SB Nation - Daniel Winnik

Coyotes vs. Wild - Game Preview #30

OdinMercer — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:00:15 -0000

Hehehe. Clutterbuck. Teehee. (Saying that never gets old...)

Yeah yeah. I'm getting this thing done! And if you're lucky I'll even do a post game later tonight. (Nah, I'll do one. I've been slackin') Tonight your Phoenix Coyotes, owner of a season tying long, 4 game win streak face the equally hot Minnesota Wild who have won their last 5 games. While Minnesota certainly had a lackluster beginning to the year, they've found something to get them through lately. So it's streak vs. streak tonight at Jobing.com Arena!

FIVE FOR WINNING

HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT!
Sporting last year's hits leader in Cal Clutterbuck (teehee) the Wild like to play a hard hitting style and when they get the lead there the rest of their game seems to follow. The Coyotes need to be prepared to answer the Wild's physical play with hard hits of their own. Daniel Winnik was laying guys out against the Senators and other players like Scottie Upshall and Mikkel Boedker were showing some surprising checks as well.

Play for, you know, 40 minutes at least...
In the post game presser, Coach Dave Tippett even said that the Coyotes weren't putting in a whole lot of effort after they got the first couple of goals. More times than not the effort that they gave on Saturday won't be capable of winning them the game. If it wasn't for the outstanding play in goal and some lucky breaks the Coyotes could have lost that game rather easily. As Tippett said, we'll take the two points, but we can play better and we have to play better.

Give Bryz Some Room, Then Don't Hang Him Out to Dry
The Coyotes got the early lead on Saturday giving goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov some room to breathe and not have to hold the entirety of the team on his shoulders, at least for a little while. Except then the team just decided to go into prevent style play and Ilya was getting a lot more pressure than a shot here and there. When the Coyotes get the lead they need to keep playing as though they don't have it because when they back off the gas bad things quickly happen.

Get Out of the Corners
Lately the Coyotes have been spending way too much time playing around in the corners. Both on the defensive end where they haven't been winning the puck battles and clearing, as well as on the offensive side where they just keep giving the puck to the new guy in the corner and going around in circles. At some point you have to get the puck out of there and into some sort of playable area.

Is the Ice Really That Bad?
The puck seems to be going everywhere as of late at the Job. Is it really an ice issue at this point? I don't understand. I thought we put in a new system to fix the ice issues. Shouldn't the issues also improve now that the temperature outside has gone down? One would think so, but it seems as though they've just gotten worse with the puck handling getting significantly worse in the second half of periods. Some solution needs to be found, and barring that the Coyotes just need to adjust to it and turn it to their advantage.

Key Players

Mikkel Boedker

#89 / Left Wing / Phoenix Coyotes

Height: 5-11

Weight: 195

Born: Dec 16, 1989

Mikkel Boedker is fighting for a more permanent role on this Phoenix Coyotes team and needs to show the coaching staff some irrefutable evidence of why they should give him more playing time. He's been getting time with top players like Shane Doan and Robert Lang. He's been throwing a good hit here and there, but he needs to create some scoring or draw penalties so that the staff has to leave him on the ice. He's come really close a couple of times on some nifty stick moves near the net but he needs to seal the deal on one of them soon.

Andrew Brunette

#15 / Left Wing / Minnesota Wild

Height: 6-1

Weight: 210

Born: Aug 24, 1973

Last time out Andrew Brunette rang up a couple of points on us with a goal and an assist. He's really been the standout player for the Wild this year with 10 goals and 16 assists. In order to win tonight we'll need to find a way to contain him and keep him from creating opportunities.

The Owie List

Phoenix Coyotes Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Peter Mueller	other-excused	12/07/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Kurt Sauer	other-excused	10/07/2009

Minnesota Wild Injuries

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Brent Burns	concussion	11/19/2009
Pierre-Marc Bouchard	concussion	10/04/2009
Petr Sykora	concussion	11/09/2009

Coyotes vs. Senators - Game Preview #29

OdinMercer — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:06:31 -0000

Spartacat? Really? This looks like some sort of high lion. Random drug test!

View full size photo »

The Coyotes try to extend their winning streak to 4 games tonight as the Ottawa Senators visit Jobing.com Arena for a late 8:00 start for some reason. We're not on Hockey Night in Canada so I don't understand the lateness if we're aren't showing up the Sens on National TV.

