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Arizona Coyotes Have Zero Crease Control In 5-1 Loss

By Richard Flores

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The Coyotes scored first on Thursday in the fourth of a five game home stand, but couldn’t hold onto it

The Predators went on to score five straight goals to hand the Coyotes their eighth straight home loss.

 

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    • The return of Mike Ribiero and Olli Jokinen to Glendale was met with a pretty nice response on the Coyotes side, in that the home team was able to find enough spark to capitalize on an early power-play chance. They moved the puck very well, and — finding an open Antoine Vermette in the slot — gave the Coyotes an early 1-0 lead.

    That, however, was the high point for the Coyotes… as shortly thereafter, they were victimized by a Preds team wasn’t afraid to attack the net.

     The Predators finished the first period on fire by scoring three goals before the end of the first twenty.

    The first came off a Mike Fisher deflection in front thanks in large part to a broken Michael Stone stick. The second and third might as well have been carbon copies of each other, as both came thanks to bad coverage by Coyotes defenseman (stop me if you heard that before) — James Neal and Ryan Ellis both grabbed their goals by attacking the Coyotes crease and out skating Coyotes blueliners to loose pucks.

    Dec 11, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Nashville Predators center Calle Jarnkrok (19) and Arizona Coyotes left wing Mikkel Boedker (89) battle for the puck during the third period at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

     

    Despite the two goal deficit after one, the Coyotes came out looking good in the second period. I thought they actually won the period — not only in shots on goal (12-9 AZ in second period), but in work ethic.

    At times, all four lines were clicking in the second period… and the Coyotes looked like they were slowly gaining back momentum, knowing a goal would easily get them back in it. As advertised, however, the Coyotes couldn’t turn work ethic and puck possession into goals.

    They had plenty of chances though; at the end of the second period, Martin Hanzal won a puck battle deep in the Preds zone, and ended up drawing a penalty to put the Coyotes back on the powerplay. They didn’t convert, and the game got away from the Coyotes from there.

     

    The Coyotes once again had some chances to start the third but as the 2014-15 season has gone they made a mistake by losing another battle and leaving Jarnkrok open in the slot and gave up another goal that sealed the victory for Nashville.

     

    Former Coyote Olli Jokinen would add another goal later for the Preds to make it 5-1.

    The real problem though for the Coyotes was that their mistakes seemed to be amplified, looking at the Preds shot attempt chart the Coyotes were able to keep most of the Predators shots to the outside of the circles and back at the points but unfortunately the Coyotes made their mistakes is exactly the wrong places and the Predators capitalized as all five goals essentially came from directly in front or to the side of Mike Smith’s crease.

     

    Another game, another frustrating loss at home. So, Whats next?

    The end of the homestand is (finally?) here, as the Minnesota Wild come to town — and needless to say, it won’t be any easier against yet another Western conference power.

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