One Fan's Perspective

The Phoenix Coyotes start on their next road trip Wednesday night and travel to Minnesota to face the Wild. The last time they saw the Wild was October 13 where the Coyotes lost 3-2 at home. After that loss, the Coyotes have gone 9-7 with winning four in a row since acquiring Ilya Bryzgalov, who was named the NHL second star of the week for his performance.

For the Wild, they have gone 8-9-2 in that same stretch of games and they have played .500 hockey for the past four. Recently, the Wild picked up tough guy Todd Fedoruk and defenseman Sean Hill has returned from his 20-game suspension after an anabolic steroid was found in Hill’s system.

Ed Jovanovski is on a four-game point streak and Dan Carcillo has a point in three games. Radim Vrbata is red hot as well scoring three goals in two games for the Coyotes.

This will be Peter Mueller’s first arrival in Minnesota as a NHL player. Hopefully, he can add to his point totals and continue to play the strong game as he has for the last few.

The top two Wild skaters in terms of points are Pierre-Marc Bouchard, and Marian Gaborik. In the past two games, those two skaters have on point between them with Bouchard being held off the score sheet. Brian Rolston has seven goals on the season, but in the last two games, he too was held scoreless.

It appears that the Wild are in a funk right now, and if the Coyotes can play an aggressive game as they played Saturday night against the Maple Leafs, it could turn out well for them.

Obviously, Bryzgalov has been a special goaltender lately with a 1.22 GAA and a .954 save percentage. If the Coyotes can limit the time and space of the top line and get in the way of shots for Bryzgalov, the momentum can continue to roll with the Coyotes.

On special teams, the Wild sits in 14th place in the NHL, but they have given up four shorthanded goals. The penalty kill has been improving for the Coyotes as they are now 17th in the league in that statistic. However, the Coyotes play a better game while disciplined so staying out of the box would be a good thing.

The Wild are without Mikko Koivu thanks to a nasty slash dished out by Vancouver Canucks Mattias Ohlund and resident tough guy Derek Boogaard is listed day-to-day. The Wild’s M*A*S*H unit has even more players such as Wes Walz, and Pavol Dmitra listed on the DL and Mark Parrish is listed day-to-day as well.

It’s an opportunity for the Coyotes to play their game and play it smartly. Holding the line against Bouchard would be a wise idea considering that he hasn’t scored in two games, he has the capability to break out. Keith Ballard usually has an outstanding game against the Wild, especially in the Xcel Energy Center, so I’m sure he’ll do everything he can to continue Bouchard’s and the Wild’s offensive issues.

Tags: Hockey, Minnesota Wild, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes by pbcoyotes
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For 50 minutes of Saturday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild, the Coyotes did everything right. They had a strong forecheck, they shot everything they could at Niklas Backstrom, they created traffic, and they made the Wild work for everything.

Alex Auld was fantastic as he made key saves at the right times keeping this young hockey club in the hunt for the victory. The Coyotes led most of the game 2-1 with both goals scored by Daniel Carcillo.

Somehow, Steven Reinprecht took a hooking penalty and Mikko Koivu made them pay for it tying the game at two apiece.

Then everything shut down. The Coyotes found themselves on their last power play of the night and instead of being aggressive like they were at the beginning of the game, they passively skated in the zone and made very lazy passes. I am not sure if they were tentative due to the pressure of scoring that winning goal, or protecting the tie to send the game into overtime, but the end result was the same.

Eric Belanger scoring the short handed goal that ended up being the game winner.

From my perspective, and most likely from those that watched the game, the Wild didn’t beat the Coyotes and were very lucky to come out with a victory. Rather, the Coyotes lost the game and learned a very valuable lesson.

It’s better to learn this lesson now early in the season, then when more important issues are on the line; whether it’s this season or next, winning close games could propel a team forward to playoff contention.

Teams are beginning to realize that they have underestimated the speed and tenacity of the Coyotes, so the hockey club must find ways to increase their strength and skill on the puck. The games are not going to get easier, but they will get harder.

Auld is emerging into the number one goalie position, or at the very least, earning a spot on the Coyotes’ team.

It was a very exciting game and a good one for the Coyotes in terms of learning a new facet of managing situations on the ice, how important speed and forechecking are, how it matters to be consistent, and how to use momentum to their advantage. They did a lot of things well for the first 50 minutes of the game, but just fell apart in the last ten.

If they can find a way to lock that part of their game down, they will continue to improve.

Tags: Hockey, Minnesota Wild, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes by pbcoyotes
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The Phoenix Coyotes return home to face the Minnesota Wild tonight. The Coyotes held together and crushed the Nashville Predators and they will need the same intensity and effort. They must limit their mistakes and capitalize on those mistakes the Wild makes.

Why?

So far in this young season, the Wild has been undefeated in three games. The teams that they have faced were not that significant based on last year’s performances, but they are currently beating the weaker teams all behind their goaltender Niklas Backstrom, who in three games has a .67 GAA along with a .971 save percentage.

While the strength in net is significant, along with the line of Brian Rolston-Eric Belanger-Pierre Marc-Bouchard that has contributed significant points and minutes for the Wild, other weapons include Pavol Dmitra and Marian Gaborik. The Wild’s top two lines are producing and the netminder Backstrom has been keeping the games close.

Alex Auld will get the start tonight after earning it in Nashville. Right now, Auld is the strongest goaltender of the three and may have the hot hand. Besides Mikael Tellqvist, he is the only goalie to have consecutive starts.

He’ll need some help from the Coyotes playing quality defense, especially from the forwards.

The Wild and the Coyotes both are very disciplined, which is not a surprise with any team coached by Jacques Lemaire. For the Coyotes, that is one significant improvement from last year, and they find themselves in the bottom third of teams that take penalties.

Therefore, to win this game against the Wild, the Coyotes need to put pucks in front of Backstrom and make him earn the victory. Currently, Backstrom is seeing 25 shots on average from his opponents. Creating traffic and throwing everything that the Coyotes are able to in front of Backstrom will be one of the keys to winning the game.

Peter Mueller will sit out for tonight’s game.

For a view of the other side, point your browser to Puck Wild, Hitting the Post, Land of Lakes and Hockey, and Wild Puck Banter.

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