Well the Stars came out to the Job and handed us our hats on fan appreciation night.

Look for the fan appreciation stuff in the next couple of posts… Your Onyx won a prezzie from the night and it was a doozy - hint:  jersey size 58

Last home game of the season turned into a bit of a bummer for us with the loss (4 - 2 final) but DC gave us more than a little bit to cheer about with a dual bout and KT lifted us by showing us what all the hype is truly about.

Let me say that Kyle Turris is going to be amazing. In his first NHL game the kid showed a lot of poise and certainly has the talent (even in this early peek) to make the most of top line minutes. No he didn’t score but it was certainly not through lack of effort (5sogs, one of which Holmqvist was lucky to get a shoulder on) he also got his first penalty minutes w/ a stinky puck-over-glass delay of game ( a favorite penalty of our boys). He also played 19:28 minutes and didn’t look out of place during any of them. I wouldn’t worry too much about his weight and strength anymore… you can’t hit what you can’t catch and KT slipped a couple of dead on hits with ease, the kid keeps his head up and isn’t afraid to take on if he has to. Nice start to what promises to be a very sweet future in the NHL.

TGO please don’t put Kapi on the PK w/ TQ again …it was brutal. We were’nt physical enough with only 15 hits total. This Stars team has to be hit often and hard to get them off their game and tonight we looked a bit soft… right up until DC took Barch to the ice in a very Weller-esque fashion. It wasn’t much of a fight, more like the proverbial 2 hits (DC hit Barch, Barch hit the ice) a simply amazing smack down and great payback for last year when Barch wouldn’t quit after DC hurt his hand during one of their bouts. The team appreciated Carci’s efforts mightily.

Then that psycho Ott decided to start some static.

DC may not have won that bout decisively but he more than held his own against the larger, crazier Ott. The team got a hell of a lift, the crowd became that 6th man and we mounted a comeback from a 3 - 0 rout.

Enver Lisin again showed the skill that will probably having him make the squad next season ( takes talent and balls to pull up, then fire the puck right thru their defender and beat a goalie like that). The kid has quick hands and wheels to spare and is rapidly proving me wrong about needing 1 more year in SA (his defensive skills and willingness to battle in the corners is making me a believer).

Our most versatile blueliner (hey he plays goalie, D and wing most nights) Bally potted a shortie for us. (it was so sweet to be on the other end of a short handed goal for once). 3 - 2 for a little while but we just couldn’t make that tying goal go in. Dallas got the insurance goal on the empty net with 30 seconds left as Jovo flubs the last pass to Donor right in front of freakin Modo.

Read the rest of this entry »

I feel like JP in Angels in the Outfield. He was all about the possibilities ‘It could happen’ and it did! Although I didn’t see anyone standing up and flapping their arms, we must have had some divine provenence on our side (the hockey goddess is very happy with us right now) cuz we stole 2 points from Dallas last night. 2 - 1 Coyotes.

Basically a very physical and weird game. Even being outshot 21 - 16, assed out on face offs 65% - 35% we managed to beat these guys. But then again looking at their 23 give away!? to our 9 and our 16 bloked shots to their 9 it looks like puck possession was the key factor in sneaking out of Big D with a win. 6 Yotes on the point board behind Mules and Donor’s huge efforts tells the tale of puck movement pretty well.

The first period was a duel. Both teams were fierce through the neutral, neither let any really good chances get fired on net. Then Z to Perrault to the big PM, who laid that twisted wrister of his ,on Turco halfway through the period and Dallas was unable to answer the goal. Mueller scorzes! 1 - 0 Yotes. Neither team was able to capitalize on their (2) PPs each and only 15 sogs were fired total.

We came out road crazy in the second behind the Donor, who nailed Truco in the first minute of the period. Doan with the slap shot surprised the hell out of me… Whoo hoo! the Captain’s hand must be mending. Doan scorzes! 2 - 0 Yotes. Well now it gets a lil hairy out there, kind of a sin bin rally if you will. *the ref completely makes a McGoo on Z.* (illegal stick- playin the puck while holding more than 1 stick… untrue… Z tried to hand Breezy his stick but quickly dropped it to play the errant puck, the ref had moved out of range and could not see that Z had dropped the goalie stick. The ref called it anyway… based on what he thought was going to happen. So totally McGoo-ish.)

