Arizona Coyotes – Howlin’ Hockey Wednesday’s Words
This is a new series discussing various hockey topics concerning the Arizona Coyotes or the NHL in general. We hope you — our readers enjoy it.
There’s plenty to discuss around the NHL on this Veteran’s Day. Being a veteran myself, I was thankful for the opportunity to serve my country, and we should never forget all of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice with their lives defending our freedom.
More From Howlin’ Hockey -> Arizona Coyotes Living California Dream This Season
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- How the Arizona Coyotes could line-up with Logan Cooley signed
- Report: Logan Cooley could be closer to signing Arizona Coyotes ELC
- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
- Arizona Coyotes cut Galchenyuk after reported police incident
The buzz around the league (besides who are these Domi/Duclair guys?) centers around was number one draft pick Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, purposely pushed into the end boards where he sustained a fractured clavicle? Or, was it an unfortunate hockey play where McDavid lost his footing and couldn’t stop in time?
Renowned NHL hockey broadcaster and owner of some of the most bizarre wardrobe outfits you’ll ever see… Don Cherry claims the former. He has stated that Brandon Manning and Michael Del Zotto intentionally hurt McDavid. That’s quite a flamboyant statement to make even for someone like Cherry. We’ve all seen the replay over and over again.
More from Howlin' Hockey
- How the Arizona Coyotes could line-up with Logan Cooley signed
- Report: Logan Cooley could be closer to signing Arizona Coyotes ELC
- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
- Arizona Coyotes cut Galchenyuk after reported police incident
To me, it looked like the Flyers players were trying to cut McDavid off, and not allow him an embarrassing short-handed goal, when he lost his footing on whatever… bad ice who knows? He went down hard, and as Shane Doan can attest to, those end boards have no mercy. Your body gets damaged, plain and simple. In Doan’s case he could have crashed into the goalie Jimmy Howard of the Red Wings and injured him, or jump over him and take his chances with the end boards. We all know how that turned out.
One factor which Cherry is not allowing in his evaluation, is that the game is so much faster nowadays. Just look at the speed of the new rookies Domi and Duclair, or Boedker, or Reider. They can all fly, and sometimes they can’t stop in time to avoid the boards.
Frankly, I think Cheery is trying to drum up some unneeded drama on the entire event. The Flyers players were just doing their job, trying to defend against a super-fast and talented player from scoring without any challenge.
The other topic I wanted to touch on is the NHL GM’s will be meeting next month to evaluate the issue of increasing scoring in the game. Will that include making the net a different size? Possibly. They will also determine the success of the 3-on-3 overtime rule change.
So far the results are just about what they expected, in that the games have ended in overtime without the need for a boring shootout 70 per cent of the time. The fans enjoy it, as do the players. It just seems to end the game more legitimately instead of it being turned into a skills contest similar to the stunts they exhibit at the All-Star weekend event.
Players are still adjusting to it; just ask Ryan Getzlaf of the Ducks, who thought he was passing the puck to his team-mate, only to have the pass stolen by Mikkel Boedker, who traveled down to the other end, and scored the overtime winner before two minutes had elapsed in the extra period. It leaves so much open ice out there, that it adds a new dimension to the overtime play. I like it…do you?
Next: Coyotes Dylan Strome Is OHL Player-Of-Week
The Arizona Coyotes continued their stellar play in California by slipping by the L.A. Kings 3-2. Martin Hanzal finally scored not only his first goal of the season, but added another for good measure. At this point, the Coyotes almost wish they could keep on playing the California teams, having swept all four games thus far. I also called both of these games for the Ducks and Kings… I couldn’t be happier that I was wrong. The thing is, I also predicted that they would win the next two games against the Oilers and Blue Jackets. Let’s see how accurate I was this time.
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William
Editor
Howlin’ Hockey