Follow @james_tanner123 I got some new skates, ate a pizza, tested out the new rink (ice is terrible so far) the Coyotes won, I went to a birthday party, the Leafs won, I bought a whole whack of new CDs, got off work early, bit my tongue, the Raptors won, I won $5 on DK (woo!) got a cheap cab, ate some more pizza and then fell asleep on the couch.
It was an eventful Friday.
On the Coyotes front, they destroyed the fragile and inexplicably horrible Winnipeg Jets with four first period goals and a hockey-pool ruining crushing of "goalie" Connor Hellebuyck.
The main Coyote last night was Brendan Perlini. After a rough year last year which almost earned him the bust label and saw him get somewhat lost among the Coyotes' plethora of prospectus excellentium, Perlini rebounded this year by tearing up the AHL and earning a call-up to the big leagues.
People say "he has got to earn it" but didn't he earn his call-up to the NHL by scoring a CRAZY 14 goals in 17 AHL games? Why not turn him loose in situations where he will get the most success? Why give ice-time he could use to grow his game to 35+ guys like Doan and Vrbata, especially when winning games isn't exactly a priority at this time?
On the other hand, Perlini has just six goals and one assists and a 45% CF rating so far in his NHL career - so it's not like he's tearing it up. But he is tearing it up this week for sure - Perlini scored a goal in the last game he played before the Coyotes' five-day break, then he went to the AHL for a game and scored a hat-trick, then he came back last night and picked up two.
If the Coyotes can continue to mix in more young players and give them more minutes, perhaps this season won't be a total disaster.