Shane Doan And Zdeno Chara Lead Ailing Teams
Shane Doan and Zdeno Chara: What could they possibly have in common?
Shane Doan, 38, is in his nineteenth season in the NHL.
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Across the ice from him Saturday night will be Zdeno Chara; also a veteran captain, Chara won’t turn 38 for another couple of weeks. These two long-time NHLers have seen the best and the worst of the league.
Right now, they’re both deeply immersed in the worst of it.
The Boston Bruins have only won three of their last ten games — better than the one win Arizona has recorded in the same period, but nowhere near good enough for a team hoping to see the post-season. With barely any cap space to work with and two of the team’s veteran centers out for chunks of time (Gregory Campbell out for a week, David Krejci out four to six weeks) the Boston Bruins are hurting; with an impatient fanbase wondering why the team dropped competitive players last summer, the Arizona Coyotes are desperate.
Doan and Chara are both the ones tasked with possibly the hardest jobs of all, though — in the face of some pretty crummy games and fairly immobile rosters, both men are responsible for keeping spirits up game after game. They’re both tough, gritty players that don’t mind getting their hands dirty — but they’ve got to translate that never-back-down attitude to the rest of their teammates if they expect to play well Saturday night.
Three Pre-Game Storylines:
– It’s been pretty obvious over the past few weeks that players like Shane Doan and Zdeno Chara are seeing this season take a toll on their performances — not just from an effort standpoint, but simply because they’re getting tired. For a while, the young guys on each roster were failing to compensate accordingly — the Coyotes weren’t upping their shot count, and the Bruins weren’t blocking shots against well enough — but each team has seen a gradual shift in this over the last handful of games. It should be interesting to see if the rookies can keep this up.
– Antoine Vermette is likely gone by Monday morning — but the Bruins are a team that’s been pretty interested in him. Could be intriguing to watch how he reacts to playing what may be his last game in an Arizona Coyotes uniform against the team that he could potentially move to by tomorrow or the following day.
– Lucas Lessio and Tobias Rieder have been the unlucky recipients of some pretty seriously low PDO over the last few games — for some reason, neither of them can find the back of the net. Same goes in Boston for Brad Marchand and Chris Kelly — but each team has also seen bottom six guys find their scoring touch out of nowhere. Daniel Paille (third line wing, Boston) has two goals in his last two games — and both Mark Arcobello and Sam Gagner have the same record over their last two contests. Tonight could be a test to see whether the so-called ‘puck luck’ is more in favor of Arizona or Boston.
Before you go:
Both Tuukka Rask and Mike Smith have been severely overworked for their respective clubs — but while Rask was given a day off because he flat out fell ill, Smith has yet to see that reprieve.
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Niklas Svedberg is likely to see the start tonight, but he’s been held off the ice too often to see much confidence from fans in giving him back-to-back starts. Either way, the goalies facing each other across the ice will be expected to carry their teams — and none of the goalies involved seem very capable of doing that.
It’s not all bad, though — with Sam Gagner scoring back-to-back power play goals during the Coyotes’ 4-3 loss on Thursday, Henrik Samuelsson playing a great game in his NHL debut, and Louis Domingue back in the lineup, the Coyotes have a lot to smile about. Couple in the playoff spot that the OHL London Knights locked in on Friday — ensuring that Coyotes prospects Max Domi and Christian Dvorak see some good playoff action — and the Arizona Coyotes haven’t been all doom and gloom.
More from Howlin' Hockey
- How the Arizona Coyotes could line-up with Logan Cooley signed
- Report: Logan Cooley could be closer to signing Arizona Coyotes ELC
- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
- Arizona Coyotes cut Galchenyuk after reported police incident