Arizona Coyotes in game report: 2nd intermission down in Anaheim
The Arizona Coyotes are still down in Anaheim after two periods, but there are still some things to talk about in this in-game report!
All period long, I just kept thinking to myself all the Coyotes need is one goal. We just need to get one goal to get ourselves back in this game, well after 20 minutes of play we still don’t have the goal, but we aren’t done yet!
The Arizona Coyotes still have one period to turn this around. Yes, Derek Stepan was so close to scoring a goal on a breakaway, and if he did capitalize on that opportunity Anaheim would not have scored on the following drive.
The Coyotes are showing flashes of being the team we need them to be through the next 30 games, if they can’t find their game soon they are over. Antti Raanta has played great in this game. Honestly, I think we just need to simplify our play and defend the net.
At 6:45 remaining in the second period, all the Coyotes were going for a line change except for Jakob Chychrun. Raanta had to make a stop on basically a 3-0. Raanta is doing his absolute best at keeping the Coyotes in this one, now we need the players to start pulling their own weight and playing defensively sound hockey in front of Raanta.
I want to see the Coyotes play along the boards, and always look at getting pucks in deep, instead, we have seen them give up pucks in the neutral zone, and fail to defend the front of their own net.
The goal that the Coyotes needed came late in the second period when Lawson Crouse tallied a big goal with a little over 4 minutes to go in the period. Crouse managed to get a shot in past Gibson after collecting the puck along the boards, just as the team drew it up!
Honestly, if the Coyotes are going to get back into this game continuing they are going to need to continue to keep working the puck up ice. Oh, and maybe not having Taylor Hall getting into a fight. This game is going to get feisty, but we can’t let that ruin our game.
The Arizona Coyotes need to score on the power play. Anaheim has given them a plethora of opportunities, to the point where it’s like you are bound to score on one of them. Giving up the short-handed goal was not great, and honestly, this team can not win games unless they start to do better on the special teams.