Coyotes Still Hunting For First Playoff Series Win

Discussion in 'WEST: Pacific Division' started by Shutout, Oct 3, 2010.

  1. Shutout

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    The Phoenix Coyotes made the playoffs last year, which was the first time they made it since the 2001-2002 season. They saw an early exit, losing 4 games to 3 in the first round to the Detroit Red Wings. Perhaps their playoff loss could be blamed on an injury to Captain Shane Doan, who has been with the team since they moved from Winnipeg back in 2006. Regardless, the team had a franchise high of 107 points last season and will hope to repeat their surprise performance that they had last year.

    Phoenix had one major offensive loss this off-season, forward Matthew Lombardi will not be returning to the team. The center, now a Predator, was 2nd in goals, assists, and points last year for the Coyotes and his production will certainly be missed. However, the Coyotes brought in 38 year old veteran Ray Whitney and two-way forward, Eric Belanger. Whitney will definitely be able to post up numbers that will replicate and most likely surpass those of Lombardi’s; however, health and age could be a possible problem even though Whitney has only missed 2 games in the past two seasons. Whitney should be able to put up a solid 20 goals this season and will hopefully help this offensively-challenged set of forwards. The Coyotes tied for the lowest goals for total of the Western conference playoff teams. Eric Belanger will most likely replace Lombardi on the depth chart. The center can be expected to put up 30 or maybe even 40 points and will contribute defensively to the team as well.

    The Coyotes have some young forwards who will be expected to put up some serious numbers this season. They traded for Wojtek Wolski mid-season and he averaged a point per game in his 18 games with Phoenix. Center Kyle Turris spent his sophomore season in the AHL after a relatively disappointing rookie year. Hopefully the 21 year old is finally ready for the big leagues because he has such great potential and his offensive talent is something that the Coyotes will need to see at the NHL level. There are multiple Coyotes players who seemed to have off-years in the 09-10 season and all of them will need to step it up. Hanzal and Prucha are the first two that come to mind, as so much more was expected of them.

    I think one of the guys to watch is Scottie Upshall. He has been plagued with injuries, which is sad because he has great offense abilities and could be a 40 point player if he can manage to stay healthy. The 26 year old has yet to play a full season without being sidelined by an injury. He had 18 goals, with 14 assists in 48 games last year, and is expected to start the season healthy after experiencing a knee injury in January.

    The Coyotes lose a couple of key defenders and actually didn’t acquire any talented d-men to replace the ones they lost. Zybanek Michalek is the biggest loss from the Coyote’s backend. Michalek led the team in ice-time last season and his contributions will definitely be missed for the upcoming season. Phoenix also loses veteran defenders, Jim Vandermeer and Mathieu Schnieder. Both of whom were solid veteran defenders that fit in nicely with an already experienced blueline group. You can expect a couple home-grown talents to fill these gaps left by the 3 departures, and Ekman-Larsson, Goncharov, and Schlemko will all be fighting for a top 6 spot.

    Returning to the lineup are defenders Ed Jovanovski, Keith Yandle, Adrian Aucoin, Sami Lepisto, and Derek Morris. The first 3 all made had major contributions offensively. Yandle led the defenseman in points with 41, Jovanovski picked up 34 points in 66 games, and Aucoin notched 28 points. Despite the 3 veteran losses, the veteran leadership still remains as these 3 will look to lead the team to the post-season again.

    In net you have Ilya Bryzgalov who set a franchise record in the 09-10 with his 42 wins. The Russian net-minder posted up a career low 2.29 Goals Against Average, though was unable to post those numbers up in the playoffs against the talented Detroit lineup. Bryzgalov is expected to play the majority of the games again this upcoming season but if he goes down or needs a little break, Jason LaBarbera will be very capable of doing the chop. LaBarbera had a GAA of 2.13, a .928 Save Percentage, and a winning record in the 17 games he played in last season.

    The addition of Whitney is a big one and a full season of Wolski and Turris is definitely what this team needs. If Turris can finally step it up and play to his potential then the Coyotes will finally be able to put some pucks in the net. The defense only saw losses, yet I feel as though they didn’t get too much worse. The goaltending situation is stellar and Bryzagalov is certainly able to carry the workload for the team. I expect to see the Coyotes make the playoffs again, and maybe, just maybe, they will be able to win their first playoff series in Phoenix Coyote franchise history.

    -Written by CJ from the Blueline Crew. To see a preview of any/every NHL team, check us out at http://bluelinecrew.com .
     

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