Word round the campfire is that the Coyotes have recalled defenseman Brandon Gormley. The 6'2 blueliner provides two-way acumen and is a solid puckmover. With Justin Hodgman being sent down, the Coyotes have 8 defensemen, of which only Murphy and Gormley can be sent down without clearing waivers.
Unless there is an injury not yet revealed, cue the trade speculation.
It's Monday, our weekly Coyotes recap. We'll look at what happened and what might.
Last night, in easily the most entertaining game of the Coyote's season so far, they held on for a 6-5 victory over the Capitals. The Coyotes got goals from Rieder, Doan (2), Vermette, Stone and Gagner and erased a 2 goal first period deficit by potting five in a row. The Capitals, lead by Ovechkin's four point performance, almost tied the game by scoring twice in the final 1:30 of the game.
Once again, the Coyotes got sub-par goaltending and questionable defense. Still, all things considered, I'll take it. I could watch 6-5 games all day, every day.
Record: 4-6-1
Standings:Seventh in the Pacific with 9 points. Tied for last in the West.
Which Means: My anxiety level is high. Although, with Nashville, Vancouver and Calgary all hovering near the top of the standings, we are reminded how early it still is. Only the Ducks, out of the favored teams, really seem to be thriving. There is still time for the Coyotes to figure out who they are and make a run.
I will say though, that if they want to compete, they need to make some roster moves right away. I would have expected something if they had lost last night and ended up 0-4 on the road trip. Now, I hope the team doesn't treat last night like a victory, because it was only that in a technical sense. You can't hope to outgun the Capitals.
Yes, they won. But it was - again - a sloppy game and in reality, they probably were lucky to get away with 2 points. If the game was even 30 seconds longer, I'm not sure they would have held on, as Washington just kept coming.
The team has played over 10% of it's schedule and they have to realize they are giving regular shifts to too many AHL players and that their first line is a not very competitive relative to other team's.
The Past Week: Tuesday: Lost to Tampa 7-3 Thursday: Lost 2-1 to Florida Saturday: Lost 3-0 to Carolina Sunday: Won 6-5 over Washington
Trends: In the last week we saw: - Boedker score his first point in 7 (!) games. - Losing, bad defense and barely adequate goaltending. - That the Coyotes have allowed 4+ goals in over half their games. - That Tippett doesn't trust his other D enough. Through 11 games, Yandle and OEL are 6th and 7th in Time on Ice average per game. A better balance, especially in light of it being a team strength, is needed to compete more. - Tobias Rieder make his NHL debut. After a great preseason, like Hodgman, he too was demoted inexplicably. Like Hodgman, he too scored in his first game, which means a likely healthy scratch on Tuesday!!!
Injuries: With the return of Hanzal on Tuesday, only David Moss remains injured.
The Week Ahead: The Coyotes play thrice this week. And have a moderately tough week of matchups.
Tuesday : vs Leafs Friday : @ Ducks Saturday: vs Islanders
The upcoming week will provide the Coyotes with a chance to move back up the standings and right the ship. a 3-0 record would even their record at 7-7. Sounds good, but then, conversely, an 0-3 record would essentially ruin the season.
Instead of shooting for the moon and hoping for a 3-0 record this week, my advice to the team would be to think small - just try to get your first game in of the year where you score, play defense and get good goaltending. So far, it's been, at best, 2 out of 3 every game so far.