Whoa nellie! Who woulda thunk it? Sorry to take so long… between work and technical difficulties (as in I’m a total dorkette) I bring you the total euphoria that was the CBJ game.

First off when the hell did we become a team that can come from behind? with authority? twice? Just askin, cuz thats exactly what we did! Move over Hammer, the big PM has more moves than you do and a better entourage and pants too.

TGO called this, one of the best games we have played. Its getting to the point where nearly every game is the best one. I have to agree with him on this one. Just wow, what a battle!

Our resident net hound got hit early…(seriously Breezy… can you just pretend you let in the early goal and just not do it?) Modin lit us up in the first 30 seconds of this one. Setting everyone’s hearts into the first of many cardiac arrests. Jonesy tried blocking (taking a nasty Malhortra slap shot to the chest) and the rebound just bounced right onto the tape of Modin. Talk about unlucky. Both teams settled into siege mode. The return of ScrappyDo (Danny Carcillo) was marked by an inaugural beat down of Ole Tollefson. Carci practically shoved the refs out of his way when they tried to break it up. That boy had a full head of steam and took it to Ole pretty good. Welcome back lucky #13. The first period ends 1 - 0 Jackets

The second period (arguably our best most games) starts out with a DMo penalty. Opening the door for pessimism to poke pissy lil paws in our boys minds but we manage to fight through the PK. And then the big PM ghosted up the boards unmolested, patiently waiting for Leclaire to twitch… and twitch he did, opening up just enuff for Mules’ deceptively quick wrister. MULES scorzes! 

1 - 1 game. We took it to them pretty hard for the rest of the period trying to get some insurance. But of course players-from-Coyotes-past, always bite us in the hindquartes and Chimera is no exception as he takes a drop pass from that sneaky Zherdev and puts an ugly, late period, snap shot high glove on Breezy. We can’t quite answer before the period ends. 2 - 1 Jackets and hearts stutter again. This is a battle to the death apparently as we seem destined to give up late period back breakers.

We go into the third, nasty and wound up like springs. The oft over looked TQ made like Rod Carew off a high Vrbata rebound.

TQ scorzes! I don’t think poor Leclaire knew where the puck went, until TQ was skating away. 2 - 2 game and I for one, am on the edge of the couch cushions because there are nearly a full 18 minutes left and I am Nashified (a reasonable phobia of Rick Nash). The Jackets seemed to turn on the heat but we just keep turning them away and having a blast hangin out in their end. We have another bad moment when we get caught with the the ugly too-many-men and the Jackets go crazy with 4 or 5 great chances that Breezy just smothers (the puck actually goes in the net from behind under a lifted net, I nearly cried til the ref waived it off). We kill that muther! and hope lifts her head and looks around a bit. (Rhino runs rings around the CBJ defense and the BigKids line make Leclaire miserable).

Then the big PM and his faithful Captain step on the pedal again. What a freakin tandem they are. Jovo to Donor, who barely even looks up (he knew exactly where PM was headed) and just hangs a long pass down and across ice onto Mules’ stick. Mules is never one to look a gift goal in the mouth. He charges past his defender (with Rhino on his right) and  slips a snap shot right under a befuddled Leclaire. MULES scorzes!  3 - 2 Yotes. Oh sweet goddess of hockey fortunes, can we hold onto it? or are we gonna pull out all the stops this time and try to get one more?

Apparently we are going to try to give Onyx a heart attack by letting the Jackets turn physical. Silly me, our boys have learned a lesson about playing to tie/protect a lead. The afterburners I didn’t know we had kicked in and we go head to head, in a wide open, shot fest. We hang tight in  the suddenly speed and shot driven last 5 minutes. Breezy turns into a total monster (turning away multiple sure thing attempts by the Jacket’s top players Nash and Zherdev). Talk about end-to-end rushing!

TQ misses the empty net… barely. Hanzal (crucial inerception)… misses the empty net… barely… Icing call. The biggest face off of his career probably… HANZAL!!!! wins it!!!! Then gets another interception to Vrbata who pots the empty netter! Vbrat! scorzes! with less than 10 seconds left. 4 - 2 YOTES! Leclaire fills his last closeup with F-bombs as the Coyotes slip into 8th place in the playoff standings!