Unfortunately some of our divisional rivals have already gotten some pity points today, so we need to make up for it and kick some Senatass!

FIVE FOR WINNING

Take Advantage of the Sens Goaltending
With Pascal LeClaire on the shelf the Senators have been leaning on backup Brian Elliot to keep the season going. On the current road trip it really hasn't gone that well for them as they've gone 0-2-1 and got shelled after coming out to the West Coast. They lost 5-2 to the Sharks followed by a 6-3 loss to the Kings on Thursday. Prior to that he hadn't fared all that badly, but now has a 3.03 GAA and a .895 save percentage. With the Coyotes stingy defense 3 goals could be plenty.

Jovanovski Back in the Lineup
Looks like Ed Jovanoski will be back in the line up for the first time since November 27th when he came back for a couple of games after being out for most of the month. The Coyotes miss his defense, but more importantly his offense which he seems to have re-discovered this year. Jovo has 13 points in 18 games so far this year with 5 goals. Before his injury he was starting to get some power play time with him parked near the net that was really disrupting opposing PK units. Hopefully there's not much rust to knock off and he gets back to for soon.

Which Brother Will Be Victorious?
Milan Michalek and his brother Zbynek Michalek will meet for the first time since Milan was traded to Ottawa in the Dany Heatley trade. They always seem to play well against each other, but we need Zbynek to be the better Michalek tonight, especially on defense as his brother has four goals over the last three games, even though those have all been losses.

Get Hitting!
With an already thin defensive core, defenseman Alex Piccard was taken out of the game against the kings after a hit by Dustin Brown. Pair that with the fact that the big hitter for Ottawa, Chris Neal, is out until likely the middle of the month and we'll see a team that can be pushed around a little in terms of hitting them consistently when they touch the puck. The team isn't riddled with injuries, just at key positions and to important guys.

Be Consistent on the Power Play
During the last game fans watch the Coyotes constantly passed back and forth and cycled on both 5-on-4 and 5-on-3 chances without a lot of results. They would mishandle the puck, step on the puck, kick the puck, etc. The team would tic tac it at the points, but couldn't get the puck anywhere near the slot because of the bobbles. The whole point of the passing back and forth is to pull a guy out of position and get behind him. The Coyotes just seem to be passing for the sake of passing. Make something happen guys!

Key Players

Daniel Winnik

#34 / Center / Phoenix Coyotes

Height: 6-2

Weight: 210

Born: Mar 06, 1985

Daniel Winnik may not be getting goals or points or be the driving force on the offense, but lately he's been everywhere on the ice defensively. When I watch games on TV he gets noticed by both our home announce team and by the opposition as a player that along with his linemates Vernon Fiddler and Taylor Pyatt are just pains for the opposition to play against. He's been handing out hits and making all the little plays that help prevent goals and get wins.

Brian Elliott

#30 / Goalie / Ottawa Senators

Height: 6-2

Weight: 201

Born: Apr 09, 1985

Like I said earlier, he's filling in for the injured Pascal LeClaire and the Sensators will live or die based on his performance in goal. Sure the defense gets some of the credit for the goals against over the past few games, but if we let Elliot get comfortable in the crease he'll be the one that caries the team. If he's soft he'll be the goat that the loss gets hung on.

The Owie List

Phoenix Coyotes Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Ed Jovanovski	other-excused	12/05/2009
Peter Mueller	other-excused	12/05/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Kurt Sauer	other-excused	10/07/2009

Ottawa Senators Injuries

Doubtful

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Alexandre Picard	other-excused	12/05/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Shean Donovan	knee	11/20/2009
Pascal Leclaire	jaw	11/24/2009

The NHL's top defensive forwards

James Mirtle — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:49:06 -0000

More photos » by David Banks - AP

Montreal Canadiens' Tomas Plekanec and Chicago Blackhawks' John Madden.

Browse more photos »

We're about far enough into the season that we can start to look at some individual stats and have enough of a sample size to draw some conclusions. This list is the same one I've been churning out for a couple years now, and ranks players defensively based on (a) quality of competition at even strength, (b) goals against per minute played at even strength and (c) goals against per minute played on the penalty kill.

