The Coyotes play the Florida Panthers tonight for the second time in less than a week. Kind of a weird quirk in the schedule since I'm pretty sure that's the only times they play all year.
The Coyotes will go back to Mike Smith, despite him being pulled in the 7-3 debacle to the Lightning the other night. Devon Dubnyk must be wondering exactly what it takes to get a start around here.
After one unsuccessful game of trying some intersting line combos, including Gagner with Hanzal and OEL with Stone, Yandle with Murphy, look for OEL and Michalek to be reunited and Gagner will probably play with Klinkhammer and Crombeen. (Sarcasm). Still, it'd be nice if they experimented a bit more - played Hodgman, brought up Samuelsson etc.
The young players on the Pirates, however, aren't exactly tearing it up. Gormley has no points in four games, the aforementioned Samuelsson has only one goal in eight games and only Alexander Bolduc stands out with his 7 points in 8 games. Bolduc is a 29 year old centre, drafted in 2003 in the sixth round who has 5 points in 63 career NHL games, none of them with Arizona.
So, while we wait for the arrival of Max Domi and Brandon Gormely, we must patiently sit by and cheer on the likes of BJ Crombeen.
However, let's not get down on BJ Crombeen. He has one goal in 6 games so far and is on pace to smash his career high of 11 goals. Crombeen is part of an interesting new promotion the Coyotes are putting on. If you buy his jersey, it comes with a large cell phone, a VHS copy of season 2 of Friends and a Y2K survival kit.
The Coyotes new jersey promotions are actually kind of great. If you buy a Hanzal jersey, you get a free sexy nurse outfit for your girlfriend, and if you buy a Max Domi jersey, it comes with a voucher for a free copy of the next Game of Thrones book and the new Tool album. (You know, things you wait forever for.)
Of course I'm lying, but speaking of Domi, he was named the Captain of the London Knights this week, which is good since he's eleven years older than the rest of team. I think he might actually be the coach, too.
Max is tearing it up too, with 18 points in 11 games so far this year. Good to hear.
Anyways, I look forward to tonight's game. Hopefully the team gets back on track and also hopefully Gagner can get his 3rd point in a row (on his way to 70).
Thanks for reading.