NOTEWORTHY:

Mules takes up residence in the rookie goal race right next to Toews. The Captain extends his point streak to a personal best. And the Yotes are in a playoff berth!

~photos from Jamie Sabau - AP~

Whew! a chance to catch our breath and contemplate how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to travel. Sitting snugly in a tied up bundle of teams vying for that coveted rung on the play off ladder, cozied up with teams whom we have games in hand on, as well as teams who have even tougher schedules than we face in this back end stretch. What a wonderful feeling. On to the beautiful south… not your usually hockey hot bed you say? Oh contraire, for one magical weekend Atlanta is indeed home to some of the hottest players to hit the ice as the Allstars roll into town and prepare to partay!

Its all fun and games. A chance for the top dawgs (and fan favorites) to have a bit of fun with the game they love. The regular season is a bit like multiple skirmishes in which each team tries to get positioning for a THE big battle. Its war out there on many levels, for months. The Allstar weekend is  like a truce or cease fire. Everyone gets to take that deep breath and party like a rockstar. Hang out with the family and friends and get rejuvenated. Even those who don’t actually get to go participate get the benefit of a healing week of rest and relaxation before hitting the trenches again.

Let me start by saying I love the whole thing. Start to finish I enjoy it. Now let me go awol. They did it backasswards.

The Young Stars shoulda been 4 on 4. The 3 on 3 format was just a run and gun tripod exhibition. It was fun but nowhere near as fun as 4 on 4 hockey with some of the brightest talent would’ve been. The Young stars shoulda been the ones with the breakaway competition. Right after the game, to end the day with a BANG! They are the ones who hang out at the rink after ‘official’ practice goofin on each other for fun and braggin rights. They are the ones hoppin pucks on their sticks, spinnin or sliding on their backs and knees while tryin to put the puck on net. That woulda been seriously sick! I can’t even begin to imagine what King Kopi, Kaner, Gagner or Mules woulda pulled outta their respective bags of tricks for the West.

Now I’m not sayin the Allstar vets couldn’t have done it too. But they have been around, they have reps and dignity to maintain. They chose the wrong ones to participate in the breakaway contest. Kopitar, Horcoff and Nash woulda been the best choices for the west. Sure Datsyuk is creative in a game situation, but c’mon the guy is so shy and self effacing he could’nt put himself out if he was on fire.

Those guys have been assimilted into the collective team (there is no I in there!) and they have forgotten how to be an I. The other mistake they made was in not lettin Ovie go first. Ovie is a team almost by himself. He is the face and personality of the Caps and he knows how to go about it. Him goin first might’ve given the others the balls to get buck wild. At least Kovy got hip on his last try and made the home town crowd a bit happier. Who says the transfer agreement is hurting our Russian influx?

All that said… how sick! is Rick Nash? I mean c’mon the guy made everyone on the ice look like bush league rookies, a hat trick,  only the 15th ever scored in the ASG, not the MVP? (Kinda takes the sting out of the-goal-I’d-rather-not-mention) And Nabakov? with a badass shutout? not the MVP?

Guess dad likes you best Eric, cuz I think he voted twice for MVP. Ok Staal did have 2 plus a GWG assist but c’mon! A hattie tops that anyday.

Legace is a trip, mic him up all the time!

Dipi is sure pretty

(still a bastage for that stupid game in December…hockey fans hold bigtime grudges) and Ovie got to shine w/ out Cindy Criesbaby takin all the face time.

Our big PM scored a point in his first trip to the party and Jovo kinda had the 1st hit of the game. (more of a brush n tap but hey, we’ll take it).

Good food (mmmm sweet n salty party mix) good friends (Teal and Jenni) and the All Stars…. we had a blast…and why wouldn’t we?

