Phoenix Coyotes Hockey on AZ Vibe

Phoenix Coyotes (32 – 12 – 6 – 70 pts) vs. Washington Capitals (29 – 17 – 5 – 63 pts)

Verizon Center – Washington, D.C.
January 23th, 2010 – Puck drops at 5:00 PM AZ Time
NHL Center Ice/Game Center (No Local TV) – Radio: XTRA – 910 AM

Game is available to veiw online (for free via Yahoo!)

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/hockeynight/2010012323

Follow game analysis LIVE on our Twitter account:

http://www.twitter.com/azvibe

Recent records:

Last five games:
Capitals: 5 – 0 – 0
Coyotes: 3 – 2 – 0

Last ten games:
Capitals: 8 – 2 – 0
Coyotes: 4 – 4 – 2

The Coyotes embark on a quick two game road trip beginning tonight in the Nation’s capital to take on the RED HOT Washington Capitals.

The Capitals are 8-2 in their last 10 games and have won their last five straight. They are a very strong team offensively as you can see from the scoring leaders for the Caps above.  However, like the Devils, their scoring trails off after their second line.  Shut down these lines and it will tip the scales in the Coyotes favor.

The Coyotes are coming off a pretty good win against the Predators the other night even though they allowed over 40 shots on Bryzgalov.  The Coyotes have the ability to beat the Caps in their own barn if they can play some tight defensive hockey.

The Coyotes schedule to the Olympic break is a pretty tough one and it starts tonight against one of the top teams in the East.  The Coyotes haven’t fared pretty with a 6-5-1 record but given their success on the road, they can come out on top.

Things to keep an eye on:

Capitals First line – Like the Devils, the Caps have some pretty brutal top two lines that can score on you at will if you’re not on your game.

Coyotes in their defensive zone – Keep an eye on how they match up with the Coyotes scoring threats and if they can limit shooting lanes on the Caps

Keys to the game:

Limit the Caps shooting lanes – The Coyotes may have beaten the Predators but they allowed over 40 shots on Bryzgalov.  This is unacceptable against the Caps forwards.

Shut down the caps top two lines – As stated above, if the Caps top two lines can be shut down by the Coyotes, the advantage in the game will go to the Coyotes.

Take advantage of the Eastern Conference Defense – In the Eastern Conference, the style of defense is that it’s merely a suggestion.  Look for mismatches and weakenesses then exploit them.

Game Notes

- Game is available online at Yahoo! http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/hockeynight/2010012323
- John Erskine will play tonight (via Tarik El-Bashir – Caps Beat Writer)
- Mike Greene is back in the lineup tonight (via Tarik El-Bashir – Caps Beat Writer)
- According to the Caps Pre-game reports backup golatender Michal Neuvirth will start for the Caps tonight

Officials:
Referees – 7-Bill McCreary, 41-Chris Ciamaga
Linesmen – 77-Tim Nowak, 59-Steve Barton

Injuries/Scratches:

Coyotes: Daniel Winnik, Kurt Sauer

Capitals: Tyler Sloan, Quintin Laing, Brian Pothier, Semyon Varlamov

The Phoenix Coyotes closed out their six game homestand in dramatic fashion with a come from behind win against the Nashville predators. Led by Scottie Upshall’s first hat trick the Coyotes played a full 60 minutes of hockey for the first time in many games. Upshall’s natural hat trick was the Coyotes first one since Feb 5th, 2008 when Peter Mueller scored the first three goals of the game in their loss to Calgary 4-3.

The game’s attendance and broadcast were effected by the insane storm that hit the area during the game. However, this didn’t effect the performance by the Coyotes on the ice as they displayed the style of Hockey that fans have waiting to appear since the beginning of the year.

Led by the play of Shane Doan and Matthew Lombardi, the Coyotes took advantage of numerous Predators mistakes on both ends of the ice.

This is a great win for the Coyotes but their next game against the Washington Capitals will be the test for them.

Game Hi-lights

Coach Tippett’s post game presser:

Game Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020752.HTM

Event Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020752.HTM

Play by Play

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020752.HTM

Face Off

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020752.HTM

Here’s how the natural Hat Trick Went Down:

Goal #1:

Goal #2

Goal #3

As fans have seen over the past 8 games, the Phoenix Coyotes seemed to have lost the edge to their game (before their game with the Nashville Predators last night) that had made them so successful. At times they played some very solid hockey while beating some very good teams around the league. However, there are other times the Phoenix Coyotes played like a team that swapped uniforms with a group of average joe’s.

It’s hard to track when this started as it can be pin pointed to many moments in time such as injuries, schedule, teams played and so on. However, when you really look at when this slide started it’s almost as if a light switch was turned on and the Coyotes game fell apart at the seams.

So what happened? What caused the games to be so disappointing?

