Last night the Coyotes lost for the second time this week to the Dallas Stars.
The win by the Stars ensured that the two teams would go into the Olympic break with identical 27-21-10 records. By virtue of a tie-breaker, the Stars are ranked 8th and the Coyotes 9th. The two teams remain one up on Vancouver and two up on Winnipeg.
This is a frustrating situation for the Coyotes because they essentially lost both games to Dallas 2-1 (the first saw the Stars add an empty-netter) and despite the fact that either game could have gone the other way, the result is an eight point swing in the standings.
Its doubly frustrating that Phoenix should lose two games to Dallas while beating Pittsburgh and Chicago in between.
Just another exhibit in the case that the Coyotes are on the verge of being a competitive team, but lack scoring. They just can't score when it's needed.
Again in this one, Mike Smith was great and when you combine his strong play with one of, if not the very best groups of defenseman in the entire NHL, the Coyotes are going to be competitive every game. If only they could score more often.
Last night they avoided a shutout in the last seconds, but it was clearly too little too late. They had their chances and Lehtonen was good when he had to be, but it's not like he had to steal the game. If he had to face a penalty shot like he should have, it might be a different story, but it was not to be. Besides, you can't get too mad about non-calls - they even out over time.
After the game, Coach Dave Tippett complained that the lack of back-checking on the first goal is something that has hurt them all season. I agree - but only to a point. This is because even if the Coyotes are prone to occasional bad plays and brain cramps or just failures to get back fast enough, first of all, every team is, and secondly, they still typically play low scoring games where they lose by a goal. If you hold a team to two goals or less twice in a week and still lose both games, it is not your defense that is the problem. You should win most, if not every game that you hold the other team to under three goals. So, I get what Tippett is saying, but I think you have to realize that he's only talking about things he can control. He can get the team to back-check better. He can make them more defensively responsible. He can't make them score. He can't acquire more talented players.
As a rule, you don't hear a ton of rumors surrounding the Coyotes, but the names that keep coming up: Cammalleri and Whitney would do absolutely nothing to help this team. They already have several guys who can be counted on for 20 goal/second line production. I am not saying they wouldn't slightly improve the team, but they do nothing to alleviate the lack of first line players this team currently has.
I would predict that before the trade deadline that the Coyotes do very little fix this problem. The reason is that besides Rundblad, who I think they'd move, they don't really know what they have in their young defenseman and I doubt they want to guess incorrectly and trade the wrong one. I mean, any of Michael Stone, Brandon Gormley or Connor Murphy could end up being all-stars (actually all three could end up all-stars) and yet it's not like trading just one of them would get you a first line winger or centre.
There are only two ways that I can see that the Coyotes could acquire the type of forward they so desperately need at this time. The first is to put together a package based around Max Domi , draft picks and one of the aforementioned defenseman. I don't like this idea at all. Let's just assume this package could get them Evander Kane. Is he alone going to turn the Coyotes into one of the West's elite teams? I don't think so, and I'd rather keep the youth and see what happens. The second is to trade Yandle, which is like a lateral move because now your defense is not the strong point it was. Either package is unlikely to turn the team into Stanley Cup favorites, so I think it's best to just keep building the way they have been and see how it goes.
Barring a drastic surprise, the only moves I can see Don Maloney actually making are minor ones. Best to hold onto the youth and see how everyone develops. There's a chance they can get lucky in the playoffs, but if not, the future remains very bright for this team.
There's lots of stuff to talk about, so look for new Coyotes blogs throughout the Olympics.
Thanks for reading.