SB Nation - Sami Lepisto

Phoenix Coyotes vs. Columbus Blue Jackets - Game #37 Preview

OdinMercer — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:00:23 -0000

by Jay LaPrete - AP

6 days ago: Phoenix Coyotes' Robert Lang, left, of the Czech Republic, celebrates his game-winning goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets' with teammates Shane Doan, center, and Martin Hanzal, also of the Czech Republic, after the shooout of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009, in Columbus, Ohio. The Coyotes defeated the Blue Jackets 2-1. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

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A little bit of a busy day here in Coyote land. We signed on Anders Erikkson. Yeah. Take that every other team! Wait, who's Anders Eriksson? All I know is he's played for half a dozen NHL teams and almost as many different leagues. Supposedly Dave King had him on a team is Russia and we've seen him a bit down in San Antonio. Beats me. I don't get the signing but I'll trust GM Don Maloney for now, hey, it's worked so far.

On to the quick 5 for tonight:

Five for Winning

Knock It Off With the Friggin' Penalties!
I mean really. You're just killing yourselves guys. 9 penalties last game. Killed your momentum at the beginning of the last Jackets' game the same way. It's hard to get the offense going or play consistant defense when you're spending half the game in the box. I'm sure the staff let them know how costly these are if they didn't already figure it out for themselves.

Doan Took it Up a Notch
While he had been finding it hard to find of the back of the net, he did against the Ducks on Saturday. He was one of the few bright spots for the team as he was everywhere trying to make things happen. Hopefully now that we've moved beyond his 1000th game he get really start finding his groove for the year. With a couple of exceptions his seasons do have him getting hot in the second half of seasons and well, at game 37 this is about the time.

The Bryz Softies are Back...
While overall Ilya Bryzgalov has played outstanding in goal for the Coyotes, one thing is concerning. The return of the softie. While it isn't nearly as bad as it was last season, the return of the goals in concerning. Bryz had simply shut the door so hard early going that we didn't see these things. But in Detroit there were the two goals from near the blue line. And then in Anaheim there were a couple that he should have had but just couldn't get to. While i'm not getting the alarm bells out yet Bryzzie need to keep his head right and not let those goals get to him.

What Was Wrong With the Kids?
I really don't get this Eriksson signing. I mean I know Sami Lepisto and David Schlemko aren't the ideal guys we'd have in there, but they've been pretty solid filling in for the injured Kurt Sauer. Why bring in this guy? I know I just said I would trust GMDM, but Really? Even the fans from other teams he's been on are shocked. Basically saying he's just this side of useless. Though he can wrack up some assists, he doesn't really add much else. We'll see what he is tonight though. Hopefully it's not a wreck.

Finally We're Back Home.
Sure it was just a short roadtrip and we didn't do terribly, but our home record certainly has improved over what it was in the past. We're 12-5-0 so far this year in an arena that's been often criticized for having terrible ice. Maybe we've finally turned that into an advantage. Either way if we're going to make it into the postseason we';ll have to keep it up as we're about a .500 team once we go on the road (9-8-2).

Key Players

Shane Doan

#19 / Right Wing / Phoenix Coyotes

Height: 6-1

Weight: 224

Born: Oct 10, 1976

Why not? The Captain is starting to get on a roll. Shootout goal, goal in Anaheim. Let's see if he can keep it going tonight against the Blue Jackets.

Rick Nash

#61 / Left Wing / Columbus Blue Jackets

Height: 6-4

Weight: 218

Born: Jun 16, 1984

Who else am I going to pick? He's still Rick Nash. He still scores goals and he likes to get them against us. NOT TONIGHT!

