Arizona Coyotes Can’t Solve Miller, Lose 2-1 To Canucks

Entering their second straight week of must-win scenarios, the Arizona Coyotes failed to come away with the victory for their fifth straight game and have now fallen to 5th in the Pacific Division.

With their loss to Vancouver the Arizona Coyotes are moving further and further from the thick of the playoff race.

The performance on Wednesday night was pretty solid all-around which is encouraging, but the team has now lost five straight and are about to enter another back-to-back this weekend.

The scoring started early with Jake Virtanen taking a nice feed from Jared McCann to beat Louis Domingue.

The play was a mess of coverage for the Coyotes and there wasn’t much Louis could do to save himself.

Canucks  1-0.

A while later, Klas Dahlbeck appeared to tie the game with a shot from the point but Vancouver challenged the play was offside. Sure enough, Marty Hanzal was offside and the goal was disallowed. Still 1-0 Vancouver.

2:38 into the second period, Martin Hanzal scored a power play goal after some nice tic-tac-toe with Max Domi and Anthony Duclair. 1-1.

Late in the second, Jannik Hansen‘s shot deflected off two defenders and into Domingue’s net in rather improbable fashion. 2-1 Canucks.

The Yotes attempted to claw back and created good pressure late in the 3rd but were unable to solve Ryan Miller.

Vancouver Canucks win 2-1.

Player Performance

Antoine Vermette took another two penalties because that’s what he does. I guess. He also saved a sure empty-netter late in regulation. I am out of ways to describe how Tippett is playing him above his head and due to lack of depth there’s really nothing that can be done about it.

The invisibility of Martin Hanzal was a recent subject here on the site. Last night he was not invisible but he still hardly looks like himself. He was offsides on the Klas Dahlbeck goal which resulted in the play being overturned with a coaches’ challenge. He made up for it later with his own goal but something is not right in the game of #11.

The kids Max Domi and Anthony Duclair had a strong night with several plays made. I think nearly every Coyotes fan wishes they would defer less, however. Domi’s penchant for taking the offensive zone and then pulling up and waiting on a trailer who nine times out of ten cannot handle his pass is frustrating. That’s his game and he’s a playmaker and not a scorer – he’s said that several times. But he has to recognize that right now he and the Duke are the catalysts on offense and take some of those shots or force that puck to the net.

It was not a great game for Oliver Ekman-Larsson. He was a minus-2 and got absolutely shelled in possession.

Poor Klas Dahlbeck. Gets back in the lineup and scores an early goal to tie the game…and then it’s disallowed. Been a rough month for Mr. Dahlbeck.

Arizona Coyotes Player of the Game

After much hand-wringing and consternation, Louis Domingue returned to form last night and made a couple of ten bell saves to boot.

He was once again poised in net and looked precisely like the Louis we saw for the majority of January. If he can pull it back together and finish strong for the Coyotes – regardless of the team’s final record – that would be a great thing for the organization moving forward.

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The View From The 200 Level

Last night’s game bore a passing similarity to the Coyotes shutout loss to New Jersey a while back.

The Arizona Coyotes did not play nearly as good against the Canucks as they did the Devils, but they did play well enough to deserve the win. When you compare tonight’s good effort in a loss to the number of times the Yotes have stolen games they should have lost, however, it stings a little less.

Couple that with a penalty kill that allowed only one shot on goal and you can leave Wednesday night’s game with a modicum of hope moving forward.

The Coyotes have done what the Canucks did last night to many teams this season. Tippett echoed that same sentiment in his post-game presser. That’s how the game goes sometimes.

One questionable bit that I saw on Wednesday night was the Coyotes lineup when they pulled Domingue for the extra attacker. There was no Max Domi nor an Anthony Duclair on the ice in the Coyotes’ first stab at the 6-on-5 with 1:22 remaining.

This came after a timeout so they were not winded.

Next: Should The Coyotes Trade Mikkel Boedker?

While I understand the names Tippett did want to include on the ice at the time, I cannot quite wrap my head around how both Domi and Duclair were sitting when you needed a goal. At least one should be on the ice, preferably both. They are the best 1-2 battery the Yotes have for creating chances.

The sledding for the boys is uphill only from here on out. They are now 5th in the Pacific Division, two points back of Vancouver and still five points back of Anaheim.

By the end of the week, they could be all but relegated to an early summer if the wins don’t start coming soon.

The Arizona Coyotes play the Calgary Flames on Friday night.