Trade Deadline

Well, the coyotes didnt do too much. They made one trade with New York Rangers. Pretty much an even trade.

Sjostrom, Gratton and Lenny for Hossa and Montoya.

NY media is reporting the coyotes are giving them a conditonal pick too. I havent been able to confirm that with any other sources. And now the NYR website isnt loading that page.

Overall a pretty uneventful day. Im a little disappointed we didnt get rid of York for something but what can you do. Im glad Vrbata is here. Hopefully we can resign him to a reasonable deal before July 1.

**Edit** according to Jim G on AZC, Vrbata says the issue isnt money. Money hasnt even been brought up yet. According to the blog, Vrbata wants a 3 year deal. So length, not money, seems to be th issue.

Coyotes 5, Dallas 2

So after the last crappy home games, the coyotes came out strong and beat the Stars 5 to 2. A well deserved win.

Vrbata got his 100th NHL goal. (and the game winner at that)

Boynton got an empty netter for his 3rd goal of the season.

The stars were going after Carcillo but he just held his ground. He didnt go off, he didnt fight, he just skated away. Even when he got a call for elbowing (i didnt see where that was elbowing) he just skated over to the box and sat down. Lets just hope he keeps this up.

Overall I thought all the guys played well. Shane Doan was back. Also, it was disclosed that he was playing with a broken hand for the month of January. The month that he was also the leading scorer in the NHL. Wow. Thats pretty amazing.

One of the other blogs I read posted this article on Ryan Suter: http://www.usahockeymagazine.com/story.php?left_nav=0802&article=suter0802&right_nav=normal

It was a good article. Suter seems like a very down to earth, nice guy. That seems to be the norm among hockey players. Im not going to lie, I wouldnt mind trading Jovocough for Suter.

Tonight we play LA Kings. So far we are 4-0 in the series with them. But we shouldnt take that for granted, they have had a recent surge. They beat Detroit not too long ago.

Ok, well I am going to tnoghts game and also recording it. They are doing a behind the scenes type thing that I think will be interesting to see.

Quick Update..

I’m waiting for my cab to take me to the airport, so I thought Id do a quick update.

Coyotes beat Colorado last night in OT. Game tie-er (is that a word?) and winner by Vrbata. This guy has been great for us this year. 1) I hope we get him signed to a reasonable deal (similar to Bryz, maybe less money though) and 2) I hope he keeps it up. Hes known to have a big start and then taper off, hes done the opposite here, slow start and keeps picking up steam. With this win, coyotes are now in 8th again. If we win tonight we could jump up as high as 5th. This is a roller coaster of a season. Man, its going to give me a heart attack. At least I wont every cry at a game like the guy next to my friend during the caps game. If i was his wife, Id have smacked him good. Theres still plenty of season left!

Carcillo was sent to SA and Murley brought up. Here is what Gretz said to the AZCentral:

“He’s in a really tough situation,” Gretzky said. “He’s the kind of guy we need to play with a lot of energy and a lot of passion. With that, there’s going to be some effects toward the hockey club, but that’s part of the makeup of him as a hockey player.

“Obviously, the positives outweigh the negatives, but we’ve talked to him continuously about the aftereffects, so the fights and all that kind of stuff we can live with, the penalties we can live with, but the continuous 10-minute misconducts, game misconducts, it’s just at the point where it’s not acceptable any more.”

Sounds like Gretz still has his man-crush on Carcillo, but feels he needs to tone it down a tad. I agree. The misconducts are preventable. Usually it his mouth, this last time he harmlessly shrugged/pushed a linesman away. I heard sundin did the same thing (havent seen it) but got nothing. Calls have been so inconsistent this year. But thats a whole other blog entry I may or may not get to.

In other news, Toc will be back! Bettman was in Colorado last night and said we need to put the whole thing behind us. Cant wait for the game on thursday for Toc’s return.

Once I get home and settled I will watch the nashville and colorado games and maybe give my opinion. Calgary isnt on tv tonight, so I will make my ride lsiten to it on the way home from the airport. I will miss the 1st period though. Why arent all away games on tv? This is another issue I may attempt to tackle in a future blog. Think off-season, lots of days with no news. haha

And I cant wait until next years schedule comes out. I need to plan another trip to DC since i got my friend addicted to hockey now. (i know i know, it wont be out until like July)

I got a new toy…

And I had to play with it tonight at the game. This is Vrbata scoring on Luongo in theshoot out.

I took some pics of Pyatt during warm-ups. He’s my favorite canuck. and he just happened to score the game winner. So, Im not so sure I like him anymore. totally kidding. I got some of Luongo warming up too.

Then it was to the upperbowl for the game (yah, im poor). I took some good pics. Some of the faces are a bit blurry when i tried to do too much zoom. But overall I am quite satisfied with my new camera.

I plan on getting some coyote warm up pics at the game on New Years Eve. I’m not sure if I will take any at the Wild or Wings games. Im also going to get some at the Nashiville game (Suter) and Ottawa (Emery, Spezza, Heatly)

But the first 2 periods tonight were pretty boring. No score for either team in those periods. there were, i feel, a few missed penalties on vancouver. and there was at least one yotes penalty that I dont think was deserved (god forbid i remember what one it was!)

The third period had vancouver score at about the 9 minute mark. At that point i heard some ass hole behind start yelling about how we cant win at home. dude, we have 9 minutes left, we can still win it. And we at least tied it. Z got his first goal of the year! Go Z! Jovo practically jumped into his arms and knocked him over.

OT was pretty boring and then it was the shootout. Vrbata scored for us (as you can see above) and Pyatt scored for Vancouver. I dont remember who the other person was that scored for Vancouver. I was like I like Pyatt, I just dont want him to score right now.

Overall, it was a good game. The teams were well-matched. I dont know what was going on after awhile. Both teams got real tired looking and sloppy. I figured the coyotes were tired from all the travel and it seems gretz had the flu last week, so maybe some of the guys were battling that. Also, they were short a forward, so instead of dressing Ziggy (who seems to be a healthy scratch) they decide to dress an extra dman. So we got forwards double shifting ALL night and musical dmen going on. The dman pairings were so fucked up tonight. I saw Jones on the bench, but I dont think he played. Ballard was with Morris and Z. Jovo was with Z, Boynton, Dmo, and Yandle at different points. Ballard checked his own teammate at one point. He totally whiffed on a pass but luckily the canucks couldnt gain control of the puck. At another point he was so out of position, Z had to cover his side and then they almost turned the puck over when they went to switch sides of the ice. Ballard had a BAD night. And not one hip check. I think the dmen were messed up by the 7th dman and not having the same partner and that was in turn reflecting on the forwards play too. Also, Im sure Carcillo was missed in the line up. He was at the game even though we thought he might not come in, seeing as hes probably on pain medicine and Im guessing he can’t drive (it was his right knee).

Ok, well I am off to bed. I need to get up and clean tomorrow. Yah, loads of fun.