The Owie List

Phoenix Coyotes Injuries

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player Injury Type Injury Date

Kurt Sauer head 10/07/2009

Columbus Blue Jackets Injuries

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player Injury Type Injury Date

Rostislav Klesla groin 12/01/2009

Derek Dorsett hand 12/13/2009

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Kurt Sauer	head	10/07/2009

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Rostislav Klesla	groin	12/01/2009
Derek Dorsett	hand	12/13/2009

Game 35 Preview: Desert Dogs invade Columbus

Mike MacLean — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:05:36 -0000

More photos » by Ann Heisenfelt - AP

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I've got to admit, watching the Jackets tumble down the standings is no fun at all. Not to say that I am a fair-weather fan- because I will be loyal to this team no matter what- but I'd be lying if I said it's difficult to find the energy to be passionate about the team right now.

The pieces are in place to win. The system is in place to win. The schedule has favored the Jackets so far this season, at least on paper, but they can't beat the teams they are supposed to. If they could only give a total effort, they might still be at the top of the standings where they were in October.

Tonight's game sees some interesting line combinations- the Dispatch is reporting that the top line will consist of Umby, Chimmer and Nasher, with Chimmer playing center. The second line has the "Killer Vees" reunited, a combination of Jake and Vermy, who started the season out great together. The third line, the " Tre-Kroner" line has the three Swedish forwards playing together, while the fourth line see Brass buried between Murr-Dogg and Boller. Interesting to say the least. It's obvious that the top line consists of the three forwards who are playing the best right now. Mase gets the start.

EDIT: Looks like Hitch is going with Garon tonight, interesting move.

Phoenix has been a tough play at home, but they played last night, shit-kicking the Leafs in Toronto. This could go either way, either the 'Yotes build off their momentum or they will show up fatigued. My guess is that with their sound defensive system they will still be fresh, and the Jackets need to be ready for that. To ensure a victory, the Jackets need to set the tone early, not fall into the trap that Phoenix will set. The first goal or two will be crucial tonight.

Fearless Prediction :I'm not going to predict a damn thing tonight. I am going to watch the game, and hope for a win.

Game Time: 7:00pm ET

Opponent's Blog: Five For Howling

Game Page: Coyotes vs Blue Jackets Coverage

TSN Preview: Coyotes vs Blue Jackets Preview

TV: FSN Ohio

Radio: WBNS-AM (1460); WWCD-FM (101.1)

More after the jump...

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Anybody remember the last time the Blue Jackets established a forecheck? The Jackets won 2-0 in Phoenix on Oct. 10, but the Coyotes got even Oct. 28, a 4-1 victory in Nationwide. Phoenix has won the past four games in Nationwide, outscoring the Blue Jackets 16-7. Phoenix won 6-3 last night at Toronto.

Jackets Links:

Columbus Blue Jackets / Columbus Blue Jackets Schedule

Columbus Blue Jackets Roster / Columbus Blue Jackets Stats

Here are the lineups for tonight's tilt:

Columbus Blue Jackets

R.J. Umberger	Jason Chimera	Rick Nash
Raffi Torres	Antoine Vermette	Jakub Voracek
Kristian Huselius	Samuel Pahlsson	Fredrik Modin
Andrew Murray	Derick Brassard	Jared Boll

Fedor Tyutin	Anton Stralman
Mike Commodore	Jan Hejda
Kris Russell	Mathieu Roy

Mathieu Garon

Steve Mason

EXTRA: Michael Blunden, Marc Methot

INJURED: Rostislav Klesla, Derek Dorsett

Phoenix Coyotes

Shane Doan	Matthew Lombardi	Scottie Upshall
Petr Prucha	Martin Hanzal	Radim Vrbata
Taylor Pyatt	Robert Lang	Peter Mueller
Vernon Fiddler	Daniel Winnik	Lauri Korpikoski

Zbynek Michalek	James Vandermeer
Keith Yandle	Ed Jovanovski
Adrian Aucoin	Sami Lepisto

Jason LaBarbera

Ilya Bryzgalov

Coyotes vs. Habs - Game #18 Preview - Les Coyotes gagneront!

