Dallas 3, Coyotes 2

Last night the job made sure to welcome Avery with open arms… or something like that. There were plenty of signs around the arena that we got a good laugh out of. One of my friends had a sign that said “Avery is a” and then had a purple pansy with his head at the center. She went down to warm ups with it and Avery called her a fat fucking bitch. Way to stay classy Avery. Avery got a couple of penalties and I have never heard a crowd cheer so loud; it was great. That’s what you get for calling our Captain over-rated in every interview you have. Seriously, do you have a crush on Doan or what?

Ott also received a warm welcome from Carcillo. The first time, the refs wouldn’t let them go and just gave them 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. I still think Barch should have gotten a penalty also, as he tried to get in on the fight making it two on one. Almost as soon as those two got out of the box, they went after each other. The highlight of the fight was when Ott stuck his tongue out at the cameraman and Carcillo gets his arm free and just hauls off and punches him. As the fight was at the end of the period, the boys went straight to the locker room. When they came back, I couldn’t concentrate on the game because they were still jawing at each other. After awhile, it looked like Carcillo was just laughing.

Even though Carcillo didn’t get a goal, he played a good game. He was energized and hitting every star player he could. He was still favoring his right leg. In warm ups, he kept picking it up. He was always pushing off with his left foot and he kept doing this hop move to get going fast. I think his knee may be bothering him.

Jokinen again took a stupid penalty right off the bat and then disappeared for the first and second periods. He decided to make an appearance in the third. He was too busy doing fancy moves to score though. Seriously, I don’t care how prettily you can skate; I want you to put the puck in the net.

Two things that we need to work on: consistency and face-offs. We could (and should) have beaten the stars. They were not playing well but neither were we. We were going in streaks. We’d have a good five minutes or so where everyone was trying, the energy was up and we were doing good things and then we’d back off not play all out for about ten minutes or so. As for the face-offs, we need to find someone who can either do a good face off or find someone who can teach our guys to win. At key moments, we would lose the face-offs, making it harder to control the puck. We won maybe 3 face-offs all night.

Bryz actually had another good night. Yes, he let in three goals, but those can be blamed on the D letting him down. Our D probably sucked the most out of all the guys out there. It’s a sad day when Yandle is probably your best dman out there.

Oh yes, we need to work on communication. Passes were all over the place and guys were running into each other. Overall, not our best game and we definitely deserved to lose that one.

Scratches were Daniel Winnik, Brian McGrattan, and David Hale. Winnik and McGrattan were definitely missed. I want to see McGrattan in the lineup. Put him in against Chicago on Tuesday. That is definitely a game we can't afford to lose.

Images of Carcillo

Google images has sent a lot of people to my site lately. It seems a ton of people are googling "Dan Carcillo" on the image page so I thought I'd post some Carcillo pictures to appease those people.
Many of the images I have found on azcentral.com.

Tomorrow I am planning on putting up some pictures from Doan's unofficial practice. If you like the Carcillo images, I have more. Drop me a comment and I will do another post. I have a lot of pictures of other Coyotes and some I have taken at games. I just haven't felt the need to post a ton of pictures but if people want more, I can post more.

Daniel Carcillo Finally Signed

Oh happy day! Today is my good friend Kate’s and my cousin Jeremy’s birthday. Happy Birthday guys! An early birthday present was given to those two… CARCILLO WAS SIGNED! It was announced late yesterday afternoon.

Actually, I was told Sunday night it was done and not to worry. I just didn’t want to write about it until it was confirmed. I am told that he was signed to a 1 way, 2 year deal for about 920K/season. Not a bad increase for him, he was making about 525K last year.

With the 2 year deal the coyotes will still hold his rights when it expires. It’s also a long enough time to prove that he has grown up and you will see the post-San Antonio Carcillo all the time. With McGrattan and Fedoruk, the pressure to defend his teammates will be taken off Carcillo. He will be able to focus more on his offensive prowess.

I would also be willing to bet that the Coyotes will see an increase in season ticket/partial ticket packages. I know a few people that were waiting to purchase their tickets until Carcillo was signed.

Good to see Carcillo is back! He brings a good energy to his team, plays his heart out every game, every shift. He is willing to stand up for his teammates and it seems the guys really appreciate him. Nothing seemed to get the guys up and playing again like Carcillo did.

I am definitely looking forward to the season starting. It looks like I will be heading to DC again. I am planning to catch a Caps and Panthers game. It’s another chance to watch Ballard, the hip check king! It looks like my friend might come for Valentines Day weekend to party and watch hockey. That will definitely be a fun time.

