Arizona Coyotes’ New Years Resolutions

More Discipline

Taking penalties is so easy to improve on and yet so crippling to a team’s success if they don’t.

Here are all the negatives to taking too many penalties:

• Increased scoring chances for the opposition.
• Wears out the goaltender.
• Wears out the top defensemen.
• Forces skilled players (and young players) to sit on the bench for extended periods of time, REDUCING THEIR ICE TIME.
• Deflates team morale and momentum.

So many negatives, and yet the Arizona Coyotes have taken the fourth most penalties this season. Last year they were one of only two teams with over 1,000 penalty minutes.

As Dave Tippett has said, taking penalties is like shooting yourself in the foot.

Clearly this team has gone numb to the pain, but that needs to change if they want to find any success in 2017.