Warning! Long post. I will give you a cookie if you get through it all!

Sometimes I wonder if our rookies would have done better on another team. I mean Kane and Toews weren’t much bigger than Turris when they went to Chi-town and they excelled. Turris struggled, did well, struggled and eventually was sent down to the AHL. What is the difference? Turris has just as much talent as those two but he couldn’t get it together here. If he had went to Chicago, would he have done well or the same?

This has been on my mind lately as I heard the Rangers fired their head coach this week (I think this makes four so far this season?) and the Suns fired their coach after half a season (immediately after that firing the team went on to have three 140+ point games). Sometimes all a team needs is some shake up in the coaching staff to get in shape because despite what people think, coaches really do affect how the guys (even professionals) play on the ice/field/court/whatever. Why do you think professionals have coaches? Everyone needs pointers, motivation, organization, training etc.. If the coach didn’t play a role in how the guys played, they wouldn’t spend the money on them.

People say Gretzky works well with the rookies, but is he getting the results we need? I would say no. I have seen the rookies struggle and I knew they would struggle a bit but then I look around the league and see other rookies absolutely excelling and it makes me wonder…is Gretzky really the best guy for this team? Look at rookies such as Mason and Clutterbuck. They are doing amazing. There is talks about them winning trophies. There was some talk about Bods at the start of the season, but not anymore. Why? Because his production has dropped off. Why? I can’t say for sure but I have a feeling it’s the coaching.

I say we try a coach-swap. Send Gretzky and his band of misfits, oh I mean All-Stars/HOFers, to SA and bring up their coaching staff. I know SA started off rough but they have really turned that team around (now that at least one of their goalies isn’t playing like crap). They also did really well with the guys last season, leading them into the playoffs. They lost in the first round but at least they made the playoffs.

How come when players come here they get worse (with the exception of Hale but I can’t really say he got better, he just finally got some goals. They would have come eventually no matter where he was) and when they leave, they become amazing for their new teams? I would say this is a direct result of the coaching staffs. I know in some cases it could be the fact that the player just doesn’t get along with someone in the organization, but for it to happen consistently it has to be part of our organization, most likely the coaches.

My other gripe is still the assistant coach. What is he doing for the team? The practices I go to, he just drops the puck for the face offs. I remember one time, Doan was showing Turris how to use his leverage and the Coach was just standing there. I said it when we hired him, it could go either way. And now I see it’s going the wrong way. When Toc was here, he really got in there and forced the guys to do the drill and do it right. He would stop a drill and show them proper positioning (especially in front of the net). Our current coaches don’t do that. They let the drill run and then just talk to the guys. It’s always easier to learn something when someone shows (and places) you in the proper position.

I am not saying fire Gretzky because I know that will not happen. But what about the new assistant coach? He’s not helping that much. What about Ulf? He is the defense coach and well our defense hasn’t always been the best. What about Fuhr? Has he really helped Bryz become the number one goalie we hoped he would be? There are a lot of things that could be done that does not involve firing Gretzky. I do think that the coaching staff needs to not be friends of fill-in-the-blank. That hasn’t worked for the Coyotes in the past, why would you think it works now?

I used to teach dance and the best way to get a person to do it properly was to literally walk over and move their body into the correct position. Also, you needed to repeat the steps over and over again until you get it absolutely perfect. People learn best with hands on and repetition, none of which I am seeing with our coaching staff consistently.
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In other news, Dane Crawley was called up to the Aeros (thanks for the scoop ms. Conduct!). The RoadRunners will miss him. He was a great asset to the blue line. He could score, defend the blue line and he wasn’t afraid to be physical. You got to love that in a dman!
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And finally the Coyotes lost 2-1 to the Blues. Yah, don’t really want to talk about that. The coyotes decided not to show up for the second and third period.

It appeared that the only person to really show up tonight was Carcillo. He even got them a 4 minute PP and what happens? A turnover that leads to the Blues winning goal a few seconds into the PP.

We need a special teams coach. Can someone bring us one? Tooth fairy? Easter bunny? SOMEONE? ANYONE!?!?!

I missed the first period (as I went to the gym) but I guess Doan scored his 250th career goal. Congrats to him. It was our only goal of the game.

Wow, I really don’t have much to say about this game. I think I have already blocked this out of my mind. It didn’t happen. There was a hockey game tonight? Huh.. Must have missed that.
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Up next is Thursday night at Nashville. Then Saturday night the Blues come to Phoenix. I will miss these two games, unless someone knows of a sports bar in DC that will be playing them!!!
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And finally Sunday… I get to see my Ballard!!!!! And Ovie. I am so stoked. I am going to probably get my bum kicked as I will cheer like a mad woman for my Ballard, especially if he unleashes one of his hipchecks!

Awwwww, I felt loved today!

Ok, so I think I have finally decided on the sign I will take to the Panthers at Capitals game.

“I came all the way from Phoenix to see a Ballard hipcheck!”

The cute little kid (who called us trouble btw…) said I would definitely get a puck for that sign. He wears a Ballard Coyotes jersey and a Panther hat to most games (and Carcillo jersey to the others). He is a kid after my own heart. Although… he did call Britney Spears his wife. That is a tad disturbing.
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In other news, I ended up with two of the Coyotes Valentines Bears! One of my lawyers brought me one today. It was so sweet.

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! :)

Ballard Update

Keith Ballard has signed a 6 year extension, supposedly worth 4.2 million/year with the Panthers. It looks as if Ballard will be asked to play a more offensive role with increased time on the PP. He most likely will not be a shut down dman with the Panthers, which could be good for the Panthers as he seems to do better when he can jump into the play.

