GLENDALE
http://www.officialredwings.com/authentic-adidas-mike-green-jersey , Ariz. (AP) — The Arizona Coyotes lost four of their first five games, three by shutout.Another lost season in the desert apparently on the way.The thing about those early games, though, is they were close, unlike the start of last season. The Coyotes played well, just couldn’t seem to catch the right break or get pucks to find the net.Once the pucks started going in, the Coyotes couldn’t seem to miss.Behind a scoring flurry that would have been unthinkable on previous teams, Arizona is off to its best 11-game start (6-5-0) since 2013-14.“I really like all our games; we played well in all of them, we competed well,” Coyotes forward Derek Stepan said. “Yeah, we made some mistakes that cost us some goals early on, but we’re learning quickly.”It’s been a long-arching curve.The Coyotes have struggled since reaching the 2012 Western Conference finals, seeming to be in perpetual rebuilding mode. Arizona got last season off to a miserable start, needing 12 games to win for the first time to fall out of playoff contention before the season’s first month was over.The Coyotes played better the last two months of the 2017-18 season and hoped it would carry over into this season.It did not, at least early.Arizona opened the season with a pair of shutout losses and had four goals its first five games — three of those in its lone win.Then something clicked.The Coyotes beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 on the road on Oct. 18 and, after a 5-3 loss at Winnipeg
Nick Jensen Jersey , have been one of the NHL’s hottest teams.With Tuesday night’s 5-1 home win over Ottawa, the Coyotes have outscored opponents 20-4 during a four-game winning streak. Arizona has 27 goals over a six-game span, a first for the franchise since 2006-07.“The guys were sticking with it and practicing like the goals would come,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “You have to have that mentality in this league. We’ve got good mojo right now and we don’t want to wreck it.”Arizona has been among the league leaders in shots per game since the start of the season and the shooting percentage has dramatically increased since the minuscule 1.6 to start the season.The Coyotes seemed to get some bad breaks on shots early in the season, hitting posts and crossbars, having pucks squirt out of their reach in the offensive zone. They also didn’t seem to create their own luck by getting traffic in front of the crease and putting shots in spots where goalies could make easy saves.The breaks have been coming the past few games, such as Stepan’s blue line, short-handed goal that skittered off the ice and through Ottawa goalie Mike Condon’s pads .Arizona also has been creating some of that luck with hard, smart play, getting traffic in front of opposing goaltenders and more precise shooting.“You earn your bounces,” Stepan said. “We had some bounces going the other way early on in the year, now they’re starting to go our way and in a few weeks, they’re going to come back the other way. Good teams find ways to win any given night regardless of the bounces.”With the scoring boost, the Coyotes have continued to play stingy defense, the one area that helped them get through the difficult times in the past.Arizona has limited good chances against and its goalies, Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper
Thomas Vanek Jersey , have been superb, combining to give the Coyotes the NHL’s best goals-against average at 1.91. Raanta, healthy after an injury-filled first season in the desert, is fourth in the NHL with a 1.99 goals-against average.The Coyotes also have the NHL’s second-best penalty kill at 90.6 percent and have a league-high six short-handed goals to three power-play goals allowed. Stepan’s goal against Ottawa gave Arizona short-handed goals in three straight games for the second time in franchise history (1985). The Coyotes are 11th NHL team since 1933 to have five short-handed goals in three games.“When we’re sticking with our game plan and everybody is dialed in, we’re a really good team,” Raanta said. “As a goalie, it’s a dream to play behind that team.”Especially when they’re scoring goals, as they are now. Both teams will have a number of new faces in the lineup when the Chicago Blackhawks visit the Ottawa Senators in the season opener for both teams at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.In other words, it should be a busy night for the program sellers.Making their debuts for the Senators will be three former San Jose Sharks who were acquired in separate offseason trades. Chris Tierney and Mikkel Boedker are scheduled to skate on the Ottawa’s third line while Dylan DeMelo is slated to work on the third blue-line pairing alongside Max Lajoie, a 20-year old who will be playing his first NHL game.Article continues below ...Tierney was part of the deal in which Ottawa sent star defenseman and two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson to San Jose.Lajoie, who has just one season of pro experience, was the surprise of camp.“He’s shown so much poise, and so much calm in the face of all kinds of pressure,” Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said of Lajoie, the Senators’ fifth-round pick in the 2016 draft. “He went through the American Hockey League. It’s not like a junior kid that’s just coming up.”Boedker is a former first-rounder who was acquired in a deal for Mike Hoffman, who had 107 goals in 342 games for Ottawa. Boedker has eight goals in 11 career games versus the Senators
Womens Adam Larsson Jersey , but only scored 25 times in the past two seasons with San Jose.The rebuilding Senators will need him to pick up some of the slack on offense, particularly with the loss of Karlsson, who tied for the team lead with 62 points last season.“You’re always a little nervous for the first game,” said Boedker, “but i think the excitement of a new season starting, a new opportunity that lay ahead, that kind of takes over and wipes out the nervousness. It’s a fresh start for all of us in here, so I think we’ve all got to play with a little chip on our shoulder and prove a lot of people wrong.”Meanwhile, three Blackhawks will be making their NHL debuts in Ottawa: defenseman Henri Jokiharju, center Luke Johnson and winger Dominik Kahun.Jakiharju, a first-round pick in 2017, is tentatively scheduled to skate alongside Duncan Keith on the first pairing. The undrafted Kahun is penciled in on the right side of first-line center Jonathan Toews and Johnson is working the middle on the fourth line.“I’ve waited all by childhood to play in the NHL … it’s going to be fun,” Jakiharju told the Blackhawks website. “It’s going to be a huge game, but I’m not going to make it any bigger than what it’s going to be, and try not to think about it too much. It’s one game for me. Best time of my life right now, so I’m just going to enjoy it.”Johnson echoed similar sentiments on the website.“I’ve worked so hard my whole life to get here and finally it’s here
Cam Talbot Jersey ,” he said. “It’s definitely exciting and I’m a little nervous, but I think I’m more excited than nervous. I don’t want to just play a few games. I want to stick around and make a career out of it. I think I’ve just got to do what I do best and play my game and work.”Also making their Chicago debuts will be veterans Chris Kunitz, who played for the Tampa Bay Lightning last season, and Brandon Manning, who was on the Philadelphia Flyers blue line.“That’s what teams need to be successful,” Kunitz, a four-time Cup champion, told the website when asked about a mix of youth and experience. “You need the older, veteran core players to do their part, but you also need, every year, a rookie or two to step up so you can duplicate that next year and get better and grow.“Every team that’s successful has a little bit of everybody. Our job as older guys is to make them comfortable and get them into the routine of the NHL as quick as we can, so we can come out as a successful team.”