I’m going to break down some of the things that caused the Coyotes the loss of their momentum and the solidity of their overall game.

1) Defense – For the first part of the season, the Coyotes had one of the most tightest and toughest defense in the NHL….but then it took a nose dive.

- Not knowing where their opponents are/were on the ice. The Coyotes, at times, were so focused on the play in their defensive zone they didn’t see what was going on around or behind them. With the goals they allowed, opponents just snuck up behind the defense un touched and scored practically at will.

Just watch Tomas Holmstrom (#96) of the Detroit Red Wings in the example below. He was the first one to start this trend. The Coyotes opponents that they played following this game clearly studied the tape of Homstrom’s antics as multiple teams used this tactic in recent games.

- Playing the puck and not the man or their zone/area - One of the biggest problems that went hand in hand with the Coyotes worst losses of the season was the fact that they chased the puck around in their defensive zone like a dog chasing its tail. In the process of the Coyotes chasing or watching the puck, the opponents got in open positions and scored.

Here’s an example with the Vancouver Canucks Alex Burrows – Watch how the Coyotes in front of Bryz stand and watch the puck instead of taking the man.

….and again with Burrows…

- Mental errors in coverage – At times the Coyotes seemed to have been playing like individuals in that they seemed to be taking it upon themselves to do their own thing defensively and not play Tippett’s system.

Here’s an example of the Coyotes not playing Tippett’s system defensively. This mental lapse led to a goal by the Vancouver Canucks….

2) Bryzgalov – Coyotes Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov has been rock sold in the first part of the season. However, even when he was at his best he had two main weaknesses. The first weakness in his game is in the shootout where he seems to have problems with glove side stops.

The second weakness in Bryzgalov’s game is the most important one:

- His Inability to stop 3 hole and 4 hole pucks

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Goaltender’s Holes, check this out:

Hockey 101 – The Goaltender has 5 ‘holes’ or areas he must cover during a game. The Holes are as follows:

1 Hole – Glove Side High – This is the area between the goaltenders mask and his glove arm
2 Hole – Glove Side Low – This is the area between the goaltenders glove arm and his leg
3 Hole – Stick Side High – This is the area between the goaltenders mask and his stick side arm
4 Hole – Stick Side Low – This is the area between the goaltenders stick side arm and his leg
5 Hole – The Area between the goaltenders legs

One of Bryzgalov’s problems this season has been his inability to stop stick side pucks which are his three and four holes. I’m not sure if he’s just not paying attention or he simply can’t stop these pucks. Of the soft goals he’s let in this year, many of them have been via the 3 and 4 holes.

Example #1 with Patrick Eaves of the Red Wings

Example #2 with Tyler Meyers of the Buffalo Sabres

3) Transition game

This is a sample of the Coyotes at their worse when the opponents are in transition from their offensive zone to their defensive zone. This video also has elements of ‘mental errors in coverage’.

4) Offense….or lack thereof

There were many reasons why the Phoenix Coyotes were unable to score consistent offensive numbers from players who should have been on the scoresheet on a regular basis for the first part of the season. One reason was because of the lack of chemistry with so many new player on the roster. Another part of the offensive woes was related to the inability to establish and maintain the offensive zone.

When the Coyotes happened to establish their offensive zone they seemed to not want to go to the net or sit in front of the net. Not sure why that is but let’s take a look at what happens when you don’t and do put players in front of the opponents net.

No players in front of the opposing goal tenders

San Jose Goaltender Evgeni Nabokov was able to see every shot that the Coyotes threw at him. Can’t win many games if the goaltender can see EVERY shot.

On the flip side, when you put players in front of the opposing team’s goaltender, things like this happen…

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo was not able to react to the play and the puck due to the body in front of him.

Coyotes vs. Nashville Predators

Jobing.com Arena – Glendale, AZ -
January 21th, 2010 – Puck drops at 7:00 PM AZ Time
FSN AZ (HD) – Radio: XTRA – 910 AM

Follow game analysis LIVE on our Twitter account:

http://www.twitter.com/azvibe

Recent records:

Last five games:
Predators: 3 – 2 – 0
Coyotes: 2 – 2 – 1

Last ten games:
Predators: 7 – 3 – 0
Coyotes: 4 – 4 – 2

The Coyotes end their homestand against one of the more surprising teams in the NHL this season in the Nashville Predators.

With a cast of variable unknowns, Predators head coach Barry Trotz has whipped this team into a well oiled wrecking machine that is worthy of a nomination for a mid season Jack Adams nomination.

The Phoenix Coyotes are coming off their worst game of the season Monday against the Buffalo Sabres in what was one of the sloppiest games I’ve seen in a long time.

It remains to be seen how the team responds from here on out.

