Arizona Coyotes need to play more disciplined
By Jim Lynch
The Arizona Coyotes are a few games removed from a 3 game losing streak. However, that losing streak should offer the Coyotes a learning experience when it comes to how they want to play.
You can not win games when you keep going to the penalty kill. The challenge for the Arizona Coyotes moving forward is playing more disciplined hockey going into the next few months. Arizona lost games against Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Pittsburgh this month. During those 3 games, the Coyotes were shorthanded 10 times, not a recipe for success by any means necessary.
Arizona is a team that prides themselves on their Penalty Kill, or rather I believe they have one of the best PK’s in the league, it truly has become their bread and butter. However, they keep giving the other team momentum when they should not.
Just look at last night, the Arizona Coyotes were set up. They had a 1-0 lead in the first period and were riding a little bit of momentum. Follow that up with a bad penalty kill and the Coyotes barely escape with the lead. Then not even a minute later the team goes down again thanks to a penalty by Michael Chaput for slashing. Next thing you know it is one to one.
Regardless of the outcome of the game, or rather you give up a goal, a penalty is never something you want to see your team take. Arizona has really taken a lot of penalties in the last few games, and I think they need to start playing more disciplined because of it.
There are a lot of culprits on this team. Jakob Chychrun has 28 penalty minutes, Oliver Ekman-Larsson has 24 minutes, the team needs to limit their penalty minutes if they want to win. Especially when you consider the fact that Arizona’s top defensemen are the one taking these penalties for the most part.
There are a lot of ways you can limit the number of penalties you take. It is all about limiting your turnovers, and not making bad mistakes in your own end. Taking a penalty due to a bad turnover in your own end is often necessary, but the turnover is not.
Especially with a great offensive team like Edmonton on Saturday. Edmonton has a power-play percentage of 29.86, well above the league average of 20.06 via Hockey Reference. Here is to the Coyotes limiting their bad penalties and playing disciplined hockey!