Well Saturday we were left all cold and hungry at the Job. Promises of Duck soup went unfufilled as the boys ignored our Oliverian pleas for more. 2 - 1 Ducks final. The Hanson Brothers were signin autographs and apparently picked up another member of the family.

As Carci shows Sutherby a rousing old fashioned desert Hanson welcome.

The Ducks didn’t have many sogs (15 total for the entire night… ugly, especially when added to the fact that the Sharks held them shotless for the entire 3rd period the night b4). We doubled that at 31 but unfortunately 5 of those were Teemu’s and 2 of them went in. The first one was an especially ugly moment for me as my baby boy gave up the puck to Bertuzzi (who ranks really high on my list of ick factor players) Big Bird sent Tee on a tearing breakaway to beat Bryz! on the backhand.

The second one was one of those shots that make Selanne… well Selanne. A PP goal that I’m sure Breezy would love to have back. Our PP lit Hiller up only once on the Jovo boomer. (1 for 5 just sucks, but at least it kept us from having duckegg on our face).

Without Jiggy, Perry and Getzlaf the Ducks should have been an easier meal… but they stayed ahead of us in puck possession/faceoffs/blocked shots and hits… becoming the eater rather than the eatee LOL ah well, we’ve won 5 of the 7 meetings so far and hopefully the boys will be able to bring us a season ending victory on the Pond for our last game of 08.

So we turned our sights to the sushi bar and all you can eat buffet. Nice of Wilson to deliver way out to the Job eh?

The Sharks came in on an incredible streak of heat. Those boys started gettin hot at probably the penultimate time of the season (8-0-2 in the last 10). Their Captain, Pretty Patty was havin a slump of epic proportions and Cheech had left over injuries from last season and required a good talking to from Papa Cheech to get his act together. But add them to Big JoeT and the fish have been taking big chunks out of both conferences.

Lucky for us Nabby wasn’t having the best of days and our boyos chummed the water up pretty good in this shark hunt. They bloodied the top carp w/ 4 nice goals, including a shortie!… (damn its nice NOT to be on the receiving end of one of those). Nabby was pulled after the 4th goal and our old friend Brian Boucher took over the SJ net.

We scored first blood in the second period and proceeded to build up to a nice 3 - 0 lead (DMo, Envy and Donor)…then took a few too many penalties, ending up 3 on 5 which let the finned ones back into the game (BigJoe and Pickles took advantage of our inattention to make it 3 - 2).

Rhino shook off his own slump to make it a 2 goal cushion again but Big Joe was hot on the trail and tied up the game with his hattie. 4 - 4 we’re goin to OT (Sharks hit 100 points for their conf standings)

We went back to war with bated breath… and Hanzal was sooo hot… nailing Bouche for the OT win. 5 - 4 final.

Highlights of the night… DC on the breakaway, he didn’t score but it sure was pretty… especially comin on the heels of a …. wait for it… PIM free game for the boy. Not sayin he didn’t have a couple of close calls (which the refs didn’t jump on the whistle for as others were doin the same things)… but on the whole DC played and let Wellie do the heavy lifting.

Wellie went toe-to-toe w/ Douglas Murray… or was that fist-to-face? The first punch buckled Murray’s knees but he gamely fought on… Match to Wellie but kudos to Douggernaught for hanging that long (not many people survive being Wellerized).

And the effervescent TQutie leading the JR sucks chants as well as all the pervasive JR sucks signs strewn willynilly throughout the arena were also a favorite *hey! I didn’t like him when he was here… I didn’t like him when he left and i still don’t like the putz so don’t blame me for enjoying the homage to his suckiness*.

We went down to a backstage pass afterwards and got all kinds of nice pics… most of the Finfolks were still nice, in spite of the loss… especially Coach Wilson, Marleau and JoeT. Bouche signed Spencer’s pic commemorating his shutout feat. Our guys were fabulous as usual, including Toc.

Ducks and Sharks and Backstage Pics courtesy of BTinAZ - more in her gallery on the paparazzi page too

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedintealinaz/sets/72157604233571690/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedintealinaz/sets/72157604275384892/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedintealinaz/sets/72157604280104265/

Hola! Yotie fans. Hat Trick and Teal have been very, very busy. Hattie and Teal and I are proud to present another set of goodies to peruse on your visits to Coyotes Hip Check.

