Phoenix Coyotes Hockey on AZ Vibe

#4 Phoenix vs. #5 Detroit Wednesday, April 14, 2010 7 p.m.  Detroit at Phoenix – TV -   3TV – TSN – VERSUS Friday, April 16, 2010 7 p.m. Detroit at Phoenix – TV – FSNAZ – TSN – VERSUS Sunday, April 18, 2010 12 p.m.  Phoenix at Detroit- TV – TSN – NBC Tuesday, April 20, 2010 3:30 p.m.  Phoenix at Detroit- TV – FSNAZ – TSN *Friday, April 23, 2010 7 p.m.  Detroit at Phoenix- TV – FSNAZ – TSN – VERSUS *Sunday, April 25, 2010 11 a.m. Phoenix at Detroit- TV – TSN – NBC *Tuesday, April 27, 2010 Time TBD  Detroit at  Phoenix- TV – FSNAZ – TSN

The first Phoenix Coyotes playoff series since the 2001-2002 season starts tonight against the hated Detroit Red Wings at the Jobing.com Arena. The Puck Drops at 7:00 PM and will be televised on 3TV (in Arizona – Versus in the US – TSN in Canada).

We talked with Shane Doan via conference call a few weeks ago and asked him how he, as the Captain, prepared the Coyotes players without playoff experience leading up to the start of this series. “We’re just going to play it one game at a time and not try to get too far ahead of ourselves and worried about anything that’s going on around us.”  Doan continued,   “That is probably the best preparation that we’ve had for going into it (the playoffs)”.

Well, it worked….and now it’s time for all the practice the Phoenix Coyotes had during the regular season games to start paying off in the post season. Even though the two teams have not met since January 26th (the season series between the two teams is tied at two games a piece), both teams sport re-tooled rosters. All the Red Wings previously injured players (the Red Wings lost 311 man games to injury during the regular season) are now back on the roster and are playing amazing hockey at the moment.  The Red Wings have lost only five times in twenty one games since the end of the Olympic break.

As you Coyotes fans know, General Manager Don Maloney acquired a bunch of players at the trade dead line that has been paying off immensely in multiple offensive categories. Neither team has played each other with their re-tooled rosters.

Below is a partial scouting report of the Detroit Red Wings and some of the things that Coyotes fans should be aware of during this series.

Playoff Experience

Let’s not beat around the bush here.  The Detroit Red Wings have an insane amount more playoff experience (19 straight playoff appearances) than the Coyotes.  I don’t need to look up and provide stats to explain my point (but I will).  The Red Wings were in the last two Stanley Cup Finals winning a cup in 2008.  The Red Wings are all business when it comes to Playoff preparations. When we talked to Detroit Head Coach Mike Babcock via conference call a week ago and asked about his preparations for the playoffs he was all business.  “We’re basically having a systems review these last few games preparing for the playoffs like we normally would, and that’s what we’re trying to do so we can be successful.”

If you want some stats to hammer this point in more, check this out:

Nicklas Lidstrom – 235 Career playoff games – 165 Career playoff points (46 g 119 a)

Kris Draper – 202 Career playoff games -

Kirk Maltby – 169 Career playoff games

Tomas Holmstrom – 152 Career playoff games – 81 Career playoff points (38 g 43 a)

Brian Rafalski – 142 Career playoff games  – 86 Career playoff points (24 g 62 a)

Henrik Zetterberg – 85 Career playoff games – 39 Career playoff goals

Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock 90 Career playoff games coached in 5 years – 1 Stanley Cup

Chris Osgood – 129 Career playoff games – Three Stanley Cups

So why is this considered an advantage?  The Red Wings know EXACTLY what it takes to win.  They are crafty veterans and will look to exploit weaknesses in the Coyotes across the board may they be finding mismatches in the Coyotes defensive zone or getting under the skin of Coyotes players just to draw them into penalties.  The Red Wings have the experience and know how to win it all.

As scary as this may sound, this doesn’t make the Red Wings unbeatable.  The Detroit Red Wings are very beatable as they have numerous disadvantages going into this playoff series. We’re going to highlight them as the article progresses.

Detroit’s Defense (includes defending in transition) vs Coyotes offense

This is going to be interesting to see how Detroit Head Coach Mike Babcock handles the Coyotes offense. I’m thinking that he’s going to do it in one of two ways:

1) Pressure the puck carrier when the Coyotes are in their offensive zone

All too often this season one of Mike Babcock’s classic defensive coverage is to bring three defending Red Wings players in the area between the goal net and the half boards. All too often the puck carrier caught in this situation doesn’t know what to do and coughs up the puck.

