The Phoenix Coyotes are off to an amazing start, two wins in two nights.
The coyotes had their season opener this past Saturday, taking on the Columbus Bluejackets at home. The coyotes started off hot. They were skating fast and hitting hard. They had Columbus quite frustrated and it seemed that the bluejackets’ penalty box had a revolving door installed.
The coyotes seemed to fall apart a bit in the second. They seemed disjointed and not together. I am not sure what happened, maybe a failure to communicate? They were able to hold Columbus off and they came back in the third to seal the deal.
Jokinen finally started to become the player I had been expecting. He had a goal and an assist. Jovo did not give me any cause for alarm. Hale had a solid game. Yandle had one major fumble, which seemed to lead to Columbus’ goal (or maybe I just blamed him since he was on the ice). He then later got a goal and also a fight, so he kind of redeemed himself.
Fedoruk is looking slow on a line with Boedker and Rhino, but damn the boy likes to hit! He was hitting anything with a Bluejackets jersey on.
The following day, I got up bright and early and hit the road to go to the Ducks home opener against the Coyotes. I am so glad I went to that game. It was awesome.
The coyotes got off to an early lead. The ducks were hitting hard but the coyotes didn’t let that stop them. Hale was taking the grunt of the punishment, but he just kept on going. He even got in a fight (he didn’t do very well, but the point is he tried). That boy has just earned a spot with al us fans. We like a guy who is not afraid to stick up for his teammates, and Hale proved that this weekend.
Jovo had one major turnover, but it didn’t lead to anything, so I guess I will forgive him. Doan got a pair of goals; maybe he’s not off to his normal slow start. Turris had a goal. The ducks fans around me were pissed. The guy in front kept yelling that it was kicked in. I was like, dude, no. First off, there was no “distinct kicking motion” (there was no kicking motion AT ALL) and second off, a duck pushed Turris into the net and he just took the puck with him. Bryz let in two goals. They looked to be the exact same shot and he should have been able to stop them. They were the types of goals I knew were going in as soon as they left the ducks stick. Bryz, please close or cover your 5 hole. K? Kthanks.
There was a big fight at the end (tension was building all night) and they showed Gretz on the jumbotron and he was screaming “The game is fucking over!”. There was .3 of a second left and the refs made them do another face-off. Gretz sent out all forwards since there was no way they could win the face off and get to the other end of the ice in .3 of a second.
Overall, it was a great game. We went down to watch warm-ups. Doan gave us a huge grin and Tiki tried to toss us a puck but it was intercepted by a ducks fan. The guys that sat down next to us tried to tell us they were loud. We laughed at them. They were no where near as loud as we were. As part of the overall Ducks fandom, yes. As individuals? No. A couple of times I wanted to tell the guy sitting next to me to watch the game, not me. I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye staring at me.
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