Then Wellie whupped Winchester (two pretty good sized boys, Wellie has so much poise and can chuck the nucks with the best of them) they both head to the box and right after that is over we get a bit over aggressive and land Yorkie AND Boynk in the box. The PK was absolutely fantasmic and Dallas is unable to take advantage. Winchester comes back for a little redemption and scorezes in the last minutes of this period making it 2 - 1 Yotes and too close for comfort.

Now the third went from hairy to down right ugly. Dallas got their act together big time and starts to get through our neutral due to the usual ugly gaps that regularly appear when ever we are ahead in a game w/ Breezy covering our collective tails. But no matter how hard the Stars battled we kept having the answers…barely. Right up until the moment when all hell broke out. The lil Rat boy Ribby takes some liberties and gets pile driven into the corner boards by 2 Yotes. Otter takes a swat at the Captain and a melee erupts. Boynk looked like a man with dismemberment on his mind  (Nickyboy was pullin Ott by the feet out of the scrum to whup him).

Donor, DMo and Morrow all end up w/ the Carcillo treatment (misconducts for everyone). And the Yotes survive mathematical crunch time with the win 2 - 1 Yotes final.

Good game w/ everyone doing their job 100%. I guess Perrault got the message as even he took a hit to make a play. (wish Yentle would get the hint) Breezy was stellar behind this hard fought effort. The team only allowed 21 sogs and Bryz stopped everything he could see. Too bad the team could only manage to pop Turco with 16 sogs. But for tonight, it was enough.

Let’s Go Coyotes!

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Amid the jeering clamor of TUUURDDDKO! The Dallas Stars imploded in Phoenix last night. Definitely not the same team they were on Monday on home ice. The Yotes sensed it and moved rapidly in for the kill. Led by the always intrepid Captain Clutch there did’nt seem to be anything the Yotes could do wrong. The Dawgs stood Turco on his head all night.

This pic from AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

I kept saying the Donor broke his hand (believe me next time I say somebody has an injury wontcha?)… it was confirmed in the State of the Yotes address from WG yesterday. I guess the Donor’s pain chart goes waaay past a 10?

Anyways… the Yotes came out like hell let loose on holiday. The shots were in our favor and so was the speed. (The Stars led a literal parade to the sinbin*hooking, roughing, holding and even elbowing*  trying to keep up.) Carcillo nearly blew a gasket containing himself after Fistric lets go with some rough handling, DC’s newly found ability to walk away leads to a PP run for us and our Captain started us up the victory trail. Doan scorzes!1 - 0 Yotes but then Yandle the Candle *cuz he kept getting burned* (thnx Mrs. Mercer for the moniker) gave up a juicy puck to none other than Jussi Jokinen who buried it past a surprised Breezy. 1 - 1 game.

Thank goodness the lil firebrand Carcillo had his head on straight cuz he got a big goal from behind the net and put us right back out front… more on our firecracker in a bit. The Stars got a little hustle in ‘em but it wouldn’t be enough to answer before the buzzer. Carcillo scorzes! 2 - 1 Yotes.

So the Stars came out better in the second. They doubled our sogs but couldn’t solve the Breeze. Nice quality shots that just never turned into anything as Bryz! pillowed up or the defense grabbed them before a flurry could develop.

We never let up despite the way Dallas began to rough us up. Winchester and Ott were taking cheap shots at Boynk and Carci like it was open season or at least a bounty had been declared * the refs were oblivious as usual*. The great thing is that neither guy took the bait. Daniel Carcillo has found a leash for his temper! Yeah you heard me. * I don’t know for how long, but right now the kid is aces! in the face of extreme provocation*

Niko Kapanen struck again… nearly identical to Monday’s game. The opportunistic lil Finn grabbed a rebound on Turco’s blind side and popped it right past him. Kapi scorzes! 3 - 1 Yotes. Late period Star killer was just what we need to remind ourselves what was at stake as we marched to the penalty box twice ourselves.

