Rollercoaster of Love....Or something like that.

Wow, this game was all sorts of emotions for us Coyotes fans. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster; it was up and down all night. I wish it would have ended better though. It was a disappointing end to the ride.

It started off fairly well. Carcillo took the opening face off and won. He was out there with Fridge and Doan. They seemed to be putting a lot of pressure on the Wild. Then the Wild score twice and all my hope plummeted.

But then later the Coyotes made a comeback! They got the score up to 4-3 with goals from Lucky Lindstrom, Rhino and Jokinen (who decided to show up for a few minutes tonight). Unfortunately Bryz got sleepy in net, the D broke down and the Wild were able to make it 6-3 to end the game.

Doan seemed to be on every line, why call up both Winnik and Goertzen if you are just going to double shift Doan? It was also obvious that Hale and Yandle do not add up to Sauer. I don’t know if we can survive four weeks without him. The only one I can think of who may be NHL ready is Ahnelov. In the preseason he did really well until he was injured and he was a pretty good stay at home dman.

I spent the game chatting in two different groups. One was my usual group of chatters, which includes the Diva. The other group was over at Hitting the Post so I got a little bit of the Wild fan perspective. Thanks for taking in a way-ward Coyotes fan guys! It was fun. I got a great clip of Fridge doing a “cotton eyed Joe” dance. Hilarious!

Next up is Vancouver. Luongo is going to be back in net for this game. This could go either way. He may be totally rarin’ and ready to go or he may be a little slow. We definitely need to get it together and win this one. This is a radio only broadcast but I will be heading to the Diva’s house to watch it. I’m a mooch. I’m only friends with her so I can watch her CI. ;)

Also, make sure to check out this site. Hilarious stuff! Look for the picture of Simmonds (from the Kings) and be sure to roll over it with you mouse.

And read the Diva's post as her and I apparently share brainwaves and included the same links (nhLOL and Fridgey dance).

Bryz with the shutout!

I am hoping to get a post up soon. I realize I haven't written in awhile, but sometimes life just gets in the way. Pesky life. :P

The parentals are coming into town this week, so not sure if I will get anything done on here either. Lunch time posts maybe? Oh wait, I am only working half days this week. You will just have to wait and see.

I have been issued an assignment by The Diva, but haven't worked on that yet either and it is due today. Oops.

And in parting, I wish to thank the MN Wild for their losing streak as it has helped put the Coyotes in 7th place! Woot Woot!

The Curse...

IS BROKEN!!!!!

Coyotes beat the Wild 3-1. Oh yah baby.

All the Wild fans got outcheered and left early. Although I did meet some people from Winona. They tried to tell me LaCrosse sucks. haha, they are soooooo dumb. LaCrosse > Winona all across the board. :)

OMG I am so excited. I can't even think straight.

If I feel like it I will write a more detailed blog entry tomorrow at lunch. But I am out for now! Got to go CELEBRATE!

I wouldn't call this a GDT...

but it kind of is.

Tonight Mikko Koivu and the rest of the Minnesota Wild will descend upon the job. Hopefully the moment from last nights win will propel the Coyotes to finally beat the Wild.

My Keys to the game:
STOP CLUTTERBUCK. You know he will hit anything in a Coyotes uniform, he did last time. Maybe send out Fridge to do some damage/payback. Fridge was on a roll last night.

Also, put the puck past Backstrom. I know this will be hard to do, but I believe my boys can do this. In past games Carcillo (last season) and Jokinen (this season) have been able to beat him and I believe they can do it again.

Finally, we need everyone to show up and give 100%. No one should disappear, no one should skate lazy *ahem Jovo and Mueller ahem* and skate fast, hit hard.

If the boys do all of the above a win is a very realistic possibility. Unfortunately we are a team that needs everyone to show up and play hard. We can’t win with only a few guys giving it their all.

Short and sweet! I hope everyone comes out and enjoys the game!

On a side note:
Martin Hanzal was the NHL’s third star! He’s so hot right now.
The Coyotes have again moved ahead of the Kings in the Pacific Division.
They are 11th in the West and 20th in the league.
All I care is that we stay ahead of the Kings. We cannot let them beat us.

Coyotes at Minnesota

Wow, what happened to the Coyotes of the last few games? For whatever reason, the Coyotes cannot beat the Wild and they continued that streak last night. The scratches for the Coyotes were McGrattan, Carcillo and Hale, same as Wednesday night. Boogaard was in the line-up so it would have been a good game to play McGrattan. I am hoping that McGrattan gets to play against Dallas on Saturday. He can go up against the likes of Ott and Avery (like Avery would ever fight anyone).

Carcillo may be having problems with an injury. It was mentioned Tuesday that he had a nagging injury and tonight they mentioned him being banged up. I am wondering if it has to anything with the way he has been skating lately. He seems to be favoring his right leg/foot.

Bryz was in net again tonight. He actually looked good. He has played quite a few games in a row. I am waiting for the melt down again. I know he’s been doing well lately but he hasn’t earned my trust yet. I need to see that he can maintain this play over the entire season.

The game doesn’t start off well as Jokinen heads to the box early in the game. Fortunately the boys were able to kill this penalty off. Don’t look for Jokinen in the rest of the game because after this penalty he completely disappeared. Where was Jokinen this game? When he does show up he scores a couple goals, gets a few assists but when he’s gone, he leaves his teammates out to dry. He may look like a PPG player, but really he gets 2-3 points in one game then he leaves his teammates to do all the work for a couple games. I am still not sold on him. As he becomes a FA at the end of the season, I expect him to either be signed or traded at the deadline. Maloney isn’t going to want to see a player just walk at the end of the year if he can help it.

