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

We’re statistcally close…Divisionally we rank 3 and 4 (who woulda thought we could hold on to 3rd in the Pcacific?) Conference wise we’re 7th and 11th (again, who woulda thunk it? holding onto 7th for more than a game or 2) their superior numbers on the Pk will not be an advantage…as we have no PP to speak of anyway. Last 10 games played for both teams is a tie at 4-3-3… this might be another goalie war.

We missed sweepin these guys last season by 1 game. Erik Ersberg sure made the last games of 07 tough, but he’s out DTD and we will probably get to see just how quick Jonathan Quick is in goal for the Royals (LA Barbie has not been havin a whole lotta success recently and is riding the pine behind the called up Quick). Our lil speed demon Lisin was the star of the only game we’ve played against the Purple Puck Pushers in 08. (I’m sure everyone members that full stride breakout on a DMo pass but just in case… you can watch it again here. ) So we need to continue to own these guys. With ANA quiet tonight we have the chance to pull even with them and with their next game being against the quietly improving Stars we could stay ahead if we pull off the Ws in this back-to-back series. (ANA 39 pts - PHX 37 pts). This is a do NOT waste situation that will be invaluable down the stretch. And look to COL as the last game of December (with Stasny out with arm fracture makes the Yeti very vulnerable right now)to be THE big finish for the boys.

Damn thats a lot riding on 3 games. But with 2 of them at home where we have been thriving lately, it certainly looks doable. So I am going to stop looking ahead and focus all my limited powers of concentration on winning tonight and let Saturday and Wednesday take care of themselves as they arrive.

Watch the game on or on AZ- TV locally

As Always

!!!!LET’S GO COYOTES!!!!

Last season we pretty much owned the Queens all of the 07 season. I don’t see why we should stop, do you? I mean they didn’t get much better during the offseason so why not keep racking up points to help us get to the post season?

Well it may not be that simple as wanting it to be so. There’s a lil newbie named Ersberg hangin out in the royal net that will have other ideas for sure. The Kings play very well for Ersie, as well they should. The kid made the difference last season. He helped them take on teams like the Flames, the Nucks, the Hawks and give a good accounting and oftentimes a whippin that stunned some of their visitors. Sir Eric was also instrumental in keeping us from sweeping the 07 series with the purple wonders.

So we can’t go into this thing lightly. The Royals have a point on us, they have a step on us in the conference and division standings too. Its time to correct that lil statistic for sure. we’re both pretty stingy on GAA and pretty nasty on the PK… (LAK 10-10-3) (PHO 10-11-2) this should be close …

We both sit on healthy rosters w/ a couple of workhorses (Brown/Frolov) (Doan/Rhino) a couple of young snipers (Kopitar) (Mueller) and a steady if not spectacular blueline. It may once again come down to a goalie battle… so many of our games seem to do that. I can’t really drum up much hype for this one. I just want the points dammitt.

Since both Clune and Simmonds are not part of the roster, a lot of the pisstivity factor I would have expected to see affecting Carcillo, will also be missing. So I guess its just GO YOTES!!!! I’d like a chalupa please

Discussion from a Purple Point of View

Some reallly good stats from the magnificent JC of HFBooards see post entry #1

Yotie Preview

And don’t forget our friend Odie over at 5 FOR HOWLING

Well now… let’s see what been happening to the boys in the last few days… the good and the bad.

After gorging themselves on bad sushi (Sharks win on 3/25) the boys went to LA and played sickly. The royals gave them a whippin and sent them off to San Jose in shut down mode.

Ersberg didn’t let them get a shot in edgewise and picked up his second shut out since arriving in the NHL, proving to himself and the Kings he is a top notch goalie who can backstop the royals next season for sure. The Kings were on the top of their game (the confidence of a strong goal tender can do amazing things for a team eh?). We played a perimeter, soft, game all night. Multiple turnovers, no visible signs of fire and of course… no points on the board.