OdinMercer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:04:09 -0000

More photos » by Jason Redmond - AP

Phoenix Coyotes center Martin Hanzal missed it by that much! Giving the Ducks a narrow 4-3 win on Saturday, November 7, 2009

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Can you believe it's already the 18th game of the season? I can't. I also can't believe that the Phoenix Coyotes have gotten off to a 10-7 record like we have. That's more than I could have expected coming into the season, though I hoped we'd do well, I certainly didn't expect it. The downside is that we've found ourselves in a funk and battling injuries all at the same time. Having 3 of your top 6 Defenders out of the lineup is no bueno. Hopefully we can build off of the win against the Blackhawks last week and how we came that close to completeing the comeback against the Ducks on Saturday.

Tonight we host the Montreal Canadiens who have not gotten off to the best start at 8-10-0. The Habs, like the Coyotes have lost 3 of their last 4 games so both will be looking to get out of a funk. No word on who will be in net for the Canadiens yet as both Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak have been getting time between the pipes.

Five for Winning:

Find a way to survive on D: We're out Zbynek Michalek, Kurt Sauer and now Ed Jovanovski is day-to-day. That's not good. In their places we have young guys Sami Lepisto, David Schlemko and Shaun Heshka filling in for them. That's a lot of minutes for some pretty young guys to eat up against a talented, but small, Habs lineup. They need to get used to playing big minutes and show that they can do so responsibly for the sake of our goaltender.

Repeat the Good, Learn From the Bad: THe Ducks game was not very pretty in a lot of ways. We gave up 4 unanswered goals and just looked flat for 2+ periods. We did however flip the switch towrad the end scoreing 3 quick goals to make things interesting. If Martin Hanzal buries that puck past Hiller into a wide open net, things would have been much different. Let's remember what got us those 3 goals, and correct the mistakes that lead to the ones against. (Lazy play)

Time to Be An Offensive Power: Well, our D will hopefully hold up, but without Z and Jovo it's just not as good as it was. Our goalscorers need to dig deap and gen a couple extra to take the pressure off the backend. While There may not be a lot of gold to mine there, there certainly has to be more than we've gotten so far.

End The Slump Now: We've been good about keeping losing streaks short. We need to make sure the winning ones are longer for the most part. So far we haven't had a longer losing streak than 2 games, but we don't need to hance anything. Let's get back on the + side again or we'll find ourselves slipping in the standings of a very competitive Pacific Division.

Four Days Off: We've had a lot of time to practice and get the new guys playing the system that we're used to. They better come out ready to play and not take that 1st period warm up time. Bryz needs to have his head on right and not let the early softie in either. We'll have to be on top of our game until we get our top guys back.

GO YOTES!

Wednesday Caps Clips: Islanders @ Caps Game Day

J.P. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:48:58 -0000

via daylife.com

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Your savory breakfast links:

