It was a wild game last night in Vancouver. The Coyotes overcame two two goal deficits to tie the game at four in the third, only to lose in overtime.
The game was scoreless in the first until a Kevin Bieksa floater eluded Mike Smith on a goal he probably should have had. Then, less than a minute later, Vancouver struck again when Coyotes defenseman David Schlemko, deep in the offensive zone, inexplicably passed the puck weakly to the point, where it was picked off easily and Vancouver broke out for a two-on-two that saw Shane Doan fail miserably in his attempt to impersonate a defenseman. Doing his best to cover for the out of position Schlemko, Doan failed to block the pass across and Jannik Hanson scored on a nice feed from Ryan Kesler. The Coyotes then got a lucky break only seconds later when a moderately dangerous looking rush resulted in a goal when Luongo knocked a puck that was going wide into his own net.
The score was 2-1 Vancouver after one with the Canucks scoring two goals on seven shots. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, after playing 32 minutes in a game earlier in the week, played almost 35 minutes tonight and had over 11 minutes alone in the first period. To put that in perspective, Stone and Schlemko each played only 11 minutes total in a game that included overtime.
The beginning of the second period was uneventful except for a waived off Coyotes goal that was clearly kicked in. About halfway through the period Kyle Chipchura took the Coyotes third bad penalty of the night, and then Antoine Vermette scored his second of the game short-handed. The goal was remarkable for several reasons: it was the second goal of the game for the Coyotes and both goals were scored on their own net by the Canucks; it was Vermette’s second goal of the game (he would eventually get a hat trick) and he hadn’t even had a shot up to that point, and finally, it was Vermette’s third shorthanded goal in four games after previously scoring none prior to this week. Vermette is also the only player on the Coyotes this season to have a shorthanded goal. Overall, he had five shots against Vancouver, but of the three that went in, he only took one actual shot.
The Canucks set about restoring their two goal lead by scoring two quick ones in the last three or so minutes of the second period. The first, by Higgins, was another terrible goal that Smith should have had. The second, though it wasn’t pretty, was not as bad as it was off a rush and a rebound. At this point, Smith had let in a pathetic four goals on fourteen shots. He was inexplicably not pulled. Although, to be fair, I think you could probably make an excuse for each goal he let in, while at the same time realizing that if you are supposed to be an elite goalie, you have to stop those, excuse or not.
Interestingly, Vancouver scored their first two goals 44 seconds apart and their second two 42 seconds apart. Shortly after Vancouver restored their two goal lead, Vermette completed the hatrick making it 4-3 Vancouver after two.
In the third period, captain Shane Doan tied the game on a breakaway in which he mishandled the puck on an attempted deke, but the puck went in anyways. Of the four Coyotes goals, they only actually scored on a shot attempt once. It was a weird game to say the least.
Due to a Derek Morris crosschecking penalty at the end of the third, the Coyotes had to start OT shorthanded. Despite killing the penalty, Kevin Bieksa knocked in his own rebound at 2:15 of the extra period to secure the win for the Canucks. Lucky to grab at least one point, the Coyotes didn’t do themselves any favors by again playing an undisciplined game that resulted in too many dumb penalties. For example, Korpikoski took a weak offensive zone penalty near the start of the game, and with just over five minutes left in the first Morris took a lazy one hand on the stick tripping penalty.
There’s nothing wrong with taking penalties when you’re playing hard and setting the tone or trying to prevent a goal, but taking bad penalties in the offensive zone or lazy and unnecessary tripping and crosschecking penalties is a recipe for disaster. The NHL is a league beset by parity and therefore, since the difference between teams like Vancouver and Phoenix is marginal at best, teams that get slight edges in various aspects of the game will win out over time. One of the easiest places to get an edge is by not taking stupid penalties. When you consider that if the Coyotes miss the playoffs, it will likely be by only a few victories, and thus you can see that their penchant for taking undisciplined and unnecessary penalties could easily be the difference in the outcome of this season. Overall, the Coyotes took seven minor penalties, the majority of them stupid. It is totally irrelevant that Vancouver did not score a power play goal – this was still a completely undisciplined and overall terrible performance.
At the end of the day, this was an insane game that the Coyotes probably feel lucky about getting a point in. They took way too many dumb penalties, got atrocious goaltending (5 goals allowed on 25 shots) and were lucky in that three of the goals they scored were complete flukes. They now sit five points back of Vancouver for seventh, but should be happy it’s not six. The idle Minnesota Wild remain four points ahead of Phoenix for eighth.
Thanks for reading. Twitter: @coyotes1234