Mark Arcobello Debuts Against San Jose: Game Day
Mark Arcobello joins Coyotes top six against the San Jose Sharks
Welcome to the desert, Mark!
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Not to hype up a new player who should really carve out a role on the bottom six, but Mark Arcobello has easily been one of the most underrated players in the NHL this season.
Sitting on fifteen points in fifty games, Arcobello has managed to develop from an undersized, defensively weak forward to one of the most all-around proficient players in the NHL. He’s not top six material on a long-term basis, but he was able to crank out seven goals with the Edmonton Oilers over just under forty games while averaging just under sixteen minutes of ice time. He may not be a star, but he’s able to carry the burden of increased minutes — and good thing, too.
Just hours after the Coyotes announced that Brandon McMillan had been picked up by the Canucks (he was placed on waivers when the team won the claim for Arcobello), general manager Don Maloney made another huge, season-altering announcement:
Martin Hanzal is out for the season with back surgery.
The Coyotes tend to play well against the Sharks, but these aren’t the desert dogs you’re familiar with. Hopefully, this unfamiliar roster will be able to crank out a win — because the way the team is playing, this might be a partially salvageable season.
Details for Friday Night’s game:
DATE: Friday, February 13th
TIME: 7:00 P.M. (MST)
LOCATION: Glendale, Arizona
ARENA: Gila River Arena
TV INFO: Fox Sports AZ, CSCA
Projected Line Combinations:
Forwards:
Tobias Rieder – Antoine Vermette – Shane Doan
Lucas Lessio – Mark Arcobello – Sam Gagner
Lauri Korpikoski – Kyle Chipchura – Martin Erat
Jordan Martinook – Brendan Shinnimin – David Moss
Healthy Scratch: B.J. Crombeen
Injured Reserve: Joe Vitale, Martin Hanzal (season), Mikkel Boedker
Defense:
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Zbynek Michalek
Michael Stone – Keith Yandle
Connor Murphy – Andrew Campbell
Extra Skater: Brandon Gormley
Goal: Mike Smith
Coyotes News:
– Max Domi is still on pace for well over a hundred points in the OHL this season; not only is he primed to match his numbers from last year, he’s on track to pass them up by a large margin — and he’s ten games back, since he missed time for the World Juniors. Between him and Christian Dvorak, the London Knights are a team that could make a run deep into the Memorial Cup playoffs — and while that means that the Coyotes won’t see Domi this year, that bodes well for what they see next year.
-Martin Hanzal is out for the rest of the season for back surgery; while missing him for the rest of the season may seem alarming at first, the roster has actually performed quite well while he’s been out of the lineup. The young players that have been seeing NHL action — Lucas Lessio, Brendan Shinnimin, Tobias Rieder, even Andrew Campbell — have been playing at an NHL-level clip over the last two weeks. Expect the team to continue performing well if they keep up their energy and pace.
– Tyler Bozak is on the market, according to reports. Let’s all just close our eyes and think about what Max Domi and Tobias Rieder could do flanking Tyler Bozak next season — if you then keep Martin Hanzal and Shane Doan together and see good numbers from the Lessio-Arcobello-Gagner line, the Coyotes could look pretty lethal next season.
– Speaking of the Lessio – Arcobello – Gagner line; Lessio has two goals and two assists since getting his second call-up, while Arcobello has fifteen points in fifty games and Sam Gagner has been matching (if not prepping himself to surpass) his scoring totals from last season. With ten goals and seventeen assists, Gagner is ten games behind where he was last season, is ten better in plus-minus (on an equally struggling team), and is only ten assists out from his total from his final season in Edmonton.
-Honorary update on Devan Dubnyk: He has five shutouts this season, a .925 SV%, and has a 9-1-1 record with the Minnesota Wild. R.I.P. Devan Dubnyk.