It looks like the League was facing a conundrum. On the one hand, they desperately want a New York-LA Finals. On the other hand, once they saw that the Kings wouldn’t sweep the Coyotes, they knew that they would make mad scrilla if they could hold another game at Staples (especially with both basketball teams ignominiously eliminated (go Thunder!)). This is my best explanation for why the Coyotes got 3 penalties in the first period of game 5.*

*On a side note, this is pretty good proof that the guy in charge of NHL conspiracies doesn’t pay much attention to stats, since anyone who spent 20 seconds looking at them would realize the Kings actually score MORE on the PK.

That, or the weirdly lazy way the Kings kept getting caught out of position, allowing multiple odd man rushes and being forced to commit penalties to make up for it. It’s only through the grace of, you guessed it, Jonny Quick that the Kings weren’t losing worst after the first.
» Continue reading “Coyotes Eliminated”

I said that the donut defense could be enough to give the Desert Dogs a desperation victory. And continuing with the alliteration, Doan was the difference-maker. He put up a 2-spot on the previously invincible Jonny Quick; at the other end of the ice, Mike Smith threw down his third playoffs shutout. Now to see if this momentum will carry over to tomorrow when the Coyotes head back to Glendale. 3-2 is a lot less insurmountable than 3-0.

(Side note: my favorite NHL.com headline about the Coyotes vic was in reference to Shane Doan’s insurance goal: “I’ll Have Another.”)

It was an averagely unclean game for this series, with 13 penalties (26 PIM — no majors), 8 on Phoenix, yet they remained flawless in victory. LA probably wishes they had been distributed the other way, since their PK scores better than their PP. Phoenix hung tough even when they tried to give the game away at the end with some gratutitous penalties. They’re certainly not the Capitals!

Special note that whatever the opposite of props are go to Ray Whitney and his immediate penalty, which caused Twitter to roll its collective eyes and start muttering “sweep.” Trevor Lewis had a chance so convincing it actually confused my scorekeeping app and it awarded him a goal. That must have been the only worthwhile shot taken by the Kings, because they got 36 total SOG, and not a one made it through. The Coyotes didn’t make it to double digits in any period. Is it possible the “hope Quick does something stupid” strategy is paying off?

This win breaks the Kings’ streak, which would’ve hit 9 if they had swept. They still have a chance to do something impressive if they win on the road, which would make them 8 for 8 in this postseason. Home ice advantage has been nearly irrelevant during the playoffs so far; right now the Yotes have won 5 of their 8 home games, which is frankly not enough to draw a conclusion from.

Next game is at Jobing.com Arena on Tuesday at 9pm est. Maybe the white-out will confuse the Kings and make them think they’re at home, where they have a disadvantage.

I recently said something along the lines of the Yotes’ strategy to beat Quick being “shoot mostly junk at him and hope it takes him by surprise,” which I meant as joke and a little bit of a censure. Then, at about a minute into the third, Daymond Langkow shot from the top of the circles and the puck bounced sloppily through Jonny Quick’s legs. “Maybe they’re onto something,” I said to myself. And then Anze Kopitar just Anze Kopitar’d that breakaway past Mike Smith and that was when we knew: the Kings are going all the way.

I really thought the Coyotes had a chance. It hurts to go down 2-0 at home, but that’s not insurmountable. And with Quick giving up some silly goals, you know, there was still a light.

Then Anze Kopitar extinguished that light. “You may have 2 minutes worth of lead in this series,” he proclaimed, “then you must bow to the Kings. And the King of Kings!”

The King of Kings being, of course, Dwight King, who scored the game-winner early in the third.
» Continue reading “LA In Position To Sweep Phoenix”

I turned the game off when Jeff Carter got his Natty Hatty, which is a shame, because it seems like I missed a lot of truculence mere seconds later. In the end it didn’t matter, because Jonny Quick and the monarchy pretty much coasted to their 7th straight playoff win.

The Yotes didn’t look great right from the start. The Kings’ first shot came in about 5 seconds and it was only through the grace of Mike Smith that they didn’t score until 13:15. They were outplayed in every area except goaltending, and one man can only do so much. (Frankly, I think Quickster suffered from the same problem as Holtby did in game 1 against the Rangers: that is, he didn’t face enough shots to keep focused. He did not, however, let Derek Morris’ center ice slapshot fool him again. In fact, the Coyotes’ new strategy seems to be “shoot mostly junk at Quick and hope it takes him by surprise,” which is, umm, creative.)

