Opening night in LA! Impressive…most impressive!
Wow! The Phoenix Coyotes started off the season with a BANG by defeating the Los Angeles Kings, in Los Angeles, 6-3.
With roughly a week behind the bench, new Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett got not only the Coyotes fans talking but the rest of the NHL as well with a huge statement they made Saturday night in Los Angeles.
The Coyotes were aggressive on the forecheck, attacking the Kings in their transition game at every opportunity and attacking every kind of weakness that the Kings had in their game.
To say the offensive explosion was impressive is an understatement. I had a feeling that the Coyotes were going to build on their successes at the mid point of last season where they finished 5th in the West at the all star break. I picked the Coyotes to finish 2nd or 3rd in the Pacific this season (posted it to the AZ Vibe Twitter account on Friday) and between 6th and 8th in the West. However, I had absolutely no clue that they would come out so aggressively and score six goals with such confidence and style.
Robert Lang and Scott Upshall’s goal in the third (video below) pretty much summed up how badly the Kings played.
That said, it wasn’t a perfect game. One of the biggest glaring weaknesses with the Coyotes against the Kings was on the Coyotes Penalty Kill unit where all three Kings goals were scored. Two of the goals were exploiting Coyotes Goaltender Ilja Bryzgalov’s slow lateral movement as well as defensive breakdowns in coverage on the weak side of the puck. The other goal was the Coyotes allowing a Kings Power Play unit forward to set up shop in front of Bryzgalov without any Coyotes player moving him out of the way.
I know it’s only the first game of the season, but Coyotes fans can’t help to be impressed by this offensive output. If they can fix the problems on the Penalty Kill units, and tighten up a few other defensive items, the Coyotes are going to be a very dangerous team this season.
Box Score of the game from NHL.com:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/boxscore.htm?id=2009020021
TSN Video Re-cap:
http://watch.tsn.ca/nhl/clip220376#clip220376
The NHL cut a very nice re-cap of the Coyotes/Kings game with all the great moments on both sides.
Post Game Presser with Dave Tippett:
http://coyotes.nhl.com/club/podcastplayer.htm?pid=337&iid=15578&navid=DL|PHX|home
Post Game Presser with Radim Vrbata:
http://coyotes.nhl.com/club/podcastplayer.htm?pid=335&iid=15577&navid=DL|PHX|home
We started this site to meet the growing demand by Coyotes fans in their need for Coyotes News. We do things a bit differently here. We don\'t provide the canned articles you would find on most other sites. We provide analysis, news, and information with a bit of attitude. EDITORIAL MISSION: We let the other guy handle the box scores and stuff like that. We fill in the gaps in coverage....and trust me there are lots of gaps in local coverage that need to be filled.
