This needed it's own post....

Phoenix Coyotes (8-9-2)They need a wake-up call. The best way to deliver it: bench Ed Jovanovski. A veteran -- one wearing the A, no less -- on a young, struggling team, he has to make an impact. Instead, he's a major liability in his own zone, caught too often standing still or simply out of position. Of the 697 players who have skated this season, just five have a plus-minus rating more dismal than Ed's minus 10. It's often an overplayed stat, but here it tells the story.*

DAMN, what have I been saying all year? That's what I thought. I love being proved right. Take that bitches trying to tell me Jovo is doing just fine. He is continuing his stupidity from last season but he is not getting the goals and assists to (somewhat) make up for it. Ok, I am done gloating now. I love being right. :)

*stolen from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/allan_muir/11/25/power.rankings/index.html?eref=T1

Just Beacause

I have been having some thoughts, so I thought I would do a random entry.



First off, why can the Coyotes not beat the Wild? What is it about them that makes it so difficult to win? Also, why do our players get so close to a hat trick and just can't get that third goal? Maybe Backstrom is a tease. Last season, Carcillo had two goals and him and the team tried so hard to get him the third goal but Backstrom was having none of that. Then on Saturday, Jokinen got two goals but Backstrom said no to his (and the teams) attempts to get a third. It is like Backstrom has a magical forcefield that will not let more than two goals per player in. This is when it would be helpful for others on the team to start scoring.



Secondly, I have been looking for Jovo's offense all season (we depended on it quite a bit last season) and it has been non-existent but he is still making all his little mistakes. He needs to balance out those mistakes by getting assists and goals or he is pretty much just worthless. He has been paired with DMo this season, so maybe that is the problem. He is being moved back to Z for tonights game. Although, I do feel sorry for Z. He finally gets a partner (Sauer) where he doesn't have to stay at the blueline and doesn't have to try and cover all the time and then Gretz's puts him back with Jovo (see my fifth point for more on this topic).



Third, We play the Flames tonight in Calgary (I will do a post after the game, it's so much easier to make notes during away games). We need to watch Iginla, Cam, and Dion. Those three were our down fall last time (ok and our lack of actually playing hockey). We need all our guys to show up tonight. We need Bryz to be the horse we know he can be. We need Jovo to get his offense going. Flames are always going to be a hard team for us to beat, but it can be done. We need to skate hard all three periods. We need to hit. We need to not let up (for one fraction of a second on Cam and Iginla). We need to fight. We need to score. It can (and will) be done. I have faith in my boys. Now, lets hope the line shuffling and D moves don't mess anyone up (again, see fifth point) as Gretzy debuts some new lines and pairings tonight. Turris will be sititng out tonight (a view from the pressbox might not be a bad idea, worked for Mueller) and Murray was called up. This was probably a good move for the Calgary game. We need more toughness out there and well, Turris is not our toughest player.



Fourth, the Panthers come to town this Saturday. I am excited to see my boy Ballard. I have heard he is doing awesome in Florida, you know being the type of Dman he was meant to be, not being forced to be a shut down Dman (and yes, DMo and Telly messed up on the Nash goal too, you can't blame just Ballard). Ballard is leading the Panthers in points with 10, 2 goals and 8 assists. In 11 games, almost a point per game. He is also a +/- +2. Way to go Ballard!

I haven't heard much on Boynton but I am looking forward to seeing him. He always brings the toughness. Boynton has 5 points (2g, 3A) in 11 games.

It will also be interesting to see how Jokinen does against his former team.

I plan to get some pics of Ballard and Boynton during warmups. I miss my dmen.



Fifth, Gretzky has changed the lines yet again. I have no problem with rewarding hardwork (i.e. moving Fridge up to the first line for a couple of games) but seriously, let's try lines out for more than one game. You might be surprised by the results. It will give the boys some time to click. Or heres an idea, if one person on the line isn't working out, just change out that person.

The lines/pairings for Tuesday (stolen from Coyotes website):

Winnik-Hanzal-Tikhonov (I love this line. Unfortunately none of these guys have gotten a goal yet. All have worked hard and done great things for us though)

Doan-Jokinen-Mueller (I think Mueller is having a hard time his sophmore year. He seems to have regressed. He has stopped moving his feet again. Sophmore slump?)

Porter-Reinprecht-Boedker (Reinprecht to Porter was a great goal, maybe Wayne is hoping for more of that? Fast and defensively minded line)

Carcillo-Murray-Fedoruk (Pure toughness and with Carcillo, you got the goal scoring ability and Murray has the face off ability - could be lots of potential here)



Morris-Sauer (I loved this pairing in training camp, maybe it will make Morris use his cannon more)

Jovanovski-Michalek (Poor Z but if it gets Jovo some offense, I'm all for it)

Hale-Klee (hrmmmm, I did like what I saw of Klee the last two games. I like Hale and want him to do well but I feel he just shows us flashes of what he can do and isn't consistant. At least it's better than Yandle - apologies to all my readers that like Yandle, no offense meant to you, I just don't think Yandle is there yet)

I apologize for any spelling and/or grammatical errors. I did this post on my lunch hour and didn't really edit it. I may correct when I get home from work, but I may not. If you don't like that, too bad.

