The Coyote is a warm blooded mammal that does not lay eggs.
At least, based my brief foray into the world of amateur veterinarianism, I thought so.
But last night proved me wrong, when the apparently cold-blooded and reptilian coyotes built a nest at centre ice and laid an egg directly into it.
With ten days off, a well-rested Coyotes team took on one of the NHL's worst teams, and played terribly.
The Ducks had 56% of the shot-attempts, and 63% of the shots, as well as 70% of the high-danger chances, and 70% of the expected goals.
For the Coyotes it was their third loss in a row.
As I have been saying all year, the Coyotes are deep team with good players on every line. Unfortunately, hockey is a star-driven game where more elite players and a shallow roster is preferable to less elite players and a deep roster.
Tonight’s squad. pic.twitter.com/OAdk3YcRWM
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) January 30, 2020
Look at that line-up and it's seven million dollar fourth line.
It's so deep it just got dusted by the Anaheim Ducks.
Adding Taylor Hall was a great move.
Playing him with two third liners is idiotic.
This is a game that had 18 minutes of special team action, but the 5v5 ice time allotments are insane.
Taylor Hall played just 30 seconds more than Lawson Crouse, and was tenth on the team in 5v5 ice time.
He did play five minutes of PP time, but that's still only 19 minutes for your best player.
Even though you want Hall on the PP, it can't come at the expense of his 5v5 minutes, because those are where he can make the biggest difference.
They should also look long and hard into getting a top centre and a right handed defenseman who can play on their top line
If not, why bother getting Hall?
Right now this is a team that can make the playoffs and win any game or series - as long as they're getting at least 93% goaltending.
If they get league average goaltending, they aren't a playoff team. It's that simple. They've been a bad team getting good results for a while now, and eventually that wears off.
They have to do more to win games 5v5 and a good way to do that is make sure Ekman-Larsson is getting more 5v5 time on the ice than Jordan Oesterle.
Next up the Kings.
stats naturalstattrick.com