Phoenix Coyotes Hockey on AZ Vibe

God I hope not.  Now this is just pure speculation here. Ales Kotalik was about to be traded this evening to an unnamed team.  Now the rumor mill is starting to churn about where Kotalik was going to go and who he would be traded for.  Instead of fueling rumors, here’s the facts:

1) New York Rangers GM Glen Sather was in attendance at the Coyotes/Flames game the other night

2) Calgary Flames GM Brent Sutter was in attendance at the Coyotes/Flames game the other night

3) Ales Kotalik dressed only once in the past nine games

4)Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported that Kotalik remained in Phoenix while the rest of the Rangers traveled to Denver.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/rangers/ales_kotalik_leaves_rangers_over_fmjYG1tgtTd2bcYnXMcpbN

5) Robert Lang was scratched tonight for the Coyotes.  Lang never gets scratched.

Now this is purely speculation but were the Phoenix Coyotes…er…Don Maloney about to trade Robert Lang for Ales Kotalik?  Or was Kotalik going to the Flames in a different deal?

Again this is just speculation.  I don’t claim (or ever have claimed) to have ‘inside information’.

Phoenix Coyotes vs. Dallas Stars
American Airlines Center – Dallas, Texas
Puck Drops at 4:00PM Arizona Time
TV: FSN AZ (Tape Delayed) – RADIO: XTRA 910

Follow game analysis LIVE on our Twitter account:

http://www.twitter.com/azvibe

Last five games:
Stars: 3-2-0
Coyotes: 4 – 1 – 0
Last ten games:
Stars: 5 – 5 – 0
Coyotes: 6 – 3 – 1

The Coyotes and Dallas Stars meet for the third (of six) meetings this season with the Coyotes winning both previous meetings in November.  The Coyotes will be playing six of the next eight games on the road before the Olympic break and will need every point to maintain their standings in the Western Conference.  Tonight also marks the first time Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett makes his return back to Dallas where he was their coach last season (before being replaced with current head Coach Marc Crawford).

The Stars are pretty much where I thought they would be at the beginning of the season….the middle of the pack in the division.  The Stars aren’t a bad team like the Leafs or the Oilers.  However, they aren’t a great team either.  Marc Crawford has the Stars pretty much playing at the best of their abilities this season producing solid performances yet inconsistent final scores.

The Coyotes managed to eek out a win last night after withstanding a 3rd period push by the New York Rangers.  (I know, a win is a win.)

The Coyotes are riding a three game winning streak while the Coyotes captain Shane Doan has notched twelve points in the past seven games.

Tonight will be the first night without Scottie Upshall in the lineup.  This pretty much means one of the Coyotes forwards is going to have to elevate their games to fill the void of Upshall’s absence.

Things to watch for:

- Upshall is gone.  Who is going to step up?  Now would be a great time for players like Peter Mueller or Taylor Pyatt to step their games up now wouldn’t it?

- The Stars without Ribero – Without one of their best offensive weapons in the lineup, it remains to be see who the Stars scoring threats will be.  Mike Modano is on a bit of a points streak with three goals in his last two games and six goals in his last eight games.   Brad Richards has at least a point in all home games at the American Airlines Center except for four of them.

Keys to the game:

Coyotes can’t let Ott throw them off their games – Steve Ott is going to go after the main scores on the Coyotes roster and try to sucker them into taking bad penalties.  He leads the Stars in hits and penalty minutes this season.  In addition Ott has seven points in his last nine games.

Discipline – The Coyotes have yet to play a full sixty minutes of hockey this season.  This would be a great time to start now wouldn’t it?

Time for Coyotes forwards to step up – With Upshall and the game he brings to the ice night in and night out who on the roster can step up and provide not only the energy but the scoring punch that Upshall had?  It’s time for someone on the roster to take the reigns.

Game Notes:

- Upshall is out indefinitely with a torn ACL.  He will more than likely be out for the rest of the season.

- Coyotes website has said that Robert Lang and Anders Eriksson will more than likely be healthy scratches tonight meaning…

- Jim Vandermeer and Paul Bissonnette will be in the lineup tonight.

Officials:

Referees Tom Kowal (32), Paul Devorski (10)
Linesmen Brad Lazarowich (86), Brian Mach (78)

Injuries:

Coyotes: Kurt Sauer, Scottie Upshall, Robert Lang(Healthy Scratch), Anders Eriksson(Healthy Scratch) (scratches via the Coyotes website)

Stars: Mike Ribero, Tom Wandell

Word has come down from the Phoenix Coyotes today that Scottie Upshall has a torn ACL and out indefinitely.  You can pretty much bet that Upshall will be out for most, if not all, of the rest of the regular season as recovery time for ACL injuries is around 6 months.