Check out the picture gallery under the Papparzzi button and the Web Prowlin section has some news too (member that radio show we talked about? more Coyotes presence there in the coming weeks). Widgets, gadgets and news all over the place.

Be sure to visit the revised header for direct links to some of our prospects in college and around the minor leagues.

Mouse over the pics on the Den front page for a better view, watch the marquee for quick hit updates as they happen and be sure to let us know what you think and of course your suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Come on in! Make yourselves comfortable and enjoy!

Thanks for the great comments and makin the site successful. 

Well … in a rare appearance of our alter egos we go down like the famous and mythical bird that bears our name. Hopefully to rise again in 08 stronger, more resilient, faster and more experienced. Dropping games in ugly succession to the Oil, Nucks and now the Kings… ouch. Barring a miracle of Biblical proportions the boys are now playing for pride, learning and chemistry development.

We got swept by the Oily bohunks. It was ugly, the problem was they are just as fast as we are, they don’t have any BIG stars they too are rolling a lot of small threats every game, their goal tending can be just as streaky as ours. We got caught on days when their goalies were hot as hell(check out Rollie’s stats … some of his best games were against us) and although we tried, we just couldn’t establish OUR tempo and ended up playing to their tune and 1 step behind all 4 games. The last game we actually managed to score more than 2 goals! and managed to keep tying it up too. But as the 4 - 8 score indicates we totally lost our lil minds in the third and left the ice on the ends ot the Oiler’s series brooms.

We also got caught in the Linden backlash. The Canucks got the Gipper speech from Trevor Linden and totally morphed into the Power Puff Girls or something. Suddenly the wonder twins managed to get their rings together and become harder to intimidate and harder to catch, much less hit. Of course we happened to be in full out crapitude mode from our net to our forecheck which is NEVER a good thing.  The 2 goal shuffle we were mired in didn’t help either.

    AP photo

So the last mathematical possibility is just about over and with all of our enemies too far to catch w/ out divine intervention… we faced the Kings to begin our battle back to the team from January (I hope). Booyah! We score 5 goals! The scoring committee was back! Even Rhino found a lil puck sense. (Poor Vrbie is still in the wickedest slump evah!… his agent could just cry right about now) Without Jovo and Hanzal and with Z playing in spite of the fact that he shoulda been nursin a bad wing, we didn’t do too bad. The new King’s goalie Ersberg is amazing. No wonder the Kings are playing with renewed vigor and confidence. If he had been in net at the season start those boys mighta had a real good shot at a run. So anyway… the Kings finally get by us 5 - 6 final after a shoot out… poor Telly he just seems to get caught in those long running shoot em ups.

But at least these 3 losses did not go for nought. With the playoffs out of reach maybe reality can set back in and we can get back to Plan A - the rebuild. I hope the plans for the off season include a little chat w/ the people responsible for the referees about some fairness and safety for Carci.

    AP photo

I mean this is becoming ridiculous, foolish and is definitely buffoonish. Calling the kid for everything under the sun is one thing, calling the kid for majors no one has ever seen b4 is another,  but letting the kid get beat to death is a whole nother story.

     AP photo

The refs are supposed to be fair and objective, the arbitrators of fair play. Instead they are turning into vindictive and petty dictators who skew the games due to a predjudice that has no place in their calls.

Who is looking forward to a delicious Duck dinner? I know I am… without all this white out talk getting in the way, maybe the boys can get their teeth into some good old fashioned hockey again. Coyotes style. Forechecking, (hip checking too please Bally), scoring committee, Breezalicious, Coyotes style hockey. Play hard, get deep and score like Hiller is made of cream cheese!

Go Coyotes!

~pics from BTinAZ~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedintealinaz/sets/72157604153391788/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedintealinaz/sets/72157604189002148/

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

First the good news… the inaugural Coyotes Locker Room tail gate was a big success about 25 members and spouses and kidlets came out to lot J and much merriment and mass consumption ensued.

Oh man… I soooo did NOT want to waste one of our precious losses against these guys. But we are down to 2 losses and then its out for the count. Every game from here on out is game 7 of the finals. All the talk is, that every game has been playoff calibre… well the stakes just got raised a notch. With our enemies managing to cop 2 while we were skidding last night, we just got pushed into ultimate desperation situation. Code blue time. Our play off bid is now on life support and only heroic measures can save it.

