Phoenix Coyotes Season Thread - December

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Great win for the Coyotes tonight, Tellqvist stops 19 in his debut and Phoenix wins 3-2. The Coyotes came back from a 2-0 deficit. Perreault continues to have a hot stick as he scores his 8th goal of the year. The entire OMG line continues to produce, Saprykin had a goal, Zigomanis had an assist, and Laraque had two assists. Nagy also had a nice assist on the winning goal scored by Fischer, he has been a force since being benched a couple nights ago. Five home wins in a row, four wins out of the last four games, and three straight overall. Things are starting to get interesting.

 

[Scott MS]

The Coyotes are 6-4 in their last 10 games, and about 6-7 points out of the last playoff spot right now. Some of the teams above the Coyotes in the standings have played 3-4 more games than the Coyotes (like the Kings and Canucks).

 

[Scott MS]

Nice shootout win tonight over the Blackhawks. Tellqvist looked awesome in net.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Matt Jones was recalled today. Hopefully he is the first of a series of callups, its about time to start evaluating players for the future of this franchise.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Two minutes into the game and its already 1-1. Awesome game in HD tonight.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Best game of the entire season for the Coyotes tonight as they blank Anaheim 2-0. Tellqvist gets the first Coyotes shutout of the year and it was only the second time the league leading Ducks have been shut out this season. They came out and worked hard the entire game. Doan broke the scoreless tie with a goal with only 5 minutes left in the game and Ballard followed it up with another goal 13 seconds later.

Doan had really been struggling so hopefully tonight's game will jump start him. Ballard was an absolute monster tonight, serving out a bunch of punishing checks. He has played extremely well the last few games after coming back from a monthlong injury. This should give the Coyotes some desperately needed momentum going into the holiday break.

 

[howlincoyote2k1]

Not only did Doan and Ballard get King Kong and his big brother off their backs, but Owen Nolan and Matt Jones played very good games as well. Nolan had four shots in the first period alone, and they were quality chances, too. Jones was everywhere tonight; hitting, blocking shots, just doing the job.

Long-term, I'm undecided as to what we do with Nolan. If he keeps playing well, he could be a valuable addition to a team looking to make a playoff push, and we could get a nice return for him. However, if we keep him, he would add a valuable veteran presence to a team that's going to be largely young and inexperienced in 2007-08. Not to mention, he's also been good on the PK as well.

Not too shabby for, as Panger put it, "two years out of hockey and one bad wheel".

 

[Diamondback Jay]

Telvquist looked completely composed out there. Every game that this guy starts behind the pipes, he improves.

I'm liking the future at goaltender.

 

[Scott MS]

Good game last night. The Coyotes showed a lot of grit and emotion to pull out a convincing 2-0 shutout. I thought Anaheim was pretty sloppy. At one point in the second period they were called for offsides about 5 times in a row.

Anyways, beating a team like Anaheim can do wonders for their confidence. The 'Yotes are pretty much out of the playoff picture, but they've found a great backup in Tellqvist.

Regarding Nolan, he's been a pleasant suprise along with Tellqvist, Laraque, and Zigomanis. Unfortunately, Roenick, Nagy, Comrie, Scatchard, and to some extent, Doan, have had a tough year. All have been disappointments. Ricci was scratched again and I don't know if he'll be playing in the league much longer. Roche and Jones are playing pretty well after coming up San Antonio.

 

[NEZCardsfan]

Ugh....seriously will we ever win 2 in a row??

 

[MigratingOsprey]

good win tonight - can't believe toskala and hannan tripped over each other at the end - oh well, they'll get ya on saturday

 

[Scott MS]

Nice win and another tight game. Hope the Coyotes take it to the Sharks on Saturday prior to the 5 game road trip.

On another note, the teams in the West are not holding up that well in the standings. There are four teams tied at 38 which also makes up the 7th and 8th playoff spots. Believe it or not, but the Coyotes are 8 points behind with 30 points. Not an easy task, but also not impossible. The next 13 games will be critical, of which they play 9 on the road.

.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Roenick finally did something, scoring the first goal of the game tonight against San Jose. Doan already has a goal and an assist, and Michalek has the other goal. 3-0 Coyotes after the first period.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

6-0 after two periods, amazing. Tonight is coincidentally the 25th anniversary of the game Gretzky scored 5 goals in to get 50 goals in 39 games.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

I hadn't realized that I had traveled through time back to 1997. Jeremy Roenick scored a hat trick.

 

[Scott MS]

Nice game. The most lopsided victory in all the Coyotes game I've been to. 8-0.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

The amazing thing is that the Coyotes were outshot 40 to 26. Cujo had an outstanding game. In addition to the Roenick hat trick, Doan had one goal and four assists. Nagy also had a goal and an assist, so hopefully he will start to find the back of the net more often.

 

[Scott MS]

The Sharks dominated parts of the game last night, but couldn't find the net. The Coyotes, on the other hand, scored on 3 of their first 6 shots, prior to Nabokov being pulled. They had some perfect shots on net that would have beat most goaltenders. The Sharks missed wide all night, or Cujo made some fantastic saves and the defense did a good job of clearing rebounds. Jones and Roche are playing well in place of Jovo and Boynton.

Best part of the game was when they showed JR on the big screen after his hat trick, while they were still picking up hats. He had the biggest grin on his face and did a nice wave to the crowd, and the crowd gave him a nice cheer. After his struggles this year, it was nice to see him have some success.

.

 

[Scott MS]

By the way the attendance last night, according to the box score on ESPN, was 17,643 (100.8% full).

 

[MigratingOsprey]

had family in town so I couldn't go last night - glad I didn't

now if I could only figure out why the sharks struggle against the 'yotes so much

 

[Scott MS]

had family in town so I couldn't go last night - glad I didn't

now if I could only figure out why the sharks struggle against the 'yotes so much

A good part of is CUJO. Cujo is 34-9-1 in 45 games against the Sharks. The best record of any goaltender against another team.

Coyotes have earned 7 of 8 points in their last 4 games.