| 21 March 2010
The Phoenix Coyotes are starting a new trend. We don't want to win games in 3 periods. We want to relax the first couple of periods and then take it to OT and a shootout. We want other teams to think they can beat us and then be nice enough to give them just one point while we steal the other two. We like to toy with the enemy, after all we are Coyotes...
To make it seven, the Coyotes took on the Florida Panthers and a couple of friendly faces in Ballard and Reinprecht. I came in at the end of the second (I worked until 5) and the interviewed Rhino at intermission. He is such a nice guy and very supportive of his former teammates and team.
The third was one exciting period. It really was the only one I needed to catch. All three of our goals came in the third. If this was last year's team and we were down 3-0 coming in the third, I would have thrown in the towel but what a difference a year and a new coach later makes! The boys battled back and freaking tied the game.
Big Marty Hanzal started it off with a PP goal (wait... we got a PP goal? AWESOME). Then new guy Stemps could not be out done so he puts one in the back of the net. And not to be out done by his Czech line mate, Vrby also got a goal. Although that one was kind of a bad bounce on a dump in but still it made it in the net none-the-less.
So we went to OT and nothing much happened there because apparently the Coyotes like to torture me and make me endure this stupid shootouts. Can we go back in time to when the SO didn't exist? Hockey shouldn't be a game determined by the skill of just two players (goalie and shooter). Hockey is a team sport and should be decided by the team's skill. Ok, done with that rant so now, on to what happened in the shoot out.
Wolski, I love you but you just aren't good in the shootouts. You have yet to score for us in one. Maybe try a new move love? Like Korps did! Oh Korps, you changed up your SO move. You tricked the goalie and you tricked me! I thought that puck wasn't going to go in but you know what? It did! Way to go Korps!!!! Then up comes Vrby. Will he get it? Will he miss? If he misses do we send out Adrian "Shootout Winner Extraordinaire" Aucoin? And of course Vrby scores! And the Coyotes win it 4-3 in a SO without the expertise of Aucoin. I guess he doesn't need that fifth game winning SO goal after all...
Two out of three ain't bad?
(photo found on google, seems to have originally been from Life)
And how can I forget the Quote of the Game? Here it is folks, this time from the opposing team:
"For us it seems, Murphy's Law, whatever can go wrong is going wrong," Panthers Head Coach Pete DeBoer said.
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There has been a bunch of talk on the interwebs about the Coyotes and the movie Major League. Major League just happens to be one of my favorite movies. Charlie Sheen as "Wild Thing"? Oh yah baby. But I need to take a closer look at this comparison.. Look for a new blog entry to be up on this sometime this week. There are ideas floating around in my head, I just need to get them down on paper. And I am sure someone has already done a comparison, but I don't know. I just read headlines on twitter and I decided to do my own thing. This may require the watching of Major League, which I can easily do since I own it. I told you, this is one of my absolute favorites!
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Ahhhh, the Blackhawks came to town last night. To a sell-out crowd no less. And from what I can tell, the boys put on quite a show! (I was not in attendance, I was on a shopping extravaganza.) I did get to listen to some of it on the radio. Scottie Upshall was the guest color commentator and he wasn't that bad. His voice sounds different on the radio then in person but overall he did a pretty good job. He seemed a little timid at times but made some great comments. But Scottie, please don't go in to commentating just yet. We will need you on the ice next season when your knee is all better!
It appears that Wolski wanted to redeem himself for missing those shootout goals. He got the scoring started for the yotes in the second. Feeling a little left out at this point, Stemps jumps on the bandwagon and decides to score two goals in the third. Stemps, we love you but there is no need to compete with the other new guys. There is plenty of room for you all in our hearts! It seems Adrian has developed a little of the heroes syndrome. He didn't even get the chance to shoot in the SO last game so he decided he needed to get the game tying goal. Not as impressive as a game winner, but I will take it!
We are all tied at 4-4 and on to OT we go. There were a couple of tense moments in OT where a Coyotes goal was under review and we missed on a penalty shot. The original call was no goal, but they reviewed it anyway. And it stuck. No goal, distinct kicking motion by Fiddy. Lombo had the chance to win the game but was unable to put the puck in the net on a penalty shot. Nothing else of importance happens in OT. Back to the shoot out. God, I hate these things. Everyone I know hates them. Why do we still have them? Way too much pressure for us fans to handle...
The shootout is kind of boring. Wolski misses. Korps misses. Vrby misses. I mean wait, no... that's not right. Vrby scores! Apparently Vrby is a little jealous of Adrian's four game winning SO goals, so he has to play catch up.
So there you have it. The Coyotes win two games in shoot outs. We made it seven. We didn't keep it seven, we made it eight. Eight wins in a row and one point out of the division lead. Holy crap. Who saw this coming at the start of the year? Certainly not me and I know no one else did. I remember the power rankings at the start of the season had us in either 29th or 30th. I picked us to sneak into the 7th or 8th spot for a chance at the playoffs. Now? The last power ranking I saw had us in 2nd. 2nd in the NHL. Not the West, not the conference but the freaking NHL. Those are my boys! It is so nice to finally see this team succeed after years of failure.
Ok, I got a little off track here... so yes, Coyotes win another one. And here is the Quote of the Game:
"We came into this game thinking we were going to win," Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said with a smile. "…it just took a while to come around."
and a bonus quote from the other side:
"That team is really a model on how teams should play. They come back hard, they start, stop, they go hard into areas, (and) play well defensively."
And there are a few Congrats that need to be said after last nights game:
- Shane Doan netted his 400th career NHL assist on the Wolski goal
- Wojtek Wolski netted his 200th NHL point with a goal and an assist in the game
- One more win and we tie the franchise wins in a season. Set in 1984-1985
- Season high, sold out crowd (17,534)
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I believe we had the same scratches for both games:
- Sami Lepisto (booooo, let him play! He is an Olympic medalist! :P)
- Robert Lang (injury) - I was tempted to buy a Lang Red Wings figure at the mall yesterday... but it was Red Wings, enough said
- Paul Bissonnette
- Jim Vandermeer
- Viktor Tikhonov (will he ever get a chance to play?)
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And tonight at 4 Phoenix time we take on the Stars. In Dallas. Again. What the heck is it with the back to back games with Dallas? This is the second or third time this season where we have played a home game and had to immediately fly to Dallas for an early game the next day. Damn you Olympics!
Jason Labarbera will start in goal for the Coyotes. This is what I thought would happen. We need to rest Bryz with these back to back games. He is good but he needs a break or else his confidence seems to break down. The Coyotes need to focus on getting goals. I remember the last Dallas game quite well. We lost because the boys were too busy trying to hit the Stars' players and avenge Pru rather then score. FOCUS BOYS. I know Pru was happy that you avenged him but I bet he would have been happier had you kicked their butts on the score board. I know I would have been.
James Neal, you are dead to me. And apparently to Carey Price too...
(picture found on google image search of James Neal)
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And in other Coyotes related news, I am developing quite the fan-crush on Wolski. I liked him when he played for Colorado but now that I get to see him all the time, I really, really like him!
He looks very nice in his new Phoenix Coyotes roster pic, no?
(pic from the Coyotes website)
