Phoenix Coyotes Season Thread - March/April

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Good news today as four Coyotes prospects were named in The Hockey News Top 50. Peter Mueller was 7th, Martin Hanzal 30th, Blake Wheeler 35th, and Keith Yandle 50th.

Gretzky said that Mueller has an excellent chance to make next year's team. I'm guessing that Hanzal will end up in the AHL next season with Yandle, and that Wheeler will continue to improve playing for Minnesota.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/0311coyotesnotes0311.html

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Good news today as four Coyotes prospects were named in The Hockey News Top 50. Peter Mueller was 7th, Martin Hanzal 30th, Blake Wheeler 35th, and Keith Yandle 50th.

Gretzky said that Mueller has an excellent chance to make next year's team. I'm guessing that Hanzal will end up in the AHL next season with Yandle, and that Wheeler will continue to improve playing for Minnesota.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/0311coyotesnotes0311.html

The full list isn't out, but the Coyotes were the only team to have four or more players on the list. Five teams had three make the list. With two first round picks in the upcoming draft (including one that will probably be a top 3 pick), the future is looking a whole lot better than it used to.

 

[boondockdrunk]

Good news today as four Coyotes prospects were named in The Hockey News Top 50. Peter Mueller was 7th, Martin Hanzal 30th, Blake Wheeler 35th, and Keith Yandle 50th.

Gretzky said that Mueller has an excellent chance to make next year's team. I'm guessing that Hanzal will end up in the AHL next season with Yandle, and that Wheeler will continue to improve playing for Minnesota.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/0311coyotesnotes0311.html

I have to admit that I have never been high on Wheeler. However, the ranking for Yandle surprises me alot. I thought that with him strong play in the NHL for a few games this year, would have caught the attention of management. Brendan Bell has not impressed me at all, so I think that Yandle will get a strong consideration next year, but since he will only be 21, he will probably given another year of development.

Also, what a horrible year for Lisin. He was once one of the brightest hopes of the organization to provide a much needed scoring winger. Now he looks like just a role player.

 

[Nick C]

Man this team gets harder and harder to watch. I didn't see much effort on the ice. The Yotes look confused and it seemed to me like no one wanted to skate.

This team is in trouble if Nolan is the best player on the ice.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

The Coyotes have signed center Alex Leavitt to a two year contract. Last season he was the scoring champion in the ECHL in only his first pro year. He already has 11 points (4 goals) in 4 games in his tryout with AHL San Antonio, so the Coyotes may have found an undrafted steal here, which are becoming more important every year.

Also, the Coyotes have sent Yanic Lehoux back down to the AHL.

http://www.phoenixcoyotes.com/news/story_details.php?ID=5701

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Blake Wheeler had a hat trick in the WCHA Championship semis to send Minnesota against the defending national champion Wisconsin. Regardless of the result of the WCHA championship game against North Dakota, Minnesota will have a #1 seed to start the NCAA tournament.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Blake Wheeler scored the overtime game winner today in the WCHA Championship game on a great diving goal. He also had an assist and was named to the All-Tournament team and tournament MVP. Minnesota will now advance to the NCAA tournament.

He has great size (he's bulked up a lot since draft day) and is a solid skater for a big guy. He also has shown excellent stickhandling skills and is starting to find his scoring touch. It may take a little while, but this player is going to prove a lot of the naysayers wrong in the NHL one day.

Edit: link to the goal http://youtube.com/watch?v=EuepVP-NBrs

 

[boondockdrunk]

The Coyotes lost last night to Colorado 6-3. Shane Doan continues to put up good numbers since signing his new contract and Bill Thomas also scored a goal. Thomas now has 4 goals and 8 points in 13 games and has probably secured a spot on the team next year.

JR added the third goal and is only 8 away from reaching 500 but he might retire instead of playing another season.

 

[trueherotillman]

how many times are we going to let the opponent score first. good thing the season is ending, cause i'm sick of going down 1-0 all the time.

 

[Nick C]

how many times are we going to let the opponent score first. good thing the season is ending, cause i'm sick of going down 1-0 all the time.

