The Coyotes beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 last night.
The Predators are the current best team in the NHL, leading the way 27 points. And that probably makes this the best win the Coyotes have had this season. (Although you have to think the Leafs, missing two of the best players in the NHL and only one point back, are probably the "real" best team).
The win gives the Coyotes 19 points and puts them only a single point out of the last wildcard. They are just two and three points, respectively, back of the Canucks and Flames. It's been a good start, and especially encouraging that the team is keeping pace with Antti Raanta currently on the IR.
In their last seven, they've won three, lost three, and lost an OT games for a 3-3-1 record.
Last night's game was not good, other than the result.
Whenever you need your back-up goalie to put up 44 saves, you probably didn't play all that well.
Dylan Strome was a healthy scratch.
Jakob Chychrun didn't play (was he re-injured? sick? just getting a game off after coming back from injury the other night?)
Jason Demers left halfway through the game with an injury.
But the Coyotes still won, so there's that.
They have played strange this year - they've won quite a few they had no business winning while losing quite a few they had no business losing.
Oh and they scored another short handed goal, and could have had two because Grabner hit the post also. They took way too many penalties, but that doesn't seem to matter lately.
They will get burned on this eventually, as this will regress. They'll allow a bunch of PP goals and the PK scoring will dry up, so hopefully they can get healthy before that happens.
Dylan Strome is fifth on the Coyotes with a 52.46% possession rating.
His Shots-against per hour is the lowest of the team's forwards.
His on-ice shooting percentage is 3.19% and that's for everyone on the ice with him, not just him. It should be somewhere around 10, and it's at three. That is a function of luck, because not even bad linemates should shoot three percent.
He's also only getting 11 minutes of 5v5 game for this bad luck to work itself out.
His 4.53 points per 60 on the PP is fourth on the team, and only a couple of tenths of a percentage point from being second on the team.
Scratching him is criminal. You look at the production he's put up, with the linemates and ice time he's had, and you see a player who is succeeding despite the circumstances.
It's really disappointing to see a team with a progressive young GM with a reputation for statistical analysis allowing his coach to potentially ruin the player with the highest ceiling in the organization.
All stats point to Strome having done well in a limited role so far.
His usage is a mystery and it really looks like the classic hockey coach mistake of demanding skill players to 'earn it' by putting them in impossible situations.
You play Dylan Strome with Clayton Keller or Alex Galchenyuk.
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