Arizona Coyotes Collapse in 5-2 Loss to Boston Bruins

Arizona Coyotes are the last to awaken in a 5-2 decision for the Boston Bruins

*SUBHEADING: SOMEONE TEACH MARTIN ERAT AND LAURI KORPIKOSKI TO SHOOT THE PUCK*

In yet another deceptive final score, the Arizona Coyotes shirked all the wrong responsibilities in this 5-2 drop at home to the Boston Bruins.

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A mess of turnovers on both sides — combined with some lucky goaltending for the visiting team and a gun-shy offense for the game hosts — took a final redemption game for two franchises and turned one of them completely on their heads. It seems that the Arizona Coyotes needed more than just a practice and an optional skate to find their sea legs without Rob Klinkhammer and David Schlemko; with yet another loss in regulation, the Coyotes fell farther out of playoff contention.

With this win, the Coyotes are now 0-5 in their most recent contests against the Atlantic Division franchise, falling to a combined overall score of 16-6. With this loss, they extended to a franchise-record seven game losing streak; with their win, the Bruins managed to salvage the final game of a four-contest road trip through the Pacific Division.

*Note: Devan Dubnyk got yanked for the first time this season, dropping the ball on the first half of the game and being bailed out by Mike Smith at the end. Apparently, Arizona just has two really bad goaltenders.

First Period: Asleep at the Wheel

To call the first period anything resembling an NHL hockey game would be an insult to the other 22 teams that took the ice tonight.

Arizona set the tone for the entire night in the face-off circle from the start of the game on, but Boston’s Brad Marchand managed to capitalize on an early turnover by Oliver Ekman-Larsson to fire the first goal of the night just :58 seconds into the game.

The early scoring wouldn’t stop there, as the Bruins took a 2-0 lead exactly five minutes later on a shot by defenseman Kevan Miller. The Coyotes still looked as though they were surprised the game had started; not good when the Boston Bruins all wore matching looks of crazed desperation for the entire sixty minutes.

A final goal in the first period by center Joe Vitale at the 13:11 marker earned the Coyotes a one-goal deficit, but the damage had been done; the team would fail to recover from those first two goals before the end of the night.

Second Period: Season of Giving

Neither team deserves credit for a single part of the second period.

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Boston pulled ahead with three unanswered goals by the grace of the hockey gods, giving Simon Gagne his third goal of the season, Loui Eriksson his fourth, and Brad Marchand his eighth. With these three goals (one coming on the man-advantage for Boston, taking advantage of a tripping penalty against Martin Hanzal), Marchand and his linemate Reilly Smith improved to a monstrous eight points in two games, scoring two goals apiece and assisting on two per as well.

The Coyotes had no excuse to drop another three goals against, though — the home team made inexcusable mistakes that negated the parts of the game they were dominating in and practically handed Boston their final three markers. For a team that absolutely smothered the opposition in the faceoff circle, came off the rush faster by a mile, and blocked an insane number of shots, Arizona managed to collapse through a refusal to take quick shots on goal and poor marksmanship in their own zone. For every turnover the Coyotes forced (which was a considerable number, Boston looked like a mess for the meat of the game), they failed to put enough pressure on Tuukka Rask and wasted yet another opportunity.

It took until about midway through the second period for both teams to start waking up; as Boston woke up faster, they took a sizeable lead.

Third Period: Boston [Finishes] Strong

There’s a reason the Boston Bruins are still regarded so highly across the league.

While there’s no argument that the Arizona Coyotes are capable of playing good hockey, they have yet to prove they’re capable of consistent hockey — and that was the deciding factor in Saturday night’s matchup.

By the final twenty minutes, Arizona was keeping up with Boston easily; in almost any other game, the Coyotes could probably have forced a comeback. The Bruins finished as strongly as the Calgary Flames did earlier last week, though — and despite a renewed vigor brought upon by Mikkel Boedker‘s ninth goal of the season, the Coyotes were unable to get more than two goals on the game. At the final buzzer, the Coyotes had dropped yet another decision heading into December.

Tweet of the night:

Arizona’s First Star: Michael Stone (1A, 2SOG, 1 HIT, 3 BK)
Once again, the Arizona Coyotes defensive corps was led without question by Michael Stone — with no penalty minutes (but one solid hit and three blocked shots to add to the 76 he already has on the season) and two unblocked shots on goal, Stone personified the two-way play that Keith Yandle and Oliver Ekman-Larsson are supposed to. The team may consider making bigger roster changes, but it’s almost guaranteed that Michael Stone isn’t going anywhere.

Arizona’s Worst Star: Every Other Defenseman On The Ice.
The game literally started with a turnover by Ekman-Larsson, and the play for the five other Coyotes blue liners didn’t improve from there. Chris Summers and Connor Murphy did no damage, but certainly weren’t game-changers… and both OEL and Zbynek Michalek were inexcusably off. I would post a screen cap of where Michalek and Ekman-Larsson were for Loui Eriksson’s goal, but it hurts too much.

I’m just kidding, this has to be documented. Look:

This is actually what happened.

I blurred everything else, just so you get the full impact of where Loui Eriksson was — and, more importantly, where the two defensemen were.

Unacceptable.

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