“It feels great, I couldn’t ask for much more, ” said Ersberg, whose parents had traveled from Sweden to attend Thursday’s game. ” I think we played a great game defensively. I saw almost every shot and (the defense) was there on the rebounds too, so they helped me out a lot. “Ahem… that pretty much sums up this game. 3 - 0 Kings final.

And to add insult to well lets just call it salt in a wound rather than injury, we followed up the royal spanking with a tacky loss to the Sharks. Let’s face it, Joe Thornton has turned on the playoff mentality and is a force of nature. In the last meeting between these two mortal enemies Big Joe has 5 goals. Yeah you read that right, the guy has the skill and talent to carry the fish even when no one else shows up to play. Gotta give credit where its due.

In this 3 -1 Sharks finale Nabby actually had his act together and pretty much stopped anything he could see… well except that hella sick performance by our captain on the lone Yote tally. Man! that was some serious patience and control. The Donor is a force to be reckoned with on his own.

So doin the math here, we are now officially out of the playoff run and will be playing strictly for pride and to finish a fantastic run with our heads up and for love of the game.

The good news is… drumroll please

. Read the rest of this entry »

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

I am sick and was seriously considering just postin both games as one entry or just posting the score on this one and let it tell the story but that would be unfair to both sides.

The Kings were outgunned and outplayed all game *even though they outhit us 29 -13 and outshot us in the 3rd 17 - 5*… If we hadn’t needed these 2 points so badly I woulda felt sorry for them (we’ve been in their skates ourselves, a lot) but then again no one ever felt sorry for us…just made fun of us (and some still do…much to their own peril). Tellqvist was in net, giving Breezy a chance to get centered and rested for tomorrow’s battle and no Boyle for the Kings *still can’t figure out what they are thinkin sending that kid back to the minors*

We open the first with a brilliant salvo from Jovo on the PP. Really nice slap shot that gets by Barbie even though he gets a piece of it. Jovonavski scorzes! 1 - 0 Yotes.

Not even 5 minutes into the period we up the ante with a beautiful, should-be-patented Vbrat forehand, backhand maneuver, after stealing the puck and outracing 3 Kings. Vrbata scorzes! 2 - 0 Yotes.

It wasn’t very chippy and there wasn’t much puck possession time for the Kings but it was a fast paced period. We go 11 - 8 sogs and Telly was brilliant on the line.

The second period almost seemed like it was going to be a repeat of the first as the Yotes came out blasting. Carcillo had a freak-tastic toe drag move that completely left the Kings open and vulnerable. Carcillo scorzes! 3 - 0 Yotes. We get sloppy… lay back a little as usual (we really have to turn up our killer instinct if we wanna succeed in the post season). Dwin gets us back on track with his goal on (for me anyway) the best TEAM effort in passing and communication of the night. Winnick scorzes! 4 - 0 Yotes. The Kings are now frustrated and pissed and it shows. Things get a little more chippy as Ivo the terrible starts bangin bodies in every direction. We get a bit undisciplined, taking 2 penalties, including one that just looks like Danny trying to stir things up… not too bad… just Danny bein Danny as WG likes to say.

Well the third was a different kettle of fish. The Kings have pretty much decided that they are NOT going to get shutout in their own house after having such a great streak b4 we foiled their crawl up from the cellar. It gets nasty, it gets chirpy, it gets ugly as Ivanans boards Carcillo pretty deliberately. And finally Carci and Ivo take a run at each other. Carcillo bloodies Ivo’s nose but clearly the extra reach and weight of Ivanans carries the fight. Ivo gets the boarding call as well as the 5 minutes for obliging Danny.

More penalties rain down throughout the period including some 10 minute misconducts (Armstrong and Carcillo). People are already calling the Carcillo hattie - a goal, a fight and a misconduct. The Kings are never able to establish a rythmn or even any kind of real momentum despite valiant efforts from Frolov, Cammi and Brown.

The white flag goes up and the Swedish Wolf has his second shutout of the season with 34 saves . YAY! Telly! He played a magnificent game. Saved our bacon a few times when we got sloppy(including a sideways crab scramble to the side of the net and some help from Z to keep his goose egg intact). 4 - 0 Yotes final.

We are in a 3 way tie for 7th place. TGO grabs his 100th win!

 Both CAL and VAN have only played 59 games, while we have 60. But both teams have OT losses nearly double ours. So if we can douse the Flames tomorrow on home ice we can take undisputed possession of that 7th spot!

Let’s Go Coyotes! We can do it!

If you can make it out to the Job please do… the boys could really use a spirited crowd when they face Iggy and the most likely highly peeved Flames (the Flames lost to the Kings 6 - 3 in their last game… they will be out for blood).

~photos from AP & Getty Photos/Danny Moloshok/Juan Ocampo and Harry How ~

Wow! What a game! Bodies bangin. Jaws waggin. Pucks flyin. It was glorious…except fot the reffing. There should be a new rule… no refs under Niko’s size…Napoleonic syndrome seems to have these guys by the … stripes. BTinAZ wants them fined when they blow a call… I want them used for target practice by the player they blew the call on. All of us agree that there should be some type of review system… i.e. each coach can call for a review of 1 call per game or at least something that doesn’t leave all the power strictly in the ref’s hands.

Joel Perraut gets crosschecked into Clothier and then Clouts pulls him down and Joel gets goalie interference? Carcillo gets a 2 minute misconduct for… tapping Clouts on the butt as he passed on his way to the bench? Hell the period was over and DC was skating next to the ref (how stupid would it be to whack a guy right in front of the ref?) it was like a good play swat…seriously… but Clouts turns to the ref *Mom! he HIT me!* and boom…2 minute misconduct.. really, how sad… Yet Boyle leans over the bench wall to irritate and heckle Carcillo and any unfortunate Yote on that end… and gets nothing?

Clouts played an okay game… unfortunately he was also sicker than a dog so the flukey goals should be forgiven by the King fans. The guy was workin his patoot off most of the night cause the dawgs were really on and poppin. Barby took over for Clouts in the third for that reason…not cuz he was pulled.

As much as I hate to admit it…the Kings have something special in young Brian Boyle, at 6′7″ that kid is going to be a force to be reckoned with very, very soon. I hate him already and I’m sure that sentiment will be echoed by many opponents in the near future. Okay enough King crap…

We came, we saw, we conquered…again. Apparently fate likes us better than she likes the Kings and she refused to let the dominence end. Our PP was a thing of semi-beauty to behold…patience and stamina won the day. The game began and ended on the PP goals scored.

Jovo started off with a high slot slapper around the 6 minute mark to get us first blood off a nicely drawn penalty by Sjo.  Vbrat had the prettiest back hand that just barely got swatted away by Clouts. But Mules and Kapi kept the puck in the zone beautifully and Donor handed Jovo the sweetest pass I have seen in a while. JovoCop scorzes! 1 - 0 Yotes. DC lays on a huge hit and tweaks the knee again but didn’t miss a shift.

The Kings first goal came from a very unlikely source, Ivan the horrible gets past an inattentive Perrault and nails Breezy with a snap shot 1 -1 tie. But Perks would redeem himself by answering less than 8 minutes later with one hell of a sick shot. Doan fed him another picture perfect pass which Perrault scoops up and turns on a dime, nearly on the goal line,  fires short side through a centimeter sized hole. Perrault scorzes! 2 - 1 Yotes.

No more scoring in the first but man some great shots were taken by both sides. 11 sogs by both teams. Ballard played a hell of a game…seemed like every other name out of Strader’s mouth was Bally blocking shots or dishin hits. Both Jovo and Boynk were jumpin into plays like 20year olds. Amazing.

The second period was an penalty endurance burn.  The second worse call of the night *Perrault’s alledged goalie interference* gets the PKers rolling.  

Does Dwin ever score the easy way? Dwin faked Clouts out of his shorts and onto the ice then calmly banked the puck off the desperately trying to help King’s defense. Winnick scorzes! 3 - 1 Yotes. That Winnie is one strong fast kid… especially for such a big man.*can you believe he wasn’t drafted til the 9th round?*

Boyle and Ballard end up in a heap scrappin on the side of the net (2 minutes each) Ivan tries to dig the puck out of Breezy’s glove and the Yotes converge on that asshat b4 any damage can be done. 4 on 4 now and these Kings just don’t quit. The parade to the sinbin begins as Kopi, Winnie and Boyle all net individual 2 minute minors.  (the refs finally catch up to Boyle’s mouth? and he serves a bench minor for abuse of officials… I am still waiting to find out if it is Boyle’s penalty or the furious Coach crawford)

TOO FUNNY MOMENT - King’s defenseman Stuart’s stick gets caught in Clout’s shorts! Clouts is gettin shelled and Stuart can’t get his stick back. Clouthier looks like a freakin porcupine with sticks sprouting from his butt. The worst penalty of the night *Carci’s alledged misconduct* is called after the whistle.

Third period was when the REAL action got started. The King’s Labarbra replaced the ailing Clouts in net and it suddenly got a little harder to score. Of course it didn’t help that we start the period on DC’s bogus penalty and Dustin Brown nails a PP slapper just under a minute into the period 3 - 2 Yotes.

Less than 3 minutes later Wellie nabs himself an inadvertant tripping call, giving the super dangerous Frolov the opening he had been working for all night. Frolov the wonder hobbit ties up the game on a nasty lil PP wrister. 3 - 3 tie. I coulda just cried. It’s one thing to blow a game…we certainly don’t need any zebra help on screwing up a third period. But in a spate of makeup penalties, the zebras give us a 5 on 3 opportunity. We take our time, those Kings had the lanes closed tight as new dress shoes. The first penalty expired but we kept the cycle going. Jack Johnson took a rib shot, the Kings had 4 great chances to clear us out but Mules was all over that blue line holding the puck in and not letting the Kings get a change nor the wounded JJ get off the ice (I don’t like him much either but credit is due the boy for his gumption) Finally the Kings are tired enough to slow down and Vbrat hands Barbie the PP GWG. Vbrat scorzes! 4 - 3 Yotes…final

We face these guys again tonight. JJ is going to be hurting, Boyle won’t be around to stir up tempers, Barby will probably be in and hot to stop the sweep in it’s tracks.

King’s Info Update* Brian Boyle was sent back to the Monarchs on Sunday! Thank goodness I don’t have to watch the big snot again tonight. http://www.insidesocal.com/kings/2008/02/sunday_practice_report.html

BTW: we went to the chalk talk w/ Grant Fuhr… very interesting man… they should let him out more. Gave us some insight into how he coaches the goalies and some interesting tidbits on what was going on w/ Breezy during his lil bump after the contract stuff. errr no I didn’t take notes this time… sorry but BT got some nice pics.

~photos from BTinAZ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedintealinaz/sets/72157603937164734/

onyx_starr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Well back around we come. We got the season off to a rousing start by beating up on the Kings with alacrity. Don’t even THINK about this being an easy set of games. Without Blake slowin the whole team down, the Kings have been rollin lately. Frolov the wonder hobbit is back and Big Dustin Brown has been sinfully good all season (congrats to BigD on the new baby!). King Kopitar seems to have found his groove too. Add in the new gunslinger Boyle, and it just gets uglier. The Kings, who have earned points in 11 of their last 16 games are (10-5-1), and come to the Job  with an overall record of 25-32-3 (53 points) after dousing the Flames last night (6 - 3).

We better come correct. Bring the pain, bring the speed and do NOT forget the forecheck. We need to slow these guys down (Fro, Cami and Kopi are super slick on their blades and an inch given is  a mile taken with them). Cover the neutral like a bad rash (any purple bodies comin over the blue, better have paid dearly for the priviledge). While they haven’t exactly been blessed in net, we need to throw everything we can get a twig on at the webbing because occasionally their goalminders get extra help from the hockey luck fairy. Ask the DedThings, both NY teams, the Jackets and even the Flames what happens when you underestimate the Hollywood purple pack.

So far we have been exceptional against these guys, the scoring committee seems to love drawing the short straw (to see who gets to score next) and the defense have not had a whole lot of work in those past games… 1 - 0, 4 - 1, 4 - 1  and 4 - 2 Big Ed was 1st star twice w/ Muels and Ilya taking the other game’s top honor. With Fro and Co. finding the back of the net frequently (like 5, 6 and 7 goals in a game) we can no longer depend on them to screw themselves over. And let us NOT forget the shame factor (just because they are in the bottom of the barrel, doesn’t mean they have no pride), these guys will be after our butts so we better CYA.

Statistically speaking these 2 games are totally winnable. But as has been said by many pundits smarter than me… ‘on any given day, any team can come out on top’ Let’s just make sure its us.

GO COYOTES!

*pic from CoyoteQ of davidaebischer.net

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

The Kings need better guards or better locks. The Yotes keep gettin in and makin off with the points.

Tonight was no exception to the rule. We can’t solve the Sharks but we pretty much have owned the royals so far this season. We’re in their heads at this point and they can’t seem to shake us. Some pundits (I hesitate to use the word journalists for these twits) have made a big deal out of Blake being punted out of the game (like he coulda stopped the Yotes all on his lonesome). C’mon people even with Blake in we have spanked the Kings, game after game. (And yes I am still pissed about Blake roughin up my boy Z) so this post may be a wee bit more critical than usual.

Plain and simple facts: Bryz >>> all the King’s goalies combined. Yotes scoring committee >>> all the King’s talent combined. Game over, Yotes win… again.

Stopping the big gun (Kopitar) and the mini automatic (Cammelleri) seems to do the trick. Everyone else just seems to cover up and hand over the crown jewels. But gotta give props to Dustin and JS, they did give their all.

This was a big one for us. The win helps put us on good footing when we start our long Eastern road trip. We’ll need every bit of confidence we can muster goin out to play places like the MSG (scary place for a buncha of noobies). But first we got a stop on the Island to face Nolan and his shaky gang of mutts.

The Isles have play off aspirations…those are dreams with legs. They will be looking to take advantage of us to get their heads in the right space. Their coach seems to be ready to take off the kid gloves and go medieval on them if they don’t start living up to expectations. ( “I’ve given guys plenty of opportunities, but patience can only go so long,” Nolan said. “We’re in a business. You have to produce and you have to play hard.” ~ Ted Nolan)  http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=271212002

Comrie needs to be looked after too. (I know he was one of ours once but still…) whup him like he stole somethin! Ex Yotes have a way of doin a lot of damage (errr Nagy exepted).

Do NOT let Suitcase Sillinger eat all the face offs! FOs = possession and we need to get that momentum on our side so we can shell the hell out of DP.

Shoot early, shoot often (worked for us last time and worked for the Sabres the other night), DP is no slouch between the pipes this season (yeah I made fun of his overpaid patoot last season)  but never under estimate a desperate goalie. ( Rick DiPietro, making his fifth consecutive start, finished with 36 saves. “They put a lot of traffic in front,” DiPietro said of the Sabres. “That was effective.”)

We really need to get rollin quick on this road trip. Facin all the News (Isles, Rangers, Devils) is gonna wring us dry before headin in to face the Flyers, Briere is one of the keys there. Shutting him down will require our quickest and most creative boys to be on their toes.(heads up and shields high boys! the Broadstreet Bullies can be had, but there will most likely be bloodshed) then all the way back to face the team that has owned us all season (nuthin like fending off a Shark attack after an Atlantic swim marathon with a buncha parahnas). This is gonna be the most important test of our new goalie and the fortitude and stamina of the kidlets. Lets go get ‘em Yotes!

