Watch the first dozen or so games before you pile on the pessimism. This is direct at all Coyote fans in general. It's not unheard of for a team to make a sudden turn around, especially a roster as talented as ours. Outsiders may not see it but we know we have a well balanced group of forwards, and a steady enough D to really do some damage.
If we play like we did against the Kings, we will probably take 2nd in the Pacific and a decent seed in the playoffs. I think SJ will score more goals than us and use that to cheat out more wins than us. Coyotes have to scrap.
I'd say that the odds of Tippett and the Coyotes making the playoffs would rest right now at about 30%, and that's being somewhat optimistic.
But the odds of the Gretzky-led Coyotes making the playoffs were about 6%, so that's still a significant improvement.
to much pressure went with Wayne.
It was a tough situation for the players. I mean the best player in hockey history is your coach ..(with no experience in coaching) the expectation/pressure level was very high ...
I gotta feel the players are more relaxed with Tippet....
Tippet's coaching record isnt bad, missed the playoffs only one season .
Phx roster doesn't stink , so it's a manageable team that can run into the playoffs with the right coach ......
You got a solid goalie Bryzgalov which helps.
Not predicting no stanley cup ,but a playoff berth is highly possible.
The players of this team have something to play for this season , its been left for dead,written off , these are some of the more dangerous teams to play against as they feel like they got something to prove to the world.
Watch the first dozen or so games before you pile on the pessimism.
Man, WTF? It's not like I'm predicting the end of the world here. I simply said that 80% probability of the team making the playoffs after one promising game and seven years of famine is at least premature and likely very generous.
And as far as the "first dozen or so games" goes, like rt said before we went up to the ASG last year looking like we were in good shape for the playoffs and then ended up nearly winning the lottery for Tavares.
Realistically, we're looking at a slim shot to make the playoffs. It's a shot nonetheless - and I very much doubt that we're going to be in the running for Taylor Hall regardless (maybe Teemu Pulkkinen? This franchise tends to develop Teemus pretty well... ).
No, no. We take our pick(10-15) and Calgary's pick(20-25), package them, and see how far we can move up. Hall, Fowler, Kabanov, Seguin, Connolly, or Gudbranson would be nice.
I'm not quite ready to even say they were "great" in the offensive zone. They ran the show between the blue lines, but only the powerplay goal came off sustained pressure. The rest were all quick goals off turnovers.
I'm not quite ready to even say they were "great" in the offensive zone. They ran the show between the blue lines, but only the powerplay goal came off sustained pressure. The rest were all quick goals off turnovers.
The last three goals were off of turn overs. The first goal was that amazing stretch pass from Jovo to Vrbata, the second was off a rush when Lombardi banked it in off off Matt Greene(?), and the third was Winnik tipping in a point shot from Michalek. Then came the turnovers. First, Prucha intercepting a failed clearing attempt by Simmonds and dishing it to Vrbata for the goal. Then, the Upshall one-timer off of the intercepted Doughty pass. Finally, Lang picking off Doughty and firing it right in the net.
The Winnik one I misremembered as a powerplay goal, though I now recall it was about half a minute after the powerplay was over. Anyway, perhaps "off transition" would have been more accurate than "off turnover" for the rest of them, but regardless: none of those goals came off sustained pressure.
I know it was only one game, and especially with how late Tippett got there, it's not nearly enough to base anything off. Still, it looked more like a fluky offensive outburst than the mark of an offensive juggernaut. Granted, it's no small feat to be able to generate as many rushes as the Coyotes did (and last year, many of those rushes would have been simply chipped into the zone), and I give them credit for working as hard as they did. But typically, the teams who demonstrate offensive success over the course of the year are those who can keep the puck in the zone and sustain pressure on a goalie as opposed to the teams who generate sporadic rushes.
To be simple...I liked what I saw but I need to this on a consistent basis. They did alot of good things but there are areas that need to be improved on.
The last three goals were off of turn overs. The first goal was that amazing stretch pass from Jovo to Vrbata, the second was off a rush when Lombardi banked it in off off Matt Greene(?), and the third was Winnik tipping in a point shot from Michalek. Then came the turnovers. First, Prucha intercepting a failed clearing attempt by Simmonds and dishing it to Vrbata for the goal. Then, the Upshall one-timer off of the intercepted Doughty pass. Finally, Lang picking off Doughty and firing it right in the net.
Add in that Quick looked "Cloutier-esque" on several of those (especially Vrbata's).
The Yotes roster certainly has plenty of talent if they can gel as a team and Bryz plays great.
It was a tough situation for the players. I mean the best player in hockey history is your coach ..(with no experience in coaching) the expectation/pressure level was very high ...
I gotta feel the players are more relaxed with Tippet....
That might have been the case with the young guys early on, but it was the least of the problems with Gretzky's "coaching" tenure.
The fact that Tippet has a successful track record as a coach and has an actual system greatly improves our chances of making the playoffs. This team has the talent to be successful in the offensive and defensive zones, the faceoff circle, specialty teams and between the pipes; and we now have a coach that will put the players in the positions that best insure their success.
As long as the ownershp situation doesn't affect the players, this team has a great shot at making the playoffs.
"We've got lots of work to do," Head Coach Dave Tippett said Monday. "The old saying - 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' - well, I go by 'if it's not broke, you haven't looked hard enough.' So, that's where we are today... I like this group. They've got a lot of enthusiasm. They're jumping in, putting the work in and hopefully that gets us the results we want. "
Remember how often we'd be pulling our hair out around here because Gretzky would say that he thought we had a good game, when the game was anything but? This is a nice change.
Also, I'm actually pretty pleased that the PKing seems to be the area that needs the most work, albeit very early on. Reason being, that I know the PK will get it's act together. We just have too many good PKers for it not to. Seriously. We have A LOT of players that are great on the PK. Doan, Lombardi, Hanzal, Vrbata, Korpikoski, Fiddler, Winnik, Pyatt, and I thought Upshall looked really good in the roll at the end of last season. That's three fourths of our forwards that are more than capable of killing penalites.
Based on the responses here not one coyotes fan has a reason to hate him.
I would like to see Tippett more though involved in the media spotlight outhere and (unlike Wayne) actually get involved in community events not involved at the golf course! LOL Posted via Mobile Device
Alot of the knock from Philly fans on Upshall is he always took bad penalties and got his team in trouble . That is something to watch and see what happens . Hopefully if this is the case Tippett can "cure " him of this soon .
Alot of the knock from Philly fans on Upshall is he always took bad penalties and got his team in trouble . That is something to watch and see what happens . Hopefully if this is the case Tippett can "cure " him of this soon .
Opposing teams used to get up for games against Gretzky and the Yotes. The players would elevate their play to show GTO how good they were.
Even the opposing coaches took delight in beating TGO.
We now have that monkey off our backs. Now opposing teams may expect an easy 2 points and be ripe for us to knock them off.
The difference that I've seen just from the first game is that our "transition" game is leaps and bounds ahead of last year...you really can't compare the two.
We generated more odd-man rushes in the game vs the Kings that we had through the first half of last year...or at least it seemed that way.
Do we need further "offensive zone work", of course, but I'm very encouraged of the progress they've made in such a short time, remember its not like they had a complete training camp to learn and adapt to Tippett's system.
I'm also encouraged because of the number of "turnovers" we created...another item that was missing from the armamentarium last year.
to much pressure went with Wayne. 
