SB Nation - Mikkel Boedker

Coyotes Celebrate Cinco de Coyo(te), Bryzgalov Gets Shutout in 2-0 Win.

OdinMercer — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:15:48 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

3 days ago: Phoenix Coyotes' Ilya Bryzgalov (30), of Russia, celebrates his shutout win with teammate Keith Yandle (3) at the end of the third period after an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, in Glendale, Ariz. The Coyotes defeated the Wild 2-0. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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Woooooo! 5 wins in a row baby! Have a Margarita tonight because it's Cinco de Coyo! The fans around the arena were certainly high-fiving and celebrating and while there's still a long way to go, a shutout win over the Wild certainly made everyone feel good and elevated the Coyotes to 37 points on the season. It also sets up a matchup with the Kings on Thursday that will be for the fifth place spot in the West and 2nd in the division either way. But enough with standings and all that poppycock. To the gameness!

First of all I was really annoyed that Mikkel Boedker was a scratch tonight. I'm glad Peter Mueller got to come back and played fairly well but Mikkel Boedker has played his pants off lately and not gotten any reward for it. I get that Tippett doesn't want to use younger layers as that just doesn't fint into his scheme, but to call him up and use the minutes he's played pretty well and get no reward is disappointing at best. Then the guy I highlighted in the pregame Cal Clutterbuck, was a scratch as well as I guess he got some sort of illness that's been going around. His absence didn't really decrease the amount of hitting and all around scrapping as the teams would get into hitting matches and fights especially later in the game.

For the most part the game itself was an outstanding goalie battle. Both Ilya Bryzgalov and Niklas Backstrom were outstanding, but the Phoenix offense was just good enough to get a missed rebound past him for the first goal by Scottie Upshall. Then Shane Doan made a fantastic move to get the puck to Taylor Pyatt who scored his third goal in as many games. On the offensive end that was the entirety of the production offensively.

In the third period though the game started to get away from the officials in a big way. Mid way through the period Ed Jovanovski made a big hit on one of the Wild players (I can't recall who it was) but there was no penalty and the Minnesota players wanted to go after him. The hitting picked up in a big way after that with Winnik, Upshall and Jovo all getting hits on people within a short time. The emotions boiled over at the end of the game with a huge scrum in the corner. Keith Yandle threw a few punches in the middle of the crowd, but Vernon Fiddler grabbed a guy out of the pile and simply beat the hell out of him. Owen Nolan and Keith Yandle almost went after each other too, but the officials were able to clear the players off the ice so that the team and the crowd could celebrate what really mattered in Ilya Bryzgalov's shutout. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some fines or suspensions handed out because of the after the horn activities.

Coyotes vs. Wild - Game Preview #30

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

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

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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. Blackhawks - Game #16 Preview

OdinMercer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:28:04 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

about 1 month ago: Colorado Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj (31), of Slovakia, deflects a shot redirected by Phoenix Coyotes center Matthew Lombardi (15) in the second period of an NHL hockey game in Denver on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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The Phoenix Coyotes look to get off a 2 game skid tonight at Jobbing.com Arena against the Central Division leading Chicago Blackhawks. The road to this point hasn't been very easy as the Coyotes have played a lot of very talanted teams to get to 9-6. It doesn't get a whole lot easier tonight though as the Blackhawks have managed to get 17 points in only 13 game, giving them a 8-4-1 record. On the plus side they are only 2-2 away this year and other than traveling overseas to start the season, they really haven't had any extended roadtrips. Hopefully it's just a case of a hot home team, but we shall see tonight.

Five for Winning:

Come out to Play: Over the last few games, including a couple of the wins, the Coyotes simply haven't gotten off to good starts in the game. They had to come back against the Ducks on Halloween, Took a lead against Los Angeles on some flukey goals in a game that was flat for both sides, and then goes down a goal against Colorado just a minute in. THis hasn't been the intense team it was to start the season. Looks like maybe just some growing pains, but it had better be temporary.

Slog through the injuries: Zbynek Michalek and Scottie Upshall are both out with injuries as well and Kurt Sauer who has been out since the first game with some neck and head issues. David Schlemko and Mikkel Boedker will take their places in the lineup and need to play at a top level to make things work. On the plus side Jonathan Towes and Ben Eager are out for the hawks, so that'll help our side.

End the streak here: Lost two in a row, we haven't lost 3 in a row this season and it damn well better not start tonight. Having our winning streaks longer than our losing ones is what will carry this team to the playoffs in the end. We can't win everynight, but we better keep our heads well above water.