I am thinking about learning to skate. It would be fun and give me a good work out. AZ is willing to go with me sometime. I just need to find some time where I can go with her and she’s not at a lesson! Then maybe once I got the skating down, I would try out playing hockey. It would be a new challenge and lots of hard work but fun at the same time.

Coyotes traded for Brian McGrattan of Ottawa for a 5th round pick in 2009 that we aquired from Boston. It looks like we got our heavy weight to take the pressure off of Daniel Carcillo. Carcillo will now be able to focus on scoring, being a pest, and fighting only those he has to (or really wants to). He will no longer have to take on the heavyweights (although he holds his own quite well).

I am liking this trade. We didn’t give up much but we got a player who knows his place and sounds like he wants to be here. He knows he is here to protect the young guys.

Some quotes and stuff from the Arizona Republic:
The new Coyotes enforcer Brian McGrattan figures that he and Daniel Carcillo, who led the NHL in penalty minutes last season, could be a potent one-two punch.
"He can concentrate on other things, and he can stir things up a bit, and I'll finish it off for him," he said laughing.
He said he wants to come into training camp and work hard and try to get into the lineup every night. He thinks a realistic goal is five to seven minutes a game, adding it would be "great" if it exceeded that.
I like that he wants to increase his playing time from 2 min/game to 5-7 min/game. He’s got a goal and to reach it he knows he has to work hard. This could be a great addition to our team. He is also rumored to be good friends with Ray Emery. If Ray wants to come to Phoenix and party, I would welcome that and would volunteer to show them around! I would love to meet Ray again. That boy is fine!

Ok, back to some hockey news..
Tjarnqvist will most likely not be a Coyote this coming season. At first I was shocked. Our penalty kill would really take a hit (no TQ, no Bally, probably no Ziggy – he will probably be back in SA) but after watching the rookies, they are good and they have speed. They could easily steal a puck and go racing down the ice. I don’t really know who will be willing to block a shot like Bally and TQ besides Z though. We will have to wait and see.

It sounds like Maloney would like to see Vrbata back but will shore up the blueline first. Looks like we will get at least one, possible tow, young veteran UFA blueliners. Yandle, Ross and Jones probably will get long looks in training camp. That worries me. I like Ross and he looked good in rookie camp but is he ready for the big time? Yandle, well what can I say about him? The boy cracks under pressure. He has tons of potential but isn’t using any of it. Jones just needs to figure out what kind of dman he is. He needs to either hit more or get more offensive, just find his niche. He’s just kind of middle of the road last season, not doing anything that made him really stand out.

Weller was offered a two-way contract. No word on what he is going to do. He may just test the waters of UFA. I would love to see him back as a Coyote and learn to plant his bug body in front of the net.

Speaking of that, Toc was not offered a new contract. Looks like he will be going to the Lightning. From what I have heard his leaving was fairly mutual. I wish him all the best. He will be a great head coach someday and may get a chance sooner with another team.

Qualifying offers were giving to the following RFAs:
McGrattan, Carcillo, Montoya, the defunct Russian, Perrault, and Jones. Baby Hossa was not given a QO. I wonder where he will end up? Back in Europe?

July 1st is only a few days away. I actually have to be at work that day, since it’s a Tuesday. Last year the 1st was a Sunday and the next day was my flex day. Hopefully we know something right away. I hope Maloney already has a dman or two already lined up. If not, we could end up spending a lot more than wanted or just using the rookies.

Ok, well I think that about just covers all the news. I am going to go upload some pics and work on cropping some. Pics to be posted later!

Stanley Cup Finals, Wheeler is UFA and Rumors

Four games down in the Stanley Cup Finals. Detroit is up 3-1.

Detroit came out strong in the first two games. The Penguins entered unfamiliar territory at Joe Louis Arena. These teams did not meet once this season (I am so glad the schedule is changing next year) and the Penguins were definitely not prepared for the Wings. Crosby and Malkin were invisible the first game. Crosby came back in the second, but going into the fifth game, Malkin is still pretty much MIA. He is not the force he was during the season.

Osgood denied the Pens any goals those first two games. And he also did some damn good acting (Holstrom did some pretty good acting too)! Once at home the Pens seemed to wake up. Their first home game, they played a physical game and really beat down the wings. They were able to solve Osgood and pull of the win. The second home game for the Pens wasn’t nearly as pretty. They got the first goal, played physical and then died. They can not keep up with the Wings for a full 60 minutes (not many teams could this season).

The series moves back to Detroit. Based on what I have seen, the Pens just aren’t going to be able to pull this off. I would love to see this go to seven games and the Pens win, but that’s not going to happen.

Brooks Orpik is a monster. He has hit any wings player that moves. I swear to god. I have actually found someone on the Pens that I enjoy watching. I also like his name. I read on nhl.com that his dad wanted to name his Herb (after Herb Brooks) but his mama vetoed it and they settled on Brooks. That is just a cool story!