But there is a way out of it.

Check this out….

Here’s an example of Detroit sending three defenders on the Flyers puck carrier down low and he finds Arron Asham open from the mismatch in the Detroit coverage in the slot for the goal.  This is what the Coyotes will need to come up with as a safety valve play if/when the Red Wings do something like this on the Coyotes.

2) Crash the Red Wings players around Jimmy Howard

The other scenario that the Coyotes might see in this series is to crash all Red Wings players (in their defensive zone) around goaltender Jimmy Howard.  This scenario arises when Howard makes a stop, block or allows a loose rebound around his crease area.  Red Wings defensemen and forwards then swoop in around Howard to pick up loose pucks and prevent the opposing team from getting a secondary scoring chance.

The other thing to note is that the Red Wings DO NOT give up many odd man rushes.  They are responsible defensively and the Coyotes will need to be extremely aware when the Red Wings make mistakes defensively.

But….there are drawbacks to this.

One tendency I noted after watching the last 1 1/2 months of Red Wings games is that if you keep them pinned in their defensive zone consistently they will wear down and make mistakes.   But then again, this can also be said about most every other team in the league too.

Coyotes Defense (including defending in transition) vs Detroit’s Offense

If there’s one thing that Detroit excels at its exploiting weaknesses in their opponents defensive zone coverage. The massive amounts of experience on this Red Wings roster has paid off in numerous ways this season and this includes being able to find the breakdowns in coverage for a prime scoring chance.

This is a classic example of Detroit exploiting weaknesses in an opponents defense:

One way to stop or slow down the Red Wings potent attack is something I noted from watching their games against the Nashville Predators.  The Predators tried clogging the blue line when a Red Wings player tried to skate the puck across the blue line.  When the Red Wings attempted to dump and chase the puck after being blocked at the blue line, they had the speed to re-gain the puck and establish their offensive zone.  However, so did the Predators and they were able to match the Red Wings stride for stride in their last two meetings of the season.

The clogging of the blue line did slow down the Red Wings and in many cases the Nashville Predators prevented the Red Wings from establishing their offensive zone.

If the Coyotes are going to win this series their focus has to be on playing a full 60 minutes of disciplined hockey.  They cannot allow any Red Wings players to get open and score.  Especially…..

Tomas Holmstrom and Todd Bertuzzi.

The Coyotes cannot allow these two any breathing room at any point in this series.  They are just too dangerous of playmakers and scorers to be allowed to do anything on the ice.  They have to be the #1 (or at least one of the top) targets of the Phoenix Coyotes game plan.  Tie their stick up at all times when they move in front of Bryz.

Bertuzzi especially is a challenge for the Coyotes. Earlier this season when the Red Wings had numerous amounts of injuries he stepped up into a role that was key for the Red Wings to maintain their playoff positioning.  Now that the Red Wings are just about at full strength, his role with team has expanded. As Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock explained (via conference call), Bertuzzi “played way better here in the last little while, just being a good, solid net presence, taking care of the puck.”  Babcock continued, Bertuzzi has “been in a lot of situations and hasn’t won. He believes this is an opportunity to win. And in order to win you’ve got to be patient. You’ve got to take care of the puck, and be solid defensively. These are huge challenges for a guy who hasn’t been known for those things in the past.”  Babcock continued, “But he wants to be known for them”

One quick note about the Coyotes….

Coyotes fans are probably leery of defenseman Ed Jovanovski entering into the playoffs.  Fans should take note that Jovanovski has a reputation of raising his game to become a warrior in the playoffs.  The thing is none of the Coyotes fans have seen this aspect of this game since he signed with the Coyotes.  I’m expecting him to continue this trend of raising his game to warrior levels starting tonight.

Detroit’s Goaltending

I haven’t been drinking the Jimmy Howard Kool-Ade that other people have been drinking this season.  Many people have been saying that Howard is the real deal and has been an unstoppable force this season. I disagreed with them then and I disagree with them now.

As a rookie, Jimmy Howard has been a competent goalie during the regular season but he doesn’t have the full set of tools to be able to compete at the playoff levels. He relies too heavily on the team in front of him to bail him out. He may have won some key games for the Red Wings but he has also blown leads and in some cases blown games because he couldn’t shut the door on opposing teams.