Like night and day. Between the Nucks game and this Oil game, our performance was a complete 180. Everything we did right on Thursday, we did wrong on Saturday. I have questions. When do you pull the plug on giving large chunks of ice time to a very young player because of errors? Obviously we are short on D that can play to this level or else the number 6 slot would be filled with someone else by now (there seems to be very little faith in Jonesy (-8 w/ 2 pnts…ouch) at the moment or is this rookie trial by fire (Yandle -9 w/ 10 points) thing of even more importance than the playoff bid?). Did the team stay at the hotel the night before this game? If so maybe they need to switch to the Holiday Inn Express for better results. Does Edmonton have a voodoo doll of Breezy hidden amongst the team equipment?

OK we seriously blew chunks during this game. Despite throwing up 40 sogs, many of those could’ve been stopped by me, much less a world class goalie like Rollie. No traffic in front of the net, no crashers or bangers creating the havoc needed to pick up the many, many rebounds that were produced from those mostly perimeter 40 shots.

Our matchups were THE suck. I realize that the Oil have quite a few weapons in their arsenal but we have many answers too. Our answers just seemed to be the wrong ones at the wrong time. The Oil are very fast… and dare I say it? very slippery. But so are we. Rollie is a world class goalie… but so is Breezy. So on paper and in theory we should be able to whup these jokers right?  But then again on paper and in theory we are supposed to be dead last… guess that means paper and theory means jack sqat.

So as WG said, we didn’t give 100% and we got stung. Nobody was willing to pay the heavy toll to pick up the garbage. Our main weapons were once again silent (by now Vbrat has to be grippin that stick like he’s tryin to squeeze lemons) and Rhino? *insert sound of crickets here*.

Breezy was havin a bad day (didn’t I warn them about goalie dependency?) not knockin the big guy but he just can’t seem to get a handle on the Oil (3 games 4gaa in each one)… I know he had the shut out and all the patter about startin the hot tender but Telly relieved Breezy in an Oil game and only let in 1 of 18… I know who I would have started but thats of course just my humble opinion.

The less said about Yentle the better… this kid is making my brain hurt, but the big hit was sweet, too bad that was pretty much it for the night. (all the Jovo haters have a new can to kick) at least Yandle has the inexperience card to play, JV had to weather the crap storm with only a thick hide to shelter him.

Zbyneck? how the heck do you manage to play 24+ minutes? Sheesh kiddo you sure do me proud… but if you don’t mind… SHOOT MORE OFTEN! 2 sogs? You’ve got a beautiful wrister that should see the light of day more often (How about a bit of PP time instead of all that EV for the kid Wayne? At least he won’t get burned as much as some folks) and Bally gotta give you some props too man, lately you have been on fire and managed to be the only freakin defenseman not in the minus this game.

We were all hits (34) and no play last night. Perimeter shots just will not get it done. Official stats say only 5 give aways… I beg to differ unless that was just the defense? The Oil gave away zip, nada, not even one. Does anyone want to talk about puck possession? I think I’ll just skip that one since we had about 39% off the dots *frickin Stoll and that stick tappin technique 16- 3* no face off wins means no puck possession and that means playin on your heels all night long. Then cretins like the Oil go home with your 2 points, 5 -2 final score.

Soooo, time to regroup, recharge, rethink and return to the ice against the Nucks on Monday. Hopefully the road warriors will come out to play. And then Tuesday we face the Oil again… they’ll be weilding brooms and trying for the sweep. Remember … every game is game 7 from here on out, its time to come big or you’ll be wearin checkered shorts and perfecting your swing in no time at all.

Let’s Go Coyotes!

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

We are on a mini-roll. Ducks n Nucks down. This was a classic example of how we CAN play. How we SHOULD play every single game.

Starting from the net out, every single player brought their A game. (ok, some players have more of an A game to bring but that is besides the point) they all brought their best from lil Hoss to NickyB there wasn’t a slacker in da house that I could see.

High points:

Daniel wild child Carcillo - (there will be links at the bottom of the page to justify this). DC was on the prowl from the minute the puck dropped. Toc kept the leash on until the right moment.

Burrows deserved every punch DC landed on him. The wild child not only put a lid on the twerp who was huntin our top sniper, he definitely pumped up a ready- to- get- crazy crowd to levels not usually seen or heard at the Job. DC gave the Yotes their sixth man home crowd and stopped the Canucks lil intimidation bid in its tracks.