In Coyotes news…Wheeler has opted for free agency instead of signing with the Coyotes. It seems he wants his choice of where to play and not the money (as Coyotes are the one team that can offer him a ton of money because of the old CBA). A lot of people are very angry about this and hoping that he gets his ass kicked. I just hope he doesn’t go to a division rival and end up being an amazing player in a year or too. A lot of people also think he wants to go to the Wild. From what I have read that is just speculation since he is from Minnesota. Other speculation is he wants to go to a worse team the Coyotes in order to have a shot at the NHL right away. Here he would have a lot of competition and have to fight for a spot with the big club. I would have loved to have seen Wheeler in a Yotes uniform but I guess that won’t be happening. L I wish him well and hope this turns out to be the right decision for him.

There was an open house the other night. The usuals were there, DMo and Fuhr. I went but only to check out some stuff at the den and talk hockey with some people. I was going to talk to Ryan about my season tickets, but that boy is always busy! He is definitely one of the more popular ticket reps, along with Neils. I didn’t get a chance to say Hi to him either. I did get a free pop, hot dog and popcorn though! I was about to fall over by the time I got there.

Here is good article. It’s an “as told to” by Daniel Carcillo. So, fighting in his own words!
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=414297#start_comments

Some Rumors that interest me:

Looks like the Preds may have another fire sale this summer…(from Eklund, not the most reliable):
Dan Ellis The Senators are the likely team that will sign Ellis who is quite the commodity right now...so much so that the Preds may be out of the bidding soon. Don't rule out the Red Wings as well who got a very good look at Ellis these playoffs.Shea Weber or Gary Suter Speaking of the Preds......Shea Weber talks are very heated reportedly. I do expect the Preds will get Shea signed, but if they can't long term look for them to trade his rights prior to July 1. If Shea is signed, the Preds will likely move Suter....

I’m thinking he means Ryan, not Gary. Gary would be Ryan’s uncle, similar style but different players. Ellis was phenomenal for the Preds this year (I would die if he became a wing! I could handle a senator but then I’d never see him). I would love to see him stay there. And Ryan should stay too unless he comes to Phoenix!

OTTAWA SUN: Bruce Garrioch reports the Senators could buy out goalie Ray Emery as soon as within 48 hours of the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs but if they pass on that would have to wait until the buyout period of June 15-30, and because he won't be 26 until September, Emery's buyout would be at one-third the remaining value rather than two-thirds. Garrioch cites sources claiming the Sens have tried to shop him but received only mild interest from one or two teams and it's doubtful any club will take his full current salary.
SPECTOR'S NOTE: It'll be surprising if the Senators don't avail themselves of the opportunity to buy him out for one-third his remaining value of his contract. No team will take him off their hands right now.

I would like them to buy Ray out, have another team give him a small contract and see what he can do. He may just have had an off year because of his wrist surgery and apparently some personal problems were involved too.

BOSTON GLOBE: Kevin Paul Dupont reports the impressive physical play of Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik could make him an attractive target in this summer's UFA market by teams seeking a physical presence on their blueline. Dupont suggests the Penguins might not be able to re-sign him and Orpik could command up to $5 million per season on the open market.
SPECTOR'S NOTE: At 42 Roberts could opt for retirement, and if the Penguins win the Cup I believe he will retire, preferring to go out a winner.Orpik is in the prime of his career and will attract a lot of attention as a UFA this summer. It doesn't appear as though he'll be re-signed as it's believed he's clashed at time with head coach Michel Therrien.

Holy crap, if we can’t get Suter maybe we can get Brooks! That is too funny that I found that after espousing my new found love for him!

It's turning out to be a sad day for me

Iget home and turn on the Caps game. Its tied. Then it ges to OT. Then the Caps get a penalty. Then the Flyers get a goal. NOOOOOO. Fuck. And those were the exact words out of my mouth.

So it's Flyers and Montreal (Go Montreal!)
and Rangers and Penguins (Go Rangers!)

And now currently I am watching the Flames/Sharks game and it was 2-2 and hten suddenly it's 5-2 Sharks. Flames pull Kipper and put in the great Cujo though! Go Cujo!!!

Looks like it will be Detroit and Colorado (Go Colorado!)
and Dallas and Sharks - unless of course Calgary bounces back (Go Dallas!)

I was looking through forcasters website and found this today:
BOOK OF DANIEL The poster boy for "old-time hockey" Daniel Carcillo had a goal and two minor penalties in the first period alone against the Dallas Stars Friday. The NHL leader in penalty minutes added a power play goal in the second period and an empty netter in the third. INTEL Despite being the polar opposite to his former style of play, Phoenix Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky loves Carcillo. With the ice time The Great One is giving him (nearly 13 minutes a game), the feisty winger will be the penalty minute king for years to come.