Players also have to have played at least 15 games and fill a significant role on their team's shorthanded unit. Credit, as always, to Behind The Net for the data.

Here are the top 25 at the quarter-way mark:

	NAME	TEAM	GP	QCMP	EVGA/60	SHGA/60
1	BRANDON CROMBEEN	STL	21	0.12	1.44	1.33
2	KRIS VERSTEEG	CHI	22	0.13	1.49	5.25
3	JAY MCCLEMENT	STL	21	0.13	1.75	6.27
4	VERNON FIDDLER	PHX	25	0.03	1.86	3.61
5	JOHN MADDEN	CHI	23	0.12	2.17	5.61
6	DAVID LEGWAND	NSH	23	0.09	2.28	4.43
7	TRAVIS ZAJAC	N.J	22	0.16	0.73	9.20
8	MILAN MICHALEK	OTT	22	0.22	2.57	5.27
9	JAMIE LANGENBRUNNER	N.J	22	0.09	1.69	7.47
10	DANIEL WINNIK	PHX	25	-0.05	1.59	1.54
11	SAKU KOIVU	ANA	17	0.12	1.62	8.64
12	RYAN MALONE	T.B	21	0.18	2.20	7.49
13	MIKE FISHER	OTT	21	0.08	2.32	5.41
14	JOCHEN HECHT	BUF	20	-0.04	1.64	4.10
15	MIKE GRIER	BUF	15	-0.05	1.60	3.53
16	COLIN FRASER	CHI	23	0.04	2.33	4.39
17	JAMES WRIGHT	T.B	21	0.07	1.29	8.13
18	STEVE BEGIN	BOS	24	0.03	1.96	5.34
19	DANIEL ALFREDSSON	OTT	22	0.25	3.02	5.25
20	TOMAS PLEKANEC	MTL	24	-0.01	1.94	5.06
21	DAVID BACKES	STL	21	0.01	2.03	5.19
22	BRANDON DUBINSKY	NYR	18	0.06	2.20	5.72
23	JEFF HALPERN	T.B	21	0.06	2.34	5.54
24	SCOTT NICHOL	S.J	26	-0.07	1.89	2.35
25	JOEL WARD	NSH	21	0.14	2.10	8.81

There are a lot of different names so far than what we saw last season, and I don't know if that's due to the small sample size or if we're simply seeing new players step into these roles and excel. Players on the list who have gotten recognition as top defensive forwards in the past include Versteeg, McClement, Madden, Fisher, Grier, Alfredsson and Ward.

Without a lot of high profile names in there so far (i.e. Datsyuk, Zetterberg) it'll be interesting to see what the Selke candidates look like this season. I don't think you could go wrong giving it to Alfredsson, who always does a nice job on the Sens' PK.

Players who scored on the low end among those that qualified include Wayne Primeau, Craig Adams, Lee Stempniak, Greg Campbell and Rod Brind'Amour.

I'll look at the top defensive defencemen in the near future.

Coyotes at Ducks - Game #17 Preview - It's Gonna Get Bumpy

OdinMercer — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:26 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

about 1 month ago: Phoenix Coyotes' Paul Bissonnette (12) fights with George Parros (16) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Browse more photos »

The Phoenix Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks last met a week ago in a game in Phoenix. It was your average Ducks and Coyotes game until James Wisniewski decided to hit Shane Doan in the face with a forearm and elbow. Doan was woozy after the hit and the Coyotes were just plain pissed. Things were more than a little chippy from that point on. The hits were quite a bit harder and Doan even dropped the gloves with Wizneiwski and got even. Though I'm not so sure that's over with so it should be another hard hitting game tonight (That most here won't see on tv)

Five for Winning

It's Bryz Again: Ilya Bryzgalov is still getting the majority of the starts for the team. Jason LaBarbera was brought in to relieve him and push him, but hasn't really done that. Bryz will get a few days off as the next game isn't until Thursday, but It would also suck to have him get burned out down the stretch. He did great against the Hawks, so hopefully he can keep it up tonight.

Don't let the Hitting Get in the Way: While having a certain amount of physicality going on can make for an intense game, we can't let it be the sole focus and get us off our game. That's exactly what happened for a couple periods last week against them before we bounced back, but I imagine that the Coyotes will come in with a game plan that combines both hitting and skill.