Marty too hot Hanzal - playing with a sore groin, assisting on both goals, shutting down the Sedins (especially the steal from Henrick) that scissor pass was one of the prettiest of the season. Sheesh just wait til that kid fills out… totally unstoppable.

Daniel cookie monster Winnick - he always seems to know exactly where mama hides the cookies. Lately Winnie has just been a force to be reckoned with and is not inconsistant in his defensive play whatsoever. (other guys have an off night and Dwin doubles his efforts) Amazing kid.

Niko lil ninja Kapanen - amazing how many times the opportunistic lil Finn shows up at just the right moment. The Mighty Finn has a nose for the loose puck. (maybe he’s just so much closer to ice level than everyone else) Niko can certainly put the biscuit in the basket and doesn’t get nearly enough love.

Illya i am a horse Bryzgalov - the boy may act crazy off the ice, but he plays totally insane on it and that is what counts. Breezy was in full force field mode. The guy is simply unbeatable when firing on all cylinders. Bryz! only faced 24 sogs… (and truthfully only a few were quality, since the forecheckers and blueliners were stellar) but no softies, no real bobbles on anything at all. Just WOW!

I am resolving not to bag on Yentle and Special Ed. They had a few miscues but more than made up for them with solid performances throughout the night. They get a pass from me because they were leading with their hearts and that has to count big.

The rest of the blueline were… well the best they have been all season. Shutting down, holding the line, getting shots (those boys accounted for 18 of the sogs) which made Louie scramble like a mad fiend all night.

Speaking of Lou… amazing freakin goalie… simply amazing (love ours more… but still) stopped 43 of 45 shots. And some of those shots woulda been guaranteed goals against any other net minder. So props to you big guy… your team hung you out like mildewed sheets.

Who the hell pissed in Vbrat’s cheerios? He wasn’t akin no shit from Burrows or anyone else. Whe is the last time you saw Verbie in the box? He is shooting again (5sogs) and its only a matter of time before he gets his groove back.

Still impressed with Lisin, that fly away and consequent post ping shows me he is on the door step can’t wait til he pots one… (hmmmm, maybe Sat against the Oil, they don’t have anyone who can keep up with the lil jetstream do they?)

We outplayed these guys. Out shot, out hit, outfought, outblocked and just plain old wanted the 2 points more than they did. lead on Captain Doan, the boys are right behind you. And your sixth man is too… Can’t wait to get to the rink, blinky (geeky) glasses, bigger signs and megaphone at the ready.

Let’s Go Coyotes! One game at a time.

 ~photos by BTinAZ~

onyxsarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/0314coyotes-ON.html

http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=492328

http://coyotes.nhl.com/team/app?gameNumber=1070&gameType=2&page=Recap&season=20072008&service=page

http://www.onefansperspective.com/2008/03/coyotes-win-two-in-row-at-home.html

This is a seriously awesome fan event. You gotta go next season…this is THE not to be missed event for fans. Really, if you dont stand in line all day for the ’staged’ player contact you can have the most awesome time interacting w/ the guys.

I met/talked to everyone except Yorkie and Carci (whom I’ve met several times already so no problem). I didn’t get to see Ulfie/Furh or Gretz but I heard lots of people did the pic and sign thing w/ them.

The most fun was Breezy. We took 2 dollar bills for our tips and Breezy had never seen one… his reaction was priceless.

 (Bryz! was so astonished by the bills he actually traded his own money to take the 2 buck bills home)

Breezy’s wife is not only gorgeous but sweet as all get out. We got a pic w/ Breezy at the cup which is awesome… one of maybe 4 people out of hundreds in attendance that actually have the ‘right’ to touch that bad boy.

We didn’t touch that sucker… we are sooo not going to be responsible for any freakin curses!

DMO! What a guy. Greets ya like long lost family. Remembers stuff you talked about previously. Gracious even when faced with stupid and/or crass fans that have no clue about the game and haven’t even got a nodding aquaintence w/ tact.

Gosh I love Wellie and Mrs. Wellie… very sweet people. So personable and easy to talk to. And NickB was sweet and gracious and the new baby is gorgeous. Poor Telly, people were followin the guy right up to the bathroom door (sheesh! get a clue folks).

