The Coyotes played their best game of the season last night, got their first win, and even picked up four goals, which is brings them to a whopping five on the season.
The lack of scoring is unfortunate, because it obscures what has been an excellent start to the season for the Coyotes.
Darcey kuemper has been amazing, picking up where he left off last year, and making people forget about the fact that Antti Raanta is made out of paper mache.
Kuemper has allowed four goals over three games, which, incredibly means that even though the Coyotes are 1-2 and only scored one goal over their first two games, they've outscored their opposition this season overall.
Last night featured the NHL debut of Barrett Hayton, and he was alright, picking up an assist and not looking out of place at all.
Banished to the fourth line (or the third second line, depending on your feelings) Connor Garland picked up a goal and an assist.
other than their first line, the Coyotes pretty much play everyone else fairly evenly, and I suppose that's OK, but Connor Garland is going to make them give him more ice time.
Not only is he fun to watch, but he's really good, and one of the only guys on the team with above average scoring chops.
The thing with Garland, is you've got to play him with guys who will drive possession because he's not really good at anything but scoring. Last night is a perfect example: he scored two points, but the team wasn't exactly killing it when he was on the ice.
Schmaltz-Dvorak-Hayton was a line that kicked ass, and which should be kept together, giving the Coyotes a fairly good top six that is potentially very good.
Though I think their first line needs to swap out a Stepan for a Matthews-style player in order to be truly effective longterm (good luck with that). I mean, it may be super-obvious, but the Coyotes don't have a #1 centre and you can't really do anything in the NHL without one.
I also want to say that OEL finally played a good game, but mostly, Darcy Kuemper is on a Jose Bautista like late 20s elevation that is going to take a long time to prove that it's real. (Jose was a top five player in baseball for half a decade, but never got the respect due to him because he didn't have that prospect pedigree, and frankly, people should be skeptical when a 27 year old bench player suddenly becomes a superstar).
Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»