wait and see. I hope its nothing too bad and hes able to come back before the end of the season.

There was no update on York, so Im guessing he is just day to day.

And from the sounds of it, Gretzky is going back to what worked before. Another excerpt from Jom G's blog:
Against Dallas on Wednesday night, Joel Perrault will center a line with Shane Doan and Peter Mueller; and Radim Vrbata is back with center Steven Reinprecht, with Marcel Hossa likely on the left wing.
The big line of Daniel Winnik, Martin Hanzal and Craig Weller joins forces again, and Niko Kapanen, Mathias Tjarnqvist and either Mike York or Enver Lisin comprise the remaining line.

I hope they give Lisin a chance. Let him play and let York rest. Obviously the coaches think York contributes more than I think he does but youve called up Lisin at least let him play.Plus it gives York a little more time to heal.

I didnt get a chance to watch the game on versus tonight. I believe it was the Penguins. I worked out instead. But i will be watching the Coyotes/Stars game tomorrow night. (Im going to get a quick workout before the 630 start time) So far we have 3 of the 5 wins. I hope we can win this series this season. We need a win tomorrow night and hopefully putting the lines back together will help out with that. Although, I did like the line of Winnik, Kapanen, and Weller.

The rest of the week brings Montreal, Ottawa and Game night. My brother and I will be going down for the backstage pass for Ottawa. Him and I will also be attending game night. I went last year and had a really good time. There is also a Don Maloney chalk talk before the Ottawa game, which again, my brother and I will be attending. So its a big week for hockey. Lets go yotes!

Oh yah, we also got our Season Ticket Holder packet for next year, which includes presale for the White Out. I still have hope that we can make the playoffs.

Random Stuff

The coyotes lost again saturday night. There were so many things that i would like to change about the team/play from the last couple of games. So here goes, my changes:

1) Stop passing across the ice. Pass up the ice. Ive been watching some games (rangers/flyers, caps/bruins) and what do the teams do? they have good passes up the ice which creates good scoring chances (8 of them so far for the caps, ok , make that 9)

2) Stop the dump and chase. Im sick of this move. the other team always beats us to the puck. and why are we doing this on the power play? we have an extra guy, we shouldnt have to dump and chase

3) Get in front of the net when you are in the other teams zone. The only player we have who has consistantly planted himself in front of the net is Carcillo. With him out on Saturday, i dont remember seeing anyone consistantly getting in there and looking for the rebound. They all stand around the perimeter and practice their passing. You can pass, we get it. Now shoot and get some freaking goals!

4) Dont stand behind your own net for what seems like hours. Settle the puck down and get out of there. Catch the other team doing their line change and take advantage.

Which leads me to 5) Make quicker line changes!!!! They seem so slow when switching lines. And the do it every 2 seconds it seems. Comparing the yotes line changes to any other team and our guys seem like they are skating in molases.

and 6) Be physical. Dont be afraid to hit or be hit. When they play physically, they seem to have a better game.

Now, this is all my opinion, obviously. I dont have anything factual to back this up, just my own observations and those of others i talk to and/or read.

I dont know what happend to Joel Perrault, but he looked just bad saturday night. He looked chicken shit all of a sudden. This is the same guy who was pushing Pronger, starting the scrum in San Jose. Im wondering if he got a little hurt Thursday night in Chicago. He took a couple really hard hits that game. If so, thats fine but then dont leave the puck just sitting there for Iginla to grab!

Jones made me remember why i wanted Yandle in the lineup. Hopefully Yandle got a good dose of reality as the scratch saturday night.

Lisin was recalled for emergency purposes. Besides Carcillo, York is injured. He got a hip pointer in Saturdays game. Im glad that York is out (not glad that hes hurt) I just havent been impressed with his play much. Im also glad Lisin will be given another chance. (trade chip for the future maybe? maybe to see if hes ready for the big club?) I say put him in the top 6 and move Hossa down to the bottom 6.

Hossa has pretty much been invisible for me in the games. I only notice him on the PK and maybe once or twice in full strength.

And can i just say boynton is one of my favorites purely because hes not afraid to speak his mind? I guess he called out some of his teammates (not by name) and just basically said some of them have, more or less, given up. I love that he is brutally honest. I get sick of all the players/coaches pussy-footing around. Tell me like it is. i just wish boynton wouldnt take some of his stupid penalties, but thats part of his character/game and i deal with it and move on.

Ok, well i think thats enough for now. I started off not having much to write and apparently i had quite a bit to say.

Ranting.

So, I got my NHL catalog in the mail yesterday. And I was flipping through it and discovered that Alyssa Milano has her own NHL Clothing line for women. To me it looked like something puck bunnies would buy, thinking they look cool. So far, Im not muich of a fan of any of the nhl womens merchandise. The pink jerseys? I would never wear that. The totally "blinged" out stuff? Never. Wow, the NHL just doesnt know how to market to actual women hockey fans. I like that they have women size regular jerseys. But I dont want to order one. I dont know what size I would be, yet the team shops dont carry the womens jerseys. I do like the zip up hoodie and yoga pants they have, but at those prices I wont order them. Again, I dont know how they will fit me. And its a hassle to return things you order online.
They also have these new purses (made from license plates) that they are charging over $300 for. They arent even cute purses.
I would love if the NHL went for some more womens styles, but didnt make them to the extreme of say Alyssa Milano's line (i want to say its called Touch, but i could be remembering that wrong). I like the idea of a jersey cut for women, but have it available other places besides ordering from a catalog or online.
The team stores have a little different selection of womens hoodies, but none are zip up. So I dont know if it would fit the same or not. As a woman, I want to support my team, but at the prices and hassles of having to order online? I just cant bring myself to do it.