Enver was a doll. He wasn’t totally comfortable but he was a game lil trooper. He didn’t need a whole lot of English with the little ones he was helping bowl (so cute) and he could’ve lit up 1/2 of Phoenix w/ that smile of his.

PM!!! just simply amazing that a 19 year old has so much poise. He definitely picked the right sport tho… Rhino kicked his butt in the hoops throw.

Age and treachery will outmatch youth and skill every time! Loved how he teased the kid who was beating him at the game by covering the kid’s view a couple of times, this kid is.. again… amazing.

Hossa was uncomfortable and it showed. Poor guy, bet they never made the NYR guys put up with a crazy fanbase so up close and personal.

But the highlight of the day for me was talking to Heeter.

(besides my beloved Z of course).

Gotta love that man’s knowledge and love of the game. The event was over and the team was leaving but Heeter, Louie and Strades hung around for nearly an hour afterwards talkin to us about the team, hockey in general and just about everything we could think of. Just wow!

Start savin your money… Don’t get left out next season. Seriously… You all know I hit ALL the events… this one was impressive.

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Everyone knows how important this game is to both teams. We are both battling for the same rung. VAN got smacked by the Ducks last night and still sit at 80 points. We whipped the Ducks on Tuesday and sit at 75 points. How huge is this game? Think Godzilla of the season. If we can move within 1 of NSH and within 3 of VAN we are going to be in prime position for a hard push to that 8th or even that 7th spot (MIN has hit a bit of a rough patch lately).

Keys to this game?

Discipline! The Canuckleheads have been involved in about 9 or so brawls this season. We can’t get drawn in by their antics. If we gotta chuck ‘em let’s make sure we pick our battles carefully. Wellie and Carci need to watch their backs. (Carci! if it’s Bieksa… let Wellie handle it please!) NickyBoy, keep a lid on it, we need some of those big hits of yours tonight and some further exhibits of excellent pinching.

Special teams! will be invaluable in this one. We need to be creative and patient on the PP …. and I’ve said it multiple times… defensively aware! Our shortie against record is abysmal. We have to stop handing these opponents free shots at our goalies from our slovenly PP maneuvers. The PKers better be really sharp tonight… got a feeling they are gonna get a LOT of work. This team gets chippy rather quickly and we have a tendency to fall short in the critical last minutes of periods.

Net minders! no matter who is in, I have faith. But seriously, Breezy, can we just pretend on that softy? I mean, just pretend you let it in and DON’T. That way you can just have that spectacularly tight game, all game, instead of being brilliant right after the ugly one gets by you. In this game 1 goal may just be enough, so just say NO to softies.

Essentials! Another big night from the blueline and the BigKidz is essential. A few blueline canons would be sweet but I will settle for the BigKidz shutting down those geeky assed twins and the blueline to get the puck outta our freakin zone when it counts.

Yandle… for the sake of my bleeding eyes please, if you get scared, nervous, panicked, whatever, do NOT put another damn pass accross your own crease, for the love of god, bounce a board or behind the net but NOT 2 feet in front of the damn goalie! (rookie mistake my ass people, he’s made that blunder enough times to know better by now).

This is THE night… if the big guns can’t get rollin for this one I will be severely disappointed. Vbrat has broken his cold streak with that SO goal, hopefully the kid has a hot streak comin on, he does seem to score in bunches. Donor is back, second game in which we’ve seen Capt Clutch get his crazy on. (bajeebus! does the guy have a shot or what?) Rhino? Rhino? hellooooo? Step up! want the puck! (Show us some more of that crafty face off, shifty crash the net, elder statesman magic, you keep tantalising us with).

If the big guns (Hi Peter!) can keep us on the board with an answer to what the Nucks manage to get past Bryz! the rest of the committee is more than capable of getting the insurance. (Hi Enver! I got a feelin … tonight is your night lil guy!)  But it all has to start with the big boys leading the charge. ummm and I sure as hell don’t mind playing with a lead all game… as long as we keep our foot on the gas all 60 minutes.

LET’S GO COYOTES!!!!!

onystarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

I am running out of ways to serve duck… we may have to resort to some kinda salad for the next 2 whippings. 5 - 1 against the Quackers now and we show no signs of stopping. Simply amazing come from behind win. Hey Wayne… keep ‘em in different hotels for every home game… if you run outta places I will even volunteer my place if it will help!

