Five things you missed: Arizona Coyotes vs LA Kings
Dear Los Angeles,
You won a game, and we’re really happy for you. Truly. (I think).
Going into our third game, though, we’ve got a lot to consider: both from what you’ve taught us and what we’ve seen of our own play. This is what we took away from our the Kings-Coyotes game Saturday night:
1. “That Seventies Line” cannot be praised highly enough
Tanner Pearson. Jeff Carter. Tyler Toffoli.
This trio will continue to cause problems for the Coyotes and every other team in the league. The Kings are off to a rough start, but these three have kept the defending Stanley Cup Champions from falling behind in the early games of the season- of the six goals scored by Los Angeles in their past three games, five have been by this line. Anze Kopitar has the only goal not scored by one of these three forwards, and Drew Doughty and Marian Gaborik hold the only assists not credited to the trio.
Winning games against the Pacific Division monsters will go a long way towards giving the Coyotes the stability in their own division that they sorely need: in order to secure a playoff berth, Arizona will need to do well against their closest rivals. This means developing a strategy to smother this line- separate them on the ice, cover them more effectively, and ensure that the puck stays far away from the Coyotes net until the seventies shift is over.
Players I would recommend for this? Not Keith Yandle, for starters. Offensive defenseman have their place on the ice, but it’s not facing off against these three. I think that the Murphy-Summers pairing would work well to prevent these offensive powerhouses from slipping in goals if they skate out with Joe Vitale, and whomever they stick him with. Brandon McMillan has a strong enough two-way presence to pull this off, as well.
Oct 11, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes center Joe Vitale (14) wins a face off against Los Angeles Kings center Jarret Stoll (28) as NHL linesman Mark Wheler (56) looks on during the third period at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
2. The Coyotes continue to have a strong power play
Last year, the ‘Yotes had the fourth strongest power play in the league, and it looks like nothing has really changed here. The team scored twice in four PP attempts on Saturday night; this could serve the team extremely well as they head into the season.
The only thing that could bring this down? The team’s penalty kill looks nowhere near as effective- and as Coyotes fans saw Thursday night, a game with too many penalty minutes for Arizona spells disaster.
3. Dev-Dub
Is that a stupid name? I’m going to keep using it anyway.
Whether it was to give Mike Smith a chance to collect himself or to serve as a slap on the wrist (most likely a little bit of both), head coach Dave Tippett chose to start backup netminder Devan Dubnyk against the Kings on Saturday night- and things went better than anyone could have hoped. Dubnyk posted a .923 SV%, stopping 24 of the 26 SA thrown his way before the final buzzer.
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Many have insisted that Mike Smith’s success will bring the Coyotes success by default, but Dubnyk could be the hidden gem floating around the team’s system. He doesn’t have the agility of netminders like Jonathan Quick (who seems to have rediscovered his game as the season wears on), but he knows how to smother the puck- key in preventing rebound scoring chances for the opposition.
It’s not unheard of to have a new player start in games against his old franchise, so Coyotes fans could see Dubnyk in net once again Wednesday night against the Edmonton Oilers. He’ll need to bring the kind of play that he did Saturday, though, if the team expects to win- the Oilers are much stronger on offense than they are anywhere else on the ice.
4. Have faith in Mikkel Boedker, because he’s going to have a monster season
If you haven’t been paying attention to Mikkel Boedker, now is the time to start. He’s coming into the season with 1.0 PPG, scoring in both the season opener and Saturday night’s matchup against the Kings.
He’s got the scorepower, but he’s most importantly a powerful, consistent guy on the ice. Antoine Vermette has been killing it in the face-off circle, but hasn’t been able to capitalize much beyond that. Shane Doan is having an insanely good start to the season, but he has yet to net his first goal- and he’s spent a team high of nine minutes in the penalty box over the course of two games, which could be seen as a negative by fans who know that the team is weaker on the penalty kill than they should be.
In upcoming games, watch for Boedker to continue to capitalize on scoring chances and push into the offensive zone ahead of his linemates. I praised Martin Hanzal for knowing when to stand in the net to catch rebounds during the first game, and I’ll praise Boedker in this second game for doing the same. He- along with Antoine Vermette- continued to place himself in optimal positions to snag loose pucks and fire additional shots at Jonathan Quick.
5. Takeaways, Takeaways, Takeaways
With the exclusion of the previously mentioned Antoine Vermette, the Coyotes have yet to find consistency in the faceoff circle.
This was easily remedied by the Coyotes dominating the Kings in takeaway numbers, but the Desert Dogs cannot ride on this alone. They were extremely lucky to face off against a relatively weak Los Angeles franchise on Saturday; those kinds of puck repossession numbers won’t be easy to come by on a regular basis. The team will need to figure out how to develop a stronger FO % on all four lines in order to truly excel throughout the season.