Todd Walsh of Fox Sports Arizona brought up a good question not too long ago on his Twitter account:

So, what does Don Maloney do?

The first logical move is to not make a move for the next few games to see if anyone on the roster steps up and fills in this role (Mueller or Pyatt anyone?)

If no one can step up over the next 2 to 5 games it’s time to bring in a player who can. Wouldn’t Edmonton Oilers forward Dustin Penner look good in a Coyotes uniform?

Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune brought up a good point just now on his Twitter account:

With Scottie Upshall out with a knee injury, I’m betting the Phoenix Coyotes look to sign Petr Sykora

That’s a good idea that would fit in the model of Don Maloney’s franchise model. However, if he doesn’t have speed, this may not be a player worth looking at.

These will be an interesting next few weeks for all Coyotes fans to watch and see what happens.

This game was all about 19 year old New York Rangers Rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto….for the most part. He was the main focus for most (and in some cases all) the goals scored in this game.

For you Coyotes fans who aren’t familiar with Michael Del Zotto, he had been billed at the beginning of this season as the next great Rangers defenseman. Media types were equating him to Brian Leetch in all aspects of his game.

I thought it was all hype until I actually sat down and watched him in action during some Rangers games in the first part of the season. What I saw was exactly as the media hyped him up to be….a damn good defenseman. At 19 years old, this kid was running the #1 Power play for the Rangers with skill, puck poise, precision, and on ice vision far beyond his years. My jaw literally dropped with the raw talent Del Zotto possessed.

Well, that didn’t last for very long as his talent was put into the background as his age and lack of NHL experience began to be the major influence on how he played the game.

When the Rangers came to the Jobing.com arena, he put his inexperience on display as the centerpiece to the game. However, he showed the fans who were paying attention a tiny glimpse of his talent from the beginning of the season.

In short, this game was decided on solely on the mistakes that Michael Del Zotto made on the ice which led to all three Phoenix Coyotes goals.

Coyotes Goal #1 – Watch as Michael Del Zotto comes into view at center ice and attempts to cover Shane Doan (with the puck). Instead of taking Doan head on, he makes a crucial mistake and turns his back to Doan. Doan then takes Del Zotto to school and scores the first goal of the game.

Coyotes Goal #2 – Del Zotto fails to not only stop the puck on the left point but he allows Taylor Pyatt to begin a breakout that leads to Boedker’s goal

Coyotes Goal #3 – That’s Del Zotto on Peter Mueller who didn’t do much to stop Mueller from passing the puck to Sami Lepisto for the goal.

Now, to be fair Del Zotto was on the ice for both the goals that the Rangers scored. Furthermore, Del Zotto did make one good play that led to a Rangers Goal.

Rangers Goal #1 – Del Zotto’s check of Petr Prucha into the boards caused a turnover that lead to Marion Gaborik’s goal.

Game hi lights

Dave Tippett’s Post Game presser:

Coyotes Post Game comments:

Game Summary:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020814.HTM

Event Summary:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020814.HTM

Play by Play:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020814.HTM

Face offs:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020814.HTM

Phoenix Coyotes vs. New York Rangers
Jobing.com Arena – Glendale, Arizona
Puck Drops at 6:00PM Arizona Time
TV: FSN AZ (HD) – RADIO: XTRA 910

Last five games:
Rangers: 1 – 4 – 0
Coyotes: 3 – 2 – 0
Last ten games:
Rangers: 3 – 6 – 1
Coyotes: 5 – 4 – 1

The New York Rangers and the Phoenix Coyotes meet for the second time this season. These two teams last met on October 26th where the Rangers walloped the Coyotes 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.  At the time, the Rangers were a wrecking machine and had some very early buzz about going deep into the playoffs this year.

Tonight will be the last of a two game home stand for the Coyotes as they will head out on the road again for an extended road trip which starts in Dallas tomorrow night.   Also, the team will honor the first true Phoenix Coyotes legend as they induct defenseman Teppo Numminen into the Ring of Honor before tonight’s game.

The Rangers have gone into a sort of transformation since the last time the two teams met at Madison Square Garden on October 26, 2009…..a transformation for the worse.  The Rangers have only won twice in the past eight games and don’t look like they are turning things around anytime soon.