I cannot say enough about Winnick… from training camp to last night that kid just has no quit. Game after game, shift after shift he does what every hockey player ’should’ by giving 110% . He doesn’t get enough credit for being the lynchpin of that big line. Hanzal and Weller too but Daniel… just amazing, especially for a 9th round pick.

Lisin has finally gotten it. (I have not been his biggest supporter in the past). Seriously thought he wouldn’t be ready until 09-10 or so but last night changed my mind. If that kid can start finding the back of the net and get a bit of confidence he will surely be a staple on our offense next season. It wasn’t all about the flashy speed last night… the kid was defensively responsible, drew penalties, stood up to Pronger like nobody’s business (although I was screamin ‘get the hell outta there before that monster eats you!’) Envy shoved back with no signs of fear and held his ground just fine. Several very close chances at the back of the net too.

WOW! Doan! Just … wow! What a freakin shot that guy has. Good thing that didn’t connect w/ Jiggy’s head… I think it woulda knocked him the hell out. Desperate and crazy gets it done for our Captain and again he leads the way to victory.

Just when I was ready to hop over the glass and choke Yentle into next week, the boy goes and scores the most timely goal ever, to tie up the game. With Bally (finally getting to play forward… THANX TOC! and setting up an awesome screen) Yandle blasts a roof ripper past the totally blinded Jiggy and let us stagger into OT. *and the celebration was tres cool too!*

(Bally plays D, 2nd goalie and now forward… just … wow! what next Bally?)

The OT! shorthanded even! Hanzal! Winnie! Blueline monster elite core! Just superb.

The SO… *poor Burke, trying to find a solution to Bryz! w/ BigBird, Marchant  and  Prongless* No dice. Vrrrrbata! skipping past the bing and straight to the backhand BOOM! 3 - 2 Yotes… final. (ok Vbrat you can start your next hot streak now that the ice is broken).

Every single player gave something extra in this game. (Yorkie w/ 100% between the dots and a blocked shot, lil Hoss with 3 big hits)

(Hanzal and Wellie combining with Dwin to make the Duck’s top line a non factor) (my boy Z with the outlet passes, 3 blocks and 4 sogs) (DMo w/ 3sogs and 3 blocks) Damn I could go on all day with the contributions.

Telly is the ultimate in uber cool celebrations in wins like these, Breezy is like a 5 year old in a candy shop, hoppin and shouting and giddy.

After the softy (sometimes you need that stick there Breezy) Bryz! tightened up and slammed the door on his former bretheren. Awesome bit of focus and tenacity from the big Russian.

We walk away with 2 points. Heads up, pride oozing from every pore and ready to stay in this hunt until hell freezes over. I am so proud of this team I have no words to describe how this win, on home ice, after being down, makes me feel.

~photos from Emmanuel Lozano/The Arizona Republic  and the AP~

Let’s Go Coyotes!

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Wow, I really love how this organization shoots straight from the hip. (lol maybe thats why this is the Hip Shot Blog… ok … I think I’m funny occasionally anyway) so you know the drill… paraphrasing will run rampant because I take crappy notes and still have no recorder.

So we show up for the chalk talk and get right down to business. Panger’s patter was entertaining and informative as usual. GMDM did talk in his opening about the dismal home record, things they’ve tried to fix it and other odds and ends (very candid and honest about it… damn… I really, really need that recorder)

Fan question: What is the status of Blake Wheeler?

GMDM: right now we are not making much headway towards getting Blake signed but we are talking to his agent. Wheeler is very much a prospect, not someone we see as coming to the big club straight off and making an impact. He’s a very good prospect and we will continue to try to get him signed. If the contract doesn’t get done we have a *5th round* pick coming our way and that is good for the team too. *gotta confirm the exact pick… * probably like 2nd round (31st , or so pick)

a nice profile on Wheelie

Fan question: What is the status of Turris? Will we be seeing him soon?

GMDM: KT wants to be here really bad, its tough to keep him out. Definitely going to try to get him here, possibly for the last few games. It will still depend on his advisor and parents, but we feel he is ready to take some games with the club and is almost definitely a lock to be here in 08.

Turris profile

Fan question: What are our drafting plans/needs?

