In what can only be described as the next thrilling chapter in an epic tank rivalry, the Buffalo Sabres will head to Glendale, Arizona to take on Dysin Mayo and the Arizona Coyotes tonight at Gila River Arena at 9 p.m. to settle tanking supremacy once and for all.
The Coyotes want this loss bad, though, so it’s not going to be easy. The Desert Dogs are currently second worst in the NHL, ahead of only Montreal, so this game could have massive implications for the draft lottery in just a few scant months. One player who isn’t helping the Coyotes get to the bottom of the league is Shayne Gostisbehere, who has 7 goals and 20 assists in 42 games in the desert this year. The Coyotes acquired two draft picks and the former Calder finalist from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for nothing because the Flyers were hot on the trail of Rasmus Ristolainen and they needed to shed some money. That doesn’t look like a terrific decision for Chuck Fletcher and Philadelphia:
Elsewhere on the roster, Clayton Keller is having a nice season in Arizona with 34 points in 42 games. Old friend Johan Larsson is playing well too, as he’s operating at a half-a-point-per-game pace with 15 points in 29 games this season. Phil Kessel leads the team in… assists? That’s a weird one. He has only five goals on the season but he has 22 helpers as an elder statesman in the desert.
After those guys, though, the offense completely dries up.
Jakob Chychrun is currently leading all Coyotes, and indeed the entire league, in the hunt for the Green Jacket as the NHL’s worst +/- player this season. He currently sits at -31 this year. Despite that, the rumor is that the Coyotes are looking for something in the neighborhood of what the Sabres got for Jack Eichel: an NHL player, a top prospect, a first-round pick and a second-round pick. That seems a little optimistic, but his contract is team friendly as he only counts $4.6m against the cap for this year and the next three after. That will undoubtedly keep a lot of teams in the hunt due to his relative affordability for many NHL clubs.
The Coyotes have the Sabres beat in one major way: the Sabres at least have an arena to play in during the coming seasons. The Coyotes, meanwhile, are exploring the option to play at ASU’s college arena which can hold 5,000 patrons because the team is no longer welcome to play at Gila River Arena after this year. That number is comically low, and this development is only the latest in the never-ending saga involving the Coyotes and the state of Arizona.
Hilariously, the Coyotes would also have to play second fiddle to ASU next year, according to Craig Morgan of gophnx.com:
“Scheduling will be another issue for the Coyotes. Sun Devil hockey’s schedule is already in place for the 2022-23 season and ASU hockey will maintain priority for all future dates, a source said.”
Woof.
A lot of the Coyotes’ on-ice troubles – like the Sabres’ – are coming in net. Scott Wedgewood has an .899 SV% over parts of 17 games, while Karel Vejmelka has a .901 SV% in his 25 games. Carter Hutton hasn’t factored in much this season due to injuries. When he did play, he wasn’t any better than he was in Buffalo.
Speaking of goalies, the Sabres had a mini shockwave reverberate around the hockey world yesterday as Michael Houser entered Covid protocols. That unfortunate situation, coupled with Aaron Dell’s 3-game suspension for interfering with Drake Batherson, and the long-term injuries to Ukko-Pekka Luukonen and Malcolm Subban temporarily left the Sabres with no signed NHL goalies for this weekend’s contests.
Thankfully for them, it doesn’t appear they’ll have to go out and sign Marty Biron or Ryan Vinz because Craig Anderson and Dustin Tokarski will join the team on the trip and they could conceivably split starts today and tomorrow. Anderson has been sidelined due to injury since the second month of the season, and Tokarski has been dealing with long-term Covid effects since December. Anderson is scheduled to get the start between the pipes tonight.
Zemgus Girgensons is back on the injured list again after playing against Ottawa earlier in the week. Here’s the recent practice lines via Sabres.com:
Skinner-Thompson-Tuch
Krebs-Mittelstadt-Bjork
Asplund-Cozens-Olofsson
Hayden-Eakin-Okposo
Dahlin-Jokiharju
Hagg-Pysyk
Samuelsson-Bryson
The only conceivable reason that Cody Eakin continues to play over Mark Jankowski has to be due to perceived trade benefits from Eakin. Perhaps the organization thinks that the more they play him, the more teams would want to acquire him at the trade deadline. Not sure that’s going to work out that way for them, but Eakin did score a goal against the Coyotes the last time they played.
After a late game tonight, the Sabres are next in action against the Colorado Avalanche tomorrow at 8 PM.
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