Crappy Preview: Round 1 – Detroit

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It’s late so I am going to keep this very short. I thought I would get more time to write something up but with school and work I have been crazy busy. I left the house this morning at 6:30 and returned at 9:30 this evening! Eeks! So here it is a really quick snapshot of the series:

Our strengths:

  • Bryz.
  • Everyone is already looking past us. Remember all of those who thought we would finish dead last? Yah, they are now saying we will get out butts kicked. Careful… didn’t we learn our lesson before?
  • Penalty Kill as long as Fiddy or Z are not the ones in the box.
Weaknesses:
  • Power Play. Hopefully Tipps has something up his sleeve
  • We aren’t necessarily a high scoring team. But as Tippett says, you just need one more then the other team.
Biggest Liability on the ice:
  • Jovo
  • Possibly Schneider. Schneider may be used sparingly. He didn’t play much the last few weeks of the season
Greatest Assest:
  • Bryz (I know… can you believe I am saying that?)
  • Stemps
Player that needs to break out/is on the verge of breaking out:
  • Shane Doan. The guy usually has a slow start to the season and then ramps it up sometime after Christmas. He had his typical slow start but the goals never came in the new year. At the last home game he had his first goal since sometime in January (I believe, correct me if I’m wrong – too tired to fact check). The man is about due to EXPLODE offensively.
Short couple thoughts on Detroit:
  • We need to watch out for Holmstrom and Datsyuk. When we aren’t on them, they do damage.
  • Goaltending. I haven’t been following other teams as much this season (just haven’t had the time) but this area is a question mark for me. Osgood is not as good as Bryz but he always plays balls to the walls during the playoffs and he has great D in front of him. Howard is a rookie. He seems to have been playing incredible well lately. Can he keep it up? Will he get tired? A lot of unanswered questions. This is an area to keep an eye on. It may become a weakness.
  • Injuries. Detroit had a lot of them this year. I believe most everyone is healthy again. When everyone is healthy, Detroit becomes that much better of a team.
Overall, this will be a good series. Both teams will really challenge each other. As Bryz said, you have to beat the best to be the best. And the Coyotes can beat the Wings. We are calling it, Coyotes in 5. And by we, I don’t mean just me but a lot of Coyotes fans. Unlike most people, we have faith in our team. We all knew the Coyotes would make the playoffs this year because we are here day in and day out. We aren’t just believing what the media is feeding us.
Anyway, for an in-depth analysis from a Red Wings fan, check out Babcock’s Death Stare.
For a more in-depth Coyotes run down, Five for Howling has put up many entries lately (including a few about the “Throw the Snake” movement..)
As for me, I am heading to bed. I need some sleep before the big day. I will be wearing white to work tomorrow to show support for my team. You should too. Then it is home to watch the game where I will throw on my white jersey and drink from my “whiteout” cup. 🙂

 

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