Weather the injuries: Zbynek Michalek is still out with a leg injury of some sort as it's been reported that he has a walking cast on, Kurt Sauer is still out as well. Now Ed Jovanovski is Day-to-Day too. He made the trip with the team to California though, so he may be good to go. If not Shaun Heshka, who was just called up will start in his place. David Schlemko was solid on Thursday and will get Michalek's spot again tonight.

Keep the Special teams Up: 10th in PP% and 13th in PK% is the best our team has had in a Looooooong time. We're far enough into the season to see that it's not just a fluke anymore. In past seasons, the special teams were atrocious on both ends. Our new defensive system has the PK working well and though we don't get much offense in general we find ways to make it happen on the PP.

Getting the Role Players Involved: Daniel Winnik has looked great in this new system. He gets to hot, but in the odd point and leads the team in +/- at a +5. Peter Mueller got his first goal of the year in the last game as well. We need both of these guys to be playing at the top of their games to keep this team in contention.

I'll be watching tonight (I hope).

GO YOTES!

Coyotes Finally Solve Blackhawks In 3-1 Victory

OdinMercer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:30:24 -0000

More photos » by Matt York - AP

about 1 month ago: Phoenix Coyotes' Peter Mueller (88) scores against Chicago Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet, of France, during the first period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Browse more photos »

The Phoenix Coyotes have not done well against the Chicago Blackhawks in the past, but tonight, figured out that if they jumped on them early they could make good things happen. Less than 3 minutes into the first period. Martin Hanzal took a pass from Ed Jovanovski into the zone and did just a simple deke which Cristobal Huet bit on and put it right past him for an easy goal. Later in the period Peter Mueller would finally break out of his season long slump getting his first goal. Shane Doan passed the puck to Martin Hanzal in front of the net. Huet made a pad save on his deflection, but Peter Mueller was there to bat it home to extend the lead to 2.

Midway through the 3rd Scottie Upshall would make it 3-0 on a sick wrister that Huet could make the move to get to. David Schlemko, just up from San Antonio made a perfect cross ice pass to set him up an Huet wasn't even close. Though just minutes later the Blackhawks took advantage of a terrible Power Play sequense by the Coyotes to get a shorthanded goal. Not Bryz's finest moment of the night, but with all the other insane saves he made I'm not going to sweat the one goal much.

Other Notes:

Ed Jovanovski appears to have twisted or sprained an ankle. That's not good considering we're down Sauer and Michalek already. No word on the severity of the injury yet but hopefully it's not bad as Michalek is apparently walking around with a cast on his leg and Sauer is still a little ways from coming back.
Seeing Peter Mueller finally get that monkey off his back was great. Hopefully it gets him going as we could use the offensive output.
Our PK was pretty solid tonight, not allowing and PP goals on 6 tries. THe guys did a good job of limiting the time in the zone and protected the blueline very well, frustrating the Chicago PP guys.
On the flipside, our power play has look awful. We can't get in the zone and set for any amount of time. There was a minute here or there where we looked alright, but getting the shortie on us was unacceptable.
Ilya Bryzgalov was solid again. I really don't know what to say about him anmore. With the exception of an off night here or there he's really gotten this team to where it is.
David Schlemko looked pretty good out there, eating ice time and getting an assist.
Daniel Winnik has looked as good as I can remember him being. Hitting guys, blocking shots, digging for pucks and leading the team in +/- with a +5
Martin Hanzal is a beast. If you don't believe me, watch him shutdown your teams' superstars when we play you. Then you'll see. Solid again.

Coyotes vs. Ducks - Game Preview #13 - QUACK! QUACK! BOO!

OdinMercer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:42:42 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

about 1 month ago: Phoenix Coyotes' Daniel Winnik (34) celebrates with teammates on the bench after scoring a goal in the second period of an NHL hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 in St. Louis.(AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

Browse more photos »

The once again hot Coyotes make their way back to Jobbing.com arena tonight to take on the Anaheim Ducks. The Coyotes went 2-1 on the eastern roadtrip with the goaltending once again being the difference maker. Jason LaBarbera was strong against the Blue Jackets and Ilya Bryzgalov shutout the Blues. Maybe LaBarbera as competition for Bryz is actually working out. All of the guys that nobody was really expecting a whole lot from contributed on Thursady. Daniel Winnik got a goal, Taylor Pyatt added the second and Vern Fiddler was again strong on faceoffs and with his passing. Coach Dave Tippett said we'd need scoring by committee to be successful and contributions from that third/fourth line are huge.

