Breaking a 14-game goalless drought in his return to the Arizona Coyotes’ lineup, Michael Carcone has dealt with adversity lately, but looks to push that to the side.
Right off the bat, Carcone scored 14 goals in the first 26 games he played for the ‘Yotes this season, including a hat trick against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 30.
His stick was scorching hot, leading the NHL with a shooting percentage of 35.9% as of Dec. 12.
Deceptively fooling the opposition’s goaltenders with a quick release of the puck, Carcone was finding success and bursting onto the scene as a serious threat to watch on the ice.
From that point onward, however, Carcone did not register another tally until Jan 20.
During this stretch, he was eventually a healthy scratch in their last two games prior to being penciled back into the lineup for the Coyotes as they faced the Nashville Predators.
Scoring in his first game back from a brief absence, Carcone took a couple swipes at the puck in the Predators’ crease before netting his 15th goal and 20th point of the season.
“(It was a) Emotional rollercoaster, think I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that,” Carcone said. “It is easy to point fingers at people, but sometimes you got to look in the mirror and I did that and I was fortunate to get on the board tonight.”
Despite the difficult times that he has endured, Carcone was glad to contribute for him personally and for his team.
“It’s the NHL I guess, it was a good feeling for sure,” Carcone said.
Not only was Carcone please with his performance, but Coyotes head coach André Tourigny thought the same.
“He was really good,” Tourigny said. “Those energy players some nights when everybody is playing well, people don’t realize how important they are. In a game like tonight when everybody has less energy and everybody has to dig deep, those guys give you energy.”
The Coyotes will finish a two-game homestand as they face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.
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