The Coyotes have won 5 of 6, Dallas lost, Mike Smith continues to prove his detractors wrong, and I have Achtung Baby playing at a volume that may induce my neighbors into making in a noise complaint.
Life is good.
Weirdly, however, despite winning 5 of 6 and 7 of 9, the win last night was the first time the Coyotes have strung together three in a row since nearly the beginning of the season.
Mike Smith has been the reason for the resurgence (or is that emergence?) of the Coyotes. The best goalie in the NHL, statistically, since the Olympic Break, Smith nearly had a shutout last night. Unfortunately, the Panthers scored with just over four minutes left in the game to deny Smith the glory of shutting out the NHL's worst special teams team.
The goal that went in was a fluttery wrist shot/fluke and aren't those the ones that always break up a shutout? Worse, it was scored by former NHL player Scott Gomez....Umm, hands up if you knew he was still in the league?
Either way, the Coyotes were lucky it wasn't the tying goal, since there is no way their second goal should have counted. Micheal Boedker kind of eliminated Luongo from the play and I was shocked to see that the goal counted.
After the game, Luongo was quoted as saying "It's tough to do my job when I end up in the corner," which I thought was pretty hilarious.
Despite it being a pretty boring game, the end was intense as the Coyotes tried to hold the lead, and the result was great.
Next up is Boston on Saturday, the only team to beat the Coyotes recently. While the Bruins are a great team and have won ten in a row, the Coyotes played them well last week and should feel confident playing them this week. The Bruins are due for a loss, so hopefully the Coyotes can deliver them one.
Thanks for reading.
Twitter:Coyotes1234