By George Fallar 
The Coyotes were trounced by the Winnipeg Jets last night. The afterparty interviews with Coach Tippett and Captain Doan were predictably about accountability, same as they ineffectively were after the last loss (to the Ducks) of a poor home stand.
There’s been fan backlash over the last series of games, plenty of opinions about who needs to sit or be traded, plenty of finger pointing and plenty of consensus using general terms like “the defense has to be better”.
The flip side are people insisting Coyotes fans need to take a chill pill, it’s all under control and there’s plenty of time for the team to recover. They point to the team’s record during the run up to the Pacific Division Championship and to the points proximity to a playoff spot.
My non-expert but interested opinion is the truth lies somewhere between the two. We’re neither at rock bottom and need to blow everything up nor is anything clearly under control or resembling a comfortable situation.
Horse’s Mouths
Tippett:
“We’re talked out here, more meetings than you can shake a stick at. It’s about doing now. We’ll see who can do it.”
Doan:
“Even saying something tonight, today, was beating a dead horse. …If one guy in here thinks it’s someone else’s fault, they’re wrong.”
The above comments came after the Jets were afforded a chance to snap a five game losing streak and after a standing ovation for the team pumped up to play for their new head coach. After being blown out by a traditionally poor team, Mike Smith’s chances at Olympic ice time are fading fast.
Western Panic Attack
Pressure to perform is coming early this season. Realignment has shifted the balance of power in the Western Conference more significantly than in the Eastern. The top three teams from each Division will reach the playoffs, then the balance of the Conference battles it out for two Wild Card spots.
The Western Conference dominates the top spots in the NHL and it already looks like if the Coyotes make the playoffs it will be via the Wild Card route. The three teams atop the Pacific Division look like they won’t be relinquishing their spots, with the worst of them (the LA Kings) ahead of the Coyotes by five full games.
The Canucks sit three full games ahead of the Coyotes in the Wild Card race, the Wild have two games. Yes, the Coyotes have some “games in hand” on both teams, but we’ve been touting that advantage for some time now and the only progress is down the standings instead of up.
The Coyotes were vying for the number one spot in the entire NHL toward the beginning of the season.
It’s too early to panic, but it’s not too early to get some serious wrinkles in your forehead. That pressure is palpable and is undoubtedly a significant influence on the continued doofosity (penalties, turnovers galore) the team exhibits on the ice.
Injuries Hurt
While “man games” lost to injury (mangameslost.com) isn’t bad for the Coyotes, it has affected key guys. Rusty Klesla was knocked out early. He is back, but isn’t performing to his former standards. Shane Doan was felled by a tick, Derek Morris was out for a personal issue, OEL missed some time, Z remains out, Ribeiro is a game time decision, etc.
It’s easy to argue that every player is a key man on the Coyotes with their non-star system and roster. That’s valid up to a point, for example losing Michalek had an immediate and lasting impact on penalty killing efficiency.
It doesn’t matter in the end. Injuries are a fact of life in professional sports and teams have to find ways around the adversity and the Coyotes have not done so recently.
Turnovers
Everybody but Stan Wilson and the coaching staff is turning the puck over. Everybody.
Defensive zone turnovers are the most visible and the most likely to draw both goals and criticism. As they should, but that’s not the whole story.
The Coyotes have made their living with mobile, aggressive defensemen. Those are the guys with the big minutes and the big points. The problem with having your D down the ice is that even offensive zone turnovers often become a race to stop a shot on our goalie. It happens a lot and the end result, while perhaps initiated by a forward, becomes a “defensive breakdown”.
Mike Smith plays a dangerous style, it’s why we love him or hate him or both. The price for that style is getting stung once in awhile, sometimes in spectacular fashion. That price includes turnovers while being out of position for a save. The upside is huge stretch passes and some really amazing stick handling that used to baffle opposing teams.
I think NHL coaches now have a book on Smitty that’s hampering the effectiveness of his rambling style. While the shelling and pulling of Greiss makes that theory shaky, I’ve been watching and it seems Smith is getting trapped in his trapezoid with some regularity.
So What’s Your Fix, Smarty Pants?
I don’t have a fix. The team is shopping for a beefy defenseman and a physical forward to play with Vrbata and Hanzal. Both would help, but the cupboard is apparently close to bare. Assume the roster is status quo, the Coyotes have had success with similar guns in their arsenal.
As a non-expert, I figure any NHL team can beat any other NHL team on a given day. I believe the mental game is the deciding difference in more games than it appears. The nebulous “leadership” will eventually prevail in dispelling the funk, but in the meantime I’d consider:
- Make it clear cross ice passes in the defensive zone are a last resort, put it up the wall until the mojo returns. Period.
- Smitty is the number one goaltender. I’d see if he and Burke can work out some way to tone down the out of net play a notch or two until the train is back on the tracks.
- Insist that somebody, the bigger the better, plant themselves in front of the opposing goaltender at every opportunity. Every other team in the NHL that I’ve seen is significantly better than the Coyotes at doing so.
- Make it clear that a poke check isn’t good enough to stop a forward coming down the boards in the defensive zone, body contact is preferable.
- Offensive players have defensive responsibility at all times in every zone. You get lazy and let a puck or player slide by because it looks like the defense “has it”, you will sit.
Last night, Dustin Byfuglien ran Mike Smith repeatedly and with impunity. The zebras ignored it and so did the Coyotes. Buff needed to be popped in the face regardless of the consequences of smacking a beefy guy, certainly after the second time he did it. It didn’t happen.
Big Picture
No matter what, we have a team to gripe about. This time last year, that was two weeks from a huge smack to the head when the Jamison deal expired.
It’s hard not to feel a sting from our optimism at the beginning of the season, celebrating new life for the team with new owners. Not much of that has changed, this is a temporary slump.