Oct 25, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; The Arizona Coyotes celebrate after a goal by Arizona Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson (23) to beat Florida Panthers 2-1 in overtime at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
The 2014-15 season is a distant memory for the Arizona Coyotes, and they start fresh Friday night.
No team likes to lose. No coach, especially Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett likes to lose. No General Manager likes to lose, since he will be the first one to be blamed for failure.
So, with this new season about to commence, we take a look at five things which need to happen to make this new season something to remember for the Arizona Coyotes.
Next: 5. New Prospects
Oct 2, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes left wing Anthony Duclair (10) looks on during the second period against the San Jose Sharks at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
5. New Prospects
New prospects Max Domi and Anthony Duclair need to show that it was a good decision to put them on the regular roster. They are rookies (Duclair played 18 NHL games with the Rangers), and will make mistakes. Do they have talent and the desire to succeed in the NHL? Of course. To rely on them for a good portion of your offense is going to frustrate you more than finishing 29th last season.
They both have the tenacity, and finesse to be good NHL players. Will they both score 20 goals? Not sure. Max Domi WITH Anthony Duclair is a chemistry overload. They are good friends off the ice, and know each other’s moves on the ice. Not putting them out there on the same line would jeopardize that connection they seem to have, and can put to use to score some much needed goals for the offense starved Arizona Coyotes.
The duo whom I’m coining with the nickname “Dynamic Duo”, will certainly bring new excitement to a team who hasn’t had a 30 goal scorer for some time now. They can make some magical moves out there on the ice, and we are very anxious to see how well they can do.
So far the Dynamic Duo has been placed with two veteran center icemen, in Antoine Vermette and Martin Hanzal. Hanzal seems to already have chemistry with Domi, as displayed last year in pre-season games where Henrik Samuelsson was also on that line. The thing which Hanzal can do is win faceoffs to get the puck to Domi, or Duclair, and dig pucks out of the corners with his size. He’s not bad at screening the goalie either, with his huge 6’ 6”, 226 pound frame. This line should be dynamite.
Next: 4. Defense
Oct 2, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes defenseman Klas Dahlbeck (34) shoots the puck during the second period against the San Jose Sharks at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
4. Defense
It doesn’t take a scientist with a doctorate in nuclear fusion to figure out that the Arizona Coyotes defense was beyond sub-par last season. They gave up 3.32 goals a game, while only scoring 2.07 goals a game and that was their road to destruction.
Granted the defense is young. Klas Dahlbeck is 24. Connor Murphy is 22. Michael Stone is 25. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is 24. Stefan Elliott is 24. Niklas Grossmann at 30, and Zbynek Michalek is the senior statesman at 32. That’s an average age of 25.8. They have made mistakes, and having both Grossmann, who will mentor Dahlbeck, and Michalek being able to guide the younger D-men is vital.
The other factor will be that both Michalek and Grossmann will be killing penalties, and may be one of the defenseman used when the new overtime rule of 3-on 3 come into play.
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Head Coach Dave Tippett has leaned more to using two forwards with one defensemen when he tried it in the pre-season. What has been noticed is the line changes must be coordinated properly or you get some tired players out there, and that is when mistakes take place.
General Manager Don Maloney also has not ruled out changing his backline in hopes to reverse last season’s debacle. That includes trades, claiming players off waivers, whatever it takes. He claims to not be satisfied with his present roster, and doesn’t want to stay pat. I guess going after Cody Franson was not in his best interest for whatever reason, and Buffalo snatched him up. If Franson was not someone who can help this struggling team, I’m not quite sure who is.
Overall, this defense may perform a bit better than last season, but not by much. And, that won’t equate into a step in the direction of qualifying for the playoffs. And, if that happens, things will change, just wait and see.
Next: 3. Penalty Kill
Sep 28, 2015; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom (25) makes a save on Arizona Coyotes forward Boyd Gordon (15) in the second period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports
3. Penalty Kill
The penalty kill was not very good last season, coming in at 76.7%. The NHL average was 81.34%. Enter penalty kill specialist, Boyd Gordon. He not only wins over 55% of his face-offs, he excels in the art of killing off a penalty. If he wins the face-off, he can pretty much waste a good 30-40 seconds to run down that penalty time to a more manageable amount.
