Brandon Gormley Is Back! Coyotes – Canucks Preview
Welcome back to the Arizona Coyotes lineup, Brandon Gormley!
Life is funny, and Brandon Gormley’s return in time for the Arizona Coyotes – Vancouver Canucks matchup only further proves this.
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This season, the Coyotes only got a chance to see Gormley in six games before a funny hit took him down for a good chunk of the season’s start — ironically enough, during the same game in which he scored his first career NHL goal.
This first-round pick from 2010 is finally shaping up to be the kind of player that the Coyotes had always hoped he would be; after being a leader in Portland last season, the 22-year-old blue liner is looking to make an impact with the big club this year now that he’s healthy again.
He was sent to Portland after becoming healthy once more for a conditioning stint, but no one expected that to last — and now that he’s back, Coyotes fans should be ready to see a Brandon Gormley who’s ready to take on the Vancouver Canucks with the tenacity and grit only seen from guys who’s been held out of the game for a while.
Details for Monday night’s game:
DATE: Monday, December 22nd
TIME: 7:00 P.M. (PST)
LOCATION: Vancouver, British Columbia
ARENA: Rogers Arena
TV INFO: Fox Sports Arizona, RSNP
Projected Line Combinations:
Forwards:
Mikkel Boedker – Antoine Vermette – Shane Doan
Tobias Rieder – Martin Hanzal – Sam Gagner
Martin Erat – Kyle Chipchura – David Moss
Brandon McMillan – Joe Vitale – B.J. Crombeen
Scratch: Lauri Korpikoski (injury), Alexandre Bolduc (presumed scratch)
Defense:
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Zbynek Michalek
Keith Yandle – David Schlemko
Connor Murphy – Brandon Gormley
Scratch: Michael Stone (poss. injury), Chris Summers (presumed scratch)
Goal: Mike Smith
Holding Out for Ryan Miller
Is that mean? I sure hope so.
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The Arizona Coyotes have their chances for a win increased by tenfold with Ryan Miller in net — he’s posted an abysmal .835 over his last four games, dropping three of them and getting pulled against Toronto after allowing four goals on fourteen shots.
Mike Smith may be having one of his worst seasons on record — he has yet to pull over the .900SV% on the season — but holds stronger with considerably more frequent shots against than Miller; if the Coyotes can remember how to shut down Vancouver’s top line, they’ll be in business.
(Seriously — the only time Smith was faced with fewer than twenty shots was when the Bruins took nine against during Smitty’s tenure in net. He only allowed one.)
Eddie Lack is meeting with far more success than Miller this season, posting a .916 SV% in his first twelve starts. For whatever reason, though, the Canucks don’t play as well in front of him — and as such, he boasts a 6-2-4 record in the face of Miller’s 17-7-0. You could argue that his higher save percentage and four overtime losses push him to a 10-2 in regulation (significantly prettier than Miller’s 17-7), but Vancouver is faced with the same six-million dollar question that Arizona is… so don’t be surprised if they send the vet out tonight.
That’s right. It’s the battle of the $6 million cap hit goaltenders who can’t save a thing.
Players to Watch:
1. Brandon Gormley: After a three-game conditioning stint to come back from his injury, Gormley could be ready to roll. Check out his three conditioning games — it’s clear he’s on the track back.
2. Radim Vrbata: I always get this strong feeling that he hates scoring against the team he loved to call home, but there’s no denying that Vrbata — and his top line of Swedish clones — has been performing at top capacity so far this season. If anyone is going to put the pressure on Arizona, this line could very likely be it.
3. Oliver Ekman-Larsson: He started off pretty shaky this season, and no one will argue that he’s become perfect as the seasons wears on — but OEL is known around the league for a reason, and he’s proving it. With three overtime winning goals and the second highest shots for on the team, Ekman-Larsson is the offensive leader of this defensive team’s blue line… and they know it.
4. Jannik Hansen: He collapsed this weekend, but it’s confirmed that he’ll be on the ice tonight. So that’s a thing.
5. Sam Gagner: It’s hard to be Sam Gagner. He’s coming from one of the weakest systems in the NHL in terms of developing prospects, and it’s apparent in his play that he’s been there for almost a decade. We’ve seen him really try to step it up over his last few games, though, taking more shots and pushing towards the net more often. He’s on a line with Tobias Rieder again, and it looks like these two are starting to find some chemistry — if you’re a Coyotes fan, you should be excited about what’s to come of this second line.
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