Coyotes 5, Stars 3

Jokinen returned last night from his shoulder injury not nearly as invisible as he had previously been. He scored a goal in the first period but seemed to disappear in the second until the very end when he scored a power play goal to tie the game at 3-3.

Lindstrom was called up from the Rampage (we acquired him from the Ducks for Logan Stephenson – hopefully he will have a better chance to make the Ducks than he did for the Coyotes; it seemed he has been passed up on the D quite a few times and they never really talk about him). He didn’t get any points but he was out there with Turris and they had a few good chances. Darn that Marty Turco.

The scratches were Winnik, Hale and Porter. No McGrattan and no McGrattan in the lineup. The Diva had found an article (from an Ottawa paper) that one lined that McGrattan had cleared waivers. Upon further inspection, we could not find anything else. He was not on any of the transactions and/or player movement lists. Where is he? He can’t just be floating out in space…

Bryz was our starting goalie. There were a few times that I just wanted to strangle him, especially when he gets too far out of the crease. It seems every time he gets out of the crease, the other team scores or would score if not for our D.

Hanzal has earned a new nickname: Martin “Empty Netter” Hanzal. He got another empty net goal when Turco went to play the puck, passed it to his teammate and his teammate passed it to Hanzal who was right in front of the empty net. Classic. Hanzal also got a great goal early in the first from Tiki, who set it up nicely behind the net.

Fridge looked like he was on a mission to take out every single Star. He was hitting anything in a Stars jersey. He had a great hit in front of our own net. It was amazing. This is what they need, guys who get in there and clean out the trash. We don’t want that in our crease!

Rhino got the empty netter to seal the deal, 5-3. He had Hanzal coming up behind him and he looked to see if he could get Hanzal another hat trick, but there was also a Stars player racing up the ice. It’s better to be selfish and get that security goal then to miss and have the Stars get a chance to control the puck.

Some Observations:
The Good – finishing checks and trying to get guys in front of nets
The Bad – no puck control on PP, spending too much time in our own zone, too many penalties (although the refs were calling every little thing last night but that’s when the guys need to adjust their game a bit) and bad turnovers early on.
The Ugly – all the guys that are growing ‘staches. Why why why? Jokinen, Telly and Porter all seem to have this thing growing above their upper lip and it looks horrid. Please shave boys. We like your baby faces without the bad ‘stache.