The third period began with what could have been the dreaded DC meltdown. Carci gets called for the elbow and rather than going nuclear, DC heads to the sinbin without complaint. Our crazy hot Czech sniper grabbed his 3rd point of the game with a very timely shortie while Carci was in the box. Vbrat scorzes! 4 - 1 Yotes. *thats #100 for the snipe master!*

If you think its over.. don’t blink. The Stars get froggy and leap back into the fray with a goal from the stellar young defenseman Niskanen. 4 - 2 Yotes and plenty of time to implode… except that we don’t!

Bangin and clangin ensues as the Stars struggle to get past Breezy and his sentinels by rampin up the shots *the Stars would get 16sogs in the 3rd*.

Both teams battle hard and Turco is pulled to get the xtra attacker. Rhino completes his red hot night with the assist on Boynton’s empty netter. Boynk scorzes! 5 - 2 Yotes final.

Great performances: Carcillo (scoring and drawing penalties w/ out the manic motor mouth syndrome) and he got rewarded w/ nearly 16 minutes of TOI as well as the goal , Rhino and Vbrat (3 point night) Doan (leading the charge despite bein all broke up… the hand is healed enuff for the patented Doan slap shot to make its reappearance) and the Breezer! (handling 32 of 34 sogs without breakin much of a sweat),  Ziggy 6 - 0 on the circles! and pretty damn feisty and speedy all night. THE RETURN of the FORECHECK! Back with a vengeance and completely dominating this game… aggressive forechecking is what makes or breaks us every night.

Not s’good performances: Yandle (pretty much all night long, maybe a view from the press box will teach the kid the importance of DEFENSE) and while it wasn’t a bad night for Bally (he did have a few key moments that could have spelled disaster and recovered really nicely). Is anyone else getting the feeling that Balls is no longer the future captain of this team? Just wondering…

Now we need to complete our domination of the atomic Kings in the next home and home… don’t let their record fool ya… they have foiled some of the best teams lately and will not be pushovers. But we desperately need these points as Columbus just handed the DedThings their asses tonight and grubbed up another 2 points. So… 

Let’s Go Coyotes!!!

~photos from our vunderbar BTinAZ~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedintealinaz/sets/72157603918410185/

Well what better way to spend a Valentine’s evening? Chocolates? nope. Roses? pshaaw.  Wining and dining? not even close. Hot tubbing? okay maybe hot tubbing w/ your sweetie but those others … get ‘em over with earlier in the day and come spend the evening watching the Coyotes take the lead back in this series.

With both teams at 2 each in this series it promises to be a whopper. The Stars are trying for a franchise best 8 wins in a row. The Yotes are trying to avoid a season worst 5 in a row loss figure. I was going to try to attend practice today… life just keeps getting in the way of my good intentions. For Dallas, both Jere Lehtinen and Niklas Grossman had the day off yesterday for the Stars but were bcak on the ice today getting ready for this tilt.

Yotes fans can only hope the captain will be back for this one, we sorely missed his shot and gumption in Monday’s bout. (The Donor/Turco wars are great to watch, neither one know the meaning of surrender) We are playin wounded right now, even the young PM has issues.

 [The Coyotes are slowed without injured right wing Shane Doan (groin) and center Martin Hanzal (shoulder) in the lineup. Doan is day to day, and Hanzal is at least a week away from returning. In addition, defenseman Derek Morris is coming off an illness, and forwards Radim Vrbata (groin) and Peter Mueller (foot) are playing hurt. ]

Hopefully Kapi won’t be the only former Star to show out against his former team (c’mon TQ, give Marty a nice blast for old times sake) The defense really need to step up this time ( shouldn’t be an issue if DMo is over his bout w/ the flu… and if Bally’s brain doesn’t eat any more beans… the kid has had a few brain farts last couple of games) We also need to see that same set of crazy acrobatics from Breezy to get this one goin (although Telly has been phenomenal so far against these guys I don’t expect him to start). Z! you have like 12PIMS for the whole season baby, 8 of those are probably puck over glass……stop it!

