SB Nation - Kevin Porter

Coyotes vs. Lightning - Game Preview #20

OdinMercer — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:00:14 -0000

Woo! A one game winning streak for the Phoenix Coyotes! Way to go! Kidding kidding, but it's time to get on a roll again and Rick Tochett and the Tampa Bay Lightning are just the team to make that happen tonight. The Bolts roll in to Jobbing.com Arena sporting a (7-4-6) record. What is it with teams and the OTL lately anyways? Whatever. I know this, I have a friend on the internet that is a cousin of rookie Lightning forward James Wright. So yeah. Take that!

Five for Winning:

Don't Be Slumpbusters: Vincent Lecavillier and Martin St. Louis only have 5 combined goals. Don't be the ones to get them out of the streak by giving up a bunch of cheap ones.

Sharing the Credit: Ilya Bryzgalov did great in goal on Saturday, by he shared the credit with the rest of the team. "The guys blocked everything, tremendous PK. They played so bravely, blocking everything, sliding in to the slot hard, just everywhere, competed hard." But we don't get that win without some great saves buy the Hot Dog King of Glendale. He's been the backbone of this team and we need him to keep coming up big.

Goals from unexpected places: The last few games we've gotten goals from Paul Bissonnette, David Schlemko and Keith Yandle. No offense to those guys, but we weren't looking for much offensive production outside of maybe some assists from them so that's been great. We'll need continued production form "unlikely" sources to do well this year, so it's nice to see some guys with early season goals.

...However we aren't getting goals from the usual suspects: Radim Vrbata got one against Dallas, Robert Lang got a couple and Scottie Upshall did a few games ago, but our "Big Names" have been pretty quiet as of late. Shane Doan has gotten some assists, but hasn't found the back of the net consistantly, Peter Mueller hasn't done much since getting his first of the year and others like Petr Prucha, Matthew Lombardi and Martin Hanzal have played well, but just haven't gotten the puck to go in. We need to start seeing some more goals for soon.

Just get rolling again: We've been a streaky team all year. We NEED winning streaks, and not to be giving up a game everytime we win one. The Lightning have some talent, but are certainly beatable. They have 2 points we need, so let's go get 'em!

Note: Kevin Porter has been recalled from San Antonio. No word on if he'll be in the lineup for tonight's gome or if he'll be a scratch.

GO YOTES!

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.

View full size photo »

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

Preview: Leafs at Coyotes

Chemmy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:38:51 -0000

Pre-Game: 8:30 p.m, Leafs TV
Broadcast: 9 p.m., Sportsnet, Leafs TV Interactive, AM640
Post-Game: 11:30 p.m., Leafs TV
Post Video: mapleleafs.com

We've got an interesting preview today, I had OdinMercer from SBN's Five for Howling write a little bit about the Coyotes' rookies and young guns for all of your reading pleasure. Check it out after the jump.

REMEMBER THAT "WNH" PICKS DON'T COUNT FOR THIS MONTH'S SPG CONTEST.

From Odin:

Better Know a Hockey Team: Phoenix Coyotes (The Fightin' ‘Yotes!)

So far the Coyotes are exactly average. At 11-11-2 we keep getting to .500 but can't quite get over it. It would be nice to do since every team that's above .500 in the west is in the top 8 in the conference. It's still early in the season, but it's still better to be in playoff position early, rather than out of playoff position.

Most NHL fans are well aware of some of the big names on team in the desert... Shane Doan has led Team Canada in the World Championships. There was the blockbuster Olli Jokinen trade over the summer. Signing Ed Jovanovski to a ridiculous contract and Brian Burke giving us a starting goalie for free while the Leafs had to trade picks to get Toskala. (Thanks for the reminder Chemmy) But one of the first things you'll notice when glancing at the Coyotes roster is just how freakin' young this team is. We're icing 8 guys that are 22 years old or younger. 8! Depending on whom we decide to scratch on any given night, that makes us either the youngest team, or the 2^nd youngest in the NHL. While that might be a bad thing for many teams, the Coyotes have made it work. Here's a rundown of the kids you'll want to know...

