IT CAME FROM OUT OF THE ICE : COYOTES (3) VS CANADIENS (2) 2/10/20
CAPSULE : Seeing a lot of improvement overall for this team. A win tonight and no one is crying, fans are all hugging, so and so is amazing etc.... a loss and everyone is headed for the hills with their jersey's on fire singing "Don't Bring Me Down" by ELO. Upon witnessing a bit of a down turn fans are actually leaning on the "training" as part of the problem? Montreal comes into this game at 27-23-7 desperate for some points currently 6 pts out of a Wildcard spot in the East. The Coyotes come in with 2 loses in a row and just 2-5-3 in their last 10 games. Even facing all that, they are just 1 point out of a Wildcard spot with a season record of 27-23-7 (strangely identical to Montreal’s).
STEPAN (21) – Put a nice shot passed Price in the 1st period to cut the Canadiens lead in half 1-2. This was one that Price should have had, but you gotta like Stephan taking those shots in close and firing hard. He also had a really good chance on net early in the 2nd period.
KELLER (9) – Had a pretty good chance on a back hander in the 2nd, but couldn’t put it in. He’s been getting a lot of flack lately from fans. The only thing that solves that is production. Keller did have a weird delay of game penalty in the 2nd period that was just one of those weird bounces that ends up going over the glass.
KESSEL (81) – Had the assist on the Stepan goal, but that whole play was set up by Crouse who got zero credit for keeping the play alive. There was a moment in the 3rd period when Matt McConnel l says that Kessel came to “look” when the Coyotes had the puck in the Montreal zone for about 2 minutes. He was kind of right. I am not even sure if Kessel touched the puck on that sequence, so we will go ahead and accept that description.
OEL (23) – Definitely should have gotten called for a 4 minute major on his high-sticking penalty in the 1st period. Having said that, you could also tell it was not on purpose. At one point the Canadiens had a 5 on 3 during this double minor and the Coyotes were able to kill it off. As per usual, I would like to see him taking more shots on net. After 2 periods he hasn’t taken one. Having said that, it is great to see him back after the injury.
GARLAND (83) – Got murdered on the PP in the 2nd period drawing another penalty. He did come back to life though. Humorously the dj in Montreal started playing “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” on the play. Garland was not playing games in the 2nd period. After 2, both him and Hall lead the team in shots on net with 5 each.
HALL (91) – Was really battling hard in the 2nd period, all period long then finally was able to blast a one-timer by Price to tie the game up at 2-2. This goal was well deserved because Hall was all over the ice tonight.
2 – The number of shots the Coyotes allowed the Canadiens to get on net in the 2nd period.
9,789,125 – The number of Bloomberg ads I saw during this game. Pretty sure this dude is trying to get a spot on The Masked Singer or something. Who knows. Who are you….. who whoo, who whoo…. ?
DVORAK (18) – Had a great assist to Hall in the 2nd period.
CHYCHRUN (6) – In 2016 he scored his first NHL goal against Montreal. He scored another one tonight in the 3rd period to give the Coyotes a 3-2 win. This shot was a freakin rocket. In fact that puck just notified Cape Canaveral of its position in orbit.
GOLIGOSKI (33) – Tries a lot of passes right in front of his own net. He has been decent as of late, but come on man.
SODERBERG (34) – In the 3rd period had a bad drop pass to no one and it was intercepted by the Canadiens who came down and almost scored on Raanta. One complaint I have about Keller is that he does these weird ill-advised drop passes all the time as well. Mostly this works out, but when it goes bad, it seems to go really bad.
IT’S OVER – “Over, we’re just getting started.” – Nacho Fries
HINOSTROZA (13) – Ended up with 3 shots on goal. Liked his effort, but unfortunately not much to show for it tonight.
CROUSE (67) – Ended the game with 3 hits. I am going to go ahead and blame him for the Coyotes scoring their first goal.
RICHARDSON (15) – Dealt out 3 hits.
SCHMALTZ (8) – Ended the game with 2 shots. Hoping for a better night for him tomorrow.
FISCHER (36) – Quite night for him outside of taking out one guy who was trying to beat the crap out of OEL in the 2nd period.
LYUBUSHKIN (46) – Great night defensively.
OESTERLE (82) – Great night defensively. That 2nd period was amazing.
HJALMARSSON (4) – Ended the game with 2 hits and 2 blocks.
RAANTA (32) – Not sure if the goalie situation for the Coyotes could get any weirder. Raanta is in net tonight after tweaking something on Saturday. Apparently Kuemper was supposed to start, but also tweaked something. So Adin Hill started that game and the Coyotes ended up losing 4-2 to Boston.
EXTERNAL ICE - All the major games are late so I am going to skip this for tonight. We are just rooting for Vancouver and Calgary to lose.
WRAP UP – For the time being, the Coyotes have moved back into a Wild Card spot. They are also just 2 pts out of 1st place in the Pacific right this minute. They do have less games left however than every team but Vegas that they are in the race against.
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