Ok, back to the game…Clutterbuck had a huge hit on DMo and DMo was none too pleased about it. DMo did not see Clutterbuck coming. I am also going to add that this is a guy I would want on my team. I love guys that will hit anyone and everyone (Orpik is another example). He is definitely one to keep an eye on (thanks to Ms Conduct for going on and on and on about him. I totally have a man-crush on him now. You better keep writing about him!).

The Coyotes get on the PP and what a miserable PP it was. Are you sure we weren’t on the PK? The Coyotes got one shot on goal and struggled to keep it in the zone. They could not keep possession of the puck. The Coyotes get another chance to go on the PP when Clutterbuck heads to the box but again, they just could not control the puck. Doan made a nice hit to keep the play alive and keep the puck in the zone. You just got to love Shane Doan. He is having a monster of a season. I will say that is the good thing about Jokinen coming here, he has taken the attention away from Doan. Teams pay closer attention to stopping Jokinen, leaving Doan room to shoot and score.

At the end of the first, it is tied at 0. It was a little surprising as we could not pass nor control the puck.

Early in the second the Coyotes end up trying to kill off a 5 on 3. Minnesota is able to score from the point thanks to Zidlicky (nice pick up on MN part, I always liked him in Nashville).

DMo is still angry about the Clutterbuck hit and he goes after him a bit in the second. He doesn’t do anything that would get him a penalty but he is definitely trying to send a message to Clutterbuck. I don’t think DMo has dropped the gloves yet this season, and Clutterbuck was lucky he didn’t this game. When DMo is angry, watch out!

The Coyotes go on another PP. This time they have a little better puck control and put it on net more than in the first but it’s not enough to get it past Backstrom. However, when they go on the PK a short time later (DMo in the box), Minnesota scores again. So far, both the Minnesota goals have come on the PP yet, do the coyotes learn from that? No.

We end the second 2-0, Minnesota.

Going into the third, I was still quite optimistic that the Coyotes could come back. They were only down two goals. I thought this is the period. We are going to come out energized and ready to go. We are going to control the puck and just fire away at Backstrom. Well, it didn’t quite happen that way.

Yandle ends up fighting Clutterbuck. I have to give Yandle credit; he stood up for his teammates and tried to get the team going. He got a few good punches in early in the fight but Clutterbuck was able to get him into a position where he couldn’t really throw any and thus gave Clutterbuck the opportunity to throw some great punches. Clutterbuck was lucky Carcillo wasn’t in the game, because if given the ok, Carcillo would have taken him down. But I digress, congrats to Yandle for his first NHL fight. Keep it up and you may when over all your naysayers (hey, he’s slowly winning me over).

Jovo ends up taking a stupid penalty while the Coyotes are already on the PK. So we have another 5 on 3 in Minnesota’s favor and of course, they score, making it 3-0.

Minnesota scores once more on a PP making the final score 4-0. I guess I can take solace in the fact that all of the goals came on the PP. We were able to hold them off at even strength but could not get enough control of the puck to really do anything in their zone. It’s really not that comforting though; it just means our PK sucked this game. We had been doing pretty well on the PK, what changed? What is it about Minnesota that we just can’t seem to beat them? I believe this is the 10th game in a row we have lost to Minnesota. Wow, that is just pathetic.

So tonight Sean Avery and Steve Ott roll into town along with the rest of the Dallas Stars. Carcillo is expected to be back in the line-up, so hopefully Avery fears for his life on the ice. I still hope they play McGrattan. I miss the big guy out on the ice. I am not sure who will be scratched tonight. Gretzky is just going to have to rotate which forwards he scratches unless someone really messes up because none of them are playing that badly/messing up. I say on D we continue to scratch Hale. I know Jovo won’t ever be scratched, so Hale it is, as Yandle isn’t doing so badly right now.

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! :)

Practice!!!

Ok, quick rundown of today’s practice. I was a little busy fielding texts and phone calls, so I did the best I could. Bryz and Montoya (NY Rangers helmet with "The Big Cubano" on the back, assuming it's him) were there.

Montoya and the other goalie stayed late and did the scrimmages. Montoya looks like he has some potential, although when it was over, he went to lean on the net and it moved and he fell over. It was quite humorous and smooth. Haha

There was a MN wild player today. I got a quick (read: not good picture) and he was wearing number 3 on his helmet. MissConduct, can you ID him? He looked older and it appeared as if he had a big scar on the left side of his chin. Thanks!

Turris is so slick. And soooo good at everything. Every time I saw something amazing I was like who was that? And it was always Turris.

Jovo left super early and Doan showed up super later. Yandle and DMo were not there at all.

Mueller did this slick pass to Turris. He was spinning in circles (like a dog does when trying to lie down) and had the other team going what the hell and then passed it behind his back across the ice. I was like holy shit, how did he do that??

Carcillo had four guys on him at one point and shoved his way through them all the while still controlling the puck.

Maloney, Trevling (spelling?), Fuhr and new asst coach guy were all in the bleachers. When Carcillo came out and was in front of them, he got this huge grin and saluted them.

If I think of anything else, I will post it! I just had to get all this down before it left my brain, so excuse any fragments and grammatical errors!

Picture from top to bottom:

Daniel Winnik, Daniel Carcillo, Dan Cleary, Carcillo, Carcillo Stretching

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.