Anaheim is coming of a rare win at home in which the lit up the Canucks 7-2. The Ducks have not had a very good start to the season going 4-6-1 for nine points so far. A big reason has been a lack of defensive effort as after the departure of Chris Pronger, the blueline just hasn't had the same punch. That's led to more scoring chances and the goalies haven't helped. J.S. Giguere has been bumped to backup, but has lost all three of his starts (one in OT) of his starts and sports an overall GAA of 3.64 and Jonas Hiller has been iffy as well going 4-4-0 with a 3.06. Hopefully the offensive production was an aberration for the Ducks as well.

No TV coverage locally tonight, so get to the arena or listen on 910AM

Five for Winning

Watch out for the 4th Line: In the Ducks win against the Canucks, it wasn't just Getzlaf and Perry doing the scorring, George Parros got a goal and so Did Mike Brown. Linemate Ryan Cater got an assist on both of the goals as well. We know Hanzal's line will be out there against the big guys, but we also need to make sure that the 4th line scoring for them was a one night only kind of thing.

Watch Out For Ours Too: As previously mentioned, the Winnik-Fiddler-Pyatt line wasmaking things happen on Thursday. Getting those goals for both Winnik and Pyatt looked like real confidence boosters. Especially for WInnik who was snake bitten last year and couldn't find the net to save his life. Hopefully that makes him more willing to shoot and take chances. For Pyatt it should reinforce the idea that collapsing on the next is a good thing. He was on his way to park there as Fiddler found him for that pretty goal.

What's up Mueller?: The slump continues for forward Peter Mueller who has yet to find the back of the net, or really any kind of offensive rhythm. According to the Preview on the Coyotes site "Coyotes forward Peter Mueller still is seeking his first goal of the season. Mueller played a season-low 10:21 on Thursday." That's not a good sign for Peter as it's become clear that you need to earn your ice time on this squad. He needs to pick it up or he's going to be watching a game or two from the press box.

Ilya! Ilya! Ilya!: For Ilya Bryzgalov, leading the league in Shutouts with 3 in this young season is huge. As many Coyotes fans know, if he gets down on himself it's hard to get the confidence back up for the next game quickly and what was a bad performance can snowball into a long streak. But it seems as though he's responding to both good team effort in front of him and being backed up by a competent goalie as well. He's putting in All-Star worthy performances so far which is what we'll need to find the post season this year.

New Jovo?: He's a had a few cone worthy performances this year, but overall he's much improved (though still overpaid) from last year. He's tied for the team lead in both goals (4) and points (12). He's actually laid a few good hits on some people too. It's nice to see him actually leading the blueline by example this year instead of just wearing the A.

GO YOTES!

Coyotes Win Season Opener, Down Kings 6-3

OdinMercer — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:46:13 -0000

More photos » by Danny Moloshok - AP

2 months ago: Phoenix Coyotes Radim Vrbata (17) is congrated by his teammates Robert Lang (20), Martin Hanzal (11), Peter Mueller, rear, and Ed Jovanovski (55) after scoring a power play goal against the Los Angeles Kings during the first period of their NHL hockey game, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Browse more photos »

Not a lot went wrong for us last night. As someone that's watched the Coyotes a lot over the past few years, this squad knew what they were doing like never before. The only weak spot we saw in our team last night was the Penalty Kill. That's something we have got to work on.

Radim Vrbata made an immediate impact scoring 2 goals in the game. Personally, I was concerned after seeing him early in the preseason being weak on the puck, but tonight he was using his speed to get free of defenders. He looked like the Radim Vrbata that scored 25 goals with us back in the day rather than the one that was ineffective in Tampa and ended up in the Czech Republic.

Ilya Bryzgalov made a lot of really great saves, and while he did get 3 goals against, they were typically on chances where he had already blocked one or two and the puck couldn't get cleared. Not a bad performance in net all things considered.

Read after the jump for the full recap...