When looking at the video of the Rangers past four games, there are many problems/weaknesses/issues that stick out like a sore thumb.  The biggest thing that sticks out is that the Rangers really aren’t putting forth the effort to win.  They’re not taking the extra steps and doing the little things needed to win no matter what the situation.  It’s like they’re playing but they don’t want to put forth the effort to do anything positive.  It’s like watching a team of individuals instead of the ‘team’ that they were at the beginning of the season.

On paper, the Rangers have the talent to win.  In reality, they’re doing everything but that.

I can now see why Rangers Fans are taking measure such as this (must have a Facebook account to view):

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=272851463916&ref=ts

….to let Rangers ownership know that they’re tired of  how this team is being run.

How bad has this Rangers team sunk?  Lets take a look at the offensive output of the Rangers top seven scorers (in order of points) for the last four games:

Marian Gaborik – Zero points
Vinny Prospal – One assist
Ryan Callahan – One Goal
Brandon Dubinski – Zero points
Michael Del Zotto – Zero points
Ales Kotalik – Zero points (Did not dress for three of the four games as it looked like he was scratched for many games)
Chris Drury – Zero points

When it comes to the Coyotes, this is one of these games that they can win.  However, they need to keep up the effort from the previous game with the Flames to come out and shut the Rangers down…..hard.  From the looks of things, the Rangers really don’t have many scoring threats after their top seven scorers.  The Rangers just aren’t balanced in the scoring (or effort) department like the Coyotes are.

This game isn’t an excuse to take the foot off the gas pedal.  Its more of an excuse to floor it and make the Rangers roadkill.

Things to keep an eye on:

The Rangers:  Are they going to float around again or are they going to come out like they did at the beginning of the season and put the hurt on people?

The Pre Game Ceremony inducting Teppo Numminen into the Coyotes Ring of Honor – This is one of these events that all Coyotes fans should watch.  It’s a special night that doesn’t come around too often.

Keys to the game:

- Forecheck the ‘H’-'E’-'Double hockey sticks’ out of the Rangers -Since the Rangers are playing so aloofly, putting on some intensive forechecking has shown the Rangers to get flustered when attempting to move the puck out of their defensive zone in transition.

Work Lunqvist’s stick side from long range and his glove side short range

Coyotes defensive discipline – The last thing the Coyotes need is a relapse of the Red Wings game defensively.  The Coyotes can shut the Rangers down.  However, the Coyotes have to play smart hockey to win.

Game Notes

- According to the Coyotes, Jason LaBarbera will get the start in goal tonight for the Coyotes

- Mikkel Bodeker was recalled from San Antonio to fill Scottie Upshall’s injury spot on the roster

- No word yet on how long Scottie Upshall is out for.

Injuries:

Rangers: None

Coyotes: Kurt Sauer, Scottie Upshall

Officials:
Referees #15 Stephane Auger; #28 Chris Lee
Linesmen #74 Lonnie Cameron; #77 Tim Nowak

The Coyotes just called up Mikkel Boedker up from San Antonio.  That pretty much means that Scottie Upshall is out of the lineup for at least the game against the Rangers Saturday.

Phoenix Coyotes vs. Calgary Flames
Jobing.com Arena – Glendale, Arizona
Puck Drops at 7:00PM Arizona Time
TV: NHL Center Ice (No Local TV) – RADIO: XTRA 910

Follow game analysis LIVE on our Twitter account:

http://www.twitter.com/azvibe

Last five games:
Flames: 0 – 4 – 1
Coyotes: 3 – 2 – 0
Last ten games:
Flames: 1 – 7 – 2
Coyotes: 4 – 5 – 1

The Flames are currently in a massive free fall having only won one game (and 2 overtime losses) in their past 11 games.  Looking at the scoring in those eleven games it seems that both the Flames offense and defense are stagnant having started the 2009-2010 season off with a bang.  With a quick look at their season injuries some key players on their roster have spent time out of the lineup.  Players such as Craig Conroy, David Moss, and Nigel Dawes could be one of the reasons why the Flames are doing so poorly as of late.

However, if you look at their key scorers you can see they have been struggling for points in their past 11:

Jarome Igilna – 3 Points
Dion Phaneuf – 4 points
Jay Bouwmeester – 1 point
Olli Jokinen – 4 points
Damon Langkow – 4 points

Finally, normally rock solid goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff has only 1 win in their last 11.

Based on all of this, it would see that the Calgary Flames are having both offensive and defensive problems.

Now add to the mix the Flames losing in overtime last night to the Dallas Stars.

This could be a long night for the Flames if….

…the Coyotes come out and play their game.

