Anaheim Ducks Face Off Against Phoenix Coyotes
These two teams, the Anaheim Ducks and the Phoenix Coyotes, have the exact same record 19-15-5. They are tied for the sixth playoff spot in the Western Conference. However, the similarities pretty much end there.
In their last ten, the Coyotes have gone 5-2-3 and posted a 13-5-2 record at home. The Ducks are a better team on the road than the Coyotes have been with a 9-7-2 performance.
The Ducks are better than the Coyotes in specialty teams and are better in the first period with a plus-8 goal differential. However, the Coyotes get much stronger as the game wears on with a plus-8 goal differential in the third period.
The Coyotes are ranked sixth in the NHL with a plus/minus rating of plus-17, just ahead of the Detroit Red Wings. They are much better as a five-on-five hockey team than they are if they have to kill off penalties. In the last outing against the New York Islanders, the Coyotes were charged with only one penalty; it makes a huge difference in strategy if the team is not on the Penalty Kill all game long.
Anaheim though is not far behind in 10th in the same category with a plus-8 rating.
This will be a fantastic game with future playoff implications on the line and it seems right now, after years of domination by the Ducks, the Coyotes have their number. In the last nine outings, the Coyotes have a 5-2-2 record against the Ducks.
And they still gave us Ilya Bryzgalov, who will be back in the net for tonight’s contest.
Anaheim Ducks Corey Perry will not be joining us this evening due to a suspension because of this elbow.
Anaheim Duck Blogger SK eleven is not happy about it either as she compares the sitauation to the Alex Ovechkin hit to Jamie Heward in the Washington Capitals last tilt with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
I see a deliberate elbow to the head of Flyers’s forward Claude Giroux. Giroux was skating through and Perry had a chance to hit him in the chest. It was penalized and an immediate play. However, Ovechkin didn’t ram Heward’s head into the glass, his elbow was low, Heward turned his back at the precise moment Ovechkin was going to hit him.
SK eleven though does not dispute the Perry hit warrants a suspension, it’s just the length that is a concern.
Other reactions to the game include:
From the Orange County Register:
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