Jump to content

The Coyotes building something


yave1964

Recommended Posts

  I always pick a team in the other conference from my Wings to follow, a sleeper team or a team that I feel will be interesting to watch at the least. This year I will be following the Coyotes out West. Really.

  Carolina is my Eastern sleeper but the 'Yotes are definitely going to be different than in past years, almost unrecognizable even.

 

Long time coach Dave Tippett is gone and with his his defense first last and always approach.

 

Long time goalie Mike Smith is gone to Calgary replaced by Annti Raanta previous of the Rangers.

 

Looooooooong time Captain Shane Doan has been shown the door and after discovering no interest took the hint and retired.

 

Radim Vrbata and Zbynek Michalek followed Martin Hanzal and Michael Stone out of town.

 

  In short Coyotes GM boy wonder John Chayka performed his own version of the Night of the long knives and severed ties with a bunch of players who should have been shown the door a long time ago and has put his stamp on the team.

 

  Oliver Ekman Larsson is one Hell of a force of nature on the back end but for years he has been an island adrift upon the sea, the new look defense in front of Raanta is actually IMHO one of the deepest in the Division, starting with OEL, followed by Goligoski, will combine with young and gifted Jacob Chychrun and newcomers Nick Hjalmarsson who came over from the Hawks and Jason Demers who came over from the Panthers, both teams needing to clear salary. This is easily the best defense the Coyotes have had in my memory.

 

  The prized jewels though are the forwards, Domi, Reider, Perlini, Dvorak , Crouse and Duclair will all have the training wheels taken off this year and will be given a chance to push the puck with veteran center Derek Stepan coming over from the Rags to provide leadership and young talented Clayton Keller joining the mix as well. These guys are stacked with talented young kids three lines deep, they may not be this years version of the Leafs but they will be fun to watch. Christian Fischer and Dylan Strome are talented and trying to squeeze into the mix as well.

 

  So the Coyotes are my adopted team from the West, they should be both fun and interesting after a decade or longer of being neither.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched the Yotes quite a bit last year and saw a lot of good things offensively, but as a game played on defensive misplays and a lack of crucial saves by Smith resulted in a lot of losses.  This year the team will be fast and skilled and Chayka has strengthened the defensive core with the additions of Hjaalmarsson and Demers.  I expect Raanta to take the next step to becoming a solid #1 netminder too.  

 

It will be interesting to see how they fair throughout the season as I'm not sure their 3rd and 4th lines are quite yet there yet defensively against the NHL's top teams.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I dunno.  It seems like there is a lot of pieces not working well together.  Advanced stats appear not to be the key for "teamwork" as they have started the season with a 0-4-1 start.  With a change in leadership, coaches, and style of play it is going to take some time to start over.  But then the Knights are off to a fabulous start so what really is the excuse here?

 

Tocchet quoted:  "When pressure hits this team for some reason, adversity, they just forget where to go and then they just starting running around,"    -- yikes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, hf101 said:

I dunno.  It seems like there is a lot of pieces not working well together.  Advanced stats appear not to be the key for "teamwork as they have started the season with a 0-4-1 start.  With a change in leadership, coaches, and style of play it is going to take some time to start over.  But then the Knights are off to a fabulous start so what really is the excuse here?

 

Boy, is this a great post all in 3 neat little lines.    Agree, the results in terms of stats and W-L certainly don't show any cohesion, and your comparison to Vegas to eliminate that excuse is on point.

 

I don't know what to say there (really just posting because I thought your post summed it up nicely).  I think more time to unlearn what they've previously learned as a group (a circumstance not present in Vegas).   But if this goes on too much longer, they'll be too far back to be relevant this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to make excuses for the players on the ice (they are the ones, after all that have to execute), but I just am not sold on Rick Tocchet being head coach material.

 

By all accounts, he was always a good assistant coach...hell, he even kept Steve Downie 'in check' and playing more hockey than acting like an idiot on the ice when he was a part of the Lightning.

 

Players seem to like him and his no-nonsense style well enough.

 

But there is something, and I can't quite express what it is, about the man that says, "Good coach"....but ONLY with someone ELSE as the bench boss.

 

To me, this Coyote team with all the changes, up n coming talent, and talent already on the roster, needed an experienced coach to pull them all together.