EDIT: thanx to T and Kir for catchin my weird crossover (and for those who read it early… Briere still plays for the Flyers ) roflmao

BTinAZ and I helped out at the toy drive

before the game with the Booster Club. Good turn out of fans with toys for the local kidlets!

If you haven’t donated yet…please do… its a great cause folks. 

 After taking a hellofa beating on the road, the boys come home to try to regroup. Now we have pretty much figured out the Kings weak spots and have exploited them repeatedly but I really hate it when teams assume that if they can beat us a couple of times, they can beat us everytime, so I won’t disrespect the Kings with that kind of comment. We won 4 - 1 this time.

The game was fast and got chippy early.

Even so , there were only 2 penalties each team for the whole game and those came in the first. Each team went 50% on the PP, again in the first period. Interesting that the stats say the Yotes are at they’re best when they score first. The Kings don’t seem to be able to take advantage of that initial boost.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of committee scoring. The Kings seem to have one HUGE line and not much else. With King Kopitar and Sir Cammeleri shut down the rest of the round table seems to have little to no ability to step up and continue the battle. It doesn’t help the Kings that Frolov the Wonder Hobbit is out of commission. But gotta give a wee bit of love to Dustin Brown who is looking very good in every joust against these struggling royals.

I sat on the glass for this game. Waaay too much fun watching Carcillo taunt Zeiler (who used to be our prospect). *thanks Ducky, for reminding me about that*

Carcillo has discipline galore in this game. Even Ivannans wants to have a go round with our boy.

Zeiler calls him an MF, Carci laughs and says come get some boy, Zeiler pokes him with the stick, Carcillo gives him the look but doesn’t bite on the taunt.

Now of course you are all wondering how I handled the Michalek mauling incident… I remained a lady…in between calling for someone to knock Blake’s head off…(ok, probably not that politely) I have rewatched that part of the game a few times (can you say obsessively boyz n girlz?) and can’t figure out what the hell happened to get Blake to go after Z like that. Easy target maybe?  Blake is a little long in the tooth, maybe he picked Z because the boy won’t fight back? (I love the boy more than anyone not related to him should and even I have to admit the kid can’t fight.) Blake is a total tool and a loser on this one.

Big game for Mules and Vbrat with goals and assists throughout the game. The vets Rhino and Donor added a couple of goals too.  We roll a tasty secondary for those times when the big guns just can’t find a shot and when the first liners are scoring and the secondary is firing bullets too, the Yotes can be a serious force. This is what is lacking for the Kings against us.

Gretz comments that it isn’t one particular line tightening the noose around Kopi and Camm, each player that gets put on them has the same mandate and style, which has been very effective so far. Especially watching Hanzal on Kopitar (both big, strong youngsters sportin the 11) opposite sides of the same mold.

The blue liners have been awesome! Nick Boynton has mutiple points in a couple of games and gets his 100th point in this one. Go Boynk! I would like to take the time to point out the fact that Jovo has been playing very, very well lately. (my prediction about his season seems to be coming true and I will enjoy saying I told you so even more than watching some Yote fans take back their words about lil Niko and some Hawk fans about Vbrat) When will the goal monkey get off my boy’s back?

Bryz! of course was his usual force of nature self rockin the pipes. He really takes any goal scored on him as a personal affront. Gotta love our resident Russian.

A fun game (of course it was, we won)

 a good show of determination after a horrid road trip and a much needed shot in the arm before facing our dreaded nemesis on Friday.

The post game radio guest was BillyT. Who was gracious and sweet as usual and picked up 2 new fans.

BleedinTeal inAz got a bunch more really nice shots even though the glass sucks. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603408176965/