Also, Nashville extends the contract of all their coaches. It looks like they will try to resign Ellis and Suter. Although with 8 dmen, they may need to make a trade. I'll take Suter and give you Jovo. Straight up. Good thing I am not a GM. I would end up with all dmen and Goalies. And a couple of forwards.

Nothing new in rumors. Same old stuff floating around out there.

Well that's it for me today. It's been a long day.

WARNING: Long Ass Post Ahead. Mostly Detroit/Preds Game and Rumors.

Preds fans were loud and proud at the start of the game. I wish I was able to be there to cheer them on. I am thinking about maybe taking a trip next season to Nashville. I don’t know if I would go when they play the Coyotes or not.

After watching Detroit four times this year against the Coyotes and the games in this series I have come to the realization I really don’t like Detroit. They get away with so much more than most teams because of who plays there and probably because of their history. Just because you’re an original six team or you are a “superstar” doesn’t mean you should get to play dirty. It reminds me of the Chris Simon/Chris Pronger and the disparity there. Also, the comments from Bettman about Chris Simon and then what he said about Tocchet were very hypocritical. Anyway, I am just sick of refs and the NHL favoring certain teams and certain players. I can’t wait for Bettman to be done. Can the NBA take him back please?

Ok, now that I am done with that rant, I will focus on the games.

Colorado won last night. Thank god. I watched the game and was surprised that Minnesota didn’t start playing dirty in the third. They usually do when they are losing. Every game I’ve seen, if they are losing, they will start to play dirty in the third so they can win. Looking at the other teams in the playoffs in the west, I wouldn’t mind Colorado advancing. I wouldn’t mind Colorado, Calgary or Dallas going all the way. I will in no way cheer for the Ducks, Sharks, or Detroit.

Looks like the Stars game will be on tonight instead of Sharks. My original program listing showed Sharks; now it shows Dallas. I am not sure if I will watch this game or not. I guess it depends how I feel at 6 and if the game holds my interest. I am a little tired of the Ducks and Stars. I’ve already had to endure them eight times this season (thank god for the schedule change!). It’s looking like I may not be watching this whole game. I need to make dinner and get a work out in yet today.

Ok, so the first period of the Preds game was great. The Preds really seemed to control most of the first period. They had a lot of really good shots on goals. Arnott is still out but Legwand was back in and he was getting a lot of good chances. Ryan Suter was getting a little bit feisty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him fight. I saw a clip on youtube once of him trying to fight (in defense of Ellis) and it wasn’t that good. Suter, leave the fighting to Hordichuk and Tootoo. But keep up the big hits!

In the second period, Detroit got a lucky bounce off a dump in (what it looked like to me). There was no way Ellis could have known which way the puck would bounce. It should not have been a goal. Preds seemed to be falling apart a bit in the second. They were getting sloppy. They had almost a full minute of 5-on-3 yet couldn’t do much with it.

Start of the third and the fans were still going strong. Detroit was still up to their tricks, diving and making it look good. Legwand had a good chance shorthanded; too bad he couldn’t get it past Osgood. Not too soon afterwards, Detroit scored to make it 2-0. Detroit also scored on the empty netter. Preds are out and Detroit moves on to round two.

I am still proud of the Preds. They played well and forced Detroit to play six games. At the start of the season, it didn’t look like they would even make the playoffs. But Ellis emerged as a great goalie and they were able to fight their way to the playoffs. Since the Coyotes couldn’t make that 8th spot, I’m glad it was the Preds. I think the games would have gone different had Arnott and Legwand played Friday night and Arnott played tonight. They were missing a big presence without them.

During the season, I tried to do quote of the day. Towards the end of the season, I kind of tapered off but I will try to do that again with the start of the season. For now, I am going to start trying to post some daily rumors and my opinions on them. Most will be from Spectors, Forecaster or Eklund (Hockey Buzz) So here we go (I had to play catch up, so there is a quite a few):

Ryan Miller has one year left on his contract in Buffalo. I just read on Forecasters that Detroit is interested. Now this could just be because Miller is from Michigan. But then again, Hasek is getting up there in age and as he showed during the first few playoff games, he’s not as good as he once was (don’t get me wrong, he is still great, but you can tell he’s not the goalie he once was). Detroit has Osgood now. I don’t know what his contract is but I would imagine they keep him around as he has done well for them. I am not sure what Detroit has in their farm system but they are known for developing players no one else thought would be great into amazing players.

