You knew it was going to happen: After the Sabres blew a late lead earlier in the week in a (probably) season ruining game for them, they came out last night for revenge.
The score might trick you into believing it was a close game (6-3, with two empty-netters) but that would be an untruth worthy of the Czar.
The Coyotes got the crap kicked out of them last night, that's really the only way to say it. It was at least fun to watch Jack Eichel, who somehow manages to be underrated. (Toronto got Matthews, so it was bound to happen, but this guy is just as good). (Well maybe not quite as good as Matthews, but better than 99% of other players).
The Final shot totals were Sabres 41, Coyotes 22. In the second period alone, the Sabres almost equaled the Coyotes total for the whole game. The game was similar to what you might see if you actually somehow were lucky enough to witness a real cage match between a buffalo and a coyote.
The Sabres controlled 60% of this game. (corisca.hockey, where all the stats are from in this blog).
One plus for the Coyotes that instead of being the most used 5v5 ice-time defenseman, like he has been a few times recently, Luke Schenn was deployed as the #5.
The least deployed defenseman was Connauton, who Tippett must hate. Personally, I think he could contribute alot more if given the ice time.
Or maybe Tippett doesn't actually know what he's doing. Maybe he's given up. Playing Goligoski and Murphy more at 5v5 than Ekman-Larsson certainly suggests as much.
Happily, Dave Tippet actually made Christian Dvorak his most used centre, overall. After nearly a whole season of not doing that, it was nice to see Dvorak get some ice time.
Hopefully the result of this game doesn't see him get demoted. (He had a rough, rough game, putting up a 33%)
But before you go giving Dave Tippett too much credit, here is a ridiculous list of players who played more than Max Domi : Vrbata, Martinhook, Doan, Reider, Dvorak.
Also, and I have no way of explaining this, his most used 5v5 forwards were Doan, Vrbata and Martinhook. That's right. In 2017, an NHL coach of a rebuilding team eliminated from the playoffs skated those three players the most.
That's right. With the season all but over, Tippett thought the best way to utilized his roster that can't score, and which hasn't won consecutive regulation games once this year, would be to play Peter ___ Holland and Jordan ____ _______ Martinhook more than Max Domi.
You know, the prized possession of this franchise and it's best non-OEL player.
Matinhook and Reider PLAYERS KNOWN FOR THEIR DEFENSE were 29% players last night. They were dominated and looked like the AHL players they are.
I decided against writing what I've seen people doing who make better decisions than Dave Tippett. It's like his only goal for this season is to troll me.
The uproar over Tippett's deployments in a more sophisticated market would be deafening. This is an absolute joke. The Coyotes need to fire him.