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Coyotes After 2 Games

October 7, 2019, 12:54 PM ET [34 Comments]
James Tanner
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The NHL Season is two games old, and the Coyotes are 0-2.

Last season, the Coyotes had Vezina worthy goaltending, but wasted it because they couldn't score any goals.

Over the summer, the only way they addressed this was by swapping Alex Galchenyuk for Phil Kessel.

I am a huge Kessel fan - I live in Toronto, so he was my favorite player for a long time - but he's also 32, and the amount he can be expected to produced over a healthy Galchenyuk isn't very much.

I am not a Max Domi fan, but that is 99% because I don't like him as a person. I think his shooting percentage was very high last year, and I don't think he'll continue as a first line player, but up to now this trade has been a disaster.

Would I rather have a 22 year old Max Domi than a 32 year old Phil Kessel?

No, but only for personal reasons.

It's like how I like REM better than the Beatles. REM is my favorite band, but I understand that on some level, the Beatles are "better."

Anyways, the Coyotes can't score, and they've wasted two great games from Kuemper.

Here are some interesting stats from the first two games, courtesy of naturalstattrick.com

- OEL leads the team in ice time, but has a 40% CF. Ouch. He's been brutal. I think he could use a new partner. Demers is OK but they've got a Ron Hainsey thing going on here with the top pairing.

- Chychrun is at 53% and looks good, skating just five minutes less.

- The Keller-Kessel-Stepan line has been really good, despite not scoring. They've had lots of chances, but the problem here is that they're going to get crushed on the road when they have to match up against other team's best lines.

The Ducks have a similar problem, so that wasn't an issue in the first game, while they played the second game at home and were able to avoid icing that line against the Bergeron line.



- A lot of people were complaining about Schmaltz, but he's at 52% and has looked fine to me. His most common linemates have been Soderberg and Garland, which has been effective (again though, without scoring yet).

I actually like this line and think they should keep it together, the problem though is that Garland has gotten the least ice-time on the team. Garland can score, so I think they should keep him with Schmaltz.

For the six minutes they swapped out Garland for Crouse they dropped from a 54% to a 44% line.

The faster the Coyotes realize that Lawson Crouse is terrible, the better they'll be.

They also have to dress Barrett Hayton. This isn't a team that can afford to be picky with it's offensive players.

One thing I noticed: Kessel only has 4 individual scoring chances and zero rushes. I've watched him for most of his career, and he's a great player on the rush. The coach seems to be shooting himself in the foot by playing this way.

Defense is great, but the Coyotes have 2 5v5 rushes in 2 games, and that's pretty pathetic.

Next game is not until Thursday vs Vegas.
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