Coyotes 2 – Blue Jackets 1 – SO – Zzzzzzzz….wait…what?….the Coyotes won?!?!?!?

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The Coyotes played the second game of a back to back road schedule in Columbus Thursday night and they continued the pace and the winning ways from the night before in Toronto….with one exception….too many stupid penalties. The two teams battled to the shutout with the Coyotes prevailing on a Robert Lang goal on Blue Jackets Goaltender Mathieu Garon.

The game wasn’t as exciting as the final outcome.

The game was a defensive battle that was filled with sometimes stupid penalties from Coyotes players. It seems that this is starting to become a re-occurring theme with the Coyotes in that they aren’t (as a whole) disciplined enough to know when is a good time to take a penalty and when it’s not time to take a penalty. The Coyotes are well versed in the latter statement in the last sentence and it may come back to bite them down the road if they don’t fix it.

However, the story of the game was Coyotes goaltender Jason Labarbera who stopped 38 of 39 shots on goal some of them extremely impressive. It was LaBarbera’s first start since the middle of November and he looked quick and sharp in net. The Coyotes seemed to feed off his solid play in net and played good (not great) in return.

That was until Petr Prucha’s stupid goaltending interference penalty that lead almost instantly to Rick Nash’s Power Play goal. This penalty is the example of one of the main problems with the Coyotes in that they all take stupid penalties at one time or another. No player is exempt. They just can’t learn that there are just some times in specific game situations that they shouldn’t take a penalty.

Expansion on our Twitter Game Analysis notes:

Good puck moving teams have figured out that you can catch the yotes napping on the weak side in their D-zone. Needs to be fixed.

This is something I’ve been keeping an eye on since the beginning of the season. This situation happens when the Coyotes lose their defensive discipline in their defensive zone. The weak side (to the puck…no matter what the game situation in their defensive zone) defenseman always seems to play the opposing team’s forwards instead of keeping an eye on the puck. In the process, the teams with good puck movement can catch the Coyotes with their proverbial pants down and score (or get a really good scoring chance).

Sean Burke’s Things to work on in Practice with LaBarbera: Puck movement/control in pressure situations.

It’s starting to become clear that one of Jason LaBarbera’s weaknesses in his game is that he has problems playing the puck when pressured by his opponents. I’m not sure why this is happening but it is something that should be noted for fans to look out for.

Things to work on:

Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!!!

Game Highlights

Game Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020506.HTM

Event Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020506.HTM

Play by Play

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020506.HTM

Faceoff stats

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020506.HTM

Shootout Report

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/SO020506.HTM

Photos from the Game: