The Arizona Coyotes have made a couple tweaks to the lineup, heading into Wednesday night’s game vs the Edmonton Oilers:
Offensive Lines
Mikkel Boedker–Antoine Vermette–Shane Doan
Rob Klinkhammer– Martin Hanzal– Martin Erat
Lauri Korpikoski– Sam Gagner– David Moss
Brandon McMillan– Joe Vitale– Kyle Chipchura
Extra skater: B.J. Crombeen
Defensive Lines
Keith Yandle– Michael Stone
Oliver Ekman-Larsson– Zbynek Michalek
David Schlemko– Connor Murphy
Extra skater: Chris Summers
Netminders
Mike Smith
Devan Dubnyk (Backup)
Key Observations:
- David Schlemko is in, Chris Summers is out. I can’t complain about this, because I already complained about Schlemko sitting out in the first place. I still like Schlemko and Stone together on the penalty kill… maybe they’ll get to try that out again today? I have no idea what Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett has planned
Puck Prose
- Justin Hodgman is absent. That’s because Justin Hodgman got sent down to the AHL, and will be in Portland for the forseeable future. Whatever you want to do, GMDM. It’s your call, not mine.
- Rob Klinkhammer is going to play top- six minutes. I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this. I thought that Klinkhammer looked a little worthless playing bottom-six minutes, so apparently he’s getting a chance to bring that slow-moving play to the top two lines. Hopefully, his solid presence will result in increased defensive play on the ice, give Hanzal/Erat the chance to capitalize on some shots, and prevent the Oilers from any kind of takeaways? Edmonton is a defensive mess right now, so it seems smart that the Coyotes are putting a defensive-minded roster out there. Prevent them from scoring, and your offensive guys can slip right through the woefully large cracks in the opposition’s blue line to score a couple points of your own. Boom, you’ve got a 2-0 lead, take it and run with it.
- Mike Smith is back. No one seemed to want this but Dave Tippett, but that’s why he’s the head coach. I wanted to give him one more game out while Dubnyk played his old team (and I’m going to beat this sentiment into the ground until you’re all sick of hearing it/no longer care), but hopefully sitting out against the Kings gave him the time to polish his play and get back to his starting netminder mentality.