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Coyotes Shut-Out Canucks.....What's it Mean? |
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In last night’s game versus the Canucks the Coyotes survived some late penalties to hang on for a 1-0 win. The game was notable in that Mike Smith was sharp and recorded his first shutout of the season. Half credit for the shutout has to go to Tippett for sticking with Smith despite his losing 2 straight to start the week.
Due in part to the return of Zbynek Michalek, the Coyotes seemed like the defensive, tough-to-play-against team that people expect them to be. Michalek play 16:02 in his return and was first on the ice for every penalty kill. He looked good, if maybe a little rusty at points, and the Coyotes are a way better team with him in the lineup.
Weirdly, considering it should be a strength of a roster that includes a star goalie, a strong defensive core and players like Korpikoski, Hanzal and especially Vermette, the Coyotes have really struggled this year on the PK. They are currently sitting 26th in the league with a weak 79% kill ratio. The return from the IR of Michalek should really help to solidify the PK and improve it for the second half of the season. Looking at their roster and coach, this has nowhere to go but up and bodes well for the Coyotes making a playoff push.
Overall last night, The Coyotes played well but still took too many bad penalties (Hanzal especially) and even though the game offered a lot of good things for the team to build on, a realist might say they were lucky to escape with the two points.
The reason a realist might say that is because they gave Vancouver way too many power play chances; Henrik Sedin’s goal probably should have counted since his hand never left his stick and it’s not like he swiped it in with his hand; also, while Smith was extremely good, Daniel Sedin doesn’t often shoot high on open nets.
All that might be true, but screw the realists! You lose as many hockey games from bad luck as you do from good luck, so there’s no point, really, in looking for negatives when the team finally beats a quality opponent in regulation, which is something they hadn’t done in over a month.
While people have seemingly been losing their minds about how bad the team has been lately, I don’t think it’s really been all that bad. To be honest, you almost have to give them a pass for the Winnipeg game (new coach and all) and while the Anaheim and Minnesota games were truly terrible, it’s almost just a coincidence that those games occurred consecutively. Every team has bad stretches, but if you look back into December, while it’s really easy to spout out some numbers that look bad, the entire end of December was saved by the fact that they got points in nearly every game. People were saying everything from “Smith Sucks” to “Fire Tippet.” Which just proves how easy it is to lose perspective during an 82 game season. “Fan” is, after all, short for “Fanatic.”
What I am saying here is that when the team lost three in a row to Anaheim, Minnesota and Winnipeg, you can couple that with all the recent OT loses of late December and take a negative view. But, in reality, a three game losing streak is barley even a problem, since nearly every team in the history of the league has a few per season, and NHL overtime games are basically coin-flips. The point being things were never that bad. The Coyotes – at their worst – have been a .500 team fighting for the final two playoff spots. Did anyone, anywhere, think things would be any different for this team? I am not saying that suddenly things look at all rosy because they played two solid low scoring and hard fought games in a row and the goalie had a shutout and the schedule gets a little easier, but rather, that things are basically the same as ever. Look for the Coyotes to improve their PK in the second half, but for their PP to regress (it’s been too good considering the forwards on the roster). Look for them to lose as many as they win and to fight tooth and nail for the final too playoff spots and to provide tough, defensive-minded but fun to watch hockey from here on out.
The upshot of all of this is that the Coyotes are a better than average team in the stacked conference of an unbalanced league.* That doesn’t really mean much though since all that is going to get them is, at best, a first round matchup with Anaheim or Chicago.
So where do we go from here? Hopefully they build on this and continue to play well and get some luck in the Playoffs. Or maybe Malone starts to make some trades that can eventually make the club a contender. I’d be pretty happy with either scenario at this point. The only problem with that, however, is that he probably has to make his team worse in order to get better. It’s the age old sports question: Do you just want to make the playoffs, or do you want to win? If the Coyotes want to win, they might be better off missing the playoffs.
Next up: The NHL’s Cure for Insomnia – the Devils – visit the Coyotes on Saturday. I wish Kovalchuck would come back. The best hockey player not in the NHL by about ten miles, it’s truly a shame he doesn’t feel the need to either honor his contract or compete against peers. Him playing in the KHL would be like if Bob Dylan entering a songwriting contest with Kesha. I bet you he’s back next year – I would like to know actually what the rules are if he wanted to comeback for the playoffs or something, would that be aloud? Let me know if you know!
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Rostislav Klesla has cleared waivers and been assigned to Portland. He makes almost three million and with half the season gone he could have been had for a 1.5 Million cap hit, but there were no takers. When he’s healthy he brings a solid physical and defensive game, but he skates like a turtle stuck in quicksand. I thought he might look good on the Leafs who seem to have a soft group at the back, but they are at or close to the cap and I think Klesla is only marginally better than just about anyone you could reasonably replace him with. He’s tough though, so you hope his career isn’t over.
* Thought it was kind of weird that despite the Western Conference being stacked by the best teams in hockey, the top five best hockey players in the world all play in the East. (Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, Tavares, Ovechkin).
As always, Thanks for reading and give me a “holla” in the tweet zone - @Coyotes1234
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