I can’t speak for all the fans but it’s frustrating to see a team that has the ability to become one of the top teams in the West play like the worst team in the East.  What this Coyotes team as a whole does for not only this game but for the rest of the season is going to be interesting to watch.

Things to watch for:

How the Coyotes react to their ass whoopin’ at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres

Keys to the Game:

Play 60 Minutes of Coyotes hockey – This hasn’t happened for quite some time.  The Coyotes are at their best when they can play 60 minutes of their hockey.

Defense – The Coyotes don’t seem to know what goes on around them in their defensive zone since the beginning of the year, they need to know what’s going on around them at all times.

Bryzgalov -  He’s having one hell of a year but seems to be having some challenges at the moment.  I’m not sure if it’s mental, conditioning or something else.  He has the ability to have a banner year.  However, it’s up to him how the rest of his season goes.

Officials:

Referees – #5 Chris Rooney; #6 Dan Marouelli
Linesmen – #57 Jay Sharrers; #65 Pierre Racicot

Injuries:

Coyotes: Kurt Sauer, Daniel Winnik

Predators: Jordin Tootoo, Colin Wilson

“If you can’t say something nice… don’t say nothing at all.” – Thumper from the movie Bambi

Hey Kids! Ook-ook Kaleta is back!!

Also, this is the best game of the night if not the week. The top two goaltenders in the NHL take on each other for the second time this season.

Puck Drops at 5:00 PM – Game will be on FSN AZ (HD)

Things to watch for:

Bryzgalov vs. Miller – These two teams battled each other in an EXTREMELY tight game earlier this season. I expect tonight will be a repeat of the same.

Ook-ook – As you can see from the video above, Ook-ook leveled Prucha earlier this season. Coyotes have to keep an eye on him tonight. It’s also going to be interesting to see if any Coyotes players try to take him on tonight.

Keys to the game:

Defensive discipline – The Coyotes need to end their bad habits of allowing opposing players to sneak up behind them, setup shop in front of Bryzgalov and score goals untouched.

Be Smart with the puck – No more lazy passes that lead to odd man rushes. One of the problems with the Coyotes so far this season is that they always don’t know where everyone is on the ice at any given time. The odd man rushes they gave up

Killer Instinct – If the game against the Wild showed us anything that’s lacking in the team it’s the lack of a killer instinct to put away opposing teams when the Coyotes have a commanding lead.

Officials

Referees – #5 Chris Rooney; #13 Dan O’Halloran
Linesmen – #61 Lyle Seitz; #91 Don Henderson

Injuries

Coyotes: Kurt Sauer
Sabres: None

Notes:

- Today is Jason LaBarbera’s Birthday

I had to watch this game again today (slept most of Sunday after working 19 straight hours and not falling asleep for another 5-6 hours after that) as I needed to analyze what the ‘h-e-double hockey sticks’ happened with the third period meltdown.

I mean the Coyotes played a perfect game for the first and the better part of the second, right? Everyone saw that.

Granted, the exception in the first part of the game would be where the Coyotes gave up three odd man rushes. From the two of the three rushes I looked at, this was nothing more than the Wild capitalizing on Coyotes defensemen joining the forwards down low for scoring chances. The Coyotes then got caught when the Wild happened to get possession of the puck on bad passes and started their breakouts.

I’m not going to really focus on that. When defensemen take the risk of joining in on scoring chances, odd man rushes can happen.

The third period of this game has to be one of the sloppiest games I’ve ever seen. The Coyotes played with what can be called the polar opposite of a killer instinct. Anyways, during the third, the game simply de-evolved as both teams seemed to have deployed their Swiss Cheese defensive packages.

For those of you who are new to the term ‘Swiss Cheese defense’, it means that both teams defenses were full of holes.

So what happened?

1) Poor defensive coverage

There’s two main things I noticed on the two third period power play goals was that the Coyotes was that the Wild had clearly watched the game tapes of the Coyotes and found one of their weaknesses….

The Coyotes defensemen (when in their defensive zone) don’t seem to pay attention to everything that goes on around them on the ice.

I wanted to get a good example of this but clip from the Wild game will work. This is the first powerplay goal for the Wild in the Third period. Notice how Latendresse just sneaks in from behind the goal line and deflects the puck in:

I couldn’t tell if the Coyotes were supposed to be playing a 1-2-1 coverage on the penalty kill or were they just playing really bad undisciplined defense on those two third period power play goals they gave up. Regardless, the Coyotes are allowing players to slip behind their coverage and in front of Bryzgalov unnoticed and untouched. The Red Wings did this as well the last time they played the Coyotes.

2) Bryzgalov’s 3 and 4 holes

Now, one thing I’ve been keeping an eye on is a trend I’ve been noticing over the course of the season. Opponents seem to be honing in on a specific aspect in Bryzgalov’s game. His 3 and 4 hole are anything but solid right now. He’s given up lots goals of goals (many of them soft) through these holes.