Yep the season has been tough. I don't even know if the team will be any better next year.

I'll just rely on Coyoteshockyfan and Boondockdrunk posts during the offseason to decide whether to get excited or not.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Reminder that tomorrow night's game is in glorious HD on Versus.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Bill Thomas tallied another goal in what was otherwise a rather uneventful game (ugh... Minnesota plays really boring hockey). He now has 5 goals in 9 points and has been one of the more impressive guys for the Coyotes as of late. I think he has an excellent chance to make an impact for the team next year.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Blake Wheeler and top seed Minnesota needed a three goal comeback in the third period to beat Air Force today in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They will face North Dakota tomorrow, with a winner getting a spot in the Frozen Four.

 

[howlincoyote2k1]

I hate Dallas. >=\

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I hate Dallas. >=\

Ugh, I hate seeing them eight times a year, too. I wish the NHL would redo their scheduling philosophy.

 

[Scott MS]

Ugh, I hate seeing them eight times a year, too. I wish the NHL would redo their scheduling philosophy.

True. 24 games a year against Anaheim, San Jose, and Dallas doesn't make it very easy to get into the playoffs.

Then, you have a team like Nashville who has a great record and has 24 games a year against Chicago, St. Louis, and Columbus. Granted, they also have to play the Red Wings 8 times also. The Predators are 2-2 against the Coyotes this year.

I suppose you have the same situation in basketball. Teams like the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets would be in first place in the Eastern Conference, instead of 4th and 5th place in the West.

 

[Scott MS]

Pretty bad game tonight and I attended for my Derek Morris bobblehead.

I've sold a lot of my 1/2 season tickets in the last month because the Coyotes are tough to watch lately. They went down 0-4 to the Avalanche before closing the gap to 3-4 to make it look respectible.

I've crafted up my new avatar a few months ago but I'm finally using it. I'm thinking of bringing a sign to the last game on April 8th.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

KTAR reported rumors of Mike Barnett's firing this morning.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

The last two games have been pretty brutal. At least Sjostrom managed to get a goal last night, the Coyotes really need more offensive output from him. The team desperately needs a new starting goaltender for next season. Cujo isn't the answer anymore, and Tellqvist looks good in a short timespan but then falters when given a more meaningful workload, which was is MO in Toronto as well.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Rumors are still floating around that Pat Quinn may join the Coyotes in some capacity. Barnett may wind up with a different position with the franchise.

 

[Scott MS]

In the Western Conference, it's looking like it's going to take 100 points to make the playoffs this year!! The top 7 teams already have 100 points and 8th place Calgary has 96 points with 3 games to play.

But, it's also very tight at the top. 4 teams in the top 8 are within 3 points of each other.

 

[Compa]

In the Western Conference, it's looking like it's going to take 100 points to make the playoffs this year!! The top 7 teams already have 100 points and 8th place Calgary has 96 points with 3 games to play.

I really miss the old days. I looked up some things on Wikipedia: the last year the NHL didn't give points for losing in OT was 98-99. Coyotes were 4th in the WC with 90 points. Edmonton was the 8 seed with 78 points.

As Terri Frei said in his recent article (http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=frei_terry&id=2817346-I can't get the link to work properly, but the article is in the archive) the point system in it's current state makes records look better than they actually are. I think the automatic 3 points for OT games makes games less exciting at the end, because the joy of leaving your opponent point-less (or the agony of defeat) is never fully experienced. I wish the league would go back to the old format, or even to a soccer-style format, which rewards wins yet still discourages ties.

Will the league ever change the format? I don't see why the league doesn't simply go back to the way things were when the sport was successful.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Tomorrow night is also the ceremony for Dale Hawerchuk which should be nice to watch. Hopefully the Coyotes don't embarrass themselves like they have the last couple nights.

 

[PHXSportsFan4]

With the D-Backs and Suns both playing tonight, I don't think I'm even going to bother switching over to the Coyotes game. They have been tough to watch lately and it's getting to the point to where I can't even stand watching them any longer. Hopefully they can get a win.

 

[PHXSportsFan4]

The Coyotes won last night, 3-2 over LA.