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White Out : Coyotes Lose 4-2 |
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How about that White Out guys? Heck of a lot of fans out there and that is very good to see. Too bad the white jerseys were Detroit. Maybe that helped fuel the Wings by trickign them into thinking they were at the Joe.
Korpikoski had two huge hits to start which was much needed. Ruslan Salei opened the scoring early with a huge shot that showed once again two major weaknesses. 1. Helm just outmuscled 3 guys beating them all in the battle for the puck. 2. Bryzgalov can’t stop point shots. Hudler shoots the puck weakly from the blueline and after a few bounces it goes in off Miller...surprise, surprise straight over Bryzgalov’s lowered hand again. Bryzgalov was fighting the puck and chucking rebounds left right and center. Tippett’s timeout was indicative of the team’s spirit. He said nothing and gave a large amount of glares. The first 10 minutes was frustration on ice to watch, all the passes were off their mark and way to long, Detroit was pressuring the wingers stopping most of the D’s breakout passes. The defence looked terrible again at handling the speed of many of the Wings like Helm, Datsyuk and Cleary, a problem plaguing this team for a long time. Doan was playing physical and getting in people’s faces as usual essentially playing the role of the Lone Coyote as nobody else seemed to care. The best chance of the first was a stare down between Belanger and Howard where Howard made a nice leg save on a blast of a slapper by Belanger. Howard was not called on much until the final 7 minutes but when he was he was solid stopping everything calmly and with few rebounds (Could learn something from that Breezer). With 2 minutes left the dreaded PK went to work after a pretty weak call on some jawing by Doan on Lidstrom. Luckily the PK was rotating better than it has in a long time and the clearing attempts finally weren’t blind backhands.
The tentacle jokes in the intermission were pretty awkward. Though I am glad somebody stuck it to Mike Milbury, easily one of the worst commentators in hockey. Kudos to Cherry for showing everybody what flamboyant dressing tentacle grabbing gentleman are all about.
To open the 2nd a lot of perimeter shots, which just won’t do against Howard. Every goal scored on him has been right up in his face. The Coyotes opened with a lot of energy driving into the zone well. Rozsival actually shot for a change and what do you know, it hit the post and came close. Filppula scored off of a slew of weak plays. Turris...get the heck off this team, he let Filppula go and have about 5 feet of open ice. People often wonder why Turris doesn’t get a lot of ice time and how that would magically make him a monster of a player. He is the worst player in the defensive zone on the team, plain and simple. PP time, the magic of Game 2 is needed in the 3-0 drubbing. The Coyotes were passing way too much and just sending it through the crease ineffectively. Finally the PP goes for a shoot first mentality and David Schlemko with a beautiful roof job scored his first NHL playoff goal on a nice Boedker pass. Phoenix took over the play this period aside from the goal Detroit had virtually zero chances. Schlemko took a hit from Hem and fell awkwardly. He left the game to go see the trainer. If the Coyotes play even half as hard as they did this period in the first one, they are not down 3-1. Unfortunately consistency is another weakness of the Yotes.
Well that started well. Rozsival shows why Ranger fans loved the trade as a brutal turnover to Ericsson who sprang an uncovered Johan Franzen in on a breakaway, and he isn’t missing many of those. 4-1 and it is looking grim as a frustrated Belanger puts them a man down. The depth of Detroit was getting it done tonight and indeed the whole series just out skilling with their speed the Yotes. Phoenix PP, once again way to many passes and perimeter play, they kept looking for a perfect play but it just wasn’t there. Pyatt collided with Eaves in what looked like an accidental blindside hit, no penalty on the play and none deserved really. Doan once again came within Lidstrom’s penalty zone and he went to the box again on another weak call against him this time for hooking. On the PP Whitney scored on a slapper, a rare rebound off Howard bounced off Ruslan Salei and in. We have seen this story and the false comeback is on. In the final 2 minutes of empty net time there were a few interesting flurries but Detroit didn’t panic and just blocked all attempts.
The PP, holy mackinaw where did this one come from? 5 goals in 2 games and while at times looking completely enigmatic, suddenly it changes to potent solid puck moving and shot choice. Sounds like the Coyotes PP has caught a case of the Kovalev’s.
Calling all Stempniak, well I watched him be terrible in Toronto and while he was solid during the regular season he has disappeared in these playoffs. He hasn’t hit, hasn’t paid the price and hasn’t scored. In other words useless.
Korpikoski was a one man wrecking crew hitting everybody in sight.
Hanzal played a great shutdown game keeping Datsyuk quiet as he redeemed himself for games 1 and 2. In fact the whole team did a good job of shutting down his chances. He had a great game screening Howard on the PP and just playing a great physical two-way game.
Bryzgalov was awful, plain and simple. At the start of this series I said that Bryzgalov > Howard was pretty much the only clear advantage. Well I was wrong, Breezer has looked stunned, unfocused and uncaring. If he wants the money he needs to step it up and stop starting the games unprepared.
Well the better team is winning and winning big. When a team lines up against Pavel Datsyuk with Eric Belanger you know you either need OV and Parise on the wings or you are going nowhere fast. Here’s hoping they show up for the fourth and final game and avoid a sweep. After the hard fought series last year this has been an unmitigated disaster. Detroit has the Yotes by the bullocks but anything can happen in the playoffs.
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