Previews of tonight's Caps/Isles game (Really? These guys again?) from Vogs, NHL.com, Peerless and Rock The Red.net, and be sure to check out our SB Nation partner Lighthouse Hockey for coverage from the other side of tonight's match up.
Infirmary report: Jeff Schultz is out, Mike Green is in, Alexander Semin has a brace on his wrist, Boyd Gordon is getting closer, and what's-his-name is "day-to-day" (unless he's joking again). [Capitals Insider]
Is today Michael Nylander Day, or just another tease?
Mathieu Perreault's NHL career is off to a nice start. [Washington Post]
The Morrison/Mike Knuble effect. [Washington Times]
Huge thanks to @chaddukes and @LaVarArrington (a.k.a. "The LaVar Arrington Show with Chad Dukes") for the shout out yesterday (discussing this post that we ran the other day regarding the risk of Alex Ovechkin's contract) and for providing islands of Caps coverage amid a sea of Redskins bloviating. Check it out, including a must-listen interview with Chris Clark in Segment 2. [Segment 1, Segment 2, Segment 3, Segment 4 (audio)]
Brendan Morrison compares AO to Pavel Bure. [Vancouver Sun]
Ovechkin is only the sixth-most valuable player (second among skaters) in the League so far this season... [Puck Prospectus]
... but he certainly is clutch (as are a trio of other Caps)... [The Hockey News]
... and is a dominant force in the offensive zone. [Behind The Net]
Of course, he's still an easy target for ~~xenophobes~~ haters. [Sportsnet]
More power rankings, with the Caps up a spot to third here at SBN and up four spots to second at CBSSports.com.
It's important to know your ABC's... or at least your A, U, W and X. [The Whig Standard]
Steve Kolbe "Takes 5" with Tyler Sloan. [Capitals (audio)]
Episode 2 of "Caps on the Fly" featuring Green and Bob Woods, for your viewing pleasure. [Caps365 (video)]
Nicklas Backstrom is a fantastic value... at the moment. [Puck Prospectus]
Speaking of Backstrom, even if you're not quite fluent in Swedish, there's some pretty cool stuff in this video (from about the 5:20 mark on). [Hockeykväll (video)]
Remember when AO wasn't suspended for his alleged slew foot in Atlanta? Well, Colin Campbell was just following the League's well-established guidelines for discipline. [Down Goes Brown]
Keith Aucoin had a nice homecoming last weekend (though he would rather have been traveling from Miami to D.C., we're sure). [New England Hockey Journal]
Courage! It couldn't come at a better time. [Hockey Mom]
The Florida man who claimed to have supplied the Caps with 'roids has pled guilty to Federal steroids charges. [Tampa Bay Online]
Cody Eakin on dangerous hits. [Edmonton Sun]
More than you could ever need to read about Sami Lepisto. [Hockey's Future]
On this day back in 1981, the Caps named Bryan Murray head coach. Murray still sits atop the franchise coaching leaderboards for wins, losses, games coached and ~~lispy post-game pressers~~ playoff disappointments.
Happy 55th birthday to Michel Bergeron and happy 37th to personal fave Steve Konowalchuk.
Finally, a very heart-felt thanks on this Veteran's Day to every man and woman who has put themselves in harm's way so that we can live the lives we live (and know that you're in our thoughts on the other 364 days of the year, too).

Friday Caps Clips: Make it Six; Isles @ Caps Game Day

J.P. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:33:12 -0000

via Y!

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Your savory breakfast links:

Recaps and other assorted musings on last night's win from Corey (blog, article), Tarik (blog, article), Vogs, Joe B., Peerless, Ed Frankovic and Cap Centre (and here).
Previews of tonight's rematch of Saturday night's comeback win from NHL.com, Peerless and Cap Centre, and be sure to check out our SB Nation partner Lighthouse Hockey for coverage from the other side of tonight's match up.
Yet another "Alex Ovechkin saves hockey Washington" story (as if they get old). [CP]
Nicklas Backstrom: assist assassin. [The Hockey News]
Jeff Schultz isn't not impressed with Jeff Schultz. [AJC]
A hockey game pitting Washington against Hershey? Never say never... say 66 years ago. [OFB]
A post on why you should love Keith Aucoin... obviously written before last night's game. [Homer McFanboy]
Abe Pollin went with "Washington Capitals" after holding a "name-the-team contest." Abe's fortunate he held the contest before that first season or AO would be an All-Star for the Washington Skating Turds. [mental_floss]
Apparently, Alex Ovechkin "has become notorious around the NHL" for slew-footing, and Zdeno Chara was "was happy to see the league finally buckle down on the back-to-back Hart Trophy winner." "Notorious?" I'm calling B.S. [NESN]
A one-stop shop for all of your Caps-related H1N1 joke needs. [Peerless]
"If you can skate and survive the occasional lockout, National Hockey League ref is hardly a bad job. Refs make between $110,000 and $255,000 while linesmen earn from $72,000 to $162,000." [CNN.com]
Of course, it's not all fun and games... just ask Pat Dapuzzo (heads up: very heavy post). [FanHouse]
Sami Lepisto is making the most of his chance to play in Phoenix. [Arizona Republic]
Per the Hockey Hall of Fame, on this date back in 1998, "Capitals' Rick Tabaracci recorded his 14th career shutout and Flames' Ken Wregget got the 9th shutout of his career as Washington tied 0-0, at Calgary."
Finally, big day for former Caps birthdays, including Sean Collins' 26th, Ivan Ciernik's 32nd, Pat Elynuik's 42nd and Ron Lalonde's 57th.