I plan to follow the Panthers a little more this year to keep an eye on Ballard. I am sure he will be using his signature hipchecks, taking those Eastern Conference players by surprise. I am also hoping to be able to catch the Panthers in Washington this March.

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.

One of the saddest days of my life...

Last night was the first two rounds of the NHL 2008 Entry Draft. It took place up in Ottawa while I was at the Coyotes draft party in Scottsdale. Hey Wayne, there was way more than 9-10 fans there! Our group alone was 9-10 people. But it was nice to hear a shout out from the Great One. *edit* I guess Gretzky actually said 910 am or something similar. He needs to work on his enunciation. That and we were all clapping and cheering for our team, so it was difficult to hear.

So before the draft even started a trade was announced. When I saw the first part of the trade, I was happy. We were all screaming and clapping. Then I noticed what we gave up and I was just in shock. We traded Keith Ballard, Nick Boynton and I believe the 49th (or 39the) pick to Florida Panthers for Olli Jokinen.

Ok, so we got a great center. His stats from last year:
GP G A Pts +/- PIM GWG Shots
82 34 37 71 -19 67 5 341

Ok, so he has a lot of points and he shoots a lot. But what about that -19? That worries me a little bit as the Coyotes expect their offense to be defensive minded too. And what else worries me, now we only have 2.5 true NHL defensemen. (I count Jovo only as a half, as he is not the most defensive defenseman. He tends to have a lot of turnovers). We have DMo and Z. Then there is Jones and Yandle. No way in hell do I want those two on the team full time next year!

I keep going between emotions on this trade. I am not upset about Boynton, even though I like him. I am just so upset to see Ballard go. I will miss his hipchecks. I’m glad I got my pic and autograph. I will probably be upset again come training camp and preseason. We will be missing an important aspect of the team.

So, leading up to the draft Maloney talked a lot about we were going to draft defense. Instead we trade away two d and draft a forward with our 8th pick! Granted all that was left was Myers and no way in hell did we want him but what the hell. Are we just going to spend more time in the other team’s zone? Yah, we may score a lot more goals but with no defense, we are going to let the other team score a lot more!

Maloney better have something up his sleeve, either another trade or a big UFA defenseman signing. And it better not be Campbell. He did jack for the sharks this year. I am hoping for Orpik. The guy’s a checking machine. We will need at least two more defensemen though. We don’t have enough NHL ready defensemen in our closet! I don’t think Ross is ready, maybe the Swede, maybe Stephenson.

It looks like we drafted three d in the later rounds. They definitely won’t be NHL ready this year. They may never be NHL ready. We also took the last of the Staal brothers.

Weekly Playoff Update, Coyotes News, Rampage Info

I didn’t have much time to update this week. There were too many games on and I was trying to fit in some exercise and other errands.

Two teams have now moved on to the second round: Penguins and Rangers. As of this morning all the teams in the West are 3-2 in their series.

Caps are on the verge of elimination. I am watching the game as I type. Ovechkin just scored so they are leading 1-0.

Montreal is up 3-2 over Boston. I want Montreal to win. I’d like to see them advance to the finals and maybe even win the cup. I have like a man-crush on their goalie. Plus I think overall they are a good, solid team. Versus is actually going to show their game tonight!

Nashville had an amazing comeback and won both of their games at home to tie the series 2-2. Last night they lost in OT. They tied it with 45 seconds left in the third. Holy Shit. And let me just tell you, yes Ellis made 53 saves (or something ridiculous like that) but his dmen bailed his ass out countless times. Very early on in the first, Ellis got himself so far out of position that Detroit had pretty much a whole open net. Ryan Suter stepped in and got the puck out of there. It was amazing it that the puck didn’t go in. The series goes back to Nashville tomorrow. I hope Nashville can win again at home and then find some way to beat Detroit at home.

Current Leaders in West:
Colorado (C’mon beat those dirty Wild!)
San Jose (I want to see Cujo advance!!)
Dallas (Beat those quackers!!!)

Also, as far as I know, the Senators used Gerber in net for all their games. Now I know Emery is a diva and they were probably trying to punish him and send him a message, but if Gerber sucks PULL HIS ASS. He let like 4 goals in each game. Emery got you to the Finals last year. He’s a good goalie. By not playing him, you punished the rest of the guys. You didn’t give them the chance to win!

And I am cheering for whoever is playing the Pens next round. I don’t care who they are, I don’t want the Pens in the finals and I don’t want them to win the cup.

Ok, so random Coyotes news (thanks to the new video on the website):
Congrats to Keith Ballard. He will be getting married this August.
Also, congrats to Steven Reinprecht; he and his wife are expecting their first child this July.

And in Rampage news, they are now even with Toronto 1-1. Last night they won 6-3. Porter and Kolarik have joined the team. It seems they have found some chemistry and been welcomed to the team. I didn’t see game 1 but there might have been some adjustments with the new guys joining the team. Game 2 Kolarik had the hat trick with 2 assists from Porter. I believe the series moves to San Antonio for game 3 on Monday.

Wow. I can’t wait for rookie and training camp. It should be quite interesting this year! Rookie Camp: July. So, only about two and half months. I can wait that long. I think. I will break it up a little bit with a vacation in early June. I read somewhere that training camp will start September 19, so only 5 months. I. Can. Handle. That. I think. Haha

Well, I am going to watch the Caps beat the Flyers and then hit the gym. Until next time!

Coyotes 3 Sharks 2

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

The Basis of this blog

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

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

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

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

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