Be adaptable: Teams have started to figure us out, so change it up when necessary. We can't keep going back to the same things that didn't work 3 minutes ago and try it again and again. Change up your passing and entrances to minimize turnovers.

Be hungry: You guys just gave up at the end last night. UNACCEPTABLE. This team can't quit. Fight the battles everywhere and don't let one loss get you down.

GO YOTES!

Coyotes at Avalanche - Game #15 Preview

OdinMercer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:01:05 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

about 1 month ago: Phoenix Coyotes' Petr Prucha, top, of the Czech Republic, gets sent to the ice by Los Angeles Kings' Brad Richardson in the third period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, in Glendale, Ariz. The Kings defeated the Coyotes 5-3. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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Both the Phoenix Coyotes and the Colorado Avalanche are coming off of some rough losses in their last contests. The Coyotes (9-5-0) were taken out in a sloppy game against the Kings in which there was no rhythm or flow in the game at all and Jason LaBarbera was playing for some reason. Oh. Right. It was so Ilya Bryzgalov could start tonight's game. We'll need him to do well since our goals will likely be few and far between against Craig Anderson. The Avs are also coming off a shutout loss to the Vancouver Canucks. It wasn't even to Roberto Luongo, but to Andrew Raycroft. That's demoralizing. Anyhow...

Five for Winning:

Put a couple behind Anderson: Seems Obvious, but not a lot of teams have gotten to the netminder so far this season. Time to start camping out in front and trying to get deflections. Whatever works.

Mind the Passing: Last game against the Kings wasn't all that great on the puck posession end for either team. We need to get control over our turnovers. It was maddening to see every pass go wrong on Monday, tonight has to be better.

Who to Watch out for: Wojtek Wolski, Paul Stasney, Milan Hejduk and Ryan O'Reilly account for 40% of the Avs' point total. Wolski is the Goals leader with 8 and Stasney and O'Reilly both have 9 assists

Bryz needs to be in Top Form tonight: As noted earlier, Craig Anderson has been a tough nut to crack this year so what few goals we do get need to be protected. THat means Bryz can't let in any soft ones tonight.

Will Mueller be back?: Peter Mueller was scratched from the lineup against the Kings again and Mikkel Boedker was called up from San Antonio. Not sure what the deal with Mueller is, but He's looked lost so far this season and needs to get working hard if he wants a place on this team. How he performs will determine his paycheck as he's an RFA at the end of the season.

Sorry for the lateness, but...

GO YOTES!!!

Coyotes Face Off Against Tkachuk and the Blues Tonight - Game Preview #6

OdinMercer — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:55:43 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Chiu - AP

Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!

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In the Coyotes second home game of this young season, we drop the puck against the St. Louis Blues. THe Coyotes had lost 2 in a row before knocking off San Jose in a defensive battle on Monday. St. Louis hasn't been able to get back in the win column since beating the Red Wings twice over in Sweden. They dropped game to both Atlanta and then Los Angeles on Saturday. Which means once again we get a pretty well rested team to play against.

Also I hate Parent Teacher Conferences so sorry for the lateness...

Five for Winning

Bryz Dogs: Bryz has been stellar so far this year. 2 shutouts, 3 wins a .960 Sv% and a 0.98 GAA? What more could you ask for? The question is if he can keep this up all season long. Maybe Fuhr was that bad of a fit for him. Maybe Burke in at goalie coach has made a difference. Whatever it is, It's working.

D-Fence: The D has been excellent in every game, even in our two losses to Columbus and Buffalo. We've only allowed 7 goals against in 5 games which is pretty outstanding. THey've kept us competitive every game, even when we haven't been able to generate the offense to get the W.

Still Need Goals: In Buffalo we lost by 1. Against Columbus we lost by 2, one in the empty net. And in San Jose we went into the shootout 0-0. While we haven't looked bad losing, we need to get some goals to get this thing done. Shots haven't been a problem as we're getting them on goal, we just have to start getting them IN.

Pyatt should be ready: Mikkel Boedker was sent down to San Antonio yesterday, likely to make room for Taylor Pyatt to come off the IR again. We'll finally get to see what he can do after being picked up in the offseason.

Need to Get Going at Home: It's only our second home game of the year, but we need to get a win at home. The Coyotes seem to be good either away, or at home each season, but never both at the same time. If this is a team that wants to make the playoffs, we're going to have to be good at both this year.

GO YOTES!

Coyotes Season Opener Preview - Game #1 Vs. Los Angeles Kings

OdinMercer — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:30:26 -0000

More photos » by Rick Scuteri - AP

Ilya is ready to stop you. After he gets some hot dogs.