Who's that? Little knowns and unknowns making an early impact

James Mirtle — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:54:36 -0000

More photos » by LM Otero - AP

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It's way too early in the season to draw any conclusions about the Coyotes or Avs or so and so's two-game scoring slump, but one thing I try to keep an eye on in the early going is low profile players earning noteworthy ice time around the league.

Here's a list of 25 players, 15 forwards and 10 defenders, picking up some surprising minutes so far (Rk is their ice time rank for their position):

Rk	Player	Team	GP	G	A	P	+/-	S	TOI/G
61	Matt Moulson	NYI	1	0	1	1	0	5	19:20
129	T.J. Galiardi	COL	2	0	1	1	1	2	16:52
135	Rickard Wallin	TOR	3	0	0	0	-2	2	16:40
154	Jamie Benn	DAL	2	0	1	1	0	3	16:11
165	J-F Jacques	EDM	2	0	0	0	-2	3	15:48
178	M. Santorelli	NSH	1	0	0	0	0	3	15:29
187	N. Bergfors	NJD	2	0	1	1	-1	3	15:04
201	Tom Wandell	DAL	2	0	0	0	-1	1	14:42
244	Ryan Stone	EDM	2	0	0	0	-1	0	13:20
251	V. Stalberg	TOR	3	0	1	1	-1	6	13:08
253	Benn Ferriero	SJS	3	1	0	1	-2	6	12:57
254	Mika Pyorala	PHI	3	0	0	0	2	3	12:50
256	James Wright	TBL	2	0	0	0	0	2	12:39
266	Tanner Glass	VAN	1	0	0	0	1	0	12:11
271	Ryan O'Reilly	COL	2	0	1	1	1	1	11:57

Rk	Player	Team	GP	G	A	P	+/-	S	TOI/G
49	Chris Butler	BUF	1	0	0	0	-1	3	22:57
117	D. Kulikov	FLA	2	0	0	0	-1	0	18:33
131	Matt Carkner	OTT	2	0	0	0	0	4	17:41
141	Sami Lepisto	PHX	1	0	0	0	0	1	16:54
144	D. Drewiske	LAK	2	1	1	2	2	2	16:44
146	J. Demers	SJS	3	0	2	2	1	3	16:38
154	Alec Martinez	LAK	1	0	0	0	-2	2	16:01
156	Y. Weber	MTL	2	0	0	0	-3	1	15:47
171	Mathieu Roy	CBJ	2	0	1	1	2	1	14:22
173	M. Del Zotto	NYR	3	2	1	3	1	4	13:30

Some of the players here are far more surprising than others (who knew Benn Ferriero would make the Sharks, for one) but I'd wager most are relative unknowns for your average hockey fan. Some of those above have even played some decent minutes in the NHL in the past (like Butler in Buffalo) although most are either unheralded rookies or veteran minor leaguers getting a long-awaited shot.

Wallin, Wandell and Pyorala are in a different category altogether as European imports, all of whom had to win roles in training camp and preseason.

Any of the "unknowns" impressed you to this point?

SBNation NHL Preview: 2009-2010 Phoenix Coyotes

OdinMercer — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:00:33 -0000

by Matt York - AP

April 11, 2010: Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan talks about how he helped lead the Phoenix Coyotes into the 6th Seed in the Western Conference... Hopefully.

