Last night the Coyotes were in Anaheim and it was a radio only broadcast. I listened to it but I am a visual person and like to see hockey but I made some notes, read some articles and looked at pictures and will still bring you my lunch time thoughts on the game.
The scratches for the Coyotes were Turris and Yandle. I had a feeling it would be those two, as for Yandle both Hale and Klee have played exceptional games recently and Turris looked off in the last home game. We needed a little bit of toughness against the Ducks, so I had a feeling Turris would sit and Carcillo would play. Bryz was also back in net after sitting the last couple games due to a sore back.
Carcillo was on a line with Fridge and Tiki. From the broadcast, this was probably our best line out there. Carcillo had 4 hits, 4 SOG and drew two penalties (one being a 4 minute double minor). Unfortunately, he did not return after the high stick he received, so all of this was in the first two periods. There was nothing in the articles I read that indicated if the injury was something serious or not. Apparently after receiving the high stick he went into the boards pretty hard and had difficulty getting up and skating back to the bench.
Lisin really came alive in the third and seemed to be the only one shooting at the net and really trying to do something out there. Also notable was Klee and Hale. Where was the rest of our defense last night?
Twice last night the Coyotes took a “too many men on the ice” penalty and the Ducks were able to score. To me this is a breakdown in communication between the players and the Coach. Gretzky is the one who ultimately should have made sure that this call was not made. I can see it happening once (it happens to all teams at some point) but twice? This should not have happened twice. If it wasn’t for these calls, the Ducks may not have scored and the game may have turned out differently. I am not saying we would have one, but it might have been a different game.
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Next up we have Chicago on Tuesday. This game will not turn out well if we play like we did last night. Chicago is quickly becoming a thorn in our sides, much like Minnesota was. I don’t expect to win every single night but I do expect my team to at least put 100% effort into each game. It was obvious they did not do that last night. They will need to in order to beat Chicago.
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