They may still do that....and maybe Tocchet will be the guy that helps to do it, but meh.....I don't think so.

 

And the Yotes didn't necessarily need a re-tread veteran coach (like a Hitchcock for example), but someone who perhaps has had pretty extensive coaching experience in the lower levels of hockey but had yet to have NHL experience.

 

IMO, Tocchet, for all his experience as an NHL player, as an assistant at the NHL level, just doesn't seem like the type of guy who can co-ordinate and pull together an entire roster of players along with assistants working under him AND keep ownership seeing "his vision" of what the team can be.  He just doesn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

I just am not sold on Rick Tocchet being head coach material.

Yep. Not at all. I'd bet against. 

 

Love the guy. One of my alltime favorite Flyers. And I think he's a pretty good assistant. I don't think a very good head coach, though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

But there is something, and I can't quite express what it is, about the man that says, "Good coach"....but ONLY with someone ELSE as the bench boss.

Yep. Some are a better lieutenant than a captain.  Can't exactly explain it either, but it's a thing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

IMO, Arizona is kind of like a town for an old 'Wild West' TV show, mostly a facade pretending to be a real NHL franchise.  Chayka hasn't shown me anything (and let's face it, he's had some time to get this to work) that they are really any more competitive than they were a few years ago.  Honestly, Chychrun and Keller were decent...but what else was?  The team still dumped off lots of players, still took on a black hole contract Marian Hossa...and look again to be primed for another season near the bottom of the league's standings.  

 

The arena is still mostly empty or filled with fans of opposing teams...not sure why the NHL is still there to be honest with you.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

IMO, Arizona is kind of like a town for an old 'Wild West' TV show, mostly a facade pretending to be a real NHL franchise.  Chayka hasn't shown me anything (and let's face it, he's had some time to get this to work) that they are really any more competitive than they were a few years ago.  Honestly, Chychrun and Keller were decent...but what else was?  The team still dumped off lots of players, still took on a black hole contract Marian Hossa...and look again to be primed for another season near the bottom of the league's standings.  

 

The arena is still mostly empty or filled with fans of opposing teams...not sure why the NHL is still there to be honest with you.  

 

Because it's a team south of the Mason-Dixon line and those teams are Butthead's pride and joy. So he is going to do everything in his power to keep them there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/29/2018 at 9:38 AM, CreaseAndAssist said:

IMO, Arizona is kind of like a town for an old 'Wild West' TV show, mostly a facade pretending to be a real NHL franchise.  Chayka hasn't shown me anything (and let's face it, he's had some time to get this to work) that they are really any more competitive than they were a few years ago.  Honestly, Chychrun and Keller were decent...but what else was?  The team still dumped off lots of players, still took on a black hole contract Marian Hossa...and look again to be primed for another season near the bottom of the league's standings.  

 

The arena is still mostly empty or filled with fans of opposing teams...not sure why the NHL is still there to be honest with you.  

 

On 7/29/2018 at 10:28 AM, IllaZilla said:

 

Because it's a team south of the Mason-Dixon line and those teams are Butthead's pride and joy. So he is going to do everything in his power to keep them there.

Been to quite a few Yotes games over the last several seasons.  "The arena is still mostly empty or filled with fans of opposing teams"

is an understatement. :)    My experience is,  half filled, with 1/2 to 2/3rds of the half made up of the visitors fans (particularly Chi, Mn., Tor, Det., Mont., Calg. & Edm)

Overall prospects?

When healthy, Ranta has been very solid!

The D is very good at puck movement, not so good at defending.  (although, IMO, more of a team issue than all on the D)  

Keller is the real deal, Stepan is a steady 2nd line caliber C.   Dvorak would be a good 3C.

 Since Jan 1, they've added some desperately needed  3rd line caliber F depth with Panik & Grabner.

IMO, for them to be a playoff contender,  they need Galchenyuk to get back to 30 G per (plus round out his game), PF's Perlini and Fischer to take the next step (excellent wheels for big guys)  and perhaps most important,..... Strome becoming who many scouts said he was.....an eventual first line caliber talent. (I can see the hands, but IMO, his skating is suspect).                                                          BTW disappointed in the Hayton pick. Zadina would have been my choice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...