As usual, the Kings’ PP was bland, but when you’re given a thousand of them, as well as considerable time 5-on-3, something is bound to happen. And that something is 2 Jeff Carter PPG. Look, I know the Coyotes were being fairly dirty*, but I can’t help feeling that Gary Bettman is also licking his chops over the prospect of an LA-NYC finals…
» Continue reading “Coyotes Down 2-0 Heading To Los Angeles”

Phoenix dropped the first game in the series to Los Angeles last night 4-2, which for these teams is pretty high-scoring. And despite losing, Mike Smith still pulled a .936 SV%, better than Quick’s .926, because LA poured roughly a billion shots on the Coyotes net. Quick also gave up a frankly embarrassing goal on a shot Mikkel Boedker took from center ice.

This means two things: a) .926 is now considered mediocre for Jonny Quick (well, that and an awful goal) and b) even when Mike Smith outplays Quick, Vezina-nominee and one of the most impressive young goalies in the league, that’s not enough for the Coyotes to win.

What’s that? You want to me to mention something other than goaltending?
» Continue reading “Coyotes Lose To Kings 4-2″

I have never been so satisfied with a last-minute decision as when I volunteered to cover the Coyotes on an emergency basis. They are my beloved furballs, and they provide a lovely amount of comfort when they go out and decisively win hockey games.

I was as unhappy about the Klesla suspension as any right-thinking individual was. That is, I was pretty sure he should get a game, but I didn’t actually want him to. I wanted a Shea Weber situation, in other words. After all, it would be cruel to suspend an important part of a dominant team in a decisive game.
» Continue reading “Coyotes Beat Predators, Advance to Western Conference Finals”

The Coyotes blanked the Predators on Nashville ice tonight to get a 3-1 series lead heading back to Glendale. It’s going to be tough for the Preds to fight back.

Both goalies were on top of their game tonight. Shane Doan scored in the first on a crazy fluke of a goal that appeared to bounce off defenseman Roman Josi (I linked to him because he is outrageously good-looking, how did I not know about him sooner), Rinne, and finally the goalpost. It didn’t faze Rinne, but that didn’t matter, because Mike Smith was on his game and did not let a single one through, no matter how many times every single Predator on the ice tried to dogpile him in the crease. The Preds had a few close calls, including one goal that was immediately waved off, but reviewed anyway. No dice.

As mentioned previously, Alexander “the Enigma” Radulov and Andrei “Big Tits” Kostitsyn were scratched again. This got some cheers from the Bridgestone crowd, which is bizarre because if there’s one thing the Preds could’ve used was offense, especially from the player that they, uh, shipped in from Russia purely for that reason.

There was a controversial hit in the first as Rusty Klesla shoved Keith Halischuk headfirst into the dasher in front of the Phoenix bench. Halischuk wasn’t hurt and Klesla received 2 mins for boarding. However, a similar hit on Niklas Kronwall in regular season netted Chris Stewart a 3 game suspension. So: suspensions are lighter in the postseason, but Klesla isn’t a superstar and Phoenix isn’t one of the marquee teams. I’ll concur with Harrison Mooney and guess at a 1 game suspension, which would still be a blow to the Yotes, as he’s one of their leaders in icetime on the blueline.

If Klesla isn’t Shana-banned and Trotz continues to be xenophobic (is there really a need to trot out the “enigmatic Russian” bullshit again?), the Coyotes have this in the bag. Mike Smith has gone on a hot streak and the breaks are going their way. They have a chance to close out the series in Glendale on Monday, and wouldn’t a series win on home ice be the perfect narrative conclusion?

A.K. Adams normally talks Washington Capitals over at VC Chillin’, but she can muster some begrudging affection for a Cinderella story, especially when they have the world’s nicest man, Shane Doan.

With Claire out for the night (who goes out on a Friday night during the playoffs???), it’s Melissa from Black and Blueshirts covering the Preds tonight

Tonight was the type of game I expected this series to be – tough, defensive, low scoring hockey. With two goalies who were battling to be the third nominee for the Vezina this year, a full series of 1-0 or 2-0 games wouldn’t have surprised me.  And Game 3, it was 2-0 Preds.  Tonight, 1-0 Yotes.

I would love to tell you how it was an exciting game of back and forth hockey with goalies making tremendous saves and guys on both teams being robbed.  Actually, technically I could tell you that.  But if you watched the game, you would think I didn’t.  Now don’t mistake that as a sloppy game, as this was far from that.  Both teams just kept missing their chances.  Sure, the goalies were good (and honestly Mike Smith had no intention of letting a puck past him this evening) but neither really had to be great.