There are a lot of rumors surrounding Minnesota so soon after losing in the first round. Gaborik (1 year left on his contract) may be part of a trade and head coach Lemaire may not be back. He said he needs time to think. One of Brian Rolston and Pavol Demitra probably won’t be back next season (both are UFAs). According to our own Jim G, Rolston may be a guy the Coyotes target this summer. A lot of people have the opinion that Minnesota will resign him but according to Spectors there will be many changes with Minnesota this summer. Maybe Maloney will pursue Rolston.

Big news in Ottawa: they will most likely buy out Ray Emery’s contract if they can’t trade him by June 1. Also, Wade Redden will probably be UFA this summer. I doubt we will see either of these two in Phoenix. Our goalie situation is set (and I doubt our owners/coaches would want the drama here). Our d is pretty much set. I can only see us signing another dman if we trade one of Boynton, Jovo or Morris. I don’t see a trade for any of them except maybe Boynton. Morris was outstanding this year and well, Jovo is just too difficult to trade (no movement clause and a huge salary). Plus, if we don’t get any offense players, we could always move Jovo to forward!

Penguins may have trouble keeping both Malone and Hossa, even if they spend to the cap. I know, I know, this is nothing new but I just thought I’d throw it out there. Malone has been thrown around as a possible signing for Phoenix. I would prefer him over Hossa. Hossa we would have to pay out the butt to get and I’d rather not tie up all our money on him when we have some great young guys coming up who will eventually require more money. Plus I think they would have to sign Hossa to a much longer contract then Malone, JMO. I feel that Malone would fit in better with the young team too. I know we have the other Hossa, but I don’t think that’s going to be the driving force that gets him signed. He hasn’t really expressed much interest in playing with his brother and for Phoenix. I’ve read more about him wanting to play with Chara.

I found a good article on HF about our rookies:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/10302/coyotes200708_rookie_review/
The part on my fav rookie Daniel Carcillo:

You can never blame Daniel Carcillo for not trying. That is, trying everyone’s nerves. While he’s shown to be an irritating middleweight, much of Carcillo’s full potential has been locked away as his mouth and muscles have kept him of the ice. If he wanted to show everyone that he could lead the league in penalty minutes well, he won. Racking up a whopping 324 minutes in 57 games - including a league-leading four game misconducts - it’s astonishing that Carcillo wasn’t able to muster up a match penalty with all his antics. Regardless, when he wanted to play some effective two-way hockey, he was able to play at a high level. He was able to display this when he scored five goals in the last two games of the season – which even left Gretzky laughing at the anomaly – even though the Coyotes were out of postseason contention. He finished with 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) and was a plus-1.No one discredits Carcillo for being loyal to the franchise and defending his teammates. However, as it was seen during the season, Carcillo really lacked a sense of when and where it was acceptable to flex his muscles and his jaw. It didn’t help that the Coyotes had one of the weaker penalty-kill units in the league. It even got to the point in the season where the Coyotes had to send him a stern message by shipping him out to San Antonio to play in the AHL for a brief stint.Come next year, Carcillo needs to really balance out his game. Seeing how he has the tools, great drive, and some good upside, he shouldn’t look to covet the league’s pest award.

I believe that after his stint in San Antonio, Carcillo got the message. He received a lot of phantom calls after that and then showed he does have skill with that last stretch of games, especially the last two games.

Also included were Peter Mueller, Martin Hanzal, Daniel Winnik, Enver Lisin, and Keith Yandle. It’s a good read. I recommend it to any Phoenix Coyotes fan or anyone interested in a good up-and-coming core of young guys.

The Final Game: Coyotes at Ducks

Wow, what a game. The first period was held at 0-0. Bryz had an awesome first period. And second period. Apparently Carcillo wanted the hat trick again. His first goal came off the shot of Kyle Turris. So our newest youngster gets his first NHL point. Vrbata was really trying to get a goal but Carcillo ended up getting it.

We played hard but then seemed to sit back again in the third with our 2-0 lead. Bad idea. Ducks came back to tie it. The game went into OT. Damn jovo so freaking slow, anaheim almost got a goal on a break away. Mueller and Ballard both had a good chance. Just couldnt put it past Hiller. Turris had some good moves during OT. We had it in but the official waived it off, it went in after time ran out. So we have to go to a freaking shoot out. Even though we lost the shoot out, we got to see Turris score a sick goal. Man does that boy have skills! He is going to be gold for us in shoot outs. Him, Mueller and maybe Vrbata can be money for us in the future.

Interesting PP on which Carcillo got his first goal. No defensemen. 4 rookies. It was Mueller and Turris on the point. Vrbata, Carcillo, and I cant remember the fourth one.

