I hope everyone had a great New Years and that 2009 brings everything you wish for.

12/26/08 Yotes VS Kings part 1

The first game on Friday night I expected a flat and sluggish group of pups to flat out get crapped on by the Kings. But I got a surprise visit from a team that (while not great) didn’t quit. We came out hot and high. The Kings tried to match us in intensity but couldn’t quite do it. On any night that Shane Doan and Ilya Bryzgalov are in high gear, my money is on the Yotes. And unfortunately for the Royals, they ran into not only the Doaner and Breezy but also into a Pistol Pete Mueller, trying to shake off the sophmore jinx. The game was a pretty routine bit of pong until Muels found a spot that Jonathan Quick just couldn’t cover. The Yotes did a fantastic job of keeping the dangerous Doughty out of the action (and on Doughty’s best run, the post assisted Breezy in spades). Sauer, Klee and Z made sure that Kopitar and Brown (despite lots of minutes) didn’t get much in the way of quality tries at Bryzzie.

Gotta give some props to the very young and very green Mister Quick, without him, the Kings would be in serious trouble while Ersberg recovers. We solidified our spot in the western top 8 and while I was hoping we could pull away from the pack… the second half of the home n home was a total ‘off with their heads’ kinda night.

12/27/08 Yotes VS Kings part 2

Going in to Saturday night I had expectations… apparently I wasn’t the only one, as the Job was pretty full and buzzin w/ anticipation. Unfortunately now I know how the King’s fans felt on Friday. “a defeat that deflated a rare full house” At least the Kingiefans only paid $11.50 to see their mess… trust me it hurt a LOT more at $60.00 bucks on Saturday. Not to mention that at least their team woke up and tried. My boys… not so much.And we had special guests that we brought to the game (Teal’s bro and sis-in-law) see how happy and anticipatory they look?

Soooo… Saturday night… The boys slept walked?…err sleep walked? oh hell, they oozed out onto the ice like a 3 toed sloth on extra strength Lunesta. Apparently it was some good shit too, cus they never woke up. lets walk thru the horror in a general looksee shall we?

0 - 9 PP *insert sounds of crickets here* ZERO for 9!… including some 5 on 3s… I do believe there just might be cause for alarm in those words don’t you? Am I the only one scanning last years stats and shaking her head? Doan and Jovo both had over 25 ppps last season… they are nowhere near on track for that this season. It hurts us preciousssss

Face offs - not quite dismal but close enough, Rhino had another off night in the circles along with everyone else, add this sorry statistic to the fact that we couldn’t pass, shoot nor hang onto a puck… ughhh

Puck possession battling was non existent. Kings were ditzing about in our zone all night long. I can’t recall more than a handful of times we came out of a puck challenge with the disk on our stick.

Sinbin parade. They musta been giving away free booze in that penalty box, there was no shame… just guys beboppin in and out of there like, no big deal… this also hurt more than I can say. Ah well, no use beating a dead horse over this stink bomb, luckily the loss hurt nothing but our pride and we had bigger fish to fry on Wednesday.

12/31/08 Yotes VS Avalanche

What is there to say about what we needed to do? We faced the Lanche on Wednesday and did everything right. Bi polar just doesn’t describe us some weeks.

Face offs - 57% Hanzal/Doan/Joker all over 50% and Rhino just barely under the .50 mark…just wish we could do this more often (and at least Marty has stopped being thrown out of the circles so often)

We did all the little things right. Like winning the battles for pucks…often just outright stealin them.

Matching hit for hit…we don’t play physical, we don’t do so well. OhHale gave Hejduk a slam he felt all over again on New Years day. (his hit and his assist kinda make up for his faux pas on the Avs goal)

Staying out of the friggin box! Only 2 PIM were assessed to our boys (IDK if the refs just wanted to get home to celebrate or if we really were that disciplined) but whatever… the defensemen were able to contribute a lot more since they weren’t dogass tired from PK’ing all night. Z on the point during the PP seemed to be making a difference too (not enough PPs to really gauge) but you gotta figure anything that helps prevent odd man rushes/short handed chances has to be good right?

Muels shook off another link in the sophmore jinx chain. Apparently Pistol Pete found a serious chink in Budaj’s armor and nailed him twice up top. Too bad he couldn’t put away the hattie point blank dead center. Ah well I’m sure he’ll take the 2 odd angle markers and hope that ’scoring in bunches’ thing is true.

The LOB line certainly lived up to its moniker. Lisin and Boedker cross the neutral at the speed of light and lob sweet passes to the high slot for Olli to slam home. Works for me and certainly worked for them in this game. I hope TGO can put the itchy trigger finger to rest for a lil while on this line. They look good together.

Ya’ll know how much I adore the Swedish Wolf. Telly Munster stepped up to the plate for this one. A little jittery to start (HEY! he’d been out a while) he quickly got into his rythm and spanked him some Yeti hind ends. Tellqvist and Mueller got the 2 stars they deserved at games end.

Both teams came into this game with 39 points…we came out with 41. We done real good to drop the Yetis and cement that 7th spot for a little while longer. The Quackers are only 1 point ahead of us and the Nuckleheads are only 4… wouldn’t it be sweet to sit in 5th place for awhile (even in a tie?) Its definitely doable with January being a really strong month for us. A game in hand on ANA and they face theose notorious Flyers next (which we should all hope that those boys hit the west coast errr flyin) and us facing a flaky yet still dangerous Isles team, Friday night could well be a big turning point for the season.

See you all at the Job! Friday night is gonna be a hellstorm with ex-Yotie Lil Mikey Comrie comin in on a hot streak.

For more of Teal’s gorgeous game day pics

Well the changes WG made certainly appeared to work. The Flames had no idea what hit them. Between the pieces falling into place sweetly for the Yotes and the Flames own lack of fire, the boys were really clicking on Tuesday. It will take even more of the same to beat the Canucks tonight.

Physicality and bravado and ingenuity. The boys have their work cut out for them just to be creative enough to get past Luongo. Throw in Davison, Burrows and O’brien for agitation and physical dustups and the road to a win gets just that much tougher. Hopefully Burrows learned the lesson about messin w/ Carci because Davison sure as heck will be after the boy all night. O’brien may be a bit much for Carcillo to chew up and spit out but thats why we have Fridge and Murray or in a pinch… the Doaner.

IDK what the heck TGO is going to do about gettin KT into this hometown game. The philosphy has been that winners keep playing and after the upset that Tuesday’s lineup handed the Flames, surely they deserve to give it another shot tonight. Which would leave KT in the pressbox and I’m pretty sure Wayne and Co. don’t want to do that to the kid. Interesting delimma to have for once (too much talent to leave in the press box) and of course there is the desire to see if KT can come out firing on all cylinders like Mules did last season after a quick stint in the box to get a different view of the Pro game.

Last season we split a 4 game series. For us the Mighty Finn scored 2 GWGs, for them it was Taylor Pyatt. Pyatt is still on their roster but lil Niko Kapanen has moved on from the desert. The Nucks started a bit slow but have been ridin a wavelet created by former Leaf Kyle Wellwood. After winning their last game (against the Predators w/ a stunning shutout) , Vancouver will be looking to build on that success. But we’re coming off an even bigger win (against one of our most pernicious rivals) and hopefully that confidence will give us an edge. Both teams seem to have their main firepower rolling (the Swedish Twins have 3 goals and 8 assists in the last 6 games) and we have finally gotten some production from our big blueliners DMo and Jovo as well as our vet forwards (Doan- 3 goals and 5 assists in 4 games, Rhino- with 7 points in 8 games and Joker w/ 11 points in 10 games). It will come down to a couple of key points.

Secondary scoring - the kids will have to contribute. The Canucks don’t have the depth of weaponry that we do. Boedker, Mueller, Porter and KT (if he is in the lineup) can seriously turn this game on its ear if they get rollin. Somebody pleeeease create some traffic in front of BobbyLou… if he can see you… he can stop you!

Role players - Garth Murray, Danny Carcillo, Todd Fedoruk are going to have their hands full walking that thin line between protection and energy. If they have to drop ‘em, thats fine…can’t let anyone push us around anymore. But they HAVE to avoid the stupid penalties, and the extra box time while making the Canuck agitaters parade to the bin alone if at all possible.

Goalie showdown - Breezy is going up against a proven #1 goalie, Louie doesn’t make many mistakes (3 shut outs so far this season) so Bryz has to be at the top of his form tonight in case it becomes one of those whoever-blinks-first-loses games. As the Yotie billboard used to say… “blinking not recommended”.Coming out ahead against Kipper is one thing, back-to-back top performances, against netminders of this quality, would be simply HUUGE, not only for Breezy’s hutzpah but for the team confidence as a whole.

