One Fan's Perspective

The Minnesota Wild win their third game against the Phoenix Coyotes 3-2. The Coyotes successfully kept Marian Gaborik off the score sheet, but the other weapons for the Wild, Eric Belanger, Mark Parrish, and Brian Rolston all came through to score goals for their team.

The problem with the three goals were not who scored them, but the situations where they were scored. The Wild scored each of their goals on a power play and they went 3-for-4. The Coyotes had their opportunities with six power play chances but only capitalized on one of them thanks to a Joel Perrault tally that tied the game at one in the second period.

If the Coyotes kept the Wild five-on-five, they might have pulled out a win as they limited the Wild to 11 shots. Enver Lisin enjoyed his return on an even strength goal that brought the team within one in the third period; however, it would not be enough as the game would stay 3-2.

Shane Doan scored his 500th point of his career on the assist of Lisin’s goal.

The only glaring issue was the special teams play of the Coyotes. The effort was there and they worked hard at even strength, but the Wild outworked the Coyotes in every facet of the special teams and the Coyotes did not take advantage of their chances.

If another goal or two went in on their power play, the Coyotes would have easily won this game. Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom had another incredible game as he stopped 46 of 48 shots.

Even though Ilya Bryzgalov did not have his best game, his performance was not the reason the Coyotes lost tonight. In fact, on the third goal scored by Rolston, the puck looked to go wide of the net before deflecting off of Nick Boynton’s skate.

The strange aspect of the Coyotes’ play is that they perform well away from Jobing.com arena, but inside the “friendly” confines, they just can’t get it done. The home crowd needs to see that the Coyotes can win games, but most often they walk away with a loss.

There are two games left in the homestand, Saturday night against the Detroit Red Wings and Monday night against the Colorado Avalanche. These will be difficult teams to score victories against but the Coyotes haven’t given up yet.

Tags: Hockey, Minnesota Wild, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes by pbcoyotes
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The Minnesota Wild arrives in the Valley to face the Phoenix Coyotes. The Wild wants to avoid a three-game losing streak and the Coyotes want to improve on their home record of 5-8-1.

The Wild beat the Coyotes in their last meeting and hold a 2-0 advantage on the season series. Both games were close with the last one a result of capitalizing on opportunities that the Wild had and the Coyotes not returning the favor.

However, the Wild are a different hockey team than the last time these two squared off and that is taking the five goal night that Marian Gaborik had into account. The Wild have been outscored 13-4 in the past two games and the goalies have seen 84 shots (Niklas Backstrom with 51 and Josh Harding with 33).

Last night, the Wild was in a holiday funk that caused head coach Jacques Lemaire to tinker with line combinations and even called out Gaborik for a lack of effort.

“When you have to put a guy on the penalty kill to make him work, there’s a problem. Because if he doesn’t work, it’s going to be in the net. You saw his game. That’s it. Unfortunately he wasn’t the only one. He had companions.”

Gaborik, in the same article from the Star-Tribune, could not account for the speed of the Dallas Stars. Since the Coyotes are a faster team than the Stars, it will be one area that the Coyotes can capitalize upon.

The Coyotes have been in every game and usually start the contest by throwing everything that they can at their opponents during the first ten minutes. By keeping their penalty minutes down and forcing the Wild to make mistakes, the Coyotes should do well.

However, there is a caveat. Usually, when a head coach throws a player under the bus, like Lemaire did with Gaborik, that player answers the bell the next game. Therefore, the Coyotes’ defense still needs to limit Gaborik’s time and space, as well as the other forwards in Pierre Marc-Bouchard, Brian Rolston, Eric Belanger, and Pavol Dmitra. Gaborik leads his team in points and goals scored, and Rolston is third on the team in points and second in goals scored.

If Enver Lisin sees action tonight, hopefully he can get a good re-start to his NHL career. Daniel Carcillo is irreplaceable, but Lisin has scored 11 goals in the AHL so maybe his scoring touch can translate well up here with the Coyotes.

Wayne Gretzky’s Pregame press conference:

Peter Mueller’s thoughts:

Tags: Hockey, Minnesota Wild, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes by pbcoyotes
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The Phoenix Coyotes win streak ends at four games as they were not able to return to the high tempo forechecking scheme that they have employed. The Wild found ways to clog up the neutral zone and capitalize on critical turnovers to place a strangle hold on the young Coyotes team embarking on their first extensive road trip outside of the Pacific Division.

The first period found the Coyotes holding their own against the Wild as both teams were held off the scoreboard. Both teams skated hard and the Coyotes competed evenly against the Wild hockey club that has had difficulty winning at home as of late.

However, the tide turned at the second period. The Wild turned on their offensive forecheck and after a puck ricocheted off of Mattias Tjarnqvist in front of the Coyotes’ net, Wild’s Stephane Veilleux shot the puck behind Ilya Bryzgalov for their first lead of the evening.

The Wild scoring did not stop there. After a costly turnover at the Wild’s blueline by Steven Reinprecht, Marian Gaborik found himself alone on a breakaway chance and deked Bryzgalov out of position for the Wild’s second goal of the evening. It was Gaborik’s third breakaway of the period and even though Bryzgalov stopped the previous two, the last one was too much for him to handle.

Radim Vrbata extended his goal streak to three games with his ninth goal of the season from a slap shot from Derek Morris that Vrbata was able to deflect past Wild netminder Niklas Backstrom. Unfortunately, the scoring for the Coyotes ended there and the Wild extended their lead to three goals in the third period with a tally by 19 year-old James Sheppard.

Craig Weller almost had the goal that would have tied the contest at two, but the puck and the coordination for Weller did not cooperate and he missed the chance. One would think that head coach Wayne Gretzky, legendary goal scorer of the NHL, would blow a gasket after the failed chance by Weller. Instead, we saw Gretzky smile and laugh on the bench trying to keep his troops positive when the Coyotes could not come up with an answer for the Wild’s strangling defense and the game was still close 2-1 in favor of the Wild.

Even though the Coyotes lost, there were some positive moments. Two of the goals that went in on Bryzgalov were a product of some fortunate series of events. The Wild capitalized on their chances and the Coyotes could not. In the past, the team would implode and the score would have easily gotten out of hand. However, Bryzgalov and the Coyotes kept their cool and the score close.

The Coyotes though lost the turnover and puck possession battle. Thanks to solid goaltending, the score was still in reach, but against the Wild tonight, it wasn’t enough. They will have to improve on that aspect against the Chicago Blackhawks Friday night.

The Blackhawks with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are an improved group and in front of Nikolai Khabibulin, they are confident as well. There is a resurgence in Chicago and it should be a good test for the Coyotes.

Tags: Hockey, Minnesota Wild, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes by pbcoyotes
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