P.S. For all those Americans out there.. I hope you did your civic duty and voted. I did which gives me the right to complain for the next 4 years. If you did not vote, I don't want to hear any complaints from you! :)

The coyotes are 1-1 after the All-Star break. We were able to beat Columbus on Tuesday. Thanks to Center Ice for having a free preview. I was able to watch the game from the comfort of my house. It was a good game. Daniel Carcillo came back like he was never gone. You could see the energy level shifted upon his return.

We were so close to beating Detroit. If only we could have gotten one more goal before switching to the "lets not score, lets just make sure they dont score" mentality. It never works for us. What works is skating hard, playing physical, and getting those big hits. They have nothing to be ashamed about this loss though. They played hard and even had the lead for awhile. It just goes to show we are not the same team from last year and we can play with the best of them.

And Damnjovo has actually had some pretty good games without too many errors. In the detroit game, i would have sworn it was a different player. he actually tried to keep the puck in (not just let it roll past him) and he actually skated fast. It seemed like far too often he'd do a leisurely skate to the puck while an opposing player is flying down the ice.

Shane Doan has been on fire. he was the points leader for the month of January. He had 13 points in 13 games. He almost tied the detroit game. IMO he waited a tad too long to shoot it and went low. He should have shot sooner and tried to go between osgoods shoulder and the pipes. But who am I to say, I wasnt out there making that decision. (also, good pass from jovo!)

Tonight I will be going to the Capitals/Thrashers game. I will be sporting my coyote beanie as I need to show support for the guys playing in Nashville. I will update with some pics when I return to Phoenix. I will be in the corner where the Capitals attack twice, row H. Nice. I also found out that they do show out of town scores so i can keep track of the yotes. I am sad that Ilya Kolvachuk isnt going to be playing. Damn Ruutu.

Tonight is an important, must win game. We went from 8th to 9th (after the loss to detroit) and are now in 10th because someone else won when we didnt play. I have a good feeling about this game and Im pretty sure the yotes will win.

Anyone up for a little Roasted Duck?

Maybe some duck on the grill, wrapped in bacon?

We are now 4 - 1 in the series with the Ducks. Although, this sucks that this was won in a shoot out. The coyotes could have easily taken this one in regulation, IMO. And why give a team in our division a point? Damn OT loss point. Its really starting to piss me off. The ducks would have one point less than us if they didnt get a point for OT losses. that is freaking crap.

I felt that the end of the 2nd and the start of the 3rd we were playing just to keep the game tied and then picked it up for the end of the third and OT. A little too late guys. I think if we can make it to the shoot out, we are guarenteed a win. With Bryz in net and Mueller. I dont think Mueller has missed once in the shoot out. Vrbata missed tonight but bryz stopped all 3 shots.

We have a problem with this whole "dump and chase" Why are we always reverting to that? Especially on a PP. There is no need. Youve got the extra man, go for it. And whats with the dump and go for a line change? On more than one occassion tonight we had a guy go for the shot and hes the only red jersey out there. Seriously? JP had a good shot and if hed had any teammates with him, someone could have gotten the rebound and maybe a goal. but noooo, they all went for the line change.

And what got into JP? Im really starting to like this guy. I hope they dont send him back to SA. He had some nice hits tonight. There was one really good one by the yotes penalty box. Nice and hard. And then he was fiesty. Getting into shoving matches left and right. I thought for sure he was going to fight. Not that i wanted him to, hed get his ass kicked, but i was seriously impressed tonight. played hard, created chances, just an overall good game for him.

And what is the illegal substitution call all about? This is what i found on it:
Substitution infraction (Illegal Substitution)
This rare bench minor penalty is called when a substitution or addition is attempted during a stoppage of play after the linesmen have signalled no more substitutions (once the face-off is set) or if a team pulls its goalie and then attempts to have the goalie re-enter play at any time other than during a stoppage of play. Too many men on the ice and/or starting the wrong lineup can also simply be called a substitution infraction.

Ummm, the whistle blew almost as soon as Ballard left the box. I dont get it. I must have missed something. But the way ballard and doan were arguing and then gretz, i doubt it. I blame it on Magoo. Freaking refs.

I laughed my ass off when jovo whiffed on a pass. it was quite funny. jovo was again jovo. hot and cold. good and bad. but mostly not good. damn jovo.

there was a guy behind me who every time the ducks had the puck hed yell "hit him! hit him!" some people need to learn when to shut up. then the kid behind me kept kicking my chair. the kid next to me kept crying. seriously.

i tested out my continuous shooting mode on the camera. from the upperbowl. i havent checked the pics out yet, so I might post some tomorrow.

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.