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The struggles of this NHL franchise in the desert have been well documented all summer long. We're still waiting for a decision as to the long term future of the team, but they're here for this season and all the speculation in the world won't change a preview of the team will it? (No, it won't) We're just one short week away from the season opener so now it's down to the nuts and bolts of what the on ice product is going to look like.

The upside of this team is that with the exception of Olli Jokinen and some fourth line forwards and 5/6 pairing Dmen, this is the same team that went into the All-Star break in 5th place in the Western Conference. The team promptly fell apart after the break with all the rumors about the financial troubles and the general lack of experience. With some more mid-aged experience to bridge the gap between the veteran and the kids, there really is a lot of potential for a breakout year.

Amid all the uncertainty this summer, just on Thursday the Coyotes signed a new head coach in the form of Dave Tippett following Wayne Gretzky's resignation. Tippett brings with him a proven system that has proven results in Dallas. While he's a little late to the party in terms of training camp, there's a lot of talent for him to work with here in Phoenix. This biggest question mark with this team is how they'll react to all the media that will be focused on them, especially at the beginning of the season. If they're able to turn it into an us against the world type of situation then we could have a strong start. If, on the other hand, they react like they did down the stretch last season and turn all that inward and implode it'll be a disaster. There's not a whole lot of room for error this year as the team needs to show outside observers and potential fans in the valley that the team is the real deal.

Without a whole lot of budget room to work with this summer, GM Don Maloney put together a pretty decent lineup. He did especially well filling in the defensive holes that have plagued the team the last few years. The spots that had been held by any combination of Ken Klee, Dimitri Kalinin and David Hale have now been filled with Adrian Aucoin and Jim Vandermeer. Aucoin has some offensive ability but is a good puckmover, while Vandermeer is all about defense. Along with the existing defense of Zbynek Michalek, Kurt Sauer, Ed Jovanovski and Keith Yandle this year's blueline pairs look solid.

At Forward, some of the youth has been sent down to San Antonio already to get a little more experience. Viktor Tikhonov and Kyle Turris are the biggest names to be sent to the farm. Turris needs to just grow since he's a small little twig man and Tikhonov just needs more experience. He had a solid time on the PK with the big club last year, but he had a weak camp and needs more time to develop. I expect to see both at times this year though. In Camp Brett MacLean and Kevin Porter have both played well and will Challenge for a roster spot. MacLean tore up the OHL in the 06-07 and 07-08 seasons (going 47-53-100 and 61-58-119 respectively) before moving to the AHL last year. In 74 games on a pretty bad San Antonio team he was able to go 21-19-40. If he can bring some scoring touch to the team that would be great. Most of the roster though is already set. Shane Doan will once again captain the team and be his usual awesome self.Peter Mueller and Martin Hanzal are now entering their third seasons. Both will be looking for new contracts this summer and both need to pick up their games to get good ones. Mueller hit the Sophomore slump HARD and needs to find his scoring touch again. Hanzal was a solid Defensive forward, and had flashes of offense here and there last season. He needs to simply shoot the puck though, he has a cannon of a shot, but he tends to pass a little too much when he has chances. Other notables are Mikkel Boedker who had a pretty good rookie year, Radim Vrbata, who returns to the club and Scottie Upshall who needs to deliver on the potential everyone says he has.

Ilya Bryzgalov will continue to hold down the starting spot this season. Jason LaBarbera was brought in to back him up, but i'm not seeing anything in LaBarbera that makes me think he's going to give Bryz the competition everyone thinks he needs. Bryz has been on the decline, but with this year's defensive unit he needs to show he can get the job done.

Who's in: C Vernon Fiddler, LW Lauri Korpikoski, D Adrian Aucoin, D Jim Vandermeer, LW Taylor Pyatt, RW Radim Vrbata, D Sami Lepisto, G Jason LaBarbera, D Shaun Heshka,

Who's Out: Enver Lisin, Nigel Dawes, Brandon Prust, Brian McGrattan, Steven Reinprecht, Joakim Lindstrom, Demitri Kalinin, Ken Klee, David Hale, Todd Fedoruk

Who's Up?: (Players up from AHL) Brett MacLean, Kevin Porter and David Schlemko

Who's Down?: (Demotions) Kyle Turris and Viktor Tikhonov

Depth Chart:

C - Matthew Lombardi, Martin Hanzal, Vernon Fiddler, Kevin Porter, Daniel Winnik

LW - Mikkel Boedker, Lauri Korpokoski, Petr Prucha, Taylor Pyatt, Brett MacLean

RW - Shane Doan, Peter Mueller, Scottie Upshall, Radim Vrbata,

D - Zbynek Michalek, Kurt Sauer, Ed Jovanovski, Keith Yandle, Adrian Aucoin, Jim Vandermeer

G - Ilya Bryzgalov, Jason LaBarbera, Al Montoya

Season Prediction: The Coyotes make it into the playoffs. Why? Because they have to. It's the only end that makes sense for this crappy story so far. I'm not saying we win the division or anything crazy like that, but bringing in Tippett and an honest to god system instead of an ever changing one can only do good things for this team. Like I said earlier, this team is packed with potential. We saw small parts of that potential realized in the first part of last season. The key is to keep it going through April and hopefully into May. I think Tippett is able to get them to do just that. He brings the mustache back and leads the Coyotes to a 7th place finish in the West and at least make the playoffs interesting. Feel good story of the year and everything. David Shoalts and Canadian media outlets complain about how our playoff spot wasn't given to Edmonton automatically.

Poll

Where in the Western Conference standings do you think the Phoenix Coyotes will finish in the 2009-2010 season?

1st

5 votes

2nd

3 votes

3rd

2 votes

4th

2 votes

5th

8 votes

6th

12 votes

7th

14 votes

8th

15 votes

9th

6 votes

10th

3 votes

11th

0 votes

12th

7 votes

13th

4 votes

14th

7 votes

15th (Banned)

17 votes

105 votes | Poll has closed

Coyotes Downed by Ducks in Shootout, Yandle and Kolarik Look Good

OdinMercer — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:31:53 -0000

More photos » by Jae C. Hong - AP

3 months ago: Anaheim Ducks' Bobby Ryan, center, looks to shoot as he is defended by Phoenix Coyotes' Sean Zimmerman in the second period of a preseason NHL hockey game in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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It seems as though the younger guys the Coyotes sent on the road trip to LA and Anaheim are the ones that actually know that shots turn into goals if you get enough of them. The Coyotes Finished the game with 47 shots on goal through 3 periods plus the overtime. Most times last year getting over 20 in a game was an accomplishment for our team. Sure it's the preseason, but with Keith Yandle taking 7 SOG and Chad Kolarik adding another 8, that says good things about players getting open and being willing to take a chance. Sure, we need more of that volume to find the back of the net most nights, but taking the shots is a good start. Kolarik ended up with one of the Coyotes' two goals and Yandle assisted on the other. Other players that seemed to have good nights: Sami Lepisto at up nearly 25 minutes of Ice time and was a +1, Kevin Porter also got an assist and recorded 21 minutes of ice time.

Jason LaBarbera had a decent night, stopping 28 of 30 shots against him. He did not, however have a good time in the shootout. LaBarbera was badly out played on both shots he faced while the Coyotes were unable to convert. I can safely say that I'm uncomfortable with the thought of him in net for a shoot out for the rest of this year (until he proves me wrong.)

The Ducks two goals were both off the stick of Bobby Ryan. Dan Sexton assisted on both goals as well.In the shootout Ryan scored again along with Joffery Lupol to win the game.

Ulf Sammuelson made the trip to Anaheim from Phoenix to coach the game as Wayne Gretzky still isn't with the team as the bankruptcy mess gets straightened out.

