Phoenix Coyotes Hockey on AZ Vibe

Over the course of this season, I’ve been saying that the main key to the Phoenix Coyotes success is to play a solid game, make less mistakes than your opponent and capitalize on the mistakes your opponent for the given game makes. It wasn’t exactly like that but the theme is something I’ve been writing about this season. However, I forgot to mention one hole in this theory/scenario……

What happens when the Coyotes and one of their opponents both play in this manner?

Well, that my friends, is what happened last night to the Coyotes in Nashville against the Predators.

This game was an amazing defensive battle for both team all the way to the shootout

Last night was also the first time Coyotes fans saw a full 60 minutes of damned good defensive hockey that was free of lots of whistles, lots of penalties and lots of mistakes.

Some people may call this boring hockey and that’s fine for them. However, I personally love a great defensive battle. It’s like a chess battle where both teams work to find just that one little glimpse of light were they can capitalize on for a goal.

In the case of this game, there weren’t any until the shootout…..all 10 rounds of 20 shooters (link to shootout report below).

This was one of those games that could very well be a sign of what’s to come.

Game hi lites:

Game Summary:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/GS020831.HTM

Event Summary:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/ES020831.HTM

Play By Play Summary:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/PL020831.HTM

Faceoff Summary:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/FC020831.HTM

Shootout report:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20092010/SO020831.HTM

Tippett’s post game presser(courtesy of PhoenixCoyotes.com):

Post game interview with Adrian Aucoin (courtesy of PhoenixCoyotes.com):

Comments from the Predators dressing room: