Guess I won’t have to put Versteeg on my slap this bitch list. The NHL did it for me… slapped that lil bitch that is. Versteeg gets the fine and the suspension and the really laughable part is… he says KT challenged him to fight! What a joke this kid is… Own yer error dude…all buck20lbs of Kyle Turris couldn’t have hurt you, game was over, what was the point?

I really thought Gretzky was gonna blow a serious gasket… we’ve seen him pissed before but never like last night… and go to YotesTV and hear what Doaner has to say about it… Hey! Coach Q… better start thinkin about Verpiggy bein a healthy scratch next Yotes game…

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=258967&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_nhl

Rough, rough road trip. I really don’t know where to start on this one.

The boys left here on a 6 goal high. Bryzzie subbed in for Telly and didn’t let in a single goal so his confidence shoulda been at least in the chill zone if not high. We were a game over .500 again and had won 4 of our last 5. So what happened?

In St. Louis we were overconfident and didn’t play the whole 60 minutes. We got started on a seriously physical note. We didn’t sustain it though. We let the Blues stay with us. Then we let them get ahead of us (okay flukey goal off the D but it counted as the GWG).We never turned on any serious heat until the last desperation 2 minutes of the third. We lost. I can”t say it was a horrible game, but it was definitely winnable and we let it slide right through our gloves.

We went into Chicago already broken. IDK what happened. We hit the ice already broken. This wasn’t some kind of meltdown, it wasn’t a total goalie issue either. NOBODY came to play a game at all, much less a 60 minute game. Carcillo tried to set the tone early with extreme predjudice. The first shot Bryzzie stopped told the tale of how confident he was feeling (he stopped the puck but started looking behind him in uncertainty). The first goal was not pretty… the second goal was on the team mostly…after that its a tossup of who looked worse the goalie or the team. By the time the 4th goal went in I was hoarse from yellin at the screen for Telly to be put in. Then Panger and Heeter casually threw out this lil gem…(wait for it… its ugly) … Goalie Mikael Tellqvist has a bruised foot, he won’t be subbin in… So did we just go out on the road with a single, mentally unbalanced goalie? We couldn’t have one of the SA kids come meet us in CHI, just in case what happened, happened? Color me stupid and put a bow on my head…Highlight of game? Enver ‘Feivel’ Lisin. Enver was sooo NOT leavin Chicago on a goose egg. David Hale was the only defenseman NOT a minus… fairly pitiful as highlights go ain’t it?

There were more fights and jawing than any real playing going on from our side (please… dont anyone bring up … ‘if McGrattan had been on the ice’, or I may have to resort to some violence of my own). JeebusMerryandJehosophat DC FOUGHT! JOVO FOUGHT! HALE FOUGHT! KT FOUGHT! was there anyone who didn’t fight? and guess what? we still lost … 7 - 1 …

Everyone sucked. Even my beloved Z had a horrid game. I’m going to stop right there… no use in beating a dead horse unless you just want tired arms. Sooo… we sucked in these first 2 road games… yeah we did… but what happens now? How we play Dallas lets us know if this team can bounce back or not. If this team is a collection of guys on skates or an NHL team. I’m not neccessarily talkin about a win in Dallas either… but we better tighten the straps on the hard hats, step into some steel toed boots and bring the work ethic back.

We get the Joker back on Wednesday. There will be a bit of a shake up. Who rides the pine? Who stays in? I don’t know what its going to take for Breeze to get his act together, he’s gotta be feelin like shit, but he has to get his head right. Telly said it best, 21 guys, all have to play their best, all 60 minutes, thats how we win.

We haven’t had a horrible run. This was just one game out of 82. How we choose to respond both Wednesday AND the next time we face the Hawks is the real story. Until we are mathematically eliminated from a playoff berth I consider us contenders. So let’s ALL pull up our socks, put this one behind us (not forgettin it) just learn and move forward. It’s hockey people, not life or death. We play again on Wednesday and hopefully we can take our disappointments out on the Stars.

Last word on the Chicago game…if Versteeg doesn’t get a minimum of 1 game suspension the NHL should declare its rules a joke and disband. 2 game misconducts and an instigator at 19:58…automatic suspension

I really gotta get my ‘What a Lil Bitch’ list back up and running so I can add Sopel and Versteeg to it.

OK does it get more pathetic than this statement? “The Blackhawks have won four straight and six of seven against the Coyotes, including three in a row at home by a combined score of 11-2.” This has simply GOT to stop, Sheesh these games are sooo winnable. What is it about the Hawks that gets our knickers so twisted? For cryin out loud it ain’t like they are the Wingnuts or something (although when that GDT comes up.. I guess I will have an even more pathetic statement to post).

Last matchup we at least showed up respectably. A one goal game and 2 defensemen w/ 5 sogs. We need that more often so how about starting tonight? If not for a couple of reffing gaffes this was a different game, so maybe…if we’re lucky, we’ll catch a reffing break tonight and get some guys who can actually watch the game and make the right calls.
This is a game that we can’t breakdown for even a second… much less the normal 10 to 20 minutes per game we usually get outplayed. Who’s gonna be in net for us? OOOH million dollar question. Bryz wasn’t horrible last night…had some spectacular saves, pillowed up really well for the most part but he can’t save us from ourselves if we consistently parade to the box and when we continually totally cockup the PP opportunities we are given. Face it… a Nabby/Lundy/Backstrom clone couldn’t save us from ourselves some nights. But does Breeze need to start against the Hawks (his perennial nemesis) the second game of an ugly back to back road set? I say no but hey, what do I know. I only want the best for Bryz, I don’t know if that means he needs to start and be reassured that TPTB still believe in him or not though. But then again I really want a win and Telly has been hot as hell for us. My vote is Telly. I guess we’ll see.

We’re 4-8-1 on the road goin against the Hawks 7-1-4 home record…ughh.. Khabby has been a real pain in our butts (maybe we shouldn’t practice with him in the summer any more?) But the Bulin Wall has been ailing, maybe we get to see Christobal Huet in net? Might give us a better shot at breeching the Hawk’s nest.

Patrick Sharp has been quite the Coyote killer and he scored for the Blackhawks on Saturday. He has eight points in Chicago’s last eight games, scoring six goals during that stretch. Think we need to contain him? And of course there’s the tag team of Kane and Toews to watch out for too… I didn’t check to see if Havlat was well, as that could change during the warmup and he’s out of sight out of mind for me after that ugly goal against us that shall not be mentioned.

These guys don’t seem to mind bangin around our rookies and sophs but man do they get touchy if one of theirs (Kane) gets popped legitimately. They may be a bit edgy and lookin for a bit of payback for that… hopefully Carcillo didn’t wear himself out in those Blues bouts last night. Got a feeling this one might get a bit chippy if not down right nasty.

Only an hour til puck drop. LET’S GO COYOTES

Second City Hockey and Sam asked Odie and I for the 411 on a couple of questions about the Yotes. See my answers after the jump…

Watch the game

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It’s the Captain’s 900th game! whoa! doesn’t that sound like a hell of a long time playin? Time is relative and the Doaner can get just as frisky as if it was his first game all over again… And he will have to if the Yotes want any chance to come out of this game with badly needed points. I fear we are in another year of ‘how goes our captain, goes our team’. Look at the games so far this season, when Shane is ON, the team creates magic. When Shane isn’t ON, the team is lethargic and moribund.

We’ll most likely be missing the services of Daniel The Beast Winnik due to gettin hit during Monday’s practice (thnx for the heads up EmmBee)

Daniel Carcillo-Olli Jokinen-Peter Mueller
Kyle Turris-Steven Reinprecht-Shane Doan
Kevin Porter-Martin Hanzal-Mikkel Boedker
Todd Fedoruk-Viktor Tikhonov-Brian McGrattan

Jovo-Morris
Michalek-Sauer
Yandle-Klee

Bryzgalov
Tellqvist
*no definitive word on whether we see Telly or Breezy

The Blackhawks have a decent offensive team again this year. They are however still having problems with their netminders… But freakin Khabibulin continues to outplay Huet and given that he knows waaay too much about our boys after practicing with them in the unofficial summer camp, thats who we’ll be facing again tonight.

The Hawks are sitting on a 7-4-5 record right now. The new coach is playin hard ball (play hard or ride the pine, no matter who you are). Both teams are ridin losing streaks. The Yotes are 8-8-0 (what is it w/ us that we can’t nab some of these xtra points in losses?) Neither team is sporting significant injuries this time around.

The crash and bang, speed and burn game the Yotes have been having success with better be at peak condition tonight. We roll 4 lines but one of them has the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of scoring. We run short shifts to keep the energy and speed at righteously scary levels (but our vets are going to have to dredge up whatever they’ve been conserving and match the kid’s energy).

The Hawks have just as much youth and speed as the Yotes with an added advantage of Toews back in action after a very slow start to the year. Look for the bruiser squad of Burrish and Eager, pretty nasty customers, who will probably try to keep things very physical since it seemed to work well last game.

Looks like Chitown will be rollin

Versteeg-Toews-Kane
Havlat-Sharp-Byfuglien
Ladd-Bolland-Skille
Eager-Burish-Adams

Keith-Seabrook
Johnson-Campbell
Hendry-Sopel

Khabibulin

Keys to the game?

Speed, simplicity and tenacity as always…we have to be faster and nastier from end to end. No loose pucks and nothing too fancy. Just get to the pucks!!! (if you don’t get there first, at least make sure you end up w/ the damn thing on your stick) and shoot the damn thing on net (sounds so simple doesn’t it?)

Physicality - we better bang and crash harder than these guys do. They’re once again on a losing streak, on a road trip and none too happy about their current position, Brian McGrattan, you been talkin a good game… how bout walkin the walk now set the tone early.

Start Telly - no really Wayne… start Telly. You been ridin Bryz like a government mule, its time to rest him up b4 we go out on the 4 game road trip anyway…and for some reason the boy can’t wrap his head around this team. So kill a bunch of birds w/ one stone… start Telly.

STAY OUT OF THE BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VS

[0-2-1] —- [2-0-0]

I guess this game will be a difinitive test of what we’ve done to improve. Other than the Ded Things no one else owned us quite like the Hawks did last year. *ok ok BT, the Sharks bit us a few times too*

We’ll probably see the same lines again with mixing and matching as needed (or as the scramble bug crawls up and bites TGO)

Doan-Jokinen-Mueller
Carcillo-Turris-Doan
Winnik-Hanzal-Tikhonov
Fedoruk-Reinprecht-Boedker

Jovo-Morris
Michalek-Sauer
Yandle-Hale

Bryzgalov
Tellqvist

The Blackhawks have a decent offensive team again this year. They are however having problems with their defensive game and their netminders. Khabibulin continues to be their main goalie (despite being waivered) and since Huet hasn’t done any handstands in the net either yet looks like Khabby is being given one last chance to keep his job as part of a tandem (or being showcased like hell).

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Well I know its too early to rate performances and waaay too early to start predicting how well we are going to perform for the season, but come on! you know we are all in heaven so far as the Yotes come out scrappin and yappin in 08.

We are 2 - 0 for a fantastic start. 1 home and 1 away winning game under our belt. Nerves and jitters for both rookies and vets are settling down now. KT and Bodz both grabbed their first NHL goals (Bodz with extreme patience and KT with dogged perserverance). I got a feeling Tiki and Ports won’t be far behind as both are also playing extremely well.

The vets are no slouches either as the wiley Rhino leads the Coyotes with a +4 and 3 assists but we have 6 players w/ multiple points and 12 players w/ at least 1 point under their belt. Mad Max Doan has been on and poppin anyone that takes a shot at one of his charges. What is even more exciting is seeing them so gelled, that no matter who gets a liberty taken against them… someone is watching and payback is guaranteed. From Hale to Jovo retribution is swift and as painful as the punisher can make it.

Bryz Ga Lov! Bryz Ga Lov! oh yeah the main dude in charge of the nets has only let in 3 for 64! Very nice start for our Breezy. If he can keep his concenration tight this is going to be the best start the Yotes have had in a very long time.

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What is it about Patrick Lalime this season that we just cannot seem to solve? He just isn’t THAT good (even though he has some decent games, he implodes waay too often). But like most do or die situations, this game was a lucky-is-sometimes-better -than-good crapshoot. 1 - 0 Hawks was NOT the outcome I was looking for.