The Stars aren’t the most prolific point per game producers they manage to get what they need and shut the door on any goals against pretty rapidly. We need to shell Turco better (20 sogs like  last game just isn’t going to get it done) Hopefully Toc has been teaching our big bodies to crease camp better (get in front and stay there… ummm w/ out getting their heads taken off by their teammates)

Winchester looks to be in again according to Stars bloggers, look for a Boynk/Winchester redux or maybe a Weller/Ott bout this time around. Hopefully Carcillo continues his scoring chance first/fight and scrap second ways. ( If he can continue to be a good boy maybe Toc will loosen the reins and Carci can crash the net and irritate the Stars into taking a penalty or 3.)

We need these 2 points boys… Dallas really doesn’t, so lets make sure they go home empty handed and start climbing back over bodies to that 7th spot. (CLS & VAn are within AT&T range w/ 61 and 63 points respectively… and COL is only at 65 thanks to some timely intervening losses) Its now or never guys, start the last leg of this cup run w/  a bang! See all you love birds there!

Let’s Go Coyotes!

onyxstarr@coyoteshipcheck.com

Expectations… remember those? Dreams of the heart, in spite of what the head keeps tellin us. We have gone from a team almost guaranteed to WIN when leading in the third to a league worst 17 goals in the 1st 5 minutes of games, while scoring only 4 for a minus 13 ratio.* Hey coach I think we have a problem.

BREEZY!!! back in form and kickin azzes! Stopped 42 of 44 nasty twangers from the Texan posse. Just brutal… he gets all called out and pulled and then the team just lets his next valiant effort go down the tubes. Guy can’t get a break. But Breezy takes it all in stride. “I gave my team a chance to win the game,” said Bryzgalov, who finished with 42 saves. “That’s my job, that’s what I have to do. I played well, it was so close to winning the game for our side. But they score with 3 minutes left, so it’s kind of a tough feeling to lose the game in the last few minutes.”

Players you have dumped always come back to haunt you and the Mighty Finn is a good example. The former Star Niko Kapanen lit up Turco like the star on top of the Xmas tree after a brisk, puck moving PP cycle. 1 -0 Yotes to start a game … finally off to a good start. TQ is also a former Star and was givin them fits in this period too.

With Doan out, Vrbata playin on that 1/2 healed ankle, Dmo w/ the flu, Hanzal out w/ the shoulder, Mules with a bad foot we should have been invisible out there. But even as the Stars turned up the heat, we battled hard. Outshot but not outplayed the whole game came down to the 3rd period with us in the lead.

Ott finally finds a way past Bryz! to tie it up mid way thru the period and then in what could be called a serious tacky call and a mental error of ginormous porportions we end up 3 on 5 with only 4 minutes remaining. (After totally ignoring many stars grabs and hooks including one in which Rhino gets hauled down behind the net, the refs jam Rhino for a barely there holding call…)

we haven’t been very good at getting the puck out of our zone in crucial situations and Z is a wee bit overzealous in trying to rectify that… puck over glass (*^@$*#*@##$@*^$*@&$) oh yeah did I mention how much I hate that call? *that stupid call should be like icing, face off in the offender’s end and nobody leaves the ice* much more equitable in my humble opinion. Modano takes advantage and we can’t get an answer by Turco. 2 - 1 final Stars.

Good news - With all the walking wounded Carcillo and Thomas get called back into service. DC plays the whole game like a choir boy, message received? but will it hold? Dwin had some absolutely stunning chances *Turc came up HUGE w/ some fancy poke check dives* We were’nt the invisible team tonight (even with only 20 sogs, many were superb quality). Breezy is back. Even without the Captain *our best guy on any given day* we found a way to not only start tough but to hang tough w/ a streaking Stars team.

Bad news - we didn’t get any of the desperately needed points again. Many fans/pundits are giving the team the old fish eye again. Breezy has taken a lot of the heat. Fans are bailing off the bandwagon and falling into negativity with each slip on this downward cycle.