The Coyotes are coming off a great win on national television in dramatic fashion against the Red Wings. However, this wasn’t a perfect game for the Coyotes as they allowed some horrible goals due to the lack of solid, disciplined defensive coverage. These were some horrible, stoppable goals that visibly showed Head Coach Dave Tippett launching some great profanities at the idiocy of the goals allowed.

This can be a statement game for the Coyotes as they have the opportunity to show something they have yet to display this season….a killer instinct.

Things to watch for:

Calgary Flames – How will they come out of the gate given their past 11 games?

Coyotes Defense – Are they going to stop the bleeding by no longer chasing the puck?

Keys to the game:

DISCIPLINE IN THE DEFENSIVE ZONE – Stop playing stupid hockey! No more chasing the puck.

Killer instinct – This is an opportunity for the Coyotes to show

No more stupid penalties – There’s a reason why they’re called STUPID penalties.

Notes:

- Flames Defenseman Jay Bouwmeister is the NHL’s current reigning Ironman playing in 395 straight games.

Officials:

Referees #19 Gord Dwyer; #23 Brad Watson

Linesmen #74 Lonnie Cameron; #77 Tim Nowak

….how did the Coyotes normally stingy defense allow four goals? Don’t get me wrong, the Coyotes played a GREAT game…. offensively….in a come from behind win….on national television. In that sense, it was a HELL of a statement game for the Coyotes.

That said, this was one of the worst defensive games that the Coyotes have played this season. For whatever reason, the Coyotes seem to be content chasing the puck all over the defensive zone while their opponents patiently wait for the inevitable mismatch to happen.

Here’s a great example of the Coyotes chasing the puck in their defensive zone with Nicklas Lidstrom’s second goal. Watch how all 4 Coyotes players on the Penalty Kill migrate toward the puck side of the ice allowing Lidstrom to sneak in and score a gift wrapped goal.

Here’s another example with Lidstrom’s first goal. This is a 5 on 5 situation where Shane Doan and then Matthew Lombardi both play the puck instead of playing the man. The Play develops as Lidstom passes the puck to Henrik Zetterberg for a ‘give and go’.

Shane Doan was the initial defensive man on the play going after Lidstrom on the point (at the time with the puck). After Lidstrom’s pass to Zetterberg, Lombardi starts skating over to cover Zetterberg who then passes the puck back to Lidstrom. By the time Lombardi realized the mistake that the puck was going back to Lidstrom the play had passed him. You can see what happens after that…..

Had Lombardi stayed at home in the slot, the chances are great that Lidstrom would have never gotten his shot off that went by Bryzgalov.

As for the Coyotes offensively, the Red Wings put up some pretty good defense especially holding Michalek, Jovocop, Eriksson, Aucoin all without a shot on goal after the first period. The Red Wings had clearly watched the Capitals/Coyotes game tapes in reference to keeping the Coyotes defensemen off any offensive scoring stats. The Coyotes had 8 shots on goal at the end of the first.

As soon as the Coyotes adjusted to this in the Second and Third periods, offensively it was a different game.

Again, this was a GREAT win for the Coyotes on national television but the defensive discipline needs attention ASAFP.

Game hi lights

Game Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020784.HTM

Event Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020784.HTM

Play by Play

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020784.HTM

Dave Tippett’s Post Game Presser (Coursey of PhoenixCoyotes.com):

Keith Yandle – Post Game Comments (Coursey of PhoenixCoyotes.com)

http://coyotes.nhl.com/club/podcastplayer.htm?pid=335&iid=19539

Henrik Zetterberg – Post Game comments

Mike Babcock Post game comments

Phoenix Coyotes vs. Detroit Red Wings
Joe Lewis Arena – Detroit, Michigan
Puck Drops at 5:00PM Arizona Time
TV: Versus – RADIO: XTRA 910

Follow game analysis LIVE on our Twitter account:

http://www.twitter.com/azvibe

Last five games:
Red Wings: 1-2-2
Coyotes: 3 – 2 – 0
Last ten games:
Red Wings: 4 – 4 – 2
Coyotes: 4 – 5 – 1

The Phoenix Coyotes travel to Detroit to take on the injury plagued, yet resilient, Detroit Red Wings for the final time this season.  The two teams will battle in a game that will be shown on national television (Versus).  The Red Wings are coming off a loss to the LA Kings where they allowed three unanswered goals after taking a commanding 2-0 lead.  As you can see above they are 1-2-2 in their last 5 with their only win coming against the Minnesota Wild.

