Arizona Coyotes vs Calgary Flames: previews and predictions

The Arizona Coyotes take on the Pacific Division dark horses this Thursday

Not many expected to see the Calgary Flames in anywhere but last place during the 2014-2015 season, but an upgrade in net has made this Pacific Division franchise a force to be reckoned with.

The Arizona Coyotes have struggled a bit out of the gate, but things are looking up. The team hasn’t lost by more than a goal since November 1st, when the Carolina Hurricanes shut them out- and while they have a 3-2-0 record for the five games following that loss, fans are seeing a much more competitive Arizona squad than they did at the start of the season.

The Coyotes have made a couple of drastic line changes going into Thursday night’s game against the Flames, hoping to turn those one-goal losses into wins- starting in Calgary.

Details for Thursday night’s game:

DATE: Thursday, November 13th
TIME: 6:00 pm (PST)
LOCATION: Calgary, Alberta
ARENA: ScotiaBank Saddledome
TV INFO: Fox Sports AZ, RSNF

Keys to Victory:

If anyone can stop Jonas Hiller… well, it probably isn’t the Arizona Coyotes, but that’s exactly what they’ll have to do to pull off a victory.

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The Flames have a top-two defensive pair and one elite offensive scorer, but the rest of the team is an optimistic work in progress. Sean Monahan and Johnny Hockey are both exciting but young, and the team still has a relatively lackluster overall roster; the Coyotes should have no problem outskating this Pacific Division rival if they put in the effort expected of them.

There were talks after the Dallas Stars loss of Tippett switching up the personnel on the Coyotes’ power play, and I have my own ideas of what that should look like– but in order for the team to start significantly pulling ahead, they’ll have to break their twenty-chance streak of goalless opportunities on the one man advantage. Calgary is a young team, and that usually translates to a higher risk of penalties — Arizona would be insane not to capitalize on this potential goal-scoring opportunity.

After watching the Coyotes get scored against on a shorthanded opportunity by Dallas Tuesday for the game-winning (or losing, depending on your perspective) goal, the team’s biggest concern should be shutting down fast players. Johnny Gaudreau is speedy and nimble, so the blue line cannot afford to get caught off guard chasing down guys like him on breakaways.

Finally, the Coyotes will need to bring the kind of energy they’ve had at home these last few games with them to Calgary. It’s going to be cold as hell- but the climate change cannot affect them.

Projected Line Combinations:

Forwards: 

Lauri Korpikoski – Antoine Vermette – Mikkel Boedker
Rob Klinkhammer – Martin Hanzal – Martin Erat
Tobias Rieder – Sam Gagner – Shane Doan
Kyle Chipchura – Joe Vitale – B.J. Crombeen
Extra: Brandon McMillan (Moss remains in AZ with injury)

Defense: 

Keith Yandle – Connor Murphy
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Zbynek Michalek
David Schlemko – Michael Stone
Extras: Brandon Gormley, Chris Summers

*net has not been confirmed, but Left Wing Lock predicts it will be Mike Smith. Dave Tippett has announced that they will evaluate the back-to-back net situation today*

May I just point out that the blue line is arranged identically to my pre-season line predictions? It’s no big deal- you’re welcome, Tippy.

Predictions:

I think a lot of this game will ride on who’s in net. Obviously, Mike Smith has been on fire recently- but the team may want to save him for Friday night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks. In the instance that Devan Dubnyk gets another shot, the pace of the game should be set fairly early on; while Dubnyk has shown that he can keep his head in the event that he lets in an early goal, he doesn’t have the overall talent that Smith does at his very best.

Ultimately, I’ll go into this game with some confidence- The Coyotes won’t have an easy time of it, but Doan will lead the newly reorganized team to a victory.