Well I say phooey on the naysaying… I got alil help from my fanatic BFs  to regain my perspective. (I am NEVER in danger of falling off the bandwagon folks… theze my boyz! Ride or Die! Bad Boyz! fa life!… ooops, Will Smith moment…) my BFs are awesome! Read the positives to get you through this slide… it sure made me feel better… caution! rose colored glasses may be slid onto you faces w/ out warning… Read the rest of this entry »

Oh man…still riding high on the Duckfest…had no clue that tonight would put me on cloud nine.

The night started with a tribute to the top American born scorer Mike Modano who scored his record the night before against San Jose point #1233!

We started real nice…nuthin fancy, just hustling. Marty already looks like crap. (our announcers think he pulled his groin a bit during the warm ups) Bally and the lil ratboy Ribeiro trade slaps behind the net but nothing really comes of it except maybe to wind Bally up a notch or two. We get some nice chances and so do they. Turco seems to think he’s the 4th forward out there with 1/2 a dozen stretch passes. Weller and Kapi look like they have the most hop in their skates tonight so far as we play a freaky game of pong for the first minutes. Really stupid dive call on Carcillo (the xtra head shake was a bit too much) with 5 minutes left in a scoreless period. Donor! wastes about 18 seconds of the Star PP all by himself down low against 4 Stars… niiice. Then Bally draws Hagman into a rough and we go on the PP. WOW! Our 2nd PP of the night gets thru…Kapi and York befuddle Turco several times b4 drawing first blood. 1 -0 Yotes (guess the press box punishment works again). Barch hits Sjo up high (knocking off his helmet) and they get chippy as Fedoruk jumps into it. We leave the ice up by one and pissed off.

Damn! right off the mark Turco goes down and barely survives a Donor attack. But then Telly makes a crappy choice when we turn it over. Soft goal by Morrow. 1 - 1 tie This game has been wide open w/ a lot of turn overs by both teams. Ziggy draws a surprise interference call on Niskanen. Turco is contributing to his own demise! He plays it out from behind the net…straight to Rhino who buries the puck into the empty net. 2nd PP goal 2 - 1 Yotes! wow! go special teams!

We get on a roll as the Stars begin to implode. Mules! fake shot…quick pass to Jovo…rocket launched…Jovo scores! 3 - 1 Yotes. Another PP chance that we can’t capitalise on but don’t worry be happy we are 2 for 3 on the PP right now.

Ziggy has been awesome on the face off and tonight he is making Dallas miserable in the neutral.

OMG! DONOR!!!!WWF Raw style! on Barch! (Barch left his feet and blasts Rhino into the boards) Donor heads straight into Barch and picks him up for a body slam to the ice. Amazing! Donor gets a double rough… 4 minutes? well worth it! Especially considering how well our PK is doin. Z has been quiet but deadly on the ice (played 28 minutes against the Ducks). We kill it. We leave the ice still up 3 - 1.

The third period starts interestinggly, the Dallas enforcement crew (Barch, Ott and Fedoruck) get a goal? Flukey kinda roller goal. whoa… its 3 - 2 Yotes…its gonna get scary…

Holy Jumpin! I lied…Rhino puts the moves on Zubov with a stop on a dime w/ nine cents change, shot, rebound repeat shot backhand. Rhino scorzes! 4 - 2 Yotes.

The Yotes never look back and never let up. Pedal to the metal. The ever more desperate Stars hand us another PP…silly Stars… Kapi, York, Vbrat and the ever sneaky Bally put the game out of reach with 6 minutes left. We could see the life go right out of those poor guys. Telly proceeds to play the top of his crease like it has gold in it and denies the Stars any chance to get close.

Simply awesome. We go dancin with the Stars…they get cut from the competition. 5 - 2 Yotes! We are now .500 w/ a 7 - 7 - 0 record. Who woulda thunk it? No big names, a whole lotta youth, a couple of back up netminders and a couple of reclamation projects (including the former waiver bait Kapi who has had a great season so far). Its good to be a Yote fan!

~All photos from BTinAZ~ see more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603039400973/