First Period

Radim Vrbata opened the scoring with a slapshot from the top of the circle. Recieving a long stretch pass from Ed Jovanovski from the goal line to the opposite blue line just skated in and blasted it. The shot certainly surprised Jonathan Quick, who couldn't glove it. He instead simply covered his head with the glove. Late in the period Matthew Lombardi tried passing to Scottie Upshall on a 2 on 1, but the puck went off of the stick of Matt Greene, who was sprawled on the ice trying to block it, and into the net.

Second Period

Daniel Winnik got his first goal of the season when he deflected a shot from the point by Zbynek Michalek past Quick. That's a good one for Winnik to get early as he struggled mightily last year to find any sort of goal scoring touch. That's at least one monkey off of his back. The Kings would get one goal back on the Power Play mid-way through the period. Anze Kopitar would get the goal into an open side of the net. It was a hard earned goal as Bryzgalov had blocked several attempts before the Kings could get it in. But the Coyotes kept allowing the Kings PP to collapse the box and get close. THey couldn't seem to clear the puck either, so it was just repeated pressure. Radim Vrbata would later get his second of the game when the Kings couldn't complete a break out. Petr Prucha helped contain and fed Vrgy for a dribbler that went right between Quick's pads.The Kings would again score on the power play late in the 2nd when Alex Frolov blast one from the blueline on the 4 on 3. Michael Handzus screened Bryz on the play and he never had a chance.

Third Period

Just 30 seconds into the 3rd Scottie upshall wristed one past Quick to make it 5-2. Shane Doan passed it to Upshall, but a Kings player deflected it just slightly so that the puck was in perfect position to snap it for a goal. It was fast one because no one realized Upshall was even there and then BAM! Goal. Robert Lang then made it 6-2 at the 8:25 mark. Mikkel Boedker pushed the puck into the zone with a burst of speed. He wristed a shot that Quick blocked right into the slot. Lang managed to find it pretty quickly and lifted the puck right under the crossbar. Drew Doughty would make it a little closer, scoring, once again, on the power play to make it 6-3. Traffic in front helped, but Doughty got a cross ice pass from Anze Kopitar and Doughty snuck it between Bryz and the post as he tried to shift over. The fans in LA were not very pleased with the outcome as with the clock winding down the boobirds came out for them.

The Final

The Coyotes will be working heavily on the penalty kill between now and Wednesday I imagine. Every one of the Kings' goals were scored with us on the kill. We need to find ways to keep the opposition from collapsing and pressuring them on the kill. LA is one of the stronger PP teams, but we can't expect to score 6 every night and are going to need those units to do better.

Player of the game:

Radim Vrbata

#17 / Right Wing / Phoenix Coyotes

Height: 6-1

Weight: 190

Born: Jun 13, 1981

***2 goals, +1 and really showed some good moves and speed tonight.

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 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.

Browse more photos »

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

2009 NHL arbitration hearing schedule

James Mirtle — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:21:41 -0000

Player	Team	Hearing
Clarke MacArthur	Buffalo	20-Jul
Daniel Winnik	Phoenix	21-Jul
Nigel Dawes	Calgary	22-Jul
Marc Methot	Columbus	23-Jul
Matt Hunwick	Boston	24-Jul
Travis Zajac	New Jersey	24-Jul
Nate Thompson	NY Islanders	27-Jul
Kyle Wellwood	Vancouver	28-Jul
Milan Jurcina	Washington	28-Jul
Matt Smaby	Tampa Bay	28-Jul
Denis Grebeshkov	Edmonton	29-Jul
Josh Harding	Minnesota	29-Jul
Tomas Plekanec	Montreal	30-Jul
Tuomo Ruutu	Carolina	30-Jul
Jiri Hudler	Detroit	30-Jul
Nikolai Zherdev	NY Rangers	31-Jul
Kyle Brodziak	Minnesota	31-Jul

Only two players (Shaone Morrisonn and Ville Koistinen) actually went through the arbitration process last summer, but it appears we may have a few more this time around. Those potentially receiving decent sized awards are the likes of Zajac, Ruutu, Hudler and Zherdev, who all had a fair number of points last season, while many of the others should be under $2-million.

It's tough to forecast where players like MacArthur, Grebeshkov, Harding and Plekanec will slot in.

Both Copper & Blue and Japers' Rink have done excellent mock arbitration hearings for their players in the past few days. There's some terrific stuff in there, including likely comparables.