| Coyotes (47-23-6) |
Canucks (45-26-4) | ||||
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AT |
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| Time | 7:00 PM PST |
TV | Sportsnet Pacific |
| Season Series | 2-1-0 Coyotes |
Last Meeting |
4-3 Coyotes (03-10-10) |
| The Enemy | Five For Howling | Scoring Leaders | H. Sedin: 28-73-101 Wolski: 22-37-59 |
| Coyotes |
Category | Canucks |
| 4th | Conference Position | 3rd |
| 8-1-1 |
Last 10 | 5-3-2 |
| 2.60 (21) |
Goals Per Game | 3.21 (2) |
| 2.40 (3) |
Least Goals Against Per Game | 2.56 (9) |
| 1.17 (4) |
5 On 5 GF/GA | 1.28 (2) |
| 15.6 (28) |
Power Play % |
21.5 (5) |
| 84.4 (8) | Penalty Kill % |
81.8 (17) |
| 30.4 (13) |
Shots Per Game | 30.7 (10) |
| 29.8 (11) |
Least Shots Against Per Game | 29.2 (10) |
|
85.4 (1) |
Winning % When Scoring First | 77.8 (5) |
|
95.8 (1) |
Winning % When Leading After 1 | 82.1 (7) |
| 34.3 (12) |
Winning % When Trailing After 1 | 43.6 (4) |
| 91.2 (6) |
Winning % When Leading After 2 | 96.7 (4) |
| 22.2 (6) |
Winning % When Trailing After2 | 32.3 (2) |
| 49.9 (15) |
Faceoffs % | 51.4 (6) |
| 11.6 (9) |
Least PIM's Per Game | 15.0 (26) |
| +18 (6) |
+ / - GF/GA (see here) |
+37 (2) |
Update: Shane O'Brien will skate all by his lonesome self and miss the next 3 games for disciplinary reasons. Alain Vigneault said that it isn't only because OB was late for practice yesterday. There may be conditioning issues as well as more prior infractions. This is a tense relationship between management and O'Brien, and I don't like how it's this late in the season for it all to be going down. But that's just me. Who knows? It might light a fire under everybody's ass.
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It's baffling to see the Coyotes a mere 4 points away from tying the #1 seed in the West, San Jose. But going through their stats (above) you can see what's going on. They are in the top half in every "major" stat except goals for. But that doesn't necessarily matter when you have a team that plays a strong defensive style under Dave Tippett and has a great goaltender in Jason Labarbera Ilya Bryzgalov. "Breezie" is 2nd in the NHL in wins, 5th in GAA, 7th in save percentage and 1st with 8 shutouts.
Phoenix will play the Canucks tonight and the Flames tomorrow night. So who do they start in goal against Van? Wouldn't mind seeing Barbie face his old team. Crazily enough, Jason Labarbera has played in 15 games (7-4-1) and has better numbers than Bryzgalov does.
Their offence is so spread out. Wolski, Doan, Lombardi, Stempniak, Vrbata..yeesh! It just becomes more important that a different Canucks line than the Sedins and Burrows also gets on the scoreboard. The Dogs are tops in the NHL when scoring first and leading after 1 period, so the Canucks need to get the first goal and dictate the play on these guys.
FYI: Wojtek Wolski has scored 5 goals and 7 assists in 12 games since being acquired by Phoenix at the trade deadline.
Lee Stempniak has 12 goals and 3 assists in his first 12 games with the Dogs. Insane!
Phoenix last played on Saturday, a 6-2 win over Colorado, and Taylor Pyatt had a Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist and a fight). He was the game's first star.
The Canucks have to build off of what was a decent effort against the Sharks. So they say anyways. The Avalanche, who are nipping at their heels for the NW Division lead, do not play Tuesday. They play the Ducks on Wednesday.
The Canucks can reach a new team record for home wins in a season (28) if they win tonight.
This will be Daniel Sedin's 700th game. Congrats to him for the milestone.
More FYI: Cody Hodgson and the Brampton Battalion will be playing in the deciding Game 7 against the Kingston Frontenacs tonight, the same time as the Canucks game. at 4:00 PST.
Alright...a couple clips for ya:
1. Remember what happened the last time these 2 teams played eachother? Oh dang!
2. On a more positive note, Rayzor did make this save:
You can actually hear Darren Pang wetting himself!
3. Rypien vs Carcillo from March 2008:
4. Pavel-Mania was born against the Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix's former home.