Coyotes vs. New Jersey Devils

Jobing.com Arena – Glendale, AZ -
January 14th, 2010 – Puck drops at 7:00 PM AZ Time
No Local TV – Radio: XTRA – 910 AM

Follow game analysis LIVE on our Twitter account:

http://www.twitter.com/azvibe

Recent records:

Last five games:
Devils: 4 – 1 – 0
Coyotes: 1 – 3 – 1

Last ten games:
Devils: 7 – 3 – 0
Coyotes: 4 – 3 – 3

Wow! The Coyotes have a game that ISN’T against the Sharks….and it’s even against an Eastern conference team!

Well, the New Jersey Devils roll into town as one of the hottest teams of the season behind the Coaching of former Minnesota Wild coach Jacques Lemaire. Lemaire’s games are under the watchful eye of GM/President/Czar Lou Lamoriello. Lamoriello deservedly was enshrined into the 2009 class of the Hockey Hall of Fame for his amazing work in making the New Jersey Devils a perennial power not only in the Eastern Conference and the NHL.

There’s also some dude name Brodeur who is supposedly pretty good in net. However, there’s never any sort of news coverage letting everyone know what his skills are like in game situations.

Seriously, as much as the media love to jump on the Brodeur bandwagon the team in front of him get little to no credit in the media. I’m not saying that Brodeur isn’t deserving of any accolades this season. However, he isn’t the only player on the ice for the New Jersey Devils.

When it comes to both teams records against teams in their conference is pretty damned impressive. However, the Coyotes and Devils records against teams in the opposite conference from which they play is pretty average. The Devils are 4-3-1 versus the Western conference this season and the Coyotes are 5-4-1 against the Eastern Conference this season.

The Phoenix Coyotes are facing their first adversity of the season. This is a good thing as the Coyotes need to have a bout of not winning all the time to keep them hungry. From what I can see (and without being able to talk to the team), it seems that all the formerly injured players who have returned to the lineup either aren’t 100% healthy or aren’t up to 100% game speed. It also seems that some of the players who are healthy have been letting off the gas in their games a bit as formerly injured players have returned to the Coyotes lineup. Are they expecting these formerly injured players to pick up all the slack?

Things to keep an eye on:

Devils Forwards vs – Coyotes Defense – This is a very interesting matchup as the Devils top line are responsible for the majority of the Devil’s stats.

Jaques Lemaire – He’s as crafty as they come when it has to do with the ‘X’s’ and ‘O’s’ of games. His knowledge of the game is astronomical and if he smells a weakness in his opponents games, he will attack those weaknesses to the best of his and his players abilities.

Oh ok…..

Martin Brodeur – After a shaky(for him) start he’s been playing at a pretty high level being a sold force in the net. Like Islanders Goaltender Dwayne Roloson, Martin Brodeur seems to have found the fountain of youth in their games.

Keys to the game:

Shut down the Devils top line – The line of Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner, Travis Zajac account for 121 of New Jersey’s 198 points this season. Shut this line down and it’s going to be tough for the Devils to produce offense tonight.

Penalties = bad – That’s as simple as it can be said. Stay out of the #$@%#@$% box.

Step up and Step on the gas – It’s time for the entire team to start pulling their weight around the ice. It seems when Vandermeer, Upshall, etc came back from injury the team took their collective feet off the gas pedals and coasted through games. It’s time to stop and put their proverbial feet on the gas pedals and not let up.

Check snot out of the devils – One of the trademarks of Jacques Lemaire’s system is to play a slow defensive game against opponents. There are two ways to beat this 1) Precision puck movement and checking the crap out of the opponents in the neutral zone.

Notes:
- How do the Devil’s PR people NOT put any information about CEO/President/Grand Poobah/Overlord/GM Lou Lamoriello being inducted in
the 2009 Class of the Hockey Hall of Fame into the media notes for this game?!?!?!

- The Devils have not lost more than one game in a row this season since October 5th, 2009 (the second game this season)

Injuries:
Coyotes: Kurt Sauer, Ed Jovanovski(suspension)
Devils: David Clarkson, Dainius Zubrus, Paul Martin

Officials:
Referees – #14 Dennis LaRue; #38 Francois St. Laurent
Linesmen – #77 Tim Nowak; #95 Jonny Murray