Arizona Coyotes Need to Resolve Helter-Skelter Play to Beat Edmonton Oilers

The Coyotes will need to make significantly more progress to recapture their effective, disciplined style of play and beat the first place Oilers on Sunday.

The Arizona Coyotes escaped Los Angeles by the “skin of their teeth” on Saturday by playing some worrisome, inconsistent hockey against the Kings, yet winning 3 to 2.

Some will say that a win is a win and let’s move on, while others may believe that what the team did and how it did it is indeed important to assess and prepare for the following game (and ultimately the playoffs).

Early on in the Kings game it looked as if the “old” blue collar Coyotes had reappeared out of the fog of the Toronto debacle and were in control. That changed in the latter part of the first period, however, and the familiar, successful style of play was mostly absent throughout the second stanza.

The third period was a combination of aggressive forechecking play by each club and resulted in better possession of the puck by both the Coyotes and the L.A. Kings.

There wasn’t much flow to the entire contest on either side, and it seemed as though both teams were only playing effective hockey in spurts without the necessary focus and hard work being employed to gain sustained possession of the puck.

As Fox Sports Arizona’s TV Analyst Tyson Nash explained, there were too many times where the Coyotes were “one and done” inside the Kings’ “D” zone without many secondary scoring chances resulting from rebounded shots or takeaways.

In essence, the desert dogs played well enough on poor ice to escape with a win against the current bottom-dwelling Kings, but their Saturday afternoon performance will probably not be nearly good or effective enough to result in a victory, impressive or not, against the top of the table Edmonton Oilers in front of the home crowd.

Oilers’ superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl feast on defensive mistakes when they’re not busy creating their own glorious scoring chances on offense. As a result, the Coyotes will need to tighten up their defensive structure and, as they do when they’re playing well-disciplined hockey, consistently attack and defend as 5-man units. Oh, and forecheck, forecheck, forecheck.

It’s easier said than done, but that’s the formula for this team’s success. One game at a time, boys. Let’s go Coyotes!