Hello and welcome to my first official Coyotes blog here at Hockeybuzz. If you missed my first two audition blogs, my name is James Tanner and I will be taking over Coyotes coverage from the venerable Adam French. I’d like to again thank Eklund, Eric, Adam and everyone at Hockeybuzz for the opportunity to work here and cover the Coyotes. Look for new Coyotes blogs here daily, or, at worst, every other day.
To recap the recent Coyotes activities, they began a four game East Coast road trip with a 3-1 loss to the Canadians on December 17th. However, they were able to able to secure four out of a possible eight points on the trip, despite losing three out of the four games. After losing to the Sabres in Buffalo, the Coyotes then returned home for a game against San Jose on Friday and then went quickly back on the road to face the Ducks on Saturday. They lost both games and now have only one win in the last six games.
Cue the negativity.
Whenever teams go on streaks like this, the numbers always seem to be presented in the worst possible way. For example, the Coyotes do not have a single regulation win in the last six games. They have lost three in a row. They are “spiraling.… They are “struggling.…
I disagree. I see a lot of positives with this team right now. Sure, one for six never looks good on paper, but if you say they have points in five straight games, that sounds pretty good. Anaheim and San Jose are two of, if not the best two, teams in the NHL. Getting half the points available versus those two teams on a back-to-back is a good accomplishment. Smith continues to roll and Boedker looks more dangerous offensively by the game.
Perspective is the key to maintaining your sanity when following an NHL team. The league is full of parity and anyone can win on any night. Instead of focusing on the fact that the Coyotes have not won very much lately, we should be focusing on their ability to keep games close and remember that they have had a good chance to win every game during this streak.
They made a great comeback after a lucky goal to force Anaheim to overtime.
They played a tough San Jose team in a game that could have gone either way.
They lost to Buffalo on one of the weirdest goals you’re ever likely to see. Check it out if you didn’t see it yet:
It’s important to remember that if you get a point in every game, all you have do is win 20 games to virtually guarantee a playoff birth – and the Coyotes already have 19, so they can go ahead and lose every game for the rest of the season in OT and they’ll probably be fine! Of course, I’m joking, but I think you get the point, which is that their so called losing streak really isn’t that bad.
Thanks for reading, and keep Positive.