Both goalies were playin like Nero in Rome. But Breezy got caught on a very lucky skate deflection. It sucks to lose a game that way. Both teams didn’t look like much. The young Chicago snipers never even got on the board and actually got caught up in a couple of scraps. Our snipers were puttin up a fight but couldn’t get a damn thing to go in.

I sure wish Donor hadn’t fought Frankenhead in the Calgary game (I’d bet the farm, if I had one, that the hand is acting up again), our Captain hasn’t let fly any kind of shot at all since then. 3 or 4 weeks ago there was an article that listed our wounded and the big PM had a foot problem… is it worsening? Cause he is slow and ineffective lately. At least Vrbie is pickin up speed again after his ankle issues… just a matter of time b4 the streaky, sneaky lil Czech gets hot again.

Our newest Czech may not be the prettiest thing on the block and dull as drying paint in interviews but other than unfamiliarity he didn’t look too bad last night. He even rang a post in his debut. I have hopes for him once he gets acclimated. Why throw him into a game this important when he hadn’t even practiced w/ the team though? We sure love that trial by fire thing I guess.

Sweet baby Clarence! What is with this line juggling thing? I really, really, REALLY hate it. And I’m sure the players do too. Carcillo on any kind of starting line gives me hives. I mean seriously wtf?

So anyway… we can’t find any kind of energy? Maybe we need to stock up on the Rockstar or Monster drinks instead of Coyote Koolaide cuz if we can’t hype up when these kinds of games are on the line we truly will be running in 9th or 10th place the rest of the way. If we can only beat teams like the Blues or the Kings with any kind of authority we might as well sit back on the porch.

March is definitely the cruelest month with ANA(2),VAN(2), EDM(2), SJ(2), CGY & DAL(1) to fight our way through, not to mention the surging MON and the down but by no means out OTT, we better find our game quick. We need at least 3 wins for every loss at this point in time. That schedule makes it hard to view play off hopes with any kind of … well, hope.

May the Blues will oblige us with 2 more points and may Breezy continue to be a puzzle to ANA and DAL… and pray to the hockey goddess that we can skate on Oil this month. That may just be enough to slide sideways into the playoffs. Let’s start with the Blues tonight boys! Hit all the right notes and bring Mama a birthday win home from St. Louie.

Let’s Go Coyotes!

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

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/

Well it’s time for the tie breaker. Bryz! needs to find his inner Hawk slayer. He’ll be given another opportunity to figure these guys out. First time out a young unknown rang the Breezer’s bell for a hattie. The second time out The Swedish Wolf slammed the door on the young and feisty team. Hopefully this third battle will also fall to our favor.

Date          Winner           Score      1st Star
Nov.30      them              6 -1         Dustin Byfuglien
Jan.3          us                   4-2          Martin Hanzal

Chitown is a point behind us due to their bout with the injury bug. Sitting at 3 - 6 - 1 for the last 10 games played while we boast a heftier 7 - 3- 0 but its a new game and those stats mean diddly squat when both teams are fighting for their play off lives.

The Hawks are comin in high but tired from whuppin Colorado and we are comin in (I hope) pissy from gettin dumped in the last minute on our home ice. If we can ride the rage we could pull this off with a bang.

There are still alot of holes to exploit in the Hawks roster. Young guns Kane and Sharp have been pulling most of the offensive weight for this team despite a fairly healthy Havlat. (is this guy ever 100%?) With Buffy the Coyote slayer patrolling the blue line this game is by no means guaranteed.

If Ziggy gets the nod tonight he’s got his FO work cut out for him as NPY and Sharp both sport %’s over the 50% mark.  Rhino should be back and adds another weapon to our arsenal. (maybe someone can lie to Sjo and tell him the game is on in Sweden?) I hate to be mean but… YORK! get your shite together! Small, Pierre-centric note to the 2/53 combo… bring the pain boys! Shake off last night, we need your A game buckos.

The keys will be to contain the young Patricks, press the tired Dmen, Seabrook and Keith (both played well over the 26 minute mark last night) and (depending on who gets the nod) outwait Khabibulin and hit the cookie jar sweepstakes or pepper the red hot Lalime til he can’t see straight. We need to hit early and hard (these Hawks are hot tempered and can be drawn into bad penalties).

Lets Go Coyotes!

OnyxStarr@coyoteshipcheck.com