With this game, we are in the 8th spot for the draft. Tomorrow Versus will air the draft lottery. I plan on watching, so I will update at that time.

Heres my predictions for the first round winners:
Detroit over Nashville (even though Im hoping nashville has the surprise upset, it wont happen)
I think Colorado will upset Minnesota.
San Jose will take Calgary
Anaheim and Dallas is a difficult one. I think Anaheim will ultimately win that one.

Canadiens will beat the Bruins
Ottawa over Pens
Im hoping for the upset, Caps over Flyers. I think the Caps have really come into their own
Im going Rangers over Devils. I just think NYR will take it. Plus Id like to see Sjo advance. :)

We'll see how I do. Cant wait for the playoffs to start. This time next year the coyotes will be in! I just know it.

And Carcillos going to get his 25 goals next year. And way less PIMs. Seems the refs have stopped giving him crap calls. finally.

Its going to be a long summer!

End of the Season

It has been awhile since Ive posted. Ive been busy with work and other stuff.

First off I saw this on another forum and thought Id take a shot at it:

Best turn around game (positive): I think I will have to go back to the start of the season and say either the LA game when we first got Bryz or the NY Rangers/NJ Devils games. The fact that we could beat those two teams gave the guys a big confidence boost.

Best turn around game (negative): Calgary, we were up by 3 and then let them come back to win. It seemed we started getting worse from there.

Best Game of the Year: Sharks game where Carcillo got hurt. We were down and our Captain did what was needed to win the game. After that, we showed we had a chance to hang with the sharks (even beat them a couple more times!)

Worst Game of the Year: Either the Columbus game (the goal seen 'round the world) or the last Canucks/Oilers games. We didnt show up for either of those games. I think half our guys were already thinking about their summer golf outings.

Quick hits:
Best Offensive player: Vrbata (until his recent slump) and obviously Doan. Hes had an amazing season. Im wondering if playing for so long with a broken hand has kind of come back to bite him as he hasnt seemed himself lately.

Best Defensive player: Derek Morris, he really stepped up his game from last season. I hope he comes back and does that again. Z would be a close second. You don't notice him as much, but hes there quietly keeping us in some games.

Best Rookie: this is hard. Mueller and Hanzal both had great seasons. Each were asked to play different roles, so you cant compare them. Also, after the SA send down, Carcillo played well and really showed that he has the skills and he now knows it and is going to use it.

Biggest Surprise player: I would say Winnik. He has just gotten better and better as the season has progressed. Some would say Vrbata, but I had high expectations for him as he was a vast improvment over Adams. I knew we got the better end of that trade since day one.

Wow, that was hard. Trying to think back to all the games and evaluating. But it was fun to do.

Ok, and in news Turris signed with the big club! He has two games under his belt so far and you can just see the potential there. He is such an amazing passer. He shoots it high on net, something a lot of our guys dont seem to do (at least not lately).

Another signing was that of Nick Ross. He is now in SA. I hope he does well. I really liked him at rookie camp and they even let him play one pre season game. He wasnt bad but it showed he had a lot of work to do yet. Hopefully at least one year in SA will be a lot of help for him. Im thinking he will be there for at least 2 seasons, 1 seems like it would be rushing his development.

In Blake Wheeler news: he may stay at school for another year. This is what Ive been saying all along. Everyone was going on about how he doesnt want to sign and hes holding out but I had a feeling he just wasnt finished yet. If he goes back next year, he will be the captain. Why wouldnt he want to be captain? And what if they are better next year and get to the frozen four? If Wheeler wants to stay in school, I think thats great. I think hed learn more with a year in SA but ultimately its his decision and he has to do whats best for him.

The season ticket holder signing was this week. Went and got a few sigs. We only got through one table. They cut the lines off early. They said they would cut the lines at 8 but they actually did at 730 and that was about when we finally got through the first table. We went to the tables with Turris. That kid has so much energy and enthusiasm. Its refreshing and I hope a few of our guys catch it! Yandle was giving Turris/Rhino a hard time. Turris was signing my bros hat and he asked where he should sign it and my bro goes, "Right next to the great Steven Reinprecht" and Yandle looks at him and goes; "Who?". It was classic. Jovo was giving Bryz a hard time. It was hilarious. Jovo was totally joking and Bryz was getting all mad. His voice was getting all high pitched. I was laughing my ass off. The guy in front of me had a pic of bryz as a duck and Jovo goes, "that pucks going in" and bryz was like, "no its not. that is playoffs. no goals go in that game". And Jovo went, "no, no thats going in" and bryz's voice gets high pitched and basically repeats what he said before. I also got Fuhrs and Tocs autographs and a pic with Toc. When I was waiting a guy had some old school pics of toc so he was having fun with that. And he seems like a really cool guy. The guy was like I have a ton of stuff for you to sign and Toc was like Really? thats cool. And the guy was cool, hed have toc sign for him and then let who ever was waiting get a pic or autograph instead of just hogging toc. And then this lady walks up and goes, "who are you?" and Toc sticks out his hand an shakes hers and goes, "Im Rick. Im one of the associate coaches". And the lady was like oh ok! nice to meet you. haha, it made me laugh.

