The Coyotes opened the season on Thursday playing the Dallas Stars to 58 minutes of a 0-0 tie, only to allow three goals in ninety seconds in the second period to lose 3-0.
Not an ideal start, but for a team missing two of their top three centres, it was worth noting they were the best team on the ice.
Last night they lost 1-0 to the Anaheim Ducks and while this won't help them in the standings, they were once against the best team on the ice. The Coyotes dominated this game and they just happened to be facing a John Gibson who was invincible.
Last night, the Coyotes outshot the Ducks 34-19 5v5. Yes that's right: 34 shots before you even include power-plays. That's insane. Overall they outshot the Ducks 41-20 in what should have been a blowout.
The Coyotes had 15 more scoring chances in total, and at 5v5 they controlled 63% of the game.
If you play like this, you win 95% of the time.
If there's a criticism to be made, it's once again about ice time. Coach Rick Tocchet played Christian Fischer, Derek Stepan and Brandon Perlini more at 5v5 than Clayton Keller.
And Dylan Strome was on the fourth line, playing 10 minutes.
Get it together Rick.
You're two games into the season and have no goals. Yes, both games were decent to great efforts, but if you're not scoring maybe play your offensive players more?
Just a thought.
Overall Stepan played five minutes more than Keller.
Nick Cousins and Brad Richardson both played more than Strome.
Grabner barely saw the ice, but when he did, he dominated to the tune of an 87% CF. Get this guy some more ice time.
Same thing with Strome - when he did play, he had the puck. 76% possession. In ten minutes of 5v5 ice-time, he produced six scoring chances.
What does this guy have to do to get on a line with someone who can finish?
It's great that the Coyotes have played two games that they probably should have won. But that doesn't mean you can ignore the fact that they haven't scored yet this year.
It's pretty clear that if you are playing your grinders more than your scorers, and you aren't scoring, that that is the first thing you should change.
Strome and Keller should play together and they should play close to 20 minutes each.
Overall, its a good start but the the coach needs to be better.
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