Throw in Michalek and Grossmann and you have a more than capable PK unit. Of course, avoiding taking penalties is easy to say, but harder to accomplish. With young players they tend to reach and grab instead of using positional placement to stop an attacking player. It all comes with experience, and we should see that experience kicking in some more this season for Connor Murphy, who played the entire season last year.
Zbynek Michalek is almost a second goaltender with the enormous amount of shots he blocks. That comes to 114 blocked shots a season, or 6.23 blocks a GAME. He does pay a price for that by getting injured from taking so much frozen rubber to his body.
Nicklas Grossman has been used on the penalty kill unit in his NHL career, and will be a welcome addition to increase the success rate of killing penalties for the Arizona Coyotes.
Next: 2. Offense
Sep 29, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes center Max Domi (16) carries the puck during the first period against the San Jose Sharks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
2. Offense
It’s quite simple…really. The Arizona Coyotes NEED Max Domi to step into a scoring role, so the team doesn’t have the embarrassing distinction of their leading scorer being a defenseman. That’s not taking anything away from Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who has advanced as the leader of the team in that role, since Keith Yandle (another D-man) left the team last season in a blockbuster trade to the New York Rangers.
Some say that’s a lot of pressure to put on a young prospect, and yet nothing is said of the pressure put on Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel to perform up to those standards, and they’re both younger than Domi, who is 20.
Of course the “experts” are declaring that they are going to finish dead last in the standings. Some are already accusing them of tanking so they can draft Auston Matthews next season. As sweet as that sounds, it’s not being competitive to tank in hopes for drafting a player who could change your franchise drastically. Besides, their odds to draft higher than number three last season fell through the cracks and crevices of bad luck.
Does this team have enough offense to get them out of the lower bowels of the NHL, and Western Conference? Perhaps.
Maybe if Domi scores 20-25 goals, and Duclair gets close to that, it could happen. If OEL continues to play All-Star caliber hockey, they have a shot. If the power play can continue to flourish, and the goals come easier and easier… they have a shot. If they realize that to put a good team on the ice, they must sign some expensive players who can do the job. You get what you pay for, and the good free agent players were not acquired by the Arizona Coyotes. That must change, if they want to get back into contention again.
Next: 1. Goaltending
Oct 2, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes goalie Mike Smith (41) makes a save during the third period against the San Jose Sharks at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
1. Goaltending
Mike Smith knows what he has to do this season. But, to deal with the pressures of carrying his team on his back, Smith has employed a sports psychologist to assist him and allow him to realize he can’t do it all by himself. It wrecked his confidence thinking that he had to do everything, or his team would fail.
He told AzCentral.com’s Sarah Mclellan:
“Whether it’s a good experience of you’re coming out of the game not feeling too good about yourself, I think it’s important to have someone that’s not involved in the team and doesn’t have anything to do with hockey or our team that you can throw ideas off of. That’s very important.”
Since the All-Star break last season, Smitty has improved his SV% to a repeatable .920. In fact, in March he upped that to .934, which is his best for that month in four years on the team.
He wants to right the ship, and knows what it feels like when it’s going down. He doesn’t want to go back there, and nobody can blame him. His play is so vital to the team’s success, but he also knows he needs help from his teammates. He plans to not set unreal expectations upon himself, and only control what he can control. That also means with his new goalie coach Jon Elkin, he will be around someone who knows him like a book, and can recognize a flaw in his game.
One factor that the Arizona Coyotes like about the new 3-on-3 overtime rule is, with Mike Smith between the pipes, they have in affect, a fourth player who can pass the puck, and handle it with skill. When a player is stuck and has no place to go with the puck, or they need to do a line change, they know they can pass the biscuit to Smitty with the knowledge that he knows what to do with it.
Still, as Mike Smith goes, the Arizona Coyotes go, and we will see how all that plays out starting in the first games against the arch-rival L.A. Kings.