Last and final home game against Dallas Stars. Wow, first two periods sucked. but we came back in the third (too bad we couldnt pull off the tie, thanks jovo). I upgraded for this game. I figured last game of the season, why not. Carcillo got the team and crowd going when he took barch out with 2 punches. And i read that barch ended up with a slight concussion. The crowd was literally on their feet cheering for like five minutes. Then they cheered again when he came out of the box. Bally made up for his flub by scoring later in the third. Oh and Lisin got a goal with assists from Kapi and Carcillo. Its about time that line got some points, they have been the best/hardest working line for quite some time. Bryz was pulled and for whatever reason Jovo tried to pass when there was a Stars player right in front of him. So he passes to the stars player who has Jovo in front of an empty net. Hrmmm, yah, not that hard to put it in. So a sad ending to the home games. But, it was a great third period and kind of fitting since their home record was bad this year.

Last night they were in Dallass. And Carcillo gets a hat trick and a fight. It was awesome. We ended up cheering so loud when he was on his way to the empty netter. I liked how he carried it into the zone and right to the net. He wanted to make sure that baby went in! Too many times we shoot from too far out with the empty net and miss. But yah, he just showed how much skill he had. he totally had turco going with that second goal. Hanzal got a goal too. There was a time when i thought we were going to lose it. We let Dallas catch us too often. Im so glad I went and watched this game. AMAZING. And Carcillo was named NHLs FIRST star of the night!

Last game of the year for us agains Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. Pronger will be back. We can and will beat them. No matter if we win or lose we will end up either 6, 7 or 8 in the draft (depending on what others do). Im not worred where we pick, I have trust in our scouting department (they have found some great draft picks that are usually below others radars and in trades ie Carcillo, someone had to have an eye on him). Plus we have like 6 picks in the first few rounds. We could even trade up if it doesnt cost much. But anyway back to the Anaheim game. Its on local tv, so I will be watching it and cheereing my ass off. I predict Turris will have his moment this game. He will get either an assist or goal. Hes had a couple of games to adjust and it would be great if he got a point and then went back to school.

Also, Lisin and Yandle were sent back to San Antonio Rampage. Im glad. Lisin should get a shot at playing for the playoffs since he helped get them there. It will be good experience for him. Yandle really needs some more time to develop this year. He had far to many flubs this call up. Give him a chance to work on his defense and then let him see if he can make the big team out of training camp.

And Im excited, looks like Preds and Caps will be in the playoffs. I will be watching them. Buffalo is out. :( I dont care about anyone else in the west that made the playoffs. The east has a couple of other teams I will be interested in seeing how they do in the playoffs. So, I will hopefully be able to write some more on the playoffs once they start.

Ok, I have written enough for today. Once the season is over, I plan on doing an entry about the last game. I will also have plenty of time to go over the UFAs and RFAs on this team and evaluate each player and give my opinion on what we should do with them. (And Ive got some opinions here). I also need to look at the list of upcoming UFAs for the entire league. I havent looked at that much this year since we've been playing pretty well and there was the excitement of maybe making the playoffs.

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.

Coyotes 5, Dallas 2

So after the last crappy home games, the coyotes came out strong and beat the Stars 5 to 2. A well deserved win.

Vrbata got his 100th NHL goal. (and the game winner at that)

Boynton got an empty netter for his 3rd goal of the season.

The stars were going after Carcillo but he just held his ground. He didnt go off, he didnt fight, he just skated away. Even when he got a call for elbowing (i didnt see where that was elbowing) he just skated over to the box and sat down. Lets just hope he keeps this up.

Overall I thought all the guys played well. Shane Doan was back. Also, it was disclosed that he was playing with a broken hand for the month of January. The month that he was also the leading scorer in the NHL. Wow. Thats pretty amazing.

One of the other blogs I read posted this article on Ryan Suter: http://www.usahockeymagazine.com/story.php?left_nav=0802&article=suter0802&right_nav=normal

It was a good article. Suter seems like a very down to earth, nice guy. That seems to be the norm among hockey players. Im not going to lie, I wouldnt mind trading Jovocough for Suter.

Tonight we play LA Kings. So far we are 4-0 in the series with them. But we shouldnt take that for granted, they have had a recent surge. They beat Detroit not too long ago.