Discipline - The Canucks can really make a team pay on the PP. We can’t let them have too many chances at it. Our PK team has been solid and is ranked 16th in the league but with Klee playing through a leg injury we don’t want to risk anything by forcing the PK guys to battle very often. STAY OUT OF THE BOX giving the Sedins or Pyatt or even Wellwood free shots at Breezy could prove to be our undoing.

Yotes Notes

Nuck News

Thanks to OdinMercer and CoyoteQ for the graffix

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

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

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

Didn’t I tell you the Oil game was a hiccup? Well didn’t I? Glad to see around the web that we all hung in with our boys. Very few naysayers came out of the woodwork. (and they were mostly the ID10T types anyway… so I paid no attention to their prattling). Simply freakin AMAZING! THIS is what we have come to expect from the boys. There was determination, sacrifice, hard work, loyalty, discipline and heroics throughout the entire game.

Bobby Lou wasn’t in the net, ma and Pinky and da Brain weren’t able to take over the Coyotes much less the world. But the video sure is entertaining.

Bryz! not a great game, but our boy provided the big ones when he had to and gave the guys every opportunity to stay in this one. Breezy has only had 2 bad games for us. He inexplicably lost his focus in the Chicago and Oilers games but both times the big guy has come back strong. The team understands and does not waiver in their belief in their main netminder, he seriously repaid that trust in the last 5 minutes with big stops. (and with Telly providing simply awesome back up, their belief is very valid).

Ed ‘ something special - in a good way this time’ Jovanovski. I have no words. The guy was phenomenal. You wanna talk about poise and discipline? Talk to Jovocop. (oh yeah, I am using his nickname with pride today) cuz he righteously earned it in this game. Not only the biggest hits we’ve seen since he joined the squad *but a whole LOT of them* and to be able to stand, arms at his side while Cowan plowed into him? Well I know I couldn’t have done it. I was almost ready to give up on the guy after predicting a huge season for him (just pointin it out b4 you guys blast me from a few posts ago) but Jovo stepped up and nailed the PP goal after drawing Cowan into the 4 minute dumbest penalty of the night.

Niko ‘little Ninja’ Kapanen. The lil Finn was simply stunning tonight. Kapi has gotten hot lately on the scoreboard but for those of us who keep an eye on him he is always brilliant with the small things. I can’t help but admire a guy with such a fierce will to play this game despite all the expert reasoning why he shouldn’t be able to compete, much less make such a huge difference. That goal was a symphony of soft hands. Can’t go there without just flat out, crushing, on Dwin’s flat on his back pass to Doan to set up Kapi’s goal. Nice to have Wellie back workin hard and givin DWin room to run.

Bally and Dmo are having the season. Continuously matched against the opponent’s top guns, these guys are the ultimate, shut down offense killers. Mo has been spectacular all season and Bally is coming on so strong offensively as well as playin lights out on the line. What about my boy? Has anyone seen that much intensity out of Z before? I have never seen him be the aggressor in an altercation. Last night he acted like he had 20 more pounds on him and at least 3 inches in height. Shovin Kesler back off his goalie and actually lookin like he might whup some hiney.

What the hell kinda koolaid is Wayne servin the Dmen in between periods? Nick ‘badass’ Boynton has been playing like he invented the ‘new’ NHL. The old scorin and roarin Boynk has been playing lately. I have been a proponent of Boynk for his tough loyalty in protecting the guys but I never really expected any production out of him. Man was I off *mea culpa*. And while I am droolin on about blueliners we gotta take a good long look at the newest member of our production rookies, Keith Yandle. How much difference his aggression from the back end makes every single game.

Although Rhino, TQ and the VHS were quiet goal-wise, don’t overlook them… we tend to do that with York too (The Peppermint had a fine game tonight as well) these guys were flat out hustling and softening up Sanderson every chance they got.

Last bit of gushing praise. Joel ‘been replaced by a REAL hockey player’ Perrault! I mean c’mon… the KID was softer than charmin and skinny as a willow twig last year. The MAN is a whole other story. JoelP has been hittin, scrappin, scorin and is actually defensively responsible this season… its either the koolaid … or the pod theory.

MULES! gettin the party started right… again.

Damn our Captain is workin his butt off out there! Mediating (keepin the lid on the Joves), setup man (300th assist tonight), defender (jumps in from center ice to backup Z when it looked to turn ugly) and don’t forget that off the ice he made sure to make some very sick kid’s day. What a guy!

