The 3 game home stand answered some questions and opened up a whole new set.
Are the Coyotes a team good enough to make it to the post season? Hell to the yeah. This team showed what they are made of… apparently vulcanized rubber or they all carry the DNA from A.A. Milne’s Tigger. They may not have IT every night but they bounce back from those nights like Tigger on crack.
Wednesday night they returned from a fairly successful road trip like heavy duty predators. (taking 6 of 10 points) They scrapped and battled the Ducks and took advantage of Jonas Hiller like he was a babe in the woods. Early on Hiller started favoring his right side and the Yotes smelled blood on the wind. They attacked over and over again… on the Duck’s wounded side. Yands, Vrbie, Vrbie, OEL spreading out the scoring over all 3 periods. 60 full minutes of hockey the hard way led to a very pretty win and some of the most fun a Coyotes fan can have playing with fowl (seeing Corey Perry knocked on his tailfeathers by trusty Rusty Klesla). I do have a question for the refs… how the hell does a guy stay upright when being cross checked so hard the offender practically falls over you? The dive call on Smitty was a piss poor example of reffing. Ummm… and what the hell did Getzlaf say to you? Enquiring minds would love to know.
We returned to the ice after turkey day, torpid and pretty much staggering around like toddlers with their first blades. It was awful, it was ugly and it was infuriating when you know what these Dawgs are capable of. But every pup has an off night, it was just a shame that all 21 of them had to have it on the same night. If it wasn’t for Smitty, the score could have easily been 20 -0 instead of only 5 – 0. The only good thing about that game is that the PK performed magic the 5 times we let the Nucks have the extra man advantage. They pretty much treated us like something stinky on the bottom of their skate blades and we hit the ice with a splat.
Saturday night could have been super fugly but the Phoenix Tiggers… Coyotes were just not havin it. It warmed the cockles of my little black heart to see the boys bounce back after the spanking Vancouver laid on us. Dallas has snuck up on us and taken advantage of our tendency to play 58:50 minute games. They’ve done it twice and it frickin HURT! Not Saturday though. On Saturday, we set the pace, controlled the tempo, slapped the Stars around like an off the chain pinata party.
Sadly, Kari, Trevor and our old friend Fiddy would all leave the game with various injuries. I hate to see people get hurt but the game went on and the Yotes bounced around the ice making the Stars play chase most of the night. 39 sogs (including outshooting the lean green machine 16- 7 in the first period).
Boeds bounced behind poor Raycroft for a 3rd effort goal. Whitney and Vrbie bounced the puck between them to confuse poor Andy into a mega challenge that the Wizard couldn’t resist taking a snap shot at. And what has to be the weirdest line of the night (Pyat/Langkow & Korpikoski) put the rubber in the twine in the third to finish the Tigger-esque comeback. 3 – 0 Go us!
Smitty’s 13th career shutout (2nd with us) more than made up for the debacle on Friday. Who really cares about the Canuck’s unless its a playoff game anyway? Pretty sure the City of Glendale was relieved that they won in a way… there were so many of their stinking fans there, a loss might have triggered one of their world famous riots and destroyed Glendale. *why yes that is a sarcastically snide remark and yes, they deserve it after the way their fans behaved in section 203*
So with the questions answered as to our ability to play hockey the hard way for 60 minutes, our ability to spot advantages and press them when they present themselves and our ability to bounce back when we have to, all that is left is to finish the season out in grand style and show up to see if hockey the hard way can get us out of the 1st round.
Once again the Coyotes sum is greater than all their parts.
P.S. pray Tippett never figures out that putting Raffe Torres in during the last 10 minutes of the game destroys their lay-back-on-the-lead-and -play-defense-system (thank god Raffe has a complete inability to lay back, he really is an attack til the final whistle kinda guy) sometimes he is the difference that stops us from playing 58:50 minute games. Lovin it!