Last night the Coyotes beat the Hawks 2-0 in their best effort of the season.
Taking a cue from the 1980 U.S Men’s Olympic Hockey Team – famous for The Miracle on Ice- who were in Phoenix for a pre-game ceremony, the Coyotes were able to take down a far superior opponent last night at the old Jobing.Com Arena
Capitalizing on a puck-over-the-glass penalty in the first minute of the game, Keith Yandle scored the only goal the Coyotes would need under a minute into the game.
The under-performing Radim Vbrata scored on another powerplay, this time on a 5-3, to seal the deal. The goal was interesting in that Vermette was knocked down and his stick hit Blackhawk goalie Corey Crawford in the head right while Vrbata was shooting.
This was a pretty clear case of goaltender interference, as my understanding is that a player is responsible for his stick regardless of extraneous circumstances. Coach Joel Quennville was absolutely livid on the play and, as my wife pointed out, resembled a chicken as he yelled and screamed behind the bench to no avail.
That was it for the offense, but the game was entertaining regardless. Mike Smith, as has been the case lately, was spectacular. He made several incredible saves and was easily the game’s first star.
After beating the Hawks last night and the Penguins earlier this week, the Coyotes have proved that they can skate with the league’s best teams. Unfortunately, they sandwiched those efforts around a loss to the lowly Buffalo Sabres and a loss to the Dallas Stars in one of the most important games of the season. Bottom line is, they play good occasionally, but they just can’t find any kind of consistency.
Clearly it’s beating a dead horse at this point, but the reason they can’t be more than an inconsistent .500 team is pretty obvious: They need to replace duds like Ribeiro and Vrbata with more consistent and talented offensive threats. Ribeiro offers some good offense (and nothing else), but he is little more than a poor man’s first line centre and Vbrata is talented but maddeningly unreliable. When Vermette is your best forward you can never be more than a .500 team.
With Stone, Rundblad, Murphy and Gormley to go along with Yandle and OEL, the Coyotes are stacked with talented youth on defense but just way too unbalanced of a team. They desperately need to turn one or two of these assets into a scoring forward. Watching OEL and Yandle team up on powerplays is one of the best things you can see in the NHL at this time, and I would be hesitant to break them up. The value of having two defenseman of this quality on your team cannot be over stated. I’ve wavered on what they should do (because Yandle would bring a tantalizing return), but the more I think on the subject, the more insane it seems to break up a pairing that could easily be the anchors of a Championship Team.
Since they are so deep on defense and so desperately in need of a forward, it’s really too bad that the Coyotes have so horribly squandered the asset of David Rundblad. In the last month and a half, he has gotten into two games, spaced roughly a dozen games apart. They have isolated him in the pressbox and ruined any value he might have had in a trade.
Rundblad is a victim of numbers. He can’t be sent down to the minors without clearing waivers (and there is no chance he would) and if they put him in the lineup, they are top heavy with puck moving/ young defenseman. If the top 4 are set, it’s obvious Tippett doesn’t want to pair Rundblad with Murphy or Stone. He’s not very physical and not great defensively, but has a lot of talent with the puck and has a skill set that is in high demand league wide. He just hasn’t gotten the chance to show that he can be a constant NHLer. At this point the Coyotes should just do him a favor and move him to a team that will use him, but that isn’t going to happen, since he was the key piece coming back for Kyle Turris and the optics – already terrible – would be unbelievably bad.
In order to maximize their assets, they have to trade Murphy or Stone and get Rundblad into the lineup. He’s a dynamic player and I’d like to see him get a chance. Murphy and Stone are both going to be solid NHL players and either could realistically be part of a package to acquire the forward the Coyotes desperately need.
Rundblad, or more likely Murphy, will get into the lineup tonight as Derek Morris suffered some sort of injury last night and will not be available. Mike Smith gets the start despite it being a back-to-back, and Hanzal, who missed the game against the Hawks – supposedly with the flu – is back in action tonight.
With the win, the Coyotes, however temporarily, moved into 8th place in the standings. They are now one point up on the idle Canucks and are only four back of the free-falling LA Kings.
It should be a great game since it means a lot in the standings and the Coyotes will be after some revenge after losing to the Stars just the other night.
Unfortunately, just as the NHL is starting to get good, they will shut down after tonight’s games.
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