Mikkel Boedker - Boedker gets top billing only because he's my favorite of or rookie class. He is amazingly strong on the puck for only being 18 years old. He's leading the league in ice time per game among all rookie forwards and he's there for a reason. When he's on the ice he absolutely wants the puck and he doesn't care who has it. He takes the puck away from the opposition and makes it look easy. He also puts pressure on any defense trying to breakout of their own zone and can get back to the other zone quickly. "Bods" also has great offensive skills and is actually a more likely pick than Turris for ROY out of Phoenix. He literally skates circles around most teams. Rather than cycle the puck I have seen him skate around the entire offensive zone 3 times with the puck waiting to find a shot or someone open. He has a great shot and puck handling skills. I'll let video do the talking here...

Kyle Turris - Probably the most well known of Phoenix's recent draft picks, he's played an okay game, but is still fairly undersized for the NHL. The Coyotes site lists him at 180 pounds, but I'd say that's with skates and pads. He literally has to leave his feet in order to check someone. However, being undersized hasn't deterred him much if at all as he positions himself in front well and has great speed.

Enver Lisin - Another speedster, Lisin was originally drafted in 2004. He played in Russia for a bit, and in 2006 was given a shot to make the Coyotes roster. He played in a few games, but when he was sent down to San Antonio, instead went back to Russia and was suspended for the season for doing so. However he stuck with the team the next year and accepted his assignment to the Rampage this time. He's been back and forth a bit this year, but after this most recent call up it looks like he's here to stay. He scored 2 goals to get the win over LA on Tuesday and if he's ever on a line with Turris and Boedker just act like you're on the PK, because they will all absolutely fly past your team.

Kevin Porter - Rookie out of Michigan who hasn't seemed to miss his other wing Chad Kolarik (playing in San Antonio) all that much. He's excellent at camping in front of the opposing goal and getting the "dirty" goals rather than the pretty ones. He also rarely makes rookie mistakes like most other young players do.

Viktor Tikhonov - A little bit of a surprise to make camp, he was the 28th overall pick in this past year's draft. Plenty of teams shied away from him simply because he was playing in Russia and at the time transfer agreements were a mess. However he never showed any intention of playing in the KHL and the Coyotes got him for a steal where they did. He hasn't put up a lot of offense yet, but it's only a matter of time for him.

Peter Mueller - Having a little bit of a sophomore slump, but he's starting to come around. He has however gotten into the bad habit of coasting to the puck and then reaching for it rather than keeping his feet moving. It’s really noticeable in games when an opposing player gets to a puck when Muels should have been there first.

Martin Hanzal - A really big kid who has been great playing a checking type role on the team. He fights for the puck, throws his body around and is generally a nuisance to the other team. He had back surgery in the off-season that many people thought would slow him, but it hasn't at all.

Keith Yandle - More of an "offensive" defenseman, Yandle leads all Dmen in points. All of last season and for the beginning of this one he was a liability on the D side though, which you obviously don't want from your Dman. Somebody got him some help for that though as he's shored up that part of his game, coming up with timely clears and keeping the puck on his stick during breakouts which used to have fans holding their collective breaths.

It looks like he forgot Blake Wheeler...

Let's hope the Leafs sick rookies (Grabs, Lemon, Schenner) spoil Phoenix's parade. Saturday Toronto's back at home at a regular time, so let's enjoy the last late night game for a while!

Phoenix Coyotes @ Minnesota Wild: The Morning After

nathaneide — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:30:28 -0000

Minnesota Wild 4 - 0 Phoenix Coyotes

The Minnesota Wild, led by Marek Zidlicky's two goals and one assist, combined with Niklas Backstrom's 24 saves, shutout the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0 in front of 18.568 at the Xcel Energy Center Thursday night. After a slow first period with little action, Zidlicky started the scoring in the second with a pretty feed from Marc-Andre Bergeron in the high slot. The two teams battled back and forth until 4:17 remaining when Andrew Brunette scored on a beautiful no-look feed across the low slot from Zidlicky. In the third period, the Wild scored their third power play goal, 3:10 into the frame. Erik Belanger notched one on an absolutely gorgeous tic-tac-toe passing game with the man advantage. As time wound down, there was 1:07 left as the Wild ended the scoring with yet another power play marker. It was Zidlicky's second of the night on a bomb from the point.