All photos are borrowed from JAMD.COM go check them out! Awesome pics from the entire weekend

Well, well the return of Radim was quite the occasion. The crafty lil Czech was on fire nearly all night long. (you can call him streaky ifn ya want to but I’ll take his streaks any day and twice on game days). Vbrat hoisted the hattie in pretty rapid succession, carried the team on his back (dude! didn’t you just pull a groin doin that?) and with Breezy’s help, kept us in this game.

The first looked bad. We were slightly flat. But thankfully, so were the Preds. Both teams fired off a decent amount of shots (14-12) but the netminders were on their toes. After nearly 15 minutes of back n forth action (only 1 penalty stoppage) Vbrat lit the lamp on Mason with a little help from the local wildlife (Rhino & Fast Freddie). Vrbata scorzes! 1 - 0 Yotes

A referee went down badly with 2 minutes left. Collisions w/ bigger bodies never go well and he was bady shaken but left the ice w/ a bit of help. A breif return in the second proves more than he can handle though and we are down to 3 zebras to finish the game.

The second started horribly as Rads gave Breezy a nasty slapper and scored in the first 7 seconds. 1 -1 game. So we got back to work. Our ice of course turned into slush (when doesn’t it? I should start a pool on how long it will take - odds decided by attendance bodies heatin up the Job). The guys looked like they were snow shoeing instead of skating and of course the puck began to dance crazily. Luckily for us those crazy bounces paid off for Vbrat. His slap shot took some dizzy hops and deflections off sticks and bad ice to alley oop right over the top of Mason and give us back our lead. Vrrbata scorzes! (assists from TQ and Z) 2 - 1 Yotes.

The Preds feel this game slipping away and turn up the heat. Pevererly and then Erat nail our intrepid net minder to make it 3 - 2 in their favor. (why do we keep givin people their first NHL goal or their first NHL shut out… or the dreaded goal of the year?) Peverly is real fond of us right now for giving him his first goal.  3 -2 Preds.

Poor Vbrat, no one on the team seems to be able to find the back of the net (no matter how determined they are) so he calmly picks the team up once again and scored his third of the night on another good pass from Rhino. Vrrrbata scorzes! 3 - 3 game.

The third period both teams appear to be running on fumes but the Preds are takin it to us more than we are them. We barely manage 4 sogs and they double that with 8. Seriously, I would not want to be the guy who has to tell WG what our puck possession time is in that period. Talk about bearer of bad news.  But since neither team can quite get past the other we head into OT.

Out of gas and being outplayed is not a good thing for this team (especially not with such big points on the line.) We find the last bit of fumes and manage 2 shots… one of them is the game winner… ZZZZ!!!! My baby boy scorzes w/ a lil help from his Czechmate Vbrat and our point streakin Captain. 4 - 3 in OT. We out hunt the Predators (unfortunately they still get a freakin point).  

Awesomeness, thy name is Coyotes hockey.

We now stand outside the windows to the dance, which is hella better than sittin at home w/ a big zit, waiting for the phone to ring like we usually are this time of year. Ringing in the AllStar break with 54 phat points and drawing a bead on 4 teams. I say 4 teams because I really don’t want to stop at the 8th seat (eeewww get stuck playin the Ded Things … no thanks)

~photos from BTinAZ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603816517435/

There has been so much happening I haven’t really been able to keep up with all of it. Soooo… this will have to suffice as the catch up for all of you who weren’t able to go see the boys lately.

Join the Booster Club! Not only do you get to help the Coyotes help the community, there are perks like meetings with guests like Brad Treliving: Assistant General Manager and Don Schwartz: Community Relations Coordinator(author of article in the new version of the Redline- game program - see page 29)

We had great fun hanging out with everyone from the Captain to Vbrat. Without further ado I present the pics from the events.

Backstage pass night: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603777744922/

Hanzal and Z at Jilly’s Sports Bar:

Doan and Jovo at Sandbar Mexican Grill: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603343817123/

Winnik and Bryzgalov at RT O’Sullivan’s: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603530093972/

Jones and Vrbata at Iguana Mack’s : http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603678181922/

Backstage pass night - BT in AZ was in Teal Heaven, I was pretty damn happy too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603216519823/

BTinAZ donned the required helmet and ventured into the bench area for a warm up session against the Quackers:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157602967816351/

Wow we had some fun opportunities so far this season. Hope to see some more of you all at the next one.

