I don't want to be that guy. I'd like to just enjoy the victory and not mention the ugly truth. The Coyotes beat the arch-rival Kings in the opener of the 2015-16 season and, considering that the four goals they scored last night was just one less than they managed in the entire six game pre-season schedule, so you'd think I would be happy.
And I am happy - it was an entertaining game that saw Max Domi score and get an assist in his NHL debut. But if I was to come here and tell you that the Coyotes offense is better than I thought or that the team is going to also be better, then I would be full of it.
The Coyotes are not a good NHL team and one could argue that they are only an NHL team by the technicality that they play in the NHL. Their roster is an absolute grease fire and their GM is a the guy who didn't pay attention in home-ec and keeps trying to put it out with water.
Now, to anyone who didn't watch the game and thinks maybe the Coyotes must have played good since they won, allow me to enter exhibit A:
The Kings directed over 70 shots at the Coyotes net. Conversely, the Coyotes managed only half that.
The Coyotes best player, Oliver Ekman-Larson was virtually useless against a Kings' attack that saw him on the ice for a preposterous 17 more shot-attempts against than for.
Now, I can't blame my boy OEL completely because he was on the ice a lot with Richardson, Chipchura and Doan who were absolutely brutal on a scale in which I don't have a metaphor to properly convey. The Richardson-Doan-Chipchura line was so bad that if you put healthy scratches John Scott and Joe Vitale out in their place without a third player it couldn't have possibly been worse.
When those three were on the ice, the Kings outshot the Coyotes by roughly 20 shots attempts. They simply had no answer for the Kings' best players.
Look, I want to take a solid outlook here, but realistically, the Coyotes won because they were super lucky. Quick let in some questionable goals and the Kings outshot the Coyotes 41-22. There was one reason and one reason only that Arizona won: Mike Smith.
One thing I did not like: Tippett only played Duclair for nine minutes, the lowest on the team. I don't think he looked worse than anyone else, certainly not Doan who looks like he should have retired. Duclair had an assist and maybe even a goal as I thought he got his stick on the goal credited to Michalek.
Same old Tippett though, he gives 17 minutes to Vermette, 14 to Domi and plays Michalek over 20 minutes. Now, granter his minutes were sheltered, but Duclair was one of three Coyotes to post positive possession numbers last night (Vermette and Domi the others).
In fact, Hanzal, Domi, Boedker, Duclair, Vermette and Rieder were all close enough to 50% possession to have been OK, so there is a huge positive.The problem was that when the bottom six went out on the ice they got pummeled.
Hey, I told you the Coyotes were due for some puck-luck after they scored only one 5v5 goal in the pre-season, but this game should have been a blowout. For the Kings. I'll get ripped for saying so, but it's true the Kings should be mad about this game - they can't even blame their goalie because they still should have won 8-4. Thank you Mike Smith, early Vezina favorite.
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