Hockey 101 – The Goaltender has 5 ‘holes’ or areas he must cover during a game. The Holes are as follows:

1 Hole – Glove Side High – This is the area between the goaltenders mask and his glove arm
2 Hole – Glove Side Low – This is the area between the goaltenders glove arm and his leg
3 Hole – Stick Side High – This is the area between the goaltenders mask and his stick side arm
4 Hole – Stick Side Low – This is the area between the goaltenders stick side arm and his leg
5 Hole – The Area between the goaltenders legs

So take a look at this video of Owen Nolan scoring his powerplay goal. Watch where the goal goes in…

Now look at this video of Bryzgalov versus the Detroit Red Wings on December 14th, 2009 and where the goal was allowed…

….and this one against the Islanders recently.

Something to work on….

Game hi lights

Dave Tippett’s post game presser

Game Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020717.HTM

Event Summary

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020717.HTM

Play by Play

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020717.HTM

Face off stats

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020717.HTM

Coyotes vs. Minnesota Wild

Jobing.com Arena – Glendale, AZ -
January 16th, 2010 – Puck drops at 6:00 PM AZ Time
No Local TV (Game is on NHL Center Ice/Gamecenter) – Radio: XTRA – 910 AM

Follow game analysis LIVE on our Twitter account:

http://www.twitter.com/azvibe

Recent records:

Last five games:
Wild: 4 – 1 – 0
Coyotes: 2 – 2 – 1

Last ten games:
Wild: 5 – 5 – 0
Coyotes: 4 – 3 – 3

Hmmm….

Looking at the season series as it stands right now, there’s tons of similarities in between the two games:

1) The Coyotes won both of them
2) Ilya Bryzgalov and Niklas Backstrom started both games in Goal
3) Scottie Upshall scored the game winning goals in both of them

What does this all mean? I don’t know!

Ok, Pee Wee Herman moment over.

As you note above the Wild are 4 and 1 in their last five games beating some VERY good teams (Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Calgary). They seemed to have found the right chemistry by making Petr Sykora a healthy scratch in the last five games. This has caused quite a stir with Wild fans and Sykora’s agent, Allan Walsh.

If you want to read more about the stir with fans and Sykora’s agent, check out the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Mike Russo’s (the Wild’s beat writer) blogs/articles about what’s going on:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/81815147.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7hUiacyKUUr

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/81880937.html

The thing with the Wild is that they are a talented team….when they’re all on the same page together. For whatever reason, they haven’t played anything that can be deemed ‘consistent hockey’ since approximately the end of November 2009 to beginning of December of 2009.

Sure one can breakdown the problems with the Wild to the smallest detail. However, it all starts with everyone playing together on the ice at the same time.

The Coyotes seem to be coming out of some extremely inconsistent play since the start of the new year. Injuries and lack of discipline in their defensive zone are but two of the handful of challenges that the Coyotes seemed to have worked through….kind of.

Things to watch for:

The Wild – I have no idea which Minnesota Wild team is going to show up tonight. Someone let me know which one shows up, ok?

Petr Sykora – Will he or won’t he play? Is he trade bait? Will his agent Allan Walsh ever reply to my tweets?

Shane Doan Bobblehead – It’s Shane Doan Bobblehead night tonight. Will the Bobblehead be a healthy scratch tonight or will he be in the lineup as part of the celebration? It would be a crime not to put the Shane Doan Bobblehead in the lineup tonight as he matches up perfectly with the raw speed of Owen Nolan.

Keys to the game:

Minimize mistakes/discipline – The majority of the goals the Coyotes have allowed have been from mistakes in the Coyotes defensive zone. Some of these mistakes could have been avoided had various Coyotes players been more focused on their assignments.

Improve the offensive zone game – Tonight’s game is a prime opportunity for the Coyotes to work on their offensive zone game. As people saw in the Devils game, their transition and offensive zone games are far from satisfactory.

Petr Sykora – I can’t think of a third key to the game right now so I’m just gonna repeat Skyora’s name a bunch of times. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora. Petr Sykora.

Notes:

- Today is Injured Coyotes defenseman Kurt Sauer’s birthday

- The Boston Globe reported today that the Coyotes and Bruins will open the 2010-2011 season in the Czech Republic.

- As noted above, it’s Shane Doan Bobblehead night tonight at the Job. The first 10,000 fans through the gate get a Bobblehead.

Officials:
Referees – #10 Paul Devorski; #21 Don Van Massesnhoven
Linesmen – #56 Mark Wheeler; #91 Don Henderson

The Boston Globe has reported this morning that the Phoenix Coyotes will open the 2010-2011 season in Prague, Czech Republic against the Boston Bruins.

No game dates have been announced.

More details as they are announced.

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