Well the 5 game homestand is nearly over and the AllStar break is almost upon us. We face the Predators tonight and hopefully we can pull an Arnold out of our hats.

This game is about a 9 on the Richter scale of importance. With Nashville and Columbus both sitting at 54 points and St. Louis sitting at 51 (Canucks edged past them in SO tonight), this is simply a MUST win to go into the break. Colorado, Minnesoda and Vancouver will all be within spittin distance at 56 and 57 points.

Not sure which goalie we’ll face. But in the last contest we were able to get the best of Chris Mason and we haven’t faced Ellis yet. Both are playin very well to keep an ailing Nashville in the hunt.

Players who have hurt us badly in the past are out of commission but I hope no one takes that as a sign of weakness. Arnott and Dumont are very much alive and kicking as well as being point leaders for the team.

These guys are very phyisical and can be down right mean. We need to out tough them without takin any stupid penalties. They can score and they can be defensively touchy.

We could come out of this homestand 7 of 10 points which would make us downright ecstatic. Goin out in style would suit me just fine. A small bit of breathing room in which to incorporate Carcillo back into the fold, figure out who is shifting over to give the boy some running room(my vote is York… sorry Yorkie, so many others are contributing so much more right now… you, not so much) and to regroup for a very, very tough back-end schedule.

LET’S GO HUNTIN!

!Go Coyotes Go!

OnyxStarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

What a fantastic showing from our favorite hockey team. Talk about a fast and furious start!

Dwin! Dwin! Dwin! 54 seconds! and the BigKids line drop it like its hot! And a big fat assist for my boy Z! DWin scorzes! 1 - 0 Yotes. Tbo is already in trouble but he doesn’t know it yet. Ballard and Gaustad went at it for what seemed like ages in front of our crease. Bally pulls a standing hip check on Gaustad and gets away with knockin the hell out of him (helmet flying, nose bleedin, hell too)

We are zippin around with that puck so much I started wondering if it was just a major game of keep away, cuz the Sabres puck possession time can be counted on a 3 legged cat’s paws. But then Gaustad exacted a little revenge by slippin a goal through our 4th liners to tie up the game 1/2 way through the 1st period. They got a wee bit of life in ‘em but we smacked ‘em back down. We leave the ice tied up but we got more fire than they do and some PP time comin as well. 10 - 6 sogs, 2 - 3 penalties *which neither team capitalizes on*

Ok, so we come back out to a few seconds of PP, they kill it. But then poor Pratt is a prat and grabs a high sticking call, putting us right back on the PP. Niko ‘lil Ninja’ Kapanen sneaks in, steals a puck, strikes and struts back out with the goal KAPI scorzes!(unassisted!). 2 - 1 Yotes.

I keep sayin WG has some serious koolaide bein served at intermission cuz its all Yotes when 3 minutes later, the Captain gets his party on and plants a wrister past Tbo. Doaner scorzes! 3 - 1 Yotes. ( The captain has 11 games with points in his streak, 4 of them are multi pointers)

To round out the first 5 minutes of play, good ol DMo (musta accidentally sipped some of the score causing juice) plows a nasty slap shot past Tbo to make it 4 - 1. DMo scorzes! Now to be fair, the Sabres don’t lose their cool, they stay disciplined and work hard but they just have 0 confidence in their net minder at this point and it really shows, they get ultra careful and in this game that just doesn’t cut it. 14 - 6 sogs and only 1 penalty each * we nailed ours…they didn’t*

Big props as usual to our slightly ailing TQ! That boy is slightly insane. The guy is practically a game time decision and is still haulin ash and blockin shots.

So into the third we go, laughing all the way (well Breezy was probably yawning) The Sabres’ Drew Stafford caught the big guy on one of those perfect tripod passing maneuvers to make it 4 - 2 Yotes.

