Arizona Coyotes: Few Negatives In 6-2 Thumping Of Canadiens
The Arizona Coyotes offense awoke last night against the Montreal Canadiens and there weren’t many negatives to take away. It was a total team win, starting with the resurgence of Martin Hanzal.
The Arizona Coyotes finally had the offensive breakthrough they’ve been waiting for. 13 Coyotes found their names on the score sheet.
Martin Hanzal has re-emerged as a force in the offensive zone and it’s no huge surprise that the Yotes followed suit behind them.
It may have been forgotten, but Hanzal was the catalyst for the youth explosion that carried the team through those first ten or fifteen games and really set the tone for the season. He definitely had a noted impact on Anthony Duclair’s early performance.
If there was any downside at all to last night’s contest it was the play of Louis Domingue and a few more lapses in the coverage in front of him.
He faced just 19 shots but still gave up two goals and both of them were fairly soft.
The first saw him slide from post-to-post to stop a wraparound attempt. Jacob De La Rose outwitted Domingue and a fed a pass straight back up in front of the net where Brad Richardson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Connor Murphy were all caught puck watching and flat footed.
It was a team effort to give up that early 1-0 lead on the Dale Weise goal.
The Brendan Gallagher goal through the five hole was simply bad all around by Domingue. There’s no else to point even an iota of a finger at. He has to have those.
Now the Arizona Coyotes enter a two game joust with Central Division foes Dallas and St. Louis.
Not an easy task by any means, but if Domingue can maintain solid footing and Hanzal can continue leading the way the Yotes still have a fighting chance.
Now for some links.
Coyotes Talk
Naturally, the other story of the night was that of emergency backup goalie Nathan Schoenfeld. When you get the call to suit up for your first NHL game, you still gotta make sure the wife is ok with finishing bath time for the kids. Afterwards, Nathan told reporters “I don’t know if I have the words quite yet,” he said. “It will probably take a bit to soak in. Just go home and sit with my family and just enjoy the night.” Talk about the Arizona Coyotes’ fan experience of a lifetime!
With more or less everyone else wilting down the stretch, captain Shane Doan has continued to light things up with his third line compatriots. That culminated in him conquering Dale Hawerchuk’s franchise points record last Friday against Calgary. Today’s Slapshot’s Craig Morgan spoke to former Arizona Coyotes assistant general manager (and current Flames general manager) Brad Treliving about Doan. “He’s been at the front of the bus for that team and dragging it along for as long as I can remember,” said Treliving, who was the Coyotes assistant GM for seven seasons. “Until you’re around him every day, you simply can’t understand just how much impact he has.”
Amid the ongoing arena speculation, Puck Daddy’s Josh Cooper wrote an article after speaking with Arizona Coyotes co-owner Anthony LeBlanc. Among several tidbits that were mentioned, the Coyotes’ president and CEO seemed to double down on the links to ASU. “One of the things we’ve been pretty open about as have they is we’ve had deep discussions with Arizona State University. There are so many natural synergies with ASU especially since they’ve moved to a Division One (hockey) program.” This move can’t come soon enough.
More from Coyotes News
- 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
Last but not least, Joe Vitale was shutdown for the season by the Arizona Coyotes at the end of last week. This comes after an inability to get over concussion-related issues stemming from his fight with Jimmy Hayes to protect Oliver Ekman-Larsson. And as Sarah Hall writes on Along the Boards, it is for that kind of stand up mentality that Vitale “will always be a fan favorite, for many reasons to many people. But right now, he needs to focus on recovery, and hopefully Coyotes fans will see him again next season.” Hopefully Vitale can recover, and if not return to the NHL, at least lead a full and productive life off the ice.
Around The NHL
The Buffalo Sabres decided to sit Evander Kane for a game after he overslept and missed Monday’s practice. There may or may not have been a trip to the NBA All-Star game on Sunday night that raised their ire. Okay, there was.
Sometimes you just gotta change the coach. It felt like that was the case for more than one season with the Minnesota Wild, and they finally belatedly did it last week with the firing of Mike Yeo. Iowa Wild (AHL) head coach John Torchetti was promoted to fill the job and got his first win in his first game. He also used smelling salts before the game. “It’s to get me going,” Torchetti said of the smelling salts. “I’ve just always done it, as a player and as a coach. That’s my only superstition, so I have to keep it.” I like this guy.
Next: Emergency Backup Goalie Schoenfeld Wins Coyotes' Player Of The Game Belt
Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman came out and said that Steven Stamkos will not be traded before the trade deadline. Okay then, boss. But what if he walks? Mikkel Boedker and the Arizona Coyotes were very happy to hear this news, by the way.