The power play really saved the Wild tonight, as without the man advantage, I wasn't impressed with the offensive output. Lemaire's line juggling didn't impress. The thought was to add more punch to the offense. Well, there weren't a large number of even-strength chances tonight. The best chances came either on the power play or the two shorthanded opportunities on which they should have cashed-in.

Cal Clutterbuck continues to wreck havoc on the ice, though tonight he has as many minutes as penalty minutes. Umm Cal, I understand throwing down when someone goads you on, but next time think of your PT. Oh, and although the other guy didn't take his helmet off, you should still drop yours if you wear a visor. Gretzky was correct there.

It's certainly fun to watch this team when they're clicking, and my goodness did they look good on the power play. Every single time they gained the zone with the man advantage, you assumed they were going to score. It was just outstanding. Now, if only they can do that once in a while on even strength.

Also, Kevin Porter, you should be absolutely annihilated for running Backstrom. That was a cheapshot and the fact that the ref was staring right at you as you bowled him over full speed doesn't change that fact. That was absolutely out of line, and someone at Toronto should be calling you to tell you so. That was a very, very dangerous play. Jerk.

Oh, and welcome back Owen Nolan and Brent Burns. It was nice to have you out there. Burnsie, feel free to stay up front as long as necssary, so long as He Who Must Not Be Named continues to stay out of the post-game analysis. He's doing a fantastic job right now.

Hockey Wilderness Three Stars

Marek Zidlicky (2G, 1A)
Niklas Backstrom (24 shots/24 saves)
Marc-Andre Bergeron (1G, 1A)

Questions to Answer

Will the line shuffle work out? Well, actually even strength didn't impress me tonight. Yeah, they drew seven penalties, and had decent pressure, but that didn't transfer to a lot of solid scoring chances. So, I'd say it was neither effective nor did it hurt.
Does Burns get burned out playing both winger and defense tonight, his first action in over a week? Didn't seem like he was really putting on pressure in the third period. Part of that might have been all the special teams play, but it might have been that he was tired. He had 18:07 of ice time tonight.
Will these two teams (1st and 3rd in the conference in goals against) put up as many together as the Pens did last night (7)? No, and frankly, if it weren't for the power play chances for the Wild, I don't think this had the makings of a 4-0 game. The power play was just that dominant.
Can Bryzgalov get his first career win against the Wild? Nope!
Will Peter Mueller shine in front of the hometown crowd? Mueller had 17:04 of ice time tonight, and was on the top line with Olli Jokinen, but never really got going, with as many shots on goal as penalty minutes (2).

Notes

Tonight was the 9th straight victory over Phoenix.
Phoenix was 0-for-6 on the power play, and is 2-for-28 in its past five games.
Backstrom is 43-0-3 when leading after two periods. He's also 8-0 against the Coyotes with a 1.13 goals-against average and three shutouts.
Marek Zidlicky notched his third career two-goal game and first since February 11, 2006 vs. Columbus.
The Wild has outscored its opponents 15-7 in the second period this season.

What the team is saying

"Our special teams has been really good," said Jacques Lemaire, who spoke to his team prior to the game about spreading out while on the power play. "And this is why we have the points we have now, because, five-on-five we [haven't scored] a lot of goals so far."

"I think this was one of the best games for us this season, to play the whole 60 minutes of hockey. We didn’t give them anything. Our PK was really strong today. We got a lot of penalties, but they killed them. I think that’s a sign of a good team." -- Niklas Backstrom

"That was for my wife. That's what I do over my career. I was on my own for two months. All by myself. It was a big game for me." - Marek Zidlicky

On the power play. "Sometimes when the players don't know what they're doing, it works." - Erik Belanger

What others are saying

"It was a good, old fashioned butt-kicking. It was almost like an NHL group vs. a junior team. Four-0 was flattering. If it wasn't for Bryzgalov it would've been 8-0." - Wayne Gretzky

"It comes down to the power play," Phoenix captain Shane Doan said. "We had some opportunities. They capitalized on theirs and we didn't on ours. That was the difference in the hockey game."

The Game In Pictures

via cdn.nhl.com

via stmedia.startribune.com

via d.yimg.com

Video Highlights