Coyotes Begin by Hosting Blues
The Phoenix Coyotes begin their season tonight at home hosting the St. Louis Blues.
The Coyotes have already had their first casualty of the very young season. Zbynek Michalek will be out due to a broken hand that he suffered in practice on Wednesday. Brendan Bell has been called up from San Antonio to take his place.
The absence of Michalek will be a huge loss for the Coyotes as he will be out four to six weeks. Bell should be handle the job competently enough, but he can’t replace what Michalek brings to the ice every night. However, after being placed on waivers, clearing them, and being assigned to the San Antonio Rampage, Bell will have the opportunity to prove himself that he belongs in the NHL and it starts for him tonight.
Mikael Tellqvist will get the start in goal tonight with Alex Auld serving as his backup. Tellqvist had a solid preseason with a 2.02 GAA and a .933 save percentage.
For information about the St. Louis Blues, head over to James Mirtle’s preview at AOL Fanhouse and then take a look at the other blogs that feature the Blues: The Checking Line and St. Louis Gametime.
For the Coyotes, watch the rookies Martin Hanzal and Peter Mueller play. They will see action on the third and fourth lines respectively. Hopefully, Hanzal will continue his steady progress that he started in the preseason. Plus, the additions of Craig Weller and Daniel Winnik should prove very interesting.
Expecting contributions from Shane Doan and Steven Reinprecht is obvious, but I also plan to pay attention to Daniel Carcillo to see if he can continue his hot hand that he had during the preseason.
Finally, watching to see if the additions of Radim Vrbata, who was steady in the preseason, along with Mike York will work for the Coyotes offense.
The defensive is a solid group, especially now that Ed Jovanovski is healthy. They are a proven commodity with Jovanovski, Keith Ballard, Matt Jones, Derek Morris, and Nick Boynton. Since Michalek is now on the DL, Bell will have to fit in quickly.
The puck drops in more than twelve hours from now…game on!
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Original post by PB
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