The Coyotes may be breathing a sigh of relief now that Coyote killer Tomas Holmstrom is out of the lineup.  If you may remember from an article I published not too long ago, Holmstrom has been a thorn in the side of the Coyotes defense as he has consistently found holes in the Coyotes stingy defense scoring three goals in the process.

Even with these facts about the Red Wings, they still are putting up impressive stats.

For example:

- Detroit’s Penalty Kill Unit has killed off 25 of 30 PP attempts
- Detroit’s Power Play Unit has a 17.2% success (5 for 29) rate in the last 10 games
- Young goaltender Jimmy Howard is 6th in the NHL in GAA at 2.23.

The Coyotes are coming off a tough loss to the Washington Capitals where they spent way too much time in the penalty box and made some mental errors that cost them the game (not to mention the Caps shutting down the Coyotes defensemen with shots on goal). They are playing a battered Red Wings team that they can beat….if they play solid Coyotes hockey.

Things to Watch for:

Todd Bertuzzi/Pavel Datsyuk/Henrik Zetterberg – Datsyuk and Zetterberg have seen their offensive output slow down over the past few weeks. The past few weeks have also seen the re-emergence of Todd Bertuzzi as a legitimate offensive weapon for the Red Wings. He may be a big body with a big presence on the ice but he can still skate and has amazing hands.

Coyotes stupid penalties – I’m going to put the over/under at 4 penalties.   Let’s see if they hit the over for the second game in a row.  (We reserve the right to negate this bet in the case of horrid officiating, Steve Perry fans, or people reciting lines from ‘Back to the Future’.

Keys to the game:

Stay. Out. Of. The. Penalty. Box. – Yeesh.

Bodies in front of the Wings goaltender – Whomever is starting, the Coyotes have to roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty in front of the Red Wings goaltender. If the previous games are any indication, the Red Wings will crash the crease around their goaltender and eat up any rebounds that happen. The Coyotes need to get in there, bang bodies, and pick up those juicy rebounds.

Shut down the Wings shooting lanes – The Coyotes have allowed 71 shots on goal in the past two games. This is not acceptable. Bryz can only do so much when it comes to stopping pucks. Its time for the Coyotes to start limiting the opponents shooting lanes as well as blocking more shots.
Injuries:

Red Wings: Andreas Lilja, Johan Franzen, Jason Williams, Tomas Holmstrom

Coyotes: Daniel Winnik, Kurt Sauer

Officials:

Referees – Kevin Pollock-33 & Justin St. Pierre-45
Linesmen – Greg Devorski-54 & Steve Miller-89

Now the score of the game doesn’t really tell the story of the game. This was an extremely close battle between the one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and one of the top teams in the west. The main things that kept this from being one of those battle for the ages were mostly mistakes on the Coyotes part and partially the Capitals playing a great game.

As I’ve said before, the main key to the Coyotes being successful not only in this game but for the whole season is that they not only need to make less mistakes than their opponents. The Coyotes also need to capitalize on any mistake that their opponents make.

For this game with the Capitals, they didn’t do either.

As I see it, the reasons why the Coyotes lost were these:

1) Coyotes Defensemen being shut down in the shots department – One of the Capitals game plans was to shut down the Coyotes defensemen in the Offensive department. The Capitals recognized that scoring by Coyotes Defensemen are a solid part of the overall game plan for their Success. The Capitals countered this by shutting down shooting lanes and preventing the Coyotes D-men from making offensive contributions. The result was that the Capitals shut down the Coyotes defense to three shots on goal for the whole game.

The final shots tally for defensemen is as follows:

Jim Vandermeer – 1 Shot on Goal (SOG)
Keith Yandle – 4 SOG
Zbynek Michalek – 0 SOG
Sami Lepisto – 0 SOG
Adrian Aucoin – 0 SG
Ed Jovanovski – 4 SOG

2) Poor penalties – The Coyotes pretty much spent the total of an entire period in the Penalty Box (8 penalties totaling 16 minutes) giving the #1 power play in the league the opportunity to rack up the goals…..and they did. Twice.

3) A lack of discipline by the Coyotes in their defensive zone – chased the puck all around the ice.

Here’s two examples:

1) Michalek gets nailed playing the puck instead of staying near Bryzgalov and stopping the goal by Brooks Laich

…..and watch as Alexander Semin takes advantage of the breakdown in the Coyotes defensive coverage by scoring a goal with no defensive coverage.

Game hi-lights

Game summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020764.HTM

Event Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020764.HTM

Play by Play

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020764.HTM

Faceoff Stats

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020764.HTM

Tippett’s presser

Comments from the Coyotes Locker room

Caps players comments:

Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau