There are 20 games left including tonight’s tilt against the Dallas Stars. That is 40 points, sitting there, begging to be brought home. Now of course we can’t bring them all home but I’m sure our record can accommodate 21 or more of the little critters.

Looking back and being honest, who can say they saw this coming? We had hopes of course and most of us said we’d skid into the post season on a smoking wing and a prayer. But who saw THIS? This team that won’t quit, that hasn’t lost more than 3 in a row all season. This Coyotes squad that never gives up, even when they’re 2 goals or 3 goals behind. Who saw these guys becoming a family, a unit, a force of nature?

That force is back in Glendale tonight after burning the Oil,  sweeping the Wild for the first time ever! and just missing beating the Avs to 2 points. (we just left too many chances on the table last night. Totally winnable but I’m not totally disappointed. Just gotta say… there are nights when I really hate zebras) But the boys scratched, clawed and as Tippett says, hung around til they could find a way to win for the most part. We grabbed 4 more of those coveted little points to bring our total to a whopping 79! *we’re 3 points ahead of LAK and within shouting distance of Chicago’s 83*

Tonight is one of those nasty back-to-back nights with a bit of travel slipped in to make it more interesting. (the NHL scheduler really hates us apparently, because we just did this… against Dallas no less!) Well the Stars can forget about facing a lifeless, legless team again this time. They’re home and we’ll be providing them with some energy to help them along tonight on home ice.

So, keys to this game?

Screw Marty Turco. Literally and figuratively. Make him a non factor. Don’t dump anything too close or he’ll go all 3rd defenseman on us. *putting it out far enuff that he’s tempted to go out front would be fine and then strip him and put it in the net!* that works quite well.

Watch out for the rejuvenated Ratboy, Ribbie is back in the lineup and ready to sneak a few goals if he can. Don’t let them get any good chances, they had a good game against CAL the other night.

Play physical not tentative. (just because the refs in COL blew some calls at the end, doesn’t mean we’ll get jobbed again) We have to play these guys physically and hard all 60 minutes. No space allowed.

Discipline as always will have to be tight. No matter what any Star does, let HIM get the penalty… or take that clown to the box with you. (we don’t have to worry about Otter, he’s out with his appendix)

Scoring committee and their new left wing Lombardi need to come out firing all the heavy artillery tonight. We need to go into the break with a good victory.

Puck drops at 6pm. Tailgate is from 2pm til 5pm in parking lot J. Hope to see you all there! It is we win/you win night so don’t forget to keep your ticket AND the voucher for free tickets after we win. Booster Club 50/50 bring your extra 2 bucks to get in on the chance to win some dough.

******************NHL Olympic Roster Freeze is on

Some juicy pieces cleared waivers  Like Jonathan Cheechoo… an interesting player,  we should at least kick the tires on that

As always… Go Coyotes!

Records?! We don’t need no steenking records!  But we sure love smashing them. From Bryzzie’s phenomenal career high wins & shutouts to our amazing 10 game home streak to our most wins the fastest in the franchise’s history, we’re knocking down all preconceptions faster than anyone ever dreamed. Not to mention the weird and often too knuckle twisting ways we are finding to win.

We took on Nashville and never scored a goal…and still won! Talk about a fantastic game of defense and guts. The Preds are like a mirror image of our own team. (It was like twin brothers battling each other) Both sides showed no weaknesses. And the 10 round shootout at the end was a gut buster of EPIC porportions. Who would have ever predicted Adrian Aucoin as the shoot out savior? Oakie was brilliant (sooo glad he participates in the shootout tourneys at practice) A 1 – 0 win in a tight almost playoff type game is good practice for the real thing. Aucoin is very funny, he says he was just trying to put the goalie to sleep with his speed, we think that the wiley vet has been watchin these things pretty closely and knows exactly what he is doin out there.

We just love the shoot out apparently because we battled Chicago to a standstill behind the amazing game of AZBarbie. Last season we all cringed everytime the name ‘Blackhawks’ came up in conversation. They schooled us and ruled us all season long. Well, that is no more. We took it to the Chi-town boys 3 -1 in our first contest on home ice and then last night we won again on the crazy success of Adrian Aucoin’s sudden shootout prowess. Oaks says this about his second one “Now I’m nervous,” Aucoin said. “The first one was luck. Now it’s actually a streak.” 2 – 1 W, Yotes! Simply amazing as we got our 6th straight victory.

A tired yet elated team rolled into Dallas around 2 am to try to sleep in yet another set of strange and uncomfortable beds. Then the boys dragged into American Airlines Center to face a desperate Marty Turco (who is facing a serious challenge for his job from TBA – tall, bald & Auld). We’ll talk about goalies facing the possibility of being put on the trading block in another post. (along with rumors about possible pickups for the trade deadline… Wisniewski? really?)

We seem to have a very obstinate attitude towards making anything 7 right now. Our 6 game winning streak came to an abrupt end on Saturday night. The desperate Stars came to play and jumped on us from the first puck drop til the last buzzer. I won’t sugar coat it, it was bad all night. A short handed goal was scored on us, the PP went 0 – 6, a rookie scored twice in less than 5 minutes and Marty Turco denied every good old college try that we could muster. The only good thing about the night was Biznasty dropping the hammer on Barch, which was thoroughly enjoyable even though I wished it had been Steve Ott. Yeah we lost and lost badly (okay, we got shut out 4 – 0) but you have to keep everything in perspective. We are 7-3-0 in our last 10! We’re sitting pretty with 75 points (35-19-5), we’ve got 23 games left to get the other 25 points to break 100 and secure a post season berth. We have no severe injuries (except Uppy and Sweets) *knock on wood, lets keep it that way* We just need to break even on this last week before the break and then we get to rest for the sprint portion of the season.

So don’t be disheartened folks. I know we have gotten so caught up in having a competitive team that is spoiling us by finding ways to win no matter what, but the reality is that the boys are going to falter now and then and we just have to hang in there and keep supporting and believing. This Coyotes squad is the real deal and even though there will be a few more bumps and roadblocks, they are going to stay in the hunt for Lord Stanley’s Cup into April and beyond.

It sure is irritating, yet so very cool, to call for tickets and find out there aren’t many left for quite a few games. If you are planning to see the Hawks game on 3/20, you better call quick. That game was close to sold out last week.

So anyways, we play the Oil tonight. Those boys have been having a rough go of it all season. (18-33-6) and (2-7-1) in their last 10. I hate to kick a team when they are down but we need these 2 points. Besides, its not like they didn’t wreck us more than their share last season.

The keys to this game?

Get a good rest and come out raging. Don’t think about the fact that you got smacked in Dallas or the fact that you gotta hit the road again for another nasty road trip. Think only about containing Dustin Penner and Gagne (if he’s well enough to play). Think about taking advantage of Staios, Horcoff and O’Sullivan (the worst +/- holders on the team). These guys are struggling, run through them or over them as often as possible on your way to see Deslauriers about a goal or 5. (The kid owes us for lettin him have his 1st shutout, doesn’t he?) The scoring committee should really ramp themselves up for a bunch of shots on goal, we’ve had too many nights lately where the sogs were horribly lacking, in quality if not in quantity.

Defense and discipline. It has been our ability to execute these two things that has saved our bacon lately. Let’s keep that going. The goalies have gotten used to having help, lets give them a break tonight and limit the amount of rubber they have to fend off. Don’t let their losses fool you, these boys from EDM are sneaky, they have been right on the verge of winning quite a few of these games. Do NOT let them have PP time or we will give them the break they’ve been waiting for to get some confidence and possibly go on a tear.

Maaan Bryz, hang tight. I know there is all kinds of craziness running through your mind right now. Bearing the weight of your country for the Olympics is never easy (especially when that country is Russia) and knowing you are one of the lynchpins for the success of an entire franchise has got to be quite the heavy load. You only have 3 more weeks of double duty big guy. Hold fast, we believe in you. Come out scrappin tonight, you got this!

Sorry this one is so brief but I am crunched for time. Lets just get to the game tonight and let our boys know how much we care. BRING THE NOISE!

See you all at the game, puck drops late on this one folks 7:30 start time. See you all there.

As always… Go Coyotes!

Wow! Lots of activity in just a week.

Ducks 3/22/09 We didn’t fare too well against the Ducks on sunday. (you can check out the pitiful GDT commentary for that game over at Odie’s if you want). There wasn’t much to say about it for sure. The 2 – 6 score doesn’t tell the whole story but I really think it says enough. Pruuu!!! notched his first goal as a Yote  and of course the Captain came through with one. But the story of the night was the Ducks PP which pretty much had its way with us all night. The 4 minute hi stick on Uppy pretty much just sealed our doom by letting them get 2 in less than 30 seconds. So we opened the door for the Ducks to sneak back into post season contention… oops, our bad.

Oilers 3/26/09 But these new Coyotes are really gettin into their spoiler role and when EDM came to town (yeah the team that was tryin to sweep us), we came to life on home ice. Klee, Lombo and Hanzal bulled, bashed and scrabbled their way to beat Rollie the Goalie giving us the 3 – 2 win over the Oil. Hemsky and Kotalik are pretty much unstoppable when they get into gear and scored goals 43 seconds apart in the 3rd period. This was a really solid effort although we got a little rattled in the third, we never stopped pushing and that attack mentality is what really kept the Oil from completing the comeback. That never say die attitude bodes well for the future. It was great to see Klee get his first goal in the desert, Dawes fed him the perfect centering pass (we’ve seen a lot of those since the arrival of Team Transplant), it is taking our stay-at-home-defensemen a little bit to figure out that they are actually going to get to shoot occasionally!

Sharks 3/28/09 So, on Saturday we flew up to SJ to try to ruin the wounded Sharks day. (No team has beaten the Sharks in regulation more than us) if we could have kept our game together this would have made 3. But alas it was not to be. Specialty teams really made the difference again. But what really made the night especially fun was seeing Kurt ‘Sweets’ Sauer score a badass goal.

What made the night especially yuck was seeing Jody Shelly score. Tree really screwed the pooch on that outlet pass which totally killed the momentum from the Sauer goal. But we battled down to the wire and really made those fish sweat. We failed to kill the Lombo penalty in the 3rd and then failed to convert on the PP from the Cavanaugh penalty after. Another great thing about this game was hearing the commentators praise Scotty Upshall. Apparently Uppy is going to make TGOs line swapping look like genius everytime it includes inserting thegr8Scott into a line. According to Panger & Co, Uppy has an uncanny ability to bring energy and heart to any line he’s played on. If you didn’t love the Carcillo trade you still gotta give Upshall his props for what he’s brought to the Yotes in his short tenure.

Well we get to roust Dallas tomorrow at home. This should be a really good game as well. Another team we’ve matched up well against all season.

News and Notes:

Bettman reiterates… Glendale or die tryin!

Z’s shot blocking total is now 247! (he better stop blocking them with his hands tho, the one last night scared me to death) Brett Clark from COL is closest to him at 237. After that no one is close.

Smack Daddy is scheduled for surgery on April 1st.

Team Pierre wins more awards

See you guys tomorrow at the Job.

And as always… GO COYOTES!

Well they came home men. Bryzzie recorded his shutout of the season. What started out as a tentative game turned into a goalie battle of epic proportions in the Big D as Bryzgalov transmuted into Beastgalov and stole the show. Turco was no slouch his own self, turning in a great performance. If not for the heroics of the Russian pocket rocket Enver Lisin, we mighta gone to another double shutout shootout.

The boys did everything I asked of them… well… except you Olli. Man I hope you read this shite and get so pissed at me that you hattrick on Saturday, Monday damn… Thursday? Seriously! You piss me off so royally right now I could pluck you bald…oh wait… you are already bald. NVM but I am still wallowing in never before reached levels of pisstivity. I have no more words to describe you (they say a picture is worth a 1000 words)

Soooo Ilya Bryzgalov saved the boys bacon, going from mild mannered Russian goal keeper to some dire, crazed edition that we haven’t seen before. The amazing beast stymied the Stars all night long. It was one of his best performances of the season so far. (thanks Qbert, for the pic)

The warrior crew returned home and promptly shat their armor against the Canucks… blew a fargin 2 goal lead, let the Nuckleheads grab 3 (count ‘em and weep) unanswered goals in the 3rd. There was more scrummin than hockey goin on. *and I admit to wishing heartily that DMo coulda got loose on Hordichuck*

But all this pushin n shovin took us away from the game rather than shoring us up to play better.

Between losin the majority of the faceoffs in the 3rd (allowing the Nucks to gain better puck possession throughout) and PIMs up the wazoo, we basically handed the Canucks this one. 4 – 3 Canucks… final.

So to continue the shatting, we played the Flames. Always a fun proposition.. NOT. But we have been holding our own this season so it wasn’t all doom and dred. We came out hard n feisty (20 sogs in the first period! some of them quality shots that Kipper had to really perform on) The Mighty DWin started us out great (gettin that scoring gorilla off his back…not once but TWICE! for his first multi-goal game)

Unfortunately Winnie was the only Yote who seemed to be able to put the biscuit in the basket through 2 full periods.

The Flames were a whoole nother story, walkin into our zone in the 2nd and blasting Breezy full of holes at will. When will the boys learn that 1 – 1.5 periods played balls out will not win them a hockey game? The second period saw 4! (count ‘em again folks) 4 goals scored including a shortie from Glencross that was an embarrassment of a turnover that a group of mini-mites wouldn’t have made. The fire retardant failed us and the Flames outshot us 21 – 8!

The 3rd period we woke up and the Flames cooled down (each side only got 9 sogs). Doaner answered Lombardi’s 2nd goal (6th Flame goal on the night) makin it 6 – 3 and we got a little momentum going. But another goal from the Flames killed the crowd and people started leaving in droves. Well they missed a hellified show by the sneaky Tiki. Tikhnov ripped a slapper and a wrister past Kipper 3 minutes apart that put some life back in us… with time left on the clock. (Another first time multi-goaler!)

I had a foolish leap of faith (idn’t funny how hope will spring up like that?) that we might actually tie this game up. another brown stain added to the score sheet… 7 – 5… Flames… final. *high point of the night… Danny takin Phaneuf down.

Lowpoint of the night…Bertuzzi with what seemed to be 900 assists on the night*

The dismally seemingly perpetually brown film engulfed Monday night’s game against the Oilers too. But at least there was real hockey being played.

High points were

• Telly in the net on a mission.
• Sweets back on the ice after missing 14 games (Sauer was a last minute decision, I mean the kid can barely hobble and laced ‘em up anyway, gotta love this man).
• DMo blastin away at Rolli (6 sogs, nasty ones too).
• The return of Hanzal and his face off percentage of 62%.
• And biggest surprise of the night? Olli Jokinen diving through the crease to try to put one in! (Hey don’t look at me, I was surprised all night that Odawg could actually appear to give a shit, much less show some ‘real’ passion).

Low points were

• 44% face off total.
• Goin 1 for 999 on the PP again (I guess its gettin better… at least we’re managing to get 1 now).
• Having to watch Telly get his bell rung with no call…again (how do the refs manage to miss this over and over again? Has there been a game this season that someone hasn’t tried to decapitate the Swedish Wolf?)
• Goin gooseegg on a minute and a half 5 on 3.
• The sound a post makes when denying a Mueller goal.
• Not getting to watch Jovocop beat the hell out of Sheldon “shit starter” Souray
• And last but certainly not least… watchin the score board record yet another loss. 3 -1 Oilers… final

And that is our home performance, all wrapped up in a brown miasma. We have one more chance to pull out of this homely rut on Thursday night. Please dear hockey goddess, haven’t we been punished enough? Whatever transgressions we’ve committed, please! we will never do it again. Just give us back our pre-ASG team. Oh and ma’am, if at all possible can we have one of those really cool road winning streaks like last year?

News n Notes…

Schlemko was called up again… does this point to a trade acomin? God I hope not. Hopefully this was just a precaution since Mr. and Mrs. Halestorm are expecting any minute. EDIT: Schlem went back to SA… I believe the mini-Haler arrived okay, just don’t know yet what the lil one is named yet.

KT was sent to the Rampage! Didn’t see that coming… although you all know I was an advocate for another year of college (minimum) or startin in the AHL and building up his strength from the giddyup for our boy. Wayne and Co did the kid a great disservice methinks, waiting this long. Hopefully KT will get mongo TOI and build up his confidence and strength… and help the Rampage stagger into a playoff spot. EDIT: KT is rockin the AHL. Multigoal games, huge TOI minutes and just all around tearin it up. 3 games, 4 goals, 3 assists and a +1!

TGO salary stuff… for those who give a shit and are makin a big deal out of his salary in this financial crisis.

Thanks Teal for the pics… more to come

As always… no matter how low or how high we get… GO COYOTES!

How do we go from like 40 hits in one game to like 17 hits the next? We only hit teams that can’t/won’t hit back? The hits were about even (17 apiece) but it sure seemed like theirs were nastier and more frequent.

We finally get over the 50% mark on faceoffs (you go Hanzal,cuz no one else certainly did) but our puck possession still sucked lemons. Does anyone else want to yell DECLINE IT! for the love of hockey DECLINE IT! when ever our PP takes the ice? (another you go boi! to Hanzal for not making us endure a PP attempt) Doesn’t it seem like we can only score on the delayed call this year?

Its a damn good thing no one else cept the Quacks were playin or this coulda REALLY hurt. We’ve got a chance tomorrow to make up for this

The first 10 minutes we looked like a pack of ungainly puppies trying to find our way out of a basket. Not a good look for us. Telly looked like a rusted statue of a goalie but came alive fairly quickly.The 5 on 3’s at the end pretty much put the kabosh on him trying to hold us in the game. Yes the refs sucked but we certainly didn’t help ourselves with our undisciplined actions. Predicting that DC will feel a wee bit of tightening on the leash(maybe a view from the press box?) for his mini-meltdown. Even though he fired up the boys by taking on the very large (6′4″ 225lbs) Jason Strudwick, the entire effect was marred by his jaws flappin like a fat ladie’s drawers in a windstorm. STFU Danny…srsly… I thought you had gotten over this tendency.

The Oil made us pay dearly for the youthful mistakes of Enver Lisin at the start of the first. 2 PPs…2 goals and we’re fighting for our lives. The great part was that we didn’t lay down and whine, we actually took the game to them and dominated the second period. It is soo very weird to actually still expect to win after being down by 2. Srsly… after Hanzal scored and Telly and the defense tightened up, I had expectations of pulling off (if not a win) at least a point and ending our Edmonton misery.When Winnie pulled off that move and Lisin scored, I was SURE we’d come all the way back.

The third period both teams were fighting each other to a standstill and we might have survived (1)5 on 3… but 2 of them? No way in hell. Especially with that insane shot of Souray’s waiting to end his drought. (If Z had jumped in front of one of those zingers I’da had to take him out back and explained the difference between team sacrifice and complete and utter stupidity/death wish). Seriously starting to hate Dwayne Roloson, he is a Coyotes killer of the worst order.