Roy’s line w/ Vanek and Stafford was the only line consistently troublesome all night. It turned out to be ’suck the life outta those suckers time’ in this period. First Boynk and Donor set up the big PM for his streak lengthening goal. Mules scorzes! 5 - 2 Yotes. (Mueller has points in 7 games, 3 of those are multi point games).

Not to be outshone by a PP Qb rookie, Jovo nails a PP goal to finish the rout. Jovo scorzes! 6 - 2 Yotes for the win.

What a holiday! What a performance! and you’ve already witnessed what a miraculously transformative experience a Coyotes game can be in the entry before this one. Come on out folks before there are no tickets to be had. We have been nearly at capacity for the last couple of games.

This was my backstage pass night and I have to say, the Sabres are classy. Thanks Ryan ‘Lady Killer’ Miller - you made my STH perk worth so much more by signing that jersey when you probably just wanted to get the hell out of the desert.

~photos by the ever miraculous BTinAZ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603774680435/

OnyxStarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Well I know I haven’t done the post game Sabres entry yet but I absolutely had to share what Bleedin Teal in AZ caught on film during the game.

There is a gentleman who carries the handle SinBin75 on the AZCentral board. He was raised in Sabres country. Now our friend Sin understands that when you are a 1A/1B fan you gotta take a lot of crap from your mates and sometimes total strangers when your ‘home’ team comes to town.

Sin geared himself up for it (and man did he take a huge drubbing all day in the comment section) about 18 pages worth… and his friends Q and DTG photoshopped him onto the worst pic of a Sabres fan ever taken. Our Sin is made of very stern stuff indeed and descended upon Jobing.com arena in all his Sabres finery (ok a Miller/30 jersey might not be considered finery in these parts) … but hey, one man’s junk and all that.

Now that you have the backstory, onto the really fun parts … besides the win of course.

Pictoral Tale of Redemption -

SinBin watches anxiously - not sure who the hell to root for.

SinBin looks on in disgust as his *completely done in by mismanagement* Sabres eat the 1st 3 goals.

The 4th goal begins the transformation.

SinBin returns to the fold in time to watch his now beloved again Yotes finish off the Sabres.

SinBin endures the laughing with true Coyotes pride.

There is more than just a return to the fold as the ending to this story. I took the much abused jersey down for backstage pass night. The gracious and ever so gorgeous Ryan ‘Lady Killer’ Miller signed it for poor SinBin. Now it can go on a wall somewhere. Where it belongs as part of Sin’s past and he can fully embrace his Coyote side.

~photos from the ever vigilant and photastic BTinAZ~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603770064142/

COYOTES RE-SIGN BRYZGALOV TO THREE-YEAR CONTRACT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

GLENDALE, ARIZONA — Phoenix Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney announced today that the Coyotes have re-signed goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a three-year contract. As per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Bryzgalov, 27, has posted a 16-10-2 record with a 2.33 goals against average (GAA) and a .921 save percentage (SV%) in 28 games with the Coyotes this season. Bryzgalov, who was claimed off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 17, won his first four games with the Coyotes, trying him for the third-longest winning streak by a goaltender to begin his career with a new club after playing for a different team earlier in the season.  The 6-foot-3, 210-pound netminder was also named the NHL’s ‘Second Star” for the week ending Nov. 25, 2007. Bryzgalov posted a 3-0-0 record with a 1.62 GAA and .938 SV%.

“I’m extremely excited to sign with the Phoenix Coyotes,” said Bryzgalov. “I’m very excited about our team, coaches and management. I chose to stay in Phoenix because I love our fans, my teammates and I’m confident that we have a bright future ahead of us.”

Bryzgalov also collected a 2-3-1 record with a 2.55 goals against average (GAA) and a .909 save percentage (SV%) in nine games with the Ducks this season.  The native of Togliatti, Russia helped lead the Ducks to a Stanley Cup Championship last season, posting a 3-1-0 record with a 2.25 GAA and .922 SV% in five playoff games.