Ok, well I am going to tnoghts game and also recording it. They are doing a behind the scenes type thing that I think will be interesting to see.

UPDATE COYOTES vs STARS

Ok, so Vandermeer has been sent down. Doan didnt make the trip. Hes injured - groin. Thomas and Carcillo recalled and expected to play. Bryz in goal. And Gretz will be micd up on the game for Versus.

I will be watching. And Ive set mu DVR up to record, just in case.

Heres hoping we kick some Stars ass!

Quick Update..

I'm waiting for my cab to take me to the airport, so I thought Id do a quick update.

Coyotes beat Colorado last night in OT. Game tie-er (is that a word?) and winner by Vrbata. This guy has been great for us this year. 1) I hope we get him signed to a reasonable deal (similar to Bryz, maybe less money though) and 2) I hope he keeps it up. Hes known to have a big start and then taper off, hes done the opposite here, slow start and keeps picking up steam. With this win, coyotes are now in 8th again. If we win tonight we could jump up as high as 5th. This is a roller coaster of a season. Man, its going to give me a heart attack. At least I wont every cry at a game like the guy next to my friend during the caps game. If i was his wife, Id have smacked him good. Theres still plenty of season left!

Carcillo was sent to SA and Murley brought up. Here is what Gretz said to the AZCentral:

"He's in a really tough situation," Gretzky said. "He's the kind of guy we need to play with a lot of energy and a lot of passion. With that, there's going to be some effects toward the hockey club, but that's part of the makeup of him as a hockey player.

"Obviously, the positives outweigh the negatives, but we've talked to him continuously about the aftereffects, so the fights and all that kind of stuff we can live with, the penalties we can live with, but the continuous 10-minute misconducts, game misconducts, it's just at the point where it's not acceptable any more."

Sounds like Gretz still has his man-crush on Carcillo, but feels he needs to tone it down a tad. I agree. The misconducts are preventable. Usually it his mouth, this last time he harmlessly shrugged/pushed a linesman away. I heard sundin did the same thing (havent seen it) but got nothing. Calls have been so inconsistent this year. But thats a whole other blog entry I may or may not get to.

In other news, Toc will be back! Bettman was in Colorado last night and said we need to put the whole thing behind us. Cant wait for the game on thursday for Toc's return.

Once I get home and settled I will watch the nashville and colorado games and maybe give my opinion. Calgary isnt on tv tonight, so I will make my ride lsiten to it on the way home from the airport. I will miss the 1st period though. Why arent all away games on tv? This is another issue I may attempt to tackle in a future blog. Think off-season, lots of days with no news. haha

And I cant wait until next years schedule comes out. I need to plan another trip to DC since i got my friend addicted to hockey now. (i know i know, it wont be out until like July)

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.

I'm going to try to keep this up again!

I've been absent for awhile. I wasnt sure I wanted to continue this blog. First I went to Vegas and got behind, then I got sick and fell even farther behind. And I will be heading out Friday for DC.

But I came back and saw someone left me a comment asking to write more, so I will do that. If someone wants to read what I write, so be it (i just will not tolerate nasty comments directed at me)

On a side note, I got to meet Ryan Suter after the game thrusday (nice guy, he didnt have to stop and get a pic with a coyotes fan but he did). Unfortunatly for me, I lost the picture (i used a new memory card and apparently its got something wrong with it). I also lost the pics i took during the game and warmups.

In other news, Carcillo should be back on the ice. He played two games with the Rampage this weekend. He got 2 assists and the game winner and no PIMs.

Currently Im watching the All-Star game. Kind of boring. I like the big hits. Nabby is of course outstanding. But its making me excited to go watch the Caps take on Atlanta next saturday.

And the yotes are currently batteling for that magical 8th playoff spot. I know we can do it, the problem is we have a tough schedule coming up, all of February we see pretty much the same few teams, most of whom are in the same battle we are.

Oh wow, i now have seen it all, a marching band on ice. WTF?

Shane Doan on the Edge 103.9

Doan was on the edge this morning and they got to talking about what the smartest position was. Doan said that it wasnt really so much a smart position, but a role. He said the tough guys are usually the smartest. He mentioned Louie Debrusk and then two other guys (who i didnt hear, darn the people in my office for talking!). The two other guys went on to become lawyers. I thought that was pretty interesting becasue in the coyotes o7-08 yearbook i was looking at it said Daniel Carcillo would be a lawyer if he wasnt a hockey player.

They didnt really talk about much else, just that Chuck couldnt figure out the schedule. and how the yotes were doing a sweep through western canada.

Tomorrow night is the flames. Im going to miss the vancouver and edmonton games. Im going to DVR them but i will be having a blast in Vegas.

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