Coyotes 4 – Devils 3 – Two Positives make a negative….duhhh
I wanted to sit down and re-watch the second period of this game before I did this writeup as many people didn’t agree with me that it was a good period for the Coyotes. The main basis for their arguments was the fact that the Devils out shot the Coyotes 15 to 1 in the middle frame. Sure that was a telling stat. However, my gut told me something else was going on.
I basically said (in reply to Coyotes fans on the AZ Vibe Twitter feed) the second period for the Coyotes really wasn’t that bad. In addition, I also said that the score up to this point (the end of the second) was the result of both teams exploiting mistakes and weaknesses in their opponents games. The Devils and Coyotes exploiting each others weaknesses is pretty much how you summed up the game.
However, I needed to look over the game video again…..
When looked over the video of the second period and looking over the four main stat sheets (links below), I found the following things out:
- The Coyotes kept Devils offensive players away from Bryz allowing the Coyotes net-minder to see every shot that came his way. In most of the video, Coyotes players can be seen in man on man coverage whenever the Devils entered their offensive zone.
-The Coyotes never established their offensive zone nor did they have any form of controlled entry into their offensive zone for the majority of the second period.
In short, the Devils didn’t allow the Coyotes to enter their Offensive zone and the Coyotes didn’t allow the Devils to make very many quality scoring chances in New Jersey Offensive zone. They pretty much canceled each other out.
Hi-lights from the game:
Dave Tippett’s post game presser
Game Summary
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020701.HTM
Event Summary
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020701.HTM
Play by Play
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020701.HTM
Face Off
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020701.HTM
Game Summary
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020701.HTM
Event Summary
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020701.HTM
Play by Play
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020701.HTM
Face Off
http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020701.HTM
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