Arizona Coyotes Manage Single Point in Two Games vs Blues
The Arizona Coyotes played the St. Louis Blues twice at Gila River Arena with underwhelming results. Apparently, home ice advantage doesn’t exist for either team.
Isn’t it amazing how a professional sports team can play two drastically different games on two consecutive nights at home without much to show for their efforts? The Arizona Coyotes’ Friday night iteration against the Blues and goalkeeper Jordan Binnington was a closely fought contest with little scoring until late in the third period. Both Binnington and Yotes’ netminder Darcy Kuemper were sharp. Both teams featured solid defense and crisp passing, but someone always has to lose, and it was the Coyotes on this disappointing night, 4 to 1. Two open netters in quick succession made a tightly fought contest seem less so. Darcy Kuemper was pulled twice for a 6 on 5 man advantage, and the Blues took advantage of it both times.
The Coyotes played fairly consistently throughout the game and certainly had their chances to score, but to be fair, the Blues had ample opportunity too. That game could have easily gone either way.
Arizona Coyotes’ Captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson played for the first time since suffering a lower body injury in the early part of the season. He appeared a bit rusty early on, but as the game progressed he got much more involved in the physical battles. Still, his performance had mixed results, as you would expect from someone who had missed 10 games.
Watching from the very same seats at GRA on Saturday night, I was expecting better results, especially after Conor Garland scored 21 seconds into the first period on a turnover. Can’t start much better than that, eh!? Antti Raanta and Ville Husso were the starting goalkeepers.
Well, it didn’t take long for me to recognize some poor play by the Coyotes that sure as heck reminded moi of seasons gone by. The defense was porous, passes were sloppy in the offensive and defensive zones, and there were turnovers galore. Add a mix of penalties, and the Desert Dogs never seemed to be in control on the ice. The Blues played more efficiently and controlled much of the ice for longer periods – impressive as the visiting team.
Clayton Keller himself seemed to believe that it was his team wearing the white sweaters last night, as he connected nicely with the sticks of a couple of Blues players. His cross-ice passes from the point from just inside the Coyotes'”O” zone were particularly scary, as we’ve all witnessed how well the Blue Notes can counterattack. To be fair, there were several miscues involving our defenders that contributed to the 5 goals scored on Saturday.
Having said that, the Coyotes were obviously effective enough to score four goals in regulation time, and that should have been enough to win the game despite the long periods of helter-skelter hockey by the home team. Team defense let the Coyotes down on Saturday night. When the Coyotes scored, the Blues responded, and to their credit they were more relentless than the Desert Dogs.
Nevertheless, I think the Yotes looked good in their Reverse Retro purple last night. I didn’t expect them to “retro” their play though.
More importantly, the Coyotes have played much more entertaining and competitive hockey than they have in a very long time. The newcomers have stepped up the physicality of the team and they are harder to play against. The past two nights at home were disappointing. The boys need to regroup and beat the Blues on Monday afternoon and move on.