The Coyotes road to the 2011-2012 Stanley Cup season thread

[Lefty]

The Coyotes season is about to begin as they open up on the road at San Jose on October 8th. Their first home game will be on October 15th against Winnipeg.

Most of the experts are not expecting much from the Coyotes this year. The big question mark is will they be able to replace Bryzgalov in goal. Mike Smith and Jason LaBarbera will be behind the net. If they can get solid play between the two, this team has a shot at making the playoffs.

I hope this is not the last year the Coyotes play in Arizona and I hope they can make a magical run for Shane Doan. This may very well be his last year with the team.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

The big question is will they have stable ownership willing to make a commitment to AZ and building a hockey franchise

At this point every thing else is irrelevant

 

[ASUCHRIS]

The big question is will they have stable ownership willing to make a commitment to AZ and building a hockey franchise

At this point every thing else is irrelevant

Pretty much...have been watching them pretty closely the last couple years, but with the ownership situation feeling so hopeless, and the fact that we lost unquestionably our best player and replaced him with garbage, not too encouraging.

 

[Lefty]

Not a great start for the Coyotes as they lose the first game 6-3 and then lose to Dallas today 2-1 in a shootout.

 

[SunCityCarl]

Dave Tippett acknowledged last year the ownership issue can get distracting & hoped it'd be resolved soon. Bryzgalov was GREAT in the regular season & went paper mache in the playoffs (again). I hope Smith & the defense around him improves. But M.O. is correct about the ownership, that needs to get done NOW!

 

[MigratingOsprey]

SJ tilted the ice against them ... the coyotes fought the whole game though

The Dallas game is the type that will make or break their season ... they absolutely left a point on the table yesterday .... defense & goaltending again kept them in it, but they were also left gaurding a 1 goal lead .... giving up the game tying goal with 30 seconds left hurts

Not being able to convert in OT when you have a full 2 minute PP also hurts

Because when you go to the shootout funky things can happen

That's a divisional game that they should have walked away with 2 points and dallas zero

It has the potential to smooth over the course of a season, but it does hurt early

 

[Lefty]

Nice road win at Nashville as they win 5-2.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

definitely a nice win against a team that they may be jockying with for position this year .... they did a good job getting on a really good goaltender ... used their hard work and hustle to create penalties and then did an excellent job of making them count

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

Boedker's goal was nice! Looking forward to the home opener tonight.

 

[Lefty]

Nice win over the Jets last night. Did not see the game but the defense is starting to play well and Doan is off to a good start.

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

After a couple of poor efforts, the Coyotes got back on track with a win last night in Anaheim, 5-4. Still a LOT of room for improvement, but it is good to see them win again. Smith was fantastic, despite the 4 goals against. He made some truly spectacular saves.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Doan scores #300 on a fantastic dropped knee one timer. Couldnt happen to a better guy

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

Unfortunately the game followed the same script as the last one with Dallas - Dallas scores in the last minute of regulation to tie, and wins in overtime...

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

The Yotes win 5-3, but are still prone to letting up at the end of the game. Good thing they were up 3 with 7 seconds to play instead of up 1. Smith again played well except for the first goal which was his doing. he has been solid and I don't worry about the tending when watching this team.

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

Nice win (4-1) last night in Colorado. The goal by Korpi was sweet - a straight hustle goal and a perfect shot while being pushed to the ice. The Vrbata goal (not the empty netter) was a nice hustle goal as well. Smith is outstanding once again. Got to see most of the game on the Colorado channel, and it was nice listening to commentary from the opposing team.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

Smith is playing very well .... seems like with his size/style, the coaching of burke and the system in front of him he could very well post good numbers this year ...... sharks had a pretty good shots advantage and he posted the shutout in SJ

Long season and the west is super tough and very congested .... however, they are definitely sticking in there and staying towards the top of the separation

 

[Lefty]

Coyotes beat Toronto 3-2 in a shootout to go 2-0 on this road trip and have won 6 of their last 8 games. Smith was sharp in goal again and Doan scored 5th goal of the year. O'Sullivan has been a nice surprise so far, hopefully he and the rest of the Coyotes can keep it up.

 

[chickenhead]

Scrivens is not exactly a world-beater but I wonder if the Coyotes had some scouting dirt on him, because IIRC they went to his stick-side on each shoot-out attempt and put two of them in the net.

Great looking matchup last night. Every time I see the Coyotes I think about what an amazing uniform change the made...but I'm kind of a geek that way.

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

Vrbata has done that to every goalie, it seems. But they did go stick side on both chances and converted both times for the win. Nice to finally win a shootout. The penalty to Hanzal was a joke, but they got the two points anyways.

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

Another tough loss, this time 4-3 to the Caps after leading 2-0. Really coughed up 3 points on this trip - at least one in Philly and two here tonight in Washington. 3-2-0 isn't terrible on a tough trip, but they gotta feel that they left points on the table. I know I do.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

something they really need to get better at

if they would have played about 90 seconds of better hockey over those two dallas games they would have eliminated 4 points from dallas and added 2 to their total

that would currently put them in a tie for 3rd in the conference and 5 points ahead of dallas (instead of 1 behind)

you hope they even out over the course of the season and they can steal a couple cheapies as well .... just hasn't seemed to happen yet

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Well at the quarter mark of the season, 1st and 10th in the west are separated by four points. Needless to say, those dropped points against Dallas (twice) and Philly could come back and hurt. A lot. You are absolutely right MO, the team will need to steal a few somewhere.

 

[Lefty]

That was a nice win over Dallas after the debacle on Friday night. It sure helped that Dallas got into Phoenix at 3:00AM.

 

[Lefty]

Another impressive road win as the Coyotes beat the Blackhawks 4-1. Mike Smith was the perfect pickup in the offseason as he dominant again, and Ray Whitney had a goal and two assists.

 

[Bert]

Coyotes put insane pressure on the Jets the entire 2nd period but just couldn't break through...

Lets kill this penalty to start the third and tie this thing up. Screw these Canadians who are booing us everytime we touch the puck and crying for penalties non stop.