BoT Gameday: Sharks @ Coyotes
By Puckguy14
The San Jose Sharks have their swagger back and hope to continue to show their dominance tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes in an early evening matchup. Team Teal is on a three game winning streak and have outscored their opponents 12-2 in the last three games. This team is starting to heat up at the right time.
It is simply amazing what an extended time off will do to a team. And in the two games the Sharks have played in, it looks like this team is fresh and focused on the goal. After all like Randy Hahn always says, “keep it real, keep it fresh, keep it real fresh.” The team has been on fire in all aspects, Joe Pavelski has been a beast in the faceoff circle , Logan Couture has scored 8 points (3 goals, 5 assists) in his last five games, and the power play has scored 5 goals in it’s last 13 opportunities. All that along with Antti Niemi and Thomas Greiss allowing three goals in their last four games. Everything is clicking right now.
The same can’t be said for the Phoenix Coyotes. The looming ownership issue is still a dark cloud looming over everyone’s head. What is worse is the team has lost seven of it’s last nine games, and have won only four times since Christmas. The struggle for replacing Ilya Bryzgalov along with generating secondary scoring has made things very tough for the Desert Dogs, but a win tonight would be huge.
THE LAST ORIGINAL SHARK
Many ask what’s the 14 on my username is for? While it’s for Jonathan Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau (the number he originally wore from 1998-2001) it was originally for a Shark that played for the first team. Ray Whitney was a 2nd round pick in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. He slowly made an impact in the Sharks short history, but nothing will highlight his days as a Sharks