Coyotes Open Training Camp Practices Start Today

OdinMercer — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:00:28 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

The Great One won't be the one leading camp this year.

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Officially camp actually started yesterday, but the first public practices start today at 9:00 am. Here's a look at those invited to camp this year. There are a few names in there that you might recognize from around the league that have not signed with the Coyotes. Ryan Hollweg formerly with Toronto, Aaron Downey from Detroit, Ross Lupaschuk from Anaheim and the KHL and Mitch Fritz from the Islanders. None of them have particularly impressive resumes, but I imagine they're trying out for the position of "Hey someone got hurt, call us up from San Antonio."

Wayne Gretzky, doesn't look to be coming to camp as of today, Ulf Samuellson will be leading in his place. With Wayne's contract situation in the air due to the bankruptcy mess, he simply decided he wasn't going to be there. But I guess Coyotes fans will be getting what a large portion of them had wanted for some time, Wayne out as head coach.

I'll update and repost the list as cuts are made.

Forwards		Defence		Goaltenders
Justin Bernhardt	Mikkel Boedker	Jonas Ahnelov	Nick Ross	Ilya Bryzgalov
Jeff Hoggan	Peter Mueller	Adrian Aucoin	Ed Jovanovski	Joel Gistedt
Kevin Porter	Taylor Pyatt	Shaun Heshka	Michael Stone	Josh Tordjman
Matt Watkins	Scottie Upshall	Chris Frank	Ross Lupaschuk	Jason LaBarbera
David Spina	Francis Lessard	Mathieu Brodeur	Zbynek Michalek	Al Montoya
Vernon Fiddler	Mitch Fritz	Sean Sullivan	Kurt Sauer
Martin Hanzal	Ryan Hollweg	Sean Zimmerman	Sami Lepisto
Lauri Korpikoski	Jordan Szwarz	Tim Billingsley	Keith Yandle
Daniel Winnik	Radim Vrbata	Justin Weller	Jim Vandermeer
Viktor Tikhonov	Andrew Orpik	David Schlemko	Jeff May
Colin Long	Aaron Downey
Shane Doan	Chad Kolarik
Matthew Lombardi	Brett MacLean
Stefan Meyer	Joel Perrault
Petr Prucha	Jared Staal
Kyle Turris

Coyotes Extend Qualifying Offers to a Dozen Players

OdinMercer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:07:31 -0000

More photos » by Paul Connors - AP

Phoenix Coyotes left winger Scottie Upshall, right, was given a qualifying offer on Tuesday.

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The Coyotes today extended qualifying offers to twelve Restricted Free Agents ahead of the July 1st start of free agency. Details of the offer sheets have not yet been released, but here are the players we made offers to:

Scottie Upshall: Yay! No way we let him go after how he performed for us after the trade from Philly.

Keith Yandle: No question he would be staying with how weak we are on D.

Enver Lisin: Kept the speedster around. We really need to work on his defensive skill set, but the kid can flat out fly.

Daniel Winnik: Solid 3rd line center but needs to pick up his game to what it was a couple seasons back if he wants to stay in Phoenix instead of riding the bus.

Nigel Dawes: From what I heard from the team they hadn't been all that impressed with him, but maybe this is just to keep an asset rather than getting noting for him.

Dave Spina: A locally grown kid who could finally be the first native Arizonan to play in the NHL. The fans here love him and he's a solid guy.

Josh Tordjman: He can compete with Al Montoya for either the Starting spot in San Antonio or possibly the backup spot if we can't find someone to backup Bryzgalov.

Alexander Nikulin: Protecting an asset as I think we've already heard rumors of him going to the KHL.

Stefan Meyer, Shaun Hushka, Sami Lepisto: The new guys we aquired in the Reinprecht deal and trading picks at the draft.

The Coyotes did not extend qualifying offers to the following restricted free agents:

Alex Bourret, Garth Murray and Joakim Lindstrom.