The problems in Howard’s game include:

1) Problems in controlling rebounds
2) A weakness in stick side shots when he over commits to his left
3) A weakness in glove side shots when he over commits to his right
4) Trouble with saves and reacting to pucks in the area around his crease
5) Not being experienced enough to handle bodies blocking his views of the incoming pucks and spotting potential shooting lanes

When it comes to Chris Osgood, he had a pretty bad regular season this year (7-9-4 with a 3.02 GAA). Rarely used in the latter parts of the season, he has shown not only signs of rust when coming into games but he has also shown that he is not able to properly track glove side shots. Not being able to track glove side shots has been a problem with his game dating as far back as 2003 (probably further) when he was with the St. Louis Blues.

Coming into the playoffs Howard has zero games of playoff experience (compared to Bryzgalov’s 16 games of playoff experience).

So how will Howard fare this post season?

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock stated, via conference call,  “Howie (goaltender Jimmy Howard) is a rookie in the league who at 26 years of age now has found a game”.  Babcock continued, “(but) you never know what’s between a guy’s ears until he’s been through it (the playoffs) and survived. ”

The tale of the tape for the Coyotes/Red Wings series

	Coyotes	Even	Red Wings
Offense
Defense
Goaltending
Power Play
Penalty Kill
Coaching
Other – Faceoffs
Other – Speed/Fitness
Other – Playoff Experience

Keys for the Coyotes Victory in this series:

- Pepper Jimmy Howard with shots - Yes, shoot the puck and shoot it often at Howard.

- Go to the net on Howard – Pick up rebounds and secondary scoring chances. As explained, Howard has problems with saving or reacting to pucks that are in up close to him

- Defensive Discipline – If there was a #1 key for the Coyotes victory over the Detroit Red Wings it’s maintaining defensive discipline for a full 60 minutes. The Red Wings are masters at exploiting weaknesses in their opponents defense. The Coyotes are going to have to play as close to perfect games as possible to have the greatest chance of winning the series….especially with the many and various scoring weapons the Red Wings have.

- Win Faceoff battles – Winning Faceoff battles = Possession of the Puck. If the Coyotes have a minor weakness in their game, it’s winning faceoff battle no matter what the situation. Given the veteran experience of the Red Wings, they will be well versed on how to win more faceoffs than the other team. The Coyotes have to win faceoffs at a much higher level than they have in the past.

- Solve the Power Play Woes – If the Coyotes aren’t able to solve the woes on their anemic Power Play and exploit mismatches on the Red Wings penalty kill, this may be a short series. The Red Wings have only allowed four goals in the last 53 times they were on the penalty kill.

- Do not fall for Detroit’s veteran tricks – As explained above the Red Wings have insane amounts of playoff experience. Chances are they are going to do something to get under the skin of Coyotes players. The Coyotes are going to have to brush this off and do not react as the Red Wings will not drop the gloves or react in any way.

- Do not leave Holmstrom/Bertuzzi alone up front – These two player cannot be left alone. As Coyotes fans discovered earlier this season, Holmstrom knows when and how to exploit weaknesses in the Coyotes defense and will again.

Shane Doan and the Phoenix Coyotes have their work cut out for them with the multi-talented Detroit Red Wings. I asked Doan if the Coyotes were up to the playoff challenge. “Yeah, I definitely think we are (up to the challenge of the playoffs).” He continued, saying that there has “been moments throughout the year where things could have went the other way, and guys have always responded.”

If there’s one advantage that the Coyotes have over the Red Wings it’s an amazing chemistry that seemed to just appear and drive the team to new heights since the trade deadline. When I asked Coyotes Captain Shane Doan about this he said that “it’s hard to say what it was, whether it was the winning or that the chemistry brought on the winning. We’re not too sure, but we’re not going to worry about it. We’re just going to enjoy it. ”

So are the Coyotes fans starting tonight.

Prediction: Coyotes in 6

Other stats and notes:

- The #4 Seeds (vs the #5 seeds) are 21-9 in the playoffs since 1994.

- Coyotes Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov’s exact playoff stats are a 9-5 record in 16 games and an amazing 1.68 goals against average.

- Some playoff tickets on Craigslist.org are being sold under the condition that only Coyotes fans are going to use them.