Alright I'll say it... I miss Bryzzy!

Don't tell my friends - I'll never be able to live it down...

New Bryz...  
 
Classic Bryz... 
 

Come on in, the hockey's fine!

Oh the weather outside was frightful, but the hockey inside of Jobing.com Arena last night was positively delightful! (Just a note on the weather - people in Arizona can't drive when there's a speck of water on the road. They just can't do it. It blows my mind. It flips their entire world upside down. Heaven forbid it rain... anyway...)

The first period was iffy. The boys came out flat and playing what I like to call their Lackadaisical Hockey style. Lazy, sloppy, disinterested. Lucky for us, the Wild played worse. Then about midway through the 2nd period, the boys came alive. Scottie Upshall and Taylor Pyatt scored about 44 seconds apart to give the Coyotes a 2-0 lead and the fire they needed to wake up and play some good hockey!

Ilya Bryzgalov was the Man of the Night however, stopping all 28 shots he faced. I really have to give Bryz some credit. I've given him a hard time in the past but when we needed him the most, and we've needed him more this season than ever; he's come through. He's becoming that elite NHL goaltender everyone said he had in him. He's making quite a case for himself and has finally won me over. That's huge, for those of you who know me well you know that I expect a lot out of my number 1 goaltender and Bryz just wasn't doing it for me until this season. But I don't mind admitting when I'm wrong and thank goodness I was wrong about Bryz. I certainly hope this continues and he finally realizes his dream of becoming a Stanley Cup Champion as a starter, and as a starter in Phoenix. I've got to give props to Sean Burke, apparently he knows how to Coach Bryz. Bryz is a different goalie this year. I don't know how long he'll last carrying the team on his back like that, but he's not showing any signs of slowing just yet.

The Coyotes are now 18-11-1 and can boast that they are having their first 5 game winning streak since the last one that lasted from 12/31/07-1/8/08. A few more interesting things of note from the game last night: Bryzgalov posted his personal career high 4th shutout of the season and is now one point behind the League leader in Wins, New Jersey's Martin Broduer. So our goalie is #2 in the League in wins!

Man, it sure is sweet to be a Coyotes fan today!

I'll leave you with some Good Morning Reads: If you haven't yet seen the article about Bryz in the Republic, what's stopping you??? It's spectacular. I am loving the new reporter, she's a keeper guys!

I'm a huge fan of Luke Lapinski's and thoroughly enjoyed his new "Off The Post" segment over at PhoenixCoyotes.com.

I think that's it for now... have a great day everyone!

Cheers,
Heather

Have a Safe Trip Back to the North Pole!

Jingle bells, the Wild STILL smells & Olli scored another goal!
Coyotes 3
Christmas Elves 1

I was having so much fun at the game last night dancing, cheering & booing the Wild fans that I may have missed a few moments… it happens. But I caught the important stuff. So here we go....

After a scoreless first period, defenseman Zybnek Michalek blasted a slap shot past Santa Backstrom at 19:33 of the 2nd. 25 seconds later, OlliCoyote sends one past St. Nick as well. The new kid, Joakim Lindstrom; who played in his second game last night with the Yotes after being called up from San Antonio, caught Jolly Ol' St. Nick off guard with a tip in at 4:41 of the 3rd. A wee lil Elf called Antti Miettinen ruined Bryz's shut out with a wrister at 8:25 of the 3rd. Stupid elves...

Congratulations to Daniel Carcillo, who played in his 100th career NHL game last night. We ♥ you Danny. GO DANNY GO!

The Coyotes won 31 of 61 face-offs.

The Coyotes outhit the Wild 26-19.

Phoenix had not beaten Minnesota since a 4-3 home victory on Nov. 14, 2006.

Yahoo News quotes Coyotes goal-tender Ilya Bryzgalov as saying: "You can't lose forever," about the victory. Thanks Bryz...

PhoenixCoyotes.com 3 Stars of the game:

BRING ON THE RED WINGS!!!