We roll 4 lines deep, 2 superior quality goalies and the Great One makin his coaching bones. Anything can happen this season and pretty much has. Missed you all at the Half Moon Cafe, good food, good friends and good game. I am one seriously happy fanatic right now.

~photos from various AP sources~

Even Bryz! said the first period was boring. I wouldn’t know. I was walking up and down the concourse hawking 50/50 raffle tickets like a demented side show barker. Hope we (Coyotes Booster Club) did good for Coyotes Charities. There sure was a full house. Holidays, winning streak, team we rarely see …what ever caused it I don’t care. At least the boys had butts in the seats to welcome them home.

Pretty quiet bunch through most of the game, except break aways, scrums and when my boy Z tied up the game. Uh huh, you heard what I typed… my boy found his wrister and it is a thing of beauty.

So anyways I guess I should get on with it. BTW…our Captain was mic’d up …wonder what the normal conversations are like with the refs cuz Donor warns them that he’s mic’d up.

A disallowed goal early in the game kinda pissed me off… The refs just are not havin a good week I guess. Why didn’t they blow the dang play dead? Vbrat could see the puck half caught between Louie and the post so he took another poke at it and it rolled in. No goal dang it.

Both teams had good chances (even a couple of posts), nice hits from both sides, face offs were about even and we only give them 4 PPs but couldn’t capitalise on the 3 that they give us. Both teams were very evenly matched (which surprised a few folks in the stands) oh yeah people the Yotes have come a looong way since last season… or even since October.

So the third period, I was actually in my seat for all of this period. This is where all the high octane action starts happening. The crowd starts gettin into it. We get a lil scrum as Pyatt gets denied on an almost sure goal by Bryz! and Yandle gets shoved around a wee bit behind the off-the-moorings net by Jaffray, nothing comes of it.

Jovo and Bryz! give everyone a heart attack when JV plays a puck back to Bryz! and it keeps hoppin but Breezy scoops it up calmly. Our shifts start running a bit long and the guys are gettin a little tired.

At the 10 minute mark the twins get tricky and slip a pause into their hard drive to the net, Bally over shoots and the two Sedins draw first blood. 1 - 0 Nucks. The Canuckleheads get some life on the strength of that goal and start to give us fits. Jovo starts us hoppin by jumpin into the play hard and heavy. Z will follow his example on the very next play.

The DMR line is almost double shifting and only Rhino gets off the ice, Handz strips the puck, gives it to Doan who feeds a streaking Z! MICHALEK!! GOOAAALL!!! TIE!!! GAME!!! 1 - 1  (oh yeah he gets extra love cuz he’s my boy… hey! write your own blog if you don’t like it) Plus its his birthday on the 23rd.

Donor gets his crazy on… again. Suddenly the Yotes start dominating the hell out of the game. Very few goalies in the NHL coulda kept us off the board in the next 3 minutes… unfortunately Louie is one of them and he absolutely robs Mules with a barely there skate save. (member the days when we used to face everyones back up goalies?) The last minute the Canucks turn on the heat with multiple quality shots on Bryz! Total robbery again but from Bryz! this time on Kesler.

Oh my…into OT we go. Even chances for first 2 minutes, Boynks stick breaks but Yandle has the puck and takes off (giving Boynk a chance to get out). Yandle realises were off sides and pulls up at the blue (nice thinking and great skate skills). The crowd breaks out into the Lets go Coyotes cheer. The tired warriors get a lift and Vbrat steals the puck and passes to Handz… looks like a break away but Hanz goes down but manages to spin the puck out to Vbrat who heads in. (awesome choices) We get one more chance at it w/ a Rhino redirect that just barely gets handled by Louie. We’re goin to a shoot out… again. We got another point! woo hoo! against Louie and the Twins. Ain’t life grand?

SO:

Kesler tries to get Bryz! to bite with a leg lift but Breezy gets the leg and stick out to stop the attempt. Mules goes low (can’t lift it) Louie with the save. DSedin goes low too… no dice. Both goalies are too good down low. Vbrat knows whats up and gives a little shake and goes high back hand. GOAL! Trevor Linden also goes high on Bryz! GOAL still 1 -1 

Donor doesn’t get enuff on it. Louie saved. Taylor ‘too pretty to play hockey’ Pyatt outwaits Bryz! and steals a 5 hole. GOAL Its up to Joel Perrault and he goes over the top of the net.

Canucks win… BUT WE GOT THE POINT! nice job for the first game back home.

~photos from BTinAZ~ see the rest (including meeting Joel Perrault during the radio show: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603529996280/