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Connorlina Comes To The Coyotes: Game Preview

By Catherine Silverman

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Arizona Coyotes host a recently-regressing “Connorlina” Hurricanes

Earlier this season, the Carolina Hurricanes were nicknamed ‘Connorlina’ — because when the month of October came to a close, they were the only team that had remained winless for the entire opening month of the season.

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Looking back at the Blackhawks' trades involving Andrew Ladd
Looking back at the Blackhawks' trades involving Andrew Ladd /

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    • Then, the Arizona Coyotes traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina — and became the first team to get defeated by the worst franchise (at the time) in the NHL.

    Fast forward three months, and the Arizona Coyotes are two wins up on the Hurricanes. Both teams have walked away from matchups with the Los Angeles Kings with victories (they were the second team to lose to the Hurricanes, and the first team to lose to the Coyotes in the opening week of the season), and they’ve suffered some crushing blows from other teams around the league. Jordan Staal has returned from his broken leg, and the Coyotes have lost Martin Hanzal — and, via trade, Devan Dubnyk.

    Neither of these teams look anything like they did at the start of the season — and while one is riding a 3-1-1 record for their last five games, the other is on a four-game losing streak. For the Coyotes to return to Glendale, expect an exciting matchup.

    Details for Thursday night’s game:

    DATE: Thursday, February 5th
    TIME: 7:00 P.M. (MST)
    LOCATION: Glendale, Arizona
    ARENA: Gila River Arena
    TV INFO: Fox Sports AZ, Fox Sports CR

    Projected Line Combinations:

    Forwards:
    Tobias Rieder – Antoine Vermette – Shane Doan
    Martin Erat – Alexandre Bolduc – Sam Gagner
    Lauri Korpikoski – Kyle Chipchura – David Moss
    Lucas Lessio – Brendan Shinnimin – B.J. Crombeen
    Healthy Scratch: Brandon McMillan
    Injured Reserve: Joe Vitale, Mikkel Boedker

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

    Coyotes thoughts of the day:

    While the game tonight is exciting, the Arizona Coyotes more or less are what they are for this game.

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    Toronto Maple Leafs: Max Domi Can Be Instant Fan Favorite
    Toronto Maple Leafs: Max Domi Can Be Instant Fan Favorite /

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    • Max Domi hasn’t been checked on by us much lately, though — and since his teammate Christian Dvorak both turned 19 and was named the OHL Player of the Month again (this time for the month of January) this week, it’s time to re-visit everyone’s favorite prospect:

    He’s still with the London Knights of the OHL, where he’ll likely remain either until they’re eliminated from the Memorial Cup playoffs (and then recalled to the NHL, per Coyotes GM Don Maloney) or until team development camp this coming fall.

    He’s still lighting it up in the major juniors, though, and fans of other teams are starting to take notice.

    With the Toronto Maple Leafs going 3-17-1 in their past twenty-one games, fans of the Original Six franchise have been desperately pleading to have the franchise swap sniper Phil Kessel for the gifted young forward. Unlikely to happen, but reassuring for Coyotes fans — because after all, the team gave up quite a few first-round picks for Kessel. If they’re willing to swap what eventually became both Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton for Domi, that’s probably a pretty good sign that he’s going to be something exciting.

    He’s also performing at a 1.89 PPG — the only two players on the Knights that are outperforming Domi are Christian Dvorak himself and Mitch Marner (and they each reverse have ten games on hand over him). He’s barely being outperformed offensively by Connor McDavid, and he’s discovered how to be an effective penalty killer this season — however the outcome of this game goes, just let that thought warm your desert-bred hearts.

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