♥ -The Diva

AP Photos

The Diva's Game Day Preview: Kings @ Coyotes

Tonight the Coyotes face Division rivals the LA Kings. The Coyotes and Kings have not seen eachother since the final preseason game back on October 4th when the Coyotes beat the Kings 5-2. The Kings played the Maple Leafs Monday night, losing 3-1. The Coyotes played the Sharks Saturday night, losing 3-2. Neither team wishes to extend their losing streak to 2.

According to the Coyotes website, Goaltender Mikael Tellqvist will return to the net tonight. Tellqvist played Saturday night after Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled from the game during the 1st period. Wayne Gretzky says; "Confidence is a huge part of the game and (Bryzgalov) is lacking a little bit of confidence," Gretzky said. "We know he is an elite goaltender … he is in a down time right now. He’s worked hard. He will work his way out of this."

"Telly has been strong and really good," Gretzky said. Telly has stopped 95 of the last 99 shots he has faced in the past few games.

Telly played the last period of the Coyotes & Kings last game, stopping 19 of the 21 shots he faced that night. Bryzgalov played the first two periods, facing only 17 shots and stopping them all. The Coyotes are currently 6-4-1 at home while the Kings are 3-4-0 away.

*Photos by Andrea Hasbrouck

Die Hard

Die Hard:
-Someone really fanatical and devoted to something; gung-ho, committed.
-A person who might persist with a certain course of action or belief way longer than most people would decide it was sensible to quit/move on.
-Gung-ho, fanatical til the end.
-being able to stand pain, hardcore, having no fear of death.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Coyotes Fans; you should be ashamed of yourselves. Flailing about and threatening to jump ship so early in the season. Tisk, tisk. I feel that some of you need to be reminded of what a true "die hard" fan is, thus the above definitions. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Have faith in The Great One. There is a method to his madness. We may not see it now but it will manifest itself soon enough. TGO will not let us down. Now, that having been said. IT'S GAME DAY!!!!!!!!!

Tonight the Coyotes take on the New York Rangers (ewwwww!) We've seen the Coyotes take on league leaders such as the Sharks and the Penguins and come out on top. Can they do it against the Rangers? Absolutely! It will take some work of course, but they are capable. Bryz will be back in net tonight and he has only played the Rangers once.... and lost once. Time will tell if he can turn that around. The Coyotes have GOT to step up the scoring. We've got Enver Lisin back in the line-up due to Daniel Winnik's injury. Derek Morris won't be protecting our blue line tonight, due to injury as well. The Rangers are looking to avoid adding number 3 to their losing streak and we can't have a #6. So I'm sure emotions will be strong tonight. We should all be looking forward to some fantastic hockey.

There Was Much Crapping on the Ice in Vancouver Last Night...

The crap calls on Carcillo and Sauer killed us last night. And ya know... I really, really, really want to blame that loss entirely on the refs. Really. But the fact of the matter is that we just needed one goal to tie it up through-out the entire game & we just couldn't get it. The PK was great & Bryzgalov played like a mad-goalie. Against the best goal-tender in the league, he held his own quite impressively stopping 31 of the 32 shots he faced. I'm normally not a Bryz fan but he's starting to win me over, slowly but surely. The D-men were ON IT last night. Shout-out to Kurt Sauer who stopped two shots with his stick. That was just beautiful! Kurt owned last night. But where were the forwards?

The Murray-Fedoruk-Carcillo line was the best line on the ice last night. They got out there and gave it their all, the rest of the forwards looked... lost. Our top guys really let Bryz down last night. We had stellar goal-tending going on, the D-men were on it and the fourth liners were playing their hearts out. But our top goal scorers let us down. Doaner? OlliCoyote? Mueller? For Shame... You've all got to show up on the same night in order to get a win.... (P.S. Hockey Friends: It was my boy Murray who thought he was the puck. Party on Garth!) :D

*photos from azcentral.com