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Gametime - 7:30 , broadcasting on FSNAZ in HD and on XTRA 910 AM

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Not Christmas, COYOTEMAS! Sure we've had a couple days of regular season hockey involving other teams, but now it's go time for our guys. After and offseason not lacking in off the ice drama and a preseason coaching change it's time to get down to the actual playing.

The Coyotes have been interesting to watch this preseason and Ilya Bryzgalov looked good in his last start against the San Jose Sharks. Shutting them out as the Coyotes won 2-0. Bryzgalov will be in net again tonight in an arena the Coyotes are 5-2-0 in over the last 7 meetings.

On the Forward side of things Robert Lang is ready to go after being signed last week. If he can bring any of the scorring touch he had before his injury last year then it's a solid pick up for the Coyotes. Lang will be on a line with Shane Doan and Mikkel Boedker according to the Coyotes website.

No idea on the rest of the lines, though we know Taylor Pyatt is out for another couple of week.

On the Kings front they'll be going with a top line of Anze Kopitar, Ryan Smyth and Justin Williams. Our favorite Doan check target Wayne Simmonds will be playing tonight too... We can only hope for something like this...

FIVE FOR WINNING

Get Doan Started Early - Shane Doan has only had 1 point so far in the preseason. It's easily explained away since you're giving ice time to players that are trying to earn spots, but still concerning as with the exception of last year Doan is notorious for his slow starts. We can't rely on him to carry the team, but at the same time, he's crucial to our success.

Get the D Flowing - With the overhauled defense we should hopefully cut down on the flubs that coninually cost us games last year. Adrian Aucoin and Jim Vandermeer aren't flashy, but they do get the job done defensively. I want to see them stifle the Kings tonight.

Keep Up the Momentum in Goal - Bryz had a strong showing in the game against the Sharks, but now we're playing for real. Going back to the previous point, hopefully the improved D can give him some more confidence that he was lacking last year.

Protect the Blue - One thing I saw in that Sharks game was that the Coyotes were finally protecting their own zone. Rarely were people just walking in like they usually did, the other team actually had to play the dump and chase instead of just us. Keep that up and the Goals Against will be down significantly from last year.

Get the Young Guys Started Right - Peter Mueller especially needs to get going this season in a hurry. After an outstanding rookie year, he hit the sophomore jinx hard last year. He doesn't need to score a couple of goals tonight (Though that would be great) he just needs to gain some confidence and look like a threat in the first few games. Hanzal and Boedker would be nice to see putting up points too. Boedker is getting first line minutes with Doan tonight so we'll see if he can contribute. Hanzal just need to start shooting more frequently. He has a wicked cannon of a shot, but chooses to pass frequently.

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.

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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 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

A Conversation about the Phoenix Coyotes with Five for Howling

John Fischer — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:12:34 -0000

More photos » by Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP

These are the Phoenix Coyotes, celebrating a goal. Also pictured: expected salary-eater, Ed Jovanovski. Let's learn more about this team. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

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During this offseason, there is plenty of time available as we await training camp and the 2009-10 season to actually begin. Plenty of time to reflect, to analyze, and to learn. Among the SB Nation hockey blog network, we have decided to ask questions of a team in the opposite conference. Given that the Devils don't play too many Western conference opponents, we may not know much about them. And the only way to find answers is to seek them out (I think that's from a book, but whatever). Call it, a Summer Fill, if you will. It's taking place across the network even as you read this (example: Tampa Bay and Detroit.)

In any case, I had a conversation with Odin Mercer of Five for Howling - a Phoenix Coyotes blog - to learn more about each other's teams. We split up the questions and posted up the our respective responses. Odin has the questions he had about the Devils and my response already up at Five for Howling. What follows after the jump are my questions about the Phoenix Coyotes and his responses.

I encourage you to check out Five for Howling and engage in the discussion there, perhaps you have something to add that I missed about the Devils. I also encourage you to comment on any other questions or thoughts you have about the Coyotes. I'll pass on any interesting questions to Odin and if there's enough, we could have a follow-up to this post.

John Fischer: OK. First question, and it's the obligatory and ONLY one regarding this situation: How long will the Coyotes stay in Phoenix?

Odin Mercer: For the foreseeable future. If the court accepts the Reinsdorf bid, the only official bid that keeps the team in phoenix, then there's no way that the Glendale lease gets broken in the near future. Everyone talks about them bailing after a couple years but Glendale will still be there and won't be putting any out clauses into the lease.