“We are extremely pleased to sign Ilya to a long-term contract,” said Maloney. “He’s a world class goaltender with a Stanley Cup on his resume and has been a great addition to our hockey club. We are thrilled to have him in a Coyotes uniform for the next three years.”

During the 2006-07 regular season, Bryzgalov posted a 10-8-6 record with a 2.47 GAA and .907 SV% in 27 games with the Ducks. He went 5-1-3 in his last eight games of the season (all starts), recording a 1.96 GAA and .934 SV%.

Bryzgalov led the NHL in GAA (1.46), SV% (.944) and shutouts (3) in the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He recorded a shutout streak of 249:15, the second longest streak in NHL postseason history, while tying an NHL record for consecutive shutouts (3). In addition, Bryzgalov became the first rookie goaltender to post consecutive shutouts in the playoffs since 1945. In Anaheim ’s four-game series sweep of the Colorado Avalanche, Bryzgalov posted a 0.93 GAA and .967 SV%. In Anaheim ’s first-round, seven-game series versus Calgary , Bryzgalov shut out the Flames in Calgary to give the Ducks the Game Seven victory.

Bryzgalov has earned a career NHL record of 42-33-10, with a 2.44 GAA and .913 SV% with Anaheim and Phoenix . He was drafted by Anaheim in the second round (44th overall) of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.

-COYOTES-

~photo stolen errr borrowed from BOC~ - http://battleofcalifornia.blogspot.com/2007/11/boom-goes-bryzgalomite.html

The 4th game of the home stand promises to be another doozy.

Two goalies who have never faced each other’s teams. That means preparation and game film better have been done and watched carefully. The Buffaslugs are wounded right now, despite the 10 - 1 shellacking they gave an unsuspecting Atlanta team. They quickly returned to their slump in the very next game against a quixotic Leafs team and their road trip is pretty much off to a craptastic start.

Now don’t let that 10 game losing slide fool you. These boys have some pretty good firepower.  Campbell and Pomminville are no joke. Add into the mix the formerly very hot Thomas Vanek and this is a recipe that needs very careful handling (think unstable TNT with Roy as the fuse).  In the game against the Thrashed: “Reunited with wingers Drew Stafford and Thomas Vanek, Roy sparked the Sabres to life.  His line accounted for 13 points (7+5) and a combined plus-10 rating.” just ouch!

http://sabres.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=350511

They play very similar style to ours. Hard work, speed and no superstars. I have always been secretly fond of the streaky Kotalik (he gives his all every game) but I have no illusions that he could suddnely find his game and take it to us. These Buffalonians have hung in tight against power houses like Ottawa and New Jersey. Ryan Miller may seem to be struggling right now but there is every expectation that he will find the will to survive this road trip starting with Coyote fodder.

Bryz! will most likely be back in net and with Rhino back in action the lines will stabilize a bit. I liked seeing the Big Kids line back together, which puts Kapi back with Rhino and York and that also works fine for me. I am not quite sure where the recently called up BillT will fit. Hopefully between 2 mates who can yell “HEADS UP!” before the boy gets plowed again. I also hope Bill has been workin on his forechecking skills, otherwise he’ll find himself short on minutes and back in San Antonio faster than I care to speculate on. But the kid can find the back of the net and that may be all we need to tide us over until Vbrat gets healthy again.

We won’t be running 7 Dmen for the next 12 or so days as Jonesy has been sent to SA for  conditioning stint (Matty hasn’t been getting much ice time since Yandle moved in on his shift) the prolonged look-see at Yandle has told me a couple of things… the kid still gets nervous when pressed and often stutters when making decisions under pressure and he has hella offensive instincts though… he’s a keeper for sure and is really close to snagging a permanent spot.

As always we better start hard and fast, I don’t think this Sabres team holds up well under pressure. The odds are in our favor all the way across the board. But we better beware the old saying ‘on any given day’ lest we find ourselves on the short end of the score again.

Well everyone wondered how the boys would rebound. I say very nicely. Very nicely indeed. Unfortunately it seemed that as hard as the boys battled the refs were equally determined to stop us. 2 - 1 Hawks in the SO.

