From my cheap seats (read, my couch in my living room) I had a bad feeling that the points the Coyotes squandered would bite them in the ass. Unfortunately, I should have bought some lotto tickets because my feeling was dead on.
For the first ten minutes, I had hope. The flightless fat birds lost two in a row, and even though they would be well-rested, the Coyotes had started to gain some momentum. After the puck dropped, and when the Coyotes did not convert on their early power play chances, my hope quickly depleted, especially when the flightless fat birds scored three unanswered.
My attitude got worse when the flightless fat birds scored two more and I saw a Coyotes team take the night off, skating around like a bantam team wondering when their next flight was. This team took liberties, felt good about themselves, and the Coyotes realized that their lackluster effort got them in a world of hurt, started acting out their frustrations.
I think tactically, Dave Tippett made a mistake. He sent a few skaters in there thinking that the benching would do them good and sat Paul Bissonnette. Bissonnette would have added grit, would have added protection, and would have sparked the team that should not have needed any spark because the Coyotes needed points – the playoff push started weeks ago.
Because having BizNasty in the lineup would have quelled some of the danger the third period brought when OEL (Oliver Ekman-Larsson) decided to act out his frustrations and cross check some guy on the side boards. The biggest guy there was #14 Taylor Pyatt – the biggest guy on the other side, defensemen Deryk Engelland, a nasty heavyweight – something wicked was coming this way.
#14 protected his guys when Bissonnette should have been able to. #14 sacrificed himself in a bout where he was clearly out matched because the Coyotes were frustrated with themselves and took it out on the flightless fat birds. If they were so frustrated, they should have just took even more time off and skated around – let the team run up the score to the double digits, because at 5 – 0, nothing mattered.
Putting Pyatt in that situation was damn foolish. Orbital bones get broken that way, and the way Engelland dropped him, it’s a distinct possibility. Just when #14 was heating up too as he had four points in six games entering that tilt tonight.
Have to hand it to Engelland though. He knew his opponent, and after he did his job, he made sure Pyatt’s head didn’t crack open on the ice.
Therefore, it was a colossal failure on the behalf of the Coyotes tonight, and what a way to fail. We get the good news of a possible ownership change, and they only collect three points of eight available. Nice job.
I could go on about the fan support ad nauseum, blah blah blah, high expectations yadda yadda yadda.
Because, you really don’t have to answer to us. Just look across the dressing room and realize the position you put #14 in tonight.
#14 might be out for an extended length of time because he chose the team over himself; he knew the situation that he was in and chose to stick up for a team that didn’t show up tonight.
So the way I see it, if he’s out for an extended length of time, just know it’s on you and Pyatt is the only man you owe.
Original Story:
http://onefansperspective.com/2010/12...
