Arizona Coyotes vs Florida Panthers: previews and predictions
Arizona Coyotes vs Florida Panthers
The Arizona Coyotes are actually, upsettingly, coming into this game with the same number of wins as the Florida Panthers. Both teams sit at two wins apiece, with the Panthers at 2-2-2 and the Coyotes at 2-3-1. Ouch.
That being said, the Coyotes have walked away from games against the Los Angeles Kings and the strangely recently successful Edmonton Oilers with victories, while the Panthers have wins against the Colorado Avalanche and the Buffalo Sabres to tout. It’s still too early in the season, small sample size, etc, etc… but this suggests that if the Coyotes play Kings-beating hockey tonight, this could be winning game number three for the desert dogs.
Details for Saturday’s game:
DATE: Saturday, Oct. 24th
TIME: 6:00 p.m. (PST)
LOCATION: Glendale, AZ
ARENA: Gila River Arena
TV INFO: Fox Sports AZ, FSFL (Yet another televised game! In both cities!)
Keys to Victory:
The Arizona Coyotes, on paper, are probably the stronger team here. They’ve got all the pieces they need to be a playoff contender this season, and very few people think otherwise.
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As with any game where a competitive franchise is facing off against a less strong group, though, the Coyotes will have to play like they mean it in order to truly get that win that they desperately need. Mike Smith is being given his second chance in net, as he’s starting for the second game in a row.
Smith isn’t the only player on the Coyotes who will need to stand and deliver, though. Arizona will need to see Sam Gagner accelerate his acclimation with the franchise, as he’s going to be expected to step it up tonight on the wing with Martin Erat and Justin Hodgman. Antoine Vermette will need to make up for the absence of alternate captain Martin Hanzal by playing the way everyone is expecting him to, plus some. Mikkel Boedker will need to show us that his five goals in six games wasn’t just a fluke, and start bringing in the points again.
On defense, the Coyotes will need to see similar levels of elevated play. Oliver Ekman-Larsson was widely considered a future league-wide elite player, and we haven’t necessarily seen that yet this season. Keith Yandle and Connor Murphy have played well enough, but they can’t slack off. Zbynek Michalek and Michael Stone will need to provide consistency as well, whether they are skating with one another or with OEL.
Aaron Ekblad could be one of the biggest threats on the Panthers this season, but the Coyotes would do well not to underestimate the entire team. Jussi Jokinen and Scottie Upshall are the names you’d expect to keep an eye out for, but the team can’t sleep on players like Brad Boyes (4 points in 6 games) and Dylan Olsen, who has three assists so far this season.
Predictions:
- Mikkel Boedker scores again. That would be really nice, since I forgot to take him off the bench in fantasy my first two weeks.
- Sam Gagner fits in well on the wing (which I’ve kind of strongly suspected for a while now), and therefore Justin Hodgman re-earns the spot he lost at the start of the season. Leading the team in points during the preseason, Hodgman could be the answer Coyotes fans have been waiting for
- Dave Bolland gets injured. If he doesn’t, then I’ll say that Martin Erat is probably the next Coyote to go down, because I just have that kind of feeling
- Keith Yandle finally scores his first goal of the season, since he- ya know- led the team in points last year. He’s slacking so far, but don’t expect that to remain the case for long.