First and foremost Bryz! found his game. This was an incredible performance in my opinion by Breezy. C’mon you gotta give him credit for that split save at the very least. And oh, my hockey stars n garters, that penalty shot kill was absolutely brilliant.

Ok the shootout didn’t fare so well but he has already bested his former record in winning those so give him a break.

The boy worked his tail off all game. Ahem … so did Lalime. This was probably Limey’s best performance in years and he has these Hawks on a tear (4 game streak counting us). The guy wants to take Khabibulin’s job so bad he was practically salivating all game. If I’m the Hawks… I’d really consider it.

So consider the Hawks… still suffering from injury-itis and tired from the trip down from Colorado. Those boys still had legs and heart. I hope all the Kane nay sayers are payin attention. (most likely not goin to admit they were wrong about his small stature being all wrong for the NHL… like the Gretzky kill joys). Kaner has stepped up huge in the absence of many of his mates. Tonight was another good showing by the lil rookie.

On to the good, not so good and really intriguing. Who knew Ed Jovanovski had that much fire in his craw? Not me… I thought Jovo was going to blow a gasket or perform an appendectomy on that ref with his stick. (WG sent the Captain and backup to go get our blood hunting warrior and possibly saved the life of a zebra) intriguing eh?

The penalty shot award in the OT was pure shite (especially in light of how the Hawks pulled Doan down not even 2 minutes later w/ out a single eyebrow raise much less a whistle). After the nasty shock from Nash, there was no way Jovo or any other Dman was going to let that happen again… thus the take down. But here is my issue: the lil slug didn’t have control of the puck, he also didn’t have clear forward motion towards the goal (yeah he was in the correct zone for the call but didn’t have ANY reasonable expectation of scoring) and to my eyes (which I admit are not the best set in the arena) they looked more side by side when JV grabbed him although he finished the move from behind as Bourque spun around. A simple penalty woulda sufficed rather than breaking out good old Rule 25.8… ok got THAT off my chest. Moot point anyways… as BRYZ! completely turned that opportunity away. Please don’t ask us our opinion of the 4 minute high sticking penalty (no really, don’t ask… it will not be a pretty or short rant on the ineptitude and just plain old buffoonery of the Zebra-kind. You don’t want PETA after me do you?).

Our power play made a rare appearance! Whoo hoo! The big PM grabbed us the lead in the second period after a fast and furiously played first period resulted in goose eggs for both teams. What is really crazy is that we had 14 - 7 sogs in the first and 11 - 7 in the second. and still only managed to get past Limey once. But then again they could only solve Breezy once themselves. 1 - 1 game.

The third period was all shots and no rewards for either side too. These goalies were righteously sick! all night long.

The OT was a mad scramble. Although there were barely any shots as both teams stole from each other constantly and basically couldn’t keep possesion in either end long enough for a fair go at it.

The shootout has been our friend a wee bit this season. Bryz! has had an exciting time of them lately. But alas this night was not one of those. First Kane and then that often bruised lil peach Havlat beat our net guardian while JoelP and Mules were denied by Limey. Siggghhh miss Vrbata a whooole lot more suddenly.

So we grab a point which ties us up squarely in a four team race. (CLS and STL both lost earlier in the day, allowing us to stay tighter than we should be in the race for 9th place). Vancouver sits in a tie w/ Minny at 55 points, 5 above us. And Columbus is passable at 52 points.

stats from TSN.ca

I am seriously hoping the boys can take down the struggling Sabres on Monday to give themselves a boost before taking on the feisty Predators to complete the home stand.

BTW it was Bobby ‘the golden jet’ Hull night too. He was a hoot! Great personality and very nice man. Graciously signing the multitude of Mcfarlane figurines for the masses.. Apparently 447 people RSVP’d for the signing… poor man. Valiant and gracious in the face of such odds.

Talk about believing we are goin to the playoffs! Check out Mossie’s play off beard.

As always…  LET’S GO COYOTES! we can do it!

~Photos by the always brilliant BTinAZ~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603761651888/