The worst part for the Preds – the only goal of the night was off a crazy bounce off the back boards.  Puck thrown in, jumped out front, Shane Doan knocked down Hal Gill, got the puck to Mikkel Boedker who returned it to Doan so he could bounce it off everything possible around Rinne until it finally hit the back of the net.  Game, set, match.  I’ve never played hockey before, but from a fans point of view, it absolutely sucks to lose on a goal like that.  I can only imagine how the players feel.

But because they were shut out, the story of this game from a Preds point of view will be simple – should Radulov and A. Kostitsyn have played?  My honest opinion….not sure they would’ve made a difference.  As I said, Smith was on his game tonight and no one knows what type of players would’ve showed up – two guys looking for vengeance like Ovechkin and Kovalchuk did for their teams or the two who played in Game 2?  (Side note: I absolutely am against comparing the Russians in this league as the media has been doing.  In this case, it was the only example I could come up with.)

So now the Preds backs are against the wall.  Every game is a must-win from here on out.  What happens in Game 5 on Monday night?  Do Radulov and A. Kostitsyn play?  Do the Preds keep the series alive and force the Yotes to come back to Nashville?  Or do the Coyotes get their first trip to the West Conference Finals?  Only one way to find out.  Watch the game live at 10:00 pm EST on NBCSN or TSN.  My prediction? I’m not ready to count the Preds out just yet….

Hey guys! You might recognize me as responsible for the Capitals coverage! And if you know anything about the Caps, you know they went to 3 OT last night. And that maybe fans of them might not be responsible for the choices they made during that game. ANYWAY, my point is that now I will provide you with Coyotes coverage, regardless of anything else that may have happened across the league. I love the Coyotes! I have a wild soft spot for the obscure, “shouldn’t win” southern market teams, and I hate all the O-6 teams except the Leafs (but I can’t admit that or else Kat will kill me)!

Point is: things were not admirable for the Yotes, unfortch. I was rooting for them 100% except for the parts of me that couldn’t be spared for the Caps game, but they completely failed to convert. They let David “1st ever draft pick” Legwand and Mike “Mr. Underwood” Fisher get up in the first period, and never got it back. What a shame. (Anyone think Sergei “Little Tits” Kostitsyn was annoyed his brother got suspended? That was his first playoff point this season.)

Well, it’s a shame in the sense that they lost, which sucks for the Coyotes faithful. On the other hand, Mike Smith let in only 2 goals in 3 periods, on the road, in front of a desperate home crowd that was down 0-2. Hell, that he only let in 2 goals is pretty astounding (.923sv% is still pretty goddamn good). I’d lay the blame on his team for being unable to retaliate, not than his shoulders. Nashville pretty much shut down the Coyotes after the first, which is admirable, seeing as how Pekka Rinne still faced 32 shots and Mike Smith only faced 26, despite Nashville having the world class D-pairing of Ryan Suter and Shea Weber, who both had upwards of 27 minutes TOI.

Phoenix had 4 PP opportunities and Nashville had 5, but neither team managed to convert despite expending their best players on every opportunity. With both goals being scored so quickly by the Predators, this game felt more like a statement than anything: even if we suspend two players you may have considered key, we’re still a threat. Don’t get complacent. It’s a lesson that’s well to be learned around the league: there’s nothing assured in the playoffs. You can back in accidentally, or you can decimate your competition, but underneath it all, everyone’s the same. #Becauseit’sthecup!

The Coyotes lead 2-1 against the Predators. Game 4 is on Friday at 7:30 on NBCSports. Be there or be a northern market traditionalist skeptic!

A.K. Adams is the Washington Capitals reporter, which means she adores seeing rando southern teams succeed, right up until they challenge her Caps.

 

It is decided. The Predators need to score the first goal if they want to win. It happened with the Detroit series and it seems to be happening with Phoenix. Or maybe it was the absence of Alex Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn. Whatever the case is, something lit a fire under the Preds tonight to go after a 2-0 win, making the series 2-1.

The first period saw Nashville dominating with pucks being shot at Mike Smith like nobody’s business. The magic all started eight minutes in when David Legwand sent home a beauty off of a pass from Bourque on a wide open net. Smith had gone to play the puck like he so often does, forcing himself to make a diving attempt to save the shot. No such luck boy! Just sixty-six seconds later, Mike Fisher attempted to pass the puck back to Sergei Kostitsyn, but hit Smith’s stick instead and redirected into the net for the second and last goal of the night.

What would have made this victory just a little sweeter: not having a “no goal” call. The puck had gone under an outstretched Smith and into the net, but the refs lost sight of the puck, and so, no goal.

» Continue reading “Predators’ Rinne Shuts Out The ‘Yotes 2-0″