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!!!!!!