MVN - Most Valuable Network

Yotes Notes: 2008-09 Schedule & the New D

2008-09 Schedule Released

The Phoenix Coyotes released their 2008-09 schedule today and have thereby began to whet the appetites of valley hockey fans.  The home opener is October 11th with the Coyotes welcoming the Columbus Blue Jackets to town.  Later that month fans will get to see, arguable, the two biggest names in the NHL when Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby both visit Jobing.com Arena (on Oct. 23rd & 30th respectively).  Too bad they could not have gotten them for Saturday games but since Thursdays are traditionally a tougher draw for fans this might be the cure (for those two weeks anyway).

Other notable dates include a 2 pm matinee on November 28th (the Friday following Thanksgiving) and an 8 pm game on Valentines Day against the Flames.   Thursday, January 8th should be an interesting game as Radim Vrbata and the suddenly loaded Tampa Bay Lightning come to town.  The new format has the Coyotes playing each of their Pacific Division rivals 6 times each (3 home, 3 away), the remainder of the Western Conference teams four times each (2 home, 2 away) and then they get at least one game each against each of the Eastern Conference teams.   The Coyotes then get 3 “at large” games which will be played against Eastern teams which gives Phoenix a “home-and-home” series against the Sabres, Hurricanes and Islanders.

Discount Defense Might be Steal of Offseason

The Coyotes have rebuilt their defensive corps which were shredded with the trade of Keith Ballard and Nick Boyton to Florida for Ollie Jokinen.  Many thought GM Don Maloney would rebuild by signing some big-name free-agents while others thought the deep draft for defenseman would be a logical rebuilding point.  But in fact neither was right.   Maloney used his top draft picks to add to the Coyotes growing offensive arsenal when he selected Mikael Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov in the first round.  He did pick-up some D-men later in the draft but they are not expected to be ready for NHL action for a number of years.  Using the philosophy that most NHL defenseman hit their prime somewhere between ages 25 - 30, Maloney targeted players in that range who had not yet had a “breakout” year but still demonstrated solid defensive ability.   The first player they signed was Kurt Sauer, a big 6′ 4″, 220 lb defenseman who played last season for Avalanche.  Their next move was to ink David Hale, another player with talent who has yet to make a name for himself.  Sauer should be an ideal partner for Ed Jovanovski who needs a line-mate to cover his back as he jumps into plays and fires shots.  Last season that job fell primarily to Zybnek Michalek whose scoring fell-off last season.  A stay-at-home defender paired with Michalek will allow Z to regain his scoring touch and give the Coyotes two defensive pairing that can score significant points.

Chris Hoeler (A great name for a Coyotes blogger) at Bleacher Report has been posting some excellent articles and this week takes a look at the new-look Coyotes defense.  He cites another article by Danny Tolensky on hockeybuzz.com that compares the Sauer signing to a big deal that Toronto gave another Colorado defender, Jeff Finger.  The Maple Leafs gave Finger a four-year deal for $14 million while telling their fans that Finger was the Av’s key “shut-down” defender who played the majority of minutes against top Western Conference forwards like Joe Thornton, Jerome Iginlaz and the Sedin twins.  But in fact it was Sauer, who the Coyotes signed to a 4 year $7 million deal, that played the majority of minutes against those players.  Don Maloney is looking like a genius while the Maple Leafs look like chumps.

We won’t be able to really judge the Coyotes defense for a few months but at first glance it appears they have been able to shore things up if not actually replace Ballard & Boynton.  The question becomes whether or not the added offense provided by Jokinen combined with more scoring from Michalek & Jovo will be enough to overcome the loss of experience on defense.   One thing is certain, this team is going to score more goals and the games should be fast-moving and fun to watch.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Yotes Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.