GMDM: Defensive depth. We have only Summers ready to go. We’re not sure if he will be coming out of school or not but we certainly think he should because he is ready. We have no one in San Antonio who is absolutely ready. The guys who are already up are doing a great job for us and will pretty much stay as they are, but in the next waves we are pretty thin. So we will be looking to draft some defensive depth. We do have Ross (very young and a work in progress) in the pipeline but we need more.

Chris Summers

Fan question: What about Vrbata? Are we working on a deal?

GMDM: Yes we are working with Vrbata’s agent but we have not gotten a deal done. Radim has been wonderful for us most of the season, we need him to continue to be that guy. It all really depends on Radim. If he performs well offensively thru the end of the season and we make the playoffs, he’ll get a contract that is closer to his agent’s wishes. If he performs subpar and we don’t make playoffs, the contract will be closer to our offer. We won’t over pay for anyone.

Fan question: What was up with the trade?

GMDM: Frankly Sjostrom was a fan favorite and a good young man but he was not achieving consistantly. It’s probably not fair but he was drafted very high and there were expectations that were not being met. Freddie needed a change of scenery to be quite honest. Hossa was in a very similiar situation, due to injury and NYR’s needs he was basically not getting much time there either. If he can get back into playing shape and find a bit of offensive touch, he will probably be back in 08. If not then he probably won’t be returning. And we will not be going after Marian Hossa at this time.

Montoya gives us flexibility. He gives us the extra depth we will need going into the future. He and Tordjman have very good potential and give the Rampage a chance to build a winning culture and the Coyotes two very good young goalies for the future. Gistedt will most likely be signed but most likely will continue to play in Sweden due to IIF rules.

some Monty stuff

Me: What about our other unsigned players? Kapi/Wellie & TQ in particular.

GMDM: No contract dealings have been started. We will get them going after the season and have everyone in place in the offseason.

Fan question: What about the Russian we got in the trade for Comrie?

GMDM: Kaigodorov has been looked at. He doesn’t really fit what we’re building anymore. He is rather small and is not setting his league on fire in Russia so it is doubtful that we do anything with him.

And that was it. Some chit chat in between but those are the basics. Teal took some pics.. which we will see after she gets back from her latest trip. The links are from thenhlarena.com Thanks to PopePogoII for the awesome effort at giving us a lil peak.

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Damn! this keepin the faith stuff is hard isn’t it?

The bad old days are long gone, you remember when you just showed up, ate ( in your seats… continuously… all game), talked to your friend (the only one who would go with you… cuz well, its the Yotes…eww), maybe catch 15 or 25 minutes of half way decent hockey, go home and bitch for 3 days… repeat ad nauseum. No muss, no fuss, no adrenaline or quite frankly no real investment required.

Now, is a whole nother animal.

You wait with barely contained anticipation, you discuss, hypothesize and agonize on lines, player’s health, goalie status for every day they aren’t on the ice. You grab your now beloved jersey (that you actually customized cuz you are that heavily invested), drive out to the Job with a sense of purpose in spite of traffic and the temptation of FSN. You meet your newly aquired group of fanatical friends to discuss further and eat early (cuz you don’t wanna miss anything on the ice while shoveling nachos in your face).

And then you watch 20 min or 40 minutes or that rare and elusive animal, the 60 minute hockey game. Occasionally with the 20 minute version we’d still win, more often we’d slide thru on the 40 minute one but the 60 minute one was worth every moment of agony.

Now we have playoff dreams. And we are getting kicked in the teeth by the 20 and 40 minute showings by our beloved team. Damn it hurts. Other teams are kicking into high gear (chicago! cough, cough) and are basically going to overrun us even with injuries (colorado! cough, cough).

Its time for this team to man up and do more than talk the talk. Time for Verbie to earn that 3 year contract he wants (he’s aleady earned the raise in pay), time for Rhino to come out of the shadow of Doan and prove he’s a #2 center, the kids and the role players are doing their jobs pretty much every night. Doan and Jovo and Mules can’t do it alone. 5 of the 7 D have been adequate for most of the season, they need to help generate some offense while the chips are down though, (I know they’re mostly workin their asses off… but its playoffs, I’m sure if they dig they can find at least another 1 or 2 goals between the 6 of them). The goalies have been doing everything except score and if they could, they’d probably do that too.

Sorry … just a wee bit frustrated myself after the Canadiens  game….