So we come out of Edmonton once again empty handed. Head into Colorado to play in the oxygen deprivation tank of the Yeti. An Avs win is another one of those ‘who-do-we-have-to-kill for the W games’. Sitting at 33 points and looking to climb back in the hunt for a berth, these guys need to be shoved back so they don’t get too close… we end the month of December against them and every loss against us helps next time we face them.

As always… Let’s Go Coyotes!

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

Now maybe it was, the hype, the media, the success that tripped us up tonight. But doesn’t that seem like such and easy answer? The young pups maybe read one too many press clippings or committed the same faux pas (not taking the opponent seriously) as many teams did with them. Resting on the laurels of their previous accomplishments and looking past the streaky Oilers to catching that playoff berth rung. They paid for that error if that is indeed what this loss amounted to.

I personally think it was a simple hiccup. We have been playing over our heads with a certain balls out style that has served us well. The penchant of our opponents to underestimate us has also aided our cause. Flying below all forms of radar (media, scouting and ego) we have previously been able to sneak attack and win against all the odds. But that time has come to an end, my friends. Every battle we face going forward will be just that… a battle and we will have to play smarter and faster and more disciplined than we have had to so far.

This hiccup couldn’t have come at a better time. We were 3 games over the .500 mark. We can afford a small hitch in our forward progress, as long as we learn from it. I hope we learned to keep our heads up and not to get caught up in all the brouhaha. That we learned to pay attention to the opponent and the road directly in front of us and not to look too far forward lest we be caught unaware again.

The perfect time to prove what we are made  of. To answer the question of whether we are contenders or pretenders. If we lay down now and simply become passengers riding on the Bryz! bus or if we become a true team, one that can win a game for either of our goalies, they are both worthy of our best efforts.

Enough of the sermon.

Bryz! Got surprised and shaken right off the hop as Moreau and Brodzniak broke our defense and nailed him in quick succession (shades of the Chicago game). 2 – 0 Oil. Bryz! briefly steadied but the defense was not as solid as they should have been and he was unable to get enough room to get his composure back as Sourey’s PP goal found the back of the net too. The period would end with us having some decent chances to get within closing distance as Sourey committed a vicious slash on our Captain that iniated a penalty shot and got Sourey punted from the game. Our intrepid Capt couldn’t quite get past a Garon who was playing out of his mind. 5 damn penalties! Kiddos, we haven’t had five penalties in a whole game in awhile, much less 5 in one period. OUCH! 3 – 0 Oil as we leave the ice.

WG decided to give Bryz! one more chance to get his focus together after the break. Unfortunately the Oil smell blood and although we hold steady for nearly 10 minutes, Nilsson’s goal proves to be the fold ‘em point for TGO and he pulls Breezy. 4 – 0 Oil. Telly came in for the rattled Breezer and played his tookus off. We manage to find and sustain some pressure and our trusty Bally jumped into the play to finally get past the Garon force field 4 – 1 Oil. But our progress is halted a short time later by Grebeshkov getting his first goal. 5 -1 Oil. We are more disciplined in this period and we are starting to get our act together as we leave the ice…tattered.

The third period the Oil get sloppy. Giving us multiple PP opportunities. Which we are unable to capitalize on. Although Boynk and Doan would sink one more behind Garon at the end. 5 – 2 Oil. Stortini gets froggy in the last 30 seconds but Boynk does not oblige him. Stortini actually takes Nick down to the ice (completely instigating and trying to fight in the last five minutes of the game should get Stortini a suspension, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy).

So we learned something. And we face the Canucks tomorrow night. Hopefully we can get back to our normal scratch, claw, never say die way of playing. Breezer gets back on the horse and regains his poise. The boys kick butts and take names. And even if they do not prevail, at the very least they must put up a decent fight. Show some of that maturity, some of that courage and some serious Coyotes pride.

Go Coyotes Go!!!!!!