Louis Domingue Show: Coyotes vs. Canadiens

Louis Domingue likely to get full look against Montreal Canadiens

Louis Domingue got quite literally thrown to the wolves when he played his first period of NHL hockey against the Ottawa Senators Saturday afternoon.

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We’ve given you a nice look at the young goaltender already, but few Coyotes fans have really had a chance to see him in action — which is why, even though there’s a Super Bowl on today, Coyotes fans should try and tune in to the game today.

If you don’t have Game Center, you won’t get a chance to check out this game — but with Louis Domingue (a Quebec native) getting his first official NHL start, the Arizona Coyotes might be looking at their first glimpse of next season’s roster to start out February.

Don’t worry — we’ll make sure to post any awe-inspiring in-net highlights for you all after the game.

Details for Sunday afternoon’s game:

DATE: Sunday, February 1st
TIME: 1:00 P.M. (EST)
LOCATION: Montreal, Quebec
ARENA: Bell Centre
TV INFO: CiTV, RDS (no showing in Arizona)

Projected Line Combinations:

Forwards:
Tobias Rieder – Antoine Vermette – Shane Doan
Martin Erat – Sam Gagner – Lauri Korpikoski
Brandon McMillan – Kyle Chipchura – David Moss
Lucas Lessio – Brendan Shinnimin – B.J. Crombeen
Injured: Martin Hanzal (no confirmation he’s in today), Joe Vitale (day-to-day)

Defense:
Zbynek Michalek – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Keith Yandle – Michael Stone
Andrew Campbell – Connor Murphy
Healthy Scratch: Chris Summers

Goal: Louis Domingue

Keys to Success:

1. Come in strong. After the game yesterday, Sam Gagner said that the team felt ‘flat’, and that they had to come into their afternoon games more energized than they have this season. Lucky for him, they’ve got another afternoon game today to put his words into action!

2. Help the goaltender. Head coach Dave Tippett said that to win, you have to have good goaltending — and unfortunately, even he admitted that Mike Smith wasn’t a very good goaltender yesterday. Hence the team’s insistence on giving rookie Louis Domingue a chance — a Quebec native, Domingue will likely want to show his home province what he’s capable of. The team has to help him out, though — as fans have witnessed all season, a mediocre defense can absolutely break a goaltender’s confidence and ruin the game before it even truly begins. This is something that the franchise cannot afford to do. They have to stand strong in front of newcomer Domingue, and — at the very least — give him an opportunity to get settled in before the game gets out of hand. The Canadiens have struggled on offense lately, and that could work to Arizona’s advantage if they combine good goaltending with the higher shot count (as they did one game ago, and half-did Saturday afternoon).

3. Remain consistent. This is one of the most up-and-down teams in the NHL; the Arizona Coyotes go from a stellar game against a competitive team to a messy, embarrassing showing against one that they should easily have the advantage over. Much like the Calgary Flames, the Coyotes are becoming a younger team — and while many of the young players they’re debuting are going to be impressive in the league within the next few seasons, it’s a rough transition. Should they be able to hold down the fort and remain consistent throughout the game, though, the Canadiens are dealing with a similar struggle this season — and this could easily be anyone’s game.

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