John Fischer: Most recently, Devils fans saw the Coyotes come to the Rock last season and saw a guy by the name of Josh Tordjman get lit up pretty well. [Here's my recap of that game, a 5-2 Devils win.] Not exactly a fair representation of the team, perhaps. So let's start there. Who are the netminders for the Coyotes and how are confident are you in them for this coming season?

Odin Mercer: Well, Ilya Bryzgalov will be the starter the majority of the time. He's solid when the team can play D in front of him, but if teams get to him early he can get in his head and then implode. We also signed Jason LaBarbera in the offseason to back him up. I don't think there's too much danger of him stealing the starting role, but he can at least step up for a game or two if we need him. Al Montoya is the young guy to keep watching. He came in for the last 4 games of the season and went 3-1 with a shutout. They weren't pressure filled games, but he could be in the NHL in the not too distant future. So long as Bryz stays healthy we should be okay in goal though.

John Fischer: Now, speaking of the Islanders, the Coyotes are at least a little similar in that younger players have significant roles on the team. Which of those younger players have been doing well with Phoenix so far?

Odin Mercer: We do have a lot of young guys on the team. I think depending on who was on the roster from game to game we went back and forth with the Hawks on being the youngest in the league. I think Martin Hanzal has been huge for us. He's not scoring tons of goals, but he's a big kid and can be the 2nd or 3rd center. He's very good on the defensive end as well. Mikkel Boedker is probably my favorite of last year's rookies, he wasn't super consistent in his first year, but he's great with the puck and makes some incredible moves.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Mikkel Boedker	78	11	17	28	-6	18	2	0	3	0	116	9.5

John Fischer: Let's talk a little more about Boedker. He's entering his second season of hockey. Do you think he'll hit the sophomore slump hard, or do you think he'll rise above?

Odin Mercer: It's always hard to tell with young guys. Peter Mueller is an example of one of our kids that really hit that slump in year two. The thing is though, to everyone watching you can tell what the problem is but no one was fixing it. So I think a lot of it will have to do with who's there to help when he hits an inevitable rough patch or two. The other thing he has going for him is that while he played well, he wasn't this massive producer that's going to be leaned on to win the game. With all the young guys that pressure kind of gets spread around so hopefully it won't have too much of an effect.

John Fischer: Fair enough. The Devils got a big taste of that with Zajac, who had an excellent third season which was parlayed into a nice contract for him and a lot of love for him here. Maybe the Coyotes' third year players will have the same effect?

Odin Mercer: They could. Hopefully they don't do too well though so we can sign them to reasonable deals.

John Fischer: Speaking of third year players, how's Kyle Turris?

Odin Mercer: Kyle is small.

Kyle Turris

#91 / Center / Phoenix Coyotes

Height: 6-1

Weight: 180

Born: Aug 14, 1989

How is he: Small

John Fischer: Seriously.

Odin Mercer: He's a good player, but I think he got rushed a bit. He just wasn't ready to be in the NHL full time. His size doesn't help. He's got little chicken legs and especially at the beginning of the year was getting shoved all over the place. He got better about shrugging off the checks as the year went on. He may have to fight for his spot in camp this year - which may not be a bad thing. He'll be a great player at some point, but we'll have to see what shape he is come camp time. If he puts on a little more muscle, then that will help his game a ton.

John Fischer: Now, what do you make of the current Coyote's defense? What would you say their overall style would be (e.g. physically-inclined, etc.)

Odin Mercer: It's hard to say. Every pairing seems to bring something different. The Zbynek Michalek - Kurt Sauer tandem led the league in blocked shots. Keith Yandle is a little more offensive minded and has started to find his Game. Ed Jovanovski just needs to decide who he wants to be again. Does he want to lay the other team out with the hits he can make? Or try and be the scoring defenseman? Last year he couldn't decide and ended up not being either one. We added Adrian Aucoin and Jim Vandermeer who aren't exactly offensive forces in the off season but can eat up minutes. I think if I had to go with a "style" I'd say they're going to prevent a lot of shots from the beginning. Not necessarily from checks, but from blocks and other methods.

John Fischer: What do you expect out of Ed Jovanovski next season?

Odin Mercer: I expect nothing except for him to eat salary at this point. Seriously. I find that it's better to not expect much from him and be surprised. I was so frustrated with him last year. There were times he literally assisted on other team's goals. Not just turned it over or the neutral zone or something, but stick to stick to the other team for a goal. It's aggravating to pay 6 million for that. If he can just get back to hitting and denying the puck and not even thinking about scoring, that will make me happy.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Ed Jovanovski	82	9	27	36	-15	106	6	0	3	0	194	4.6

John Fischer: Let's talk about the fans. What is the general atmosphere at a Coyotes game?

Odin Mercer: It depends. At the beginning of the year it's pretty good, people are at the games, the arena is mostly full, but once we hit rough spots it becomes harder to fill. The other problem is that I think the casual fan doesn't really know what to do at a hockey game. They don't know what to cheer for or when to do what. I've had friends shushed at the games for cheering by people that don't really get it. I think there's some fan education that needs to happen there. But mainly when the team does well the crowds show up. We had it going pretty well until we tanked after the break last year. We just need some sort of success and the fans will come and make the arena rock. Which it needs to. It's a beautiful arena and one of the best hockey venues in the league, but it needs to be full of fans.

John Fischer: What is Wayne Gretzky's style of coaching? Other than, not good enough?

Odin Mercer: It's hard to say. There are times when he's not even at the practices and lets the assistants do it. On the bench he can be fiery, but like too many coaches these days, he often starts blending up the lines after the first shift. It's hard to keep track of who's playing with whom. The blender gets old really fast. It would be one thing if there wasn't chemistry between guys, but if a line has one or two of games but was previously successful it gets blown up.

John Fischer: That sounds like Brent Sutter in '07-'08.

Odin Mercer: Yeah. It's even hard to tell what style of play he's going for from night to night. Makes me wonder if he even knows what it is. If there's one good thing to come out of this mess it's that if Reinsdorf wins Gretz is done coaching us and we can see if it was him or our guys.

John Fischer: Who would you want coaching the Coyotes?

Odin Mercer: That's a good question. I'm not really sure who would work for us. Dave Tippett is a name I've heard mentioned a few times. He's played against us enough to know what works/doesn't on our team too. He got a raw deal in Dallas for last year too. How much was he supposed to do with half the team on the IR? He might want to pound the Stars 6 times a year.

John Fischer: I would have liked him in NJ, but my understanding is that he wanted some time off?

Odin Mercer: I'm not sure. There have been plenty of other issues to deal with before the looking for a new coach phase.

John Fischer: Of course.

I hope you got plenty of information out that as much as I did. I would like to give a big thanks to Odin at Five for Howling for responding to my questions and for taking part in this effort to fill the summer time up. Again, leave any comments and questions about the Coyotes here.

Found NHL Foodstuffs: Maple Leafs Edition

OdinMercer — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:45:26 -0000

In my continuing spiral into no hockey madness, I'm starting a new continuing feature here on Five for Howling combining my two favorite things, hockey and snacks. Because, well, why not? I was inspired to start this by the found cookies below, but i'll be finding something unusual for each NHL team over the next few months. I'll try and keep them less than obvious. (eg. no blue and white gummy sharks for the sharks, lame...) we'll see how long I can keep this up. If you have suggestions, feel free to send me an email, Tweet or carrier pigeon with your ideas. If I can, I'll even try them out and let you know if they actually capture the essence of the team they represent, or some such nonsense...

Yesterday I was sent on an errand to Target to pick up some various widgets and sundries. While parusing the cookie aisle for some treats I stumbled upon a bag of these:

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a Coyotes fan first, but with nothing happening in the hockey world, I'm looking for hockey anywhere I can find it. Even hidden in tasty foodstuffs. So I had to buy these to try them out. The cookies even look like little maple leafs. I'm sure that these are old hat to people that actually live in Canada, but these were cool to find in my local Target.

I got the cookies home (along with some decoy cookies so others wouldn't eat them) and just kind of stared at them. Sure they reminded me of Maple Leafs, but what did that mean? How could I share that with the world? Oh right! I have a blog! I could blog about my cookies and the relation to hockey... hmm... not a bad idea... But what about the other teams? What about my OWN team? How could I forget about them? Well I can't, that's why I'll have to find other foodstuffs to represent them. But first let's get to the snack in front of us.

Dare Maple Leaf creme cookies are made by Dare Foods of Kitchner, Ontario, Canada. By the way, Coyotes player Mikkel Boedker played for the Kitchner Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League. So there's that. They're a little bigger than Oreos and taste like, well, maple. The cookie portion is a lot like any other shortbread cookie. The filling is what tastes like maple. It's not overly sweet, but a little dry. You need milk to drink with them. The wife did not like them very much. So there's a cookie I can get and have all to myself (score!).

Here's a picture comaring the cookie to the old leafs logo. Coincidence? Perhaps...

So there's part 1 of 30 of my NHL foodstuffs series. Don't forget to send in your suggestions of what I should be on the look out for. Try and make it stuff I can actually find on locally or on the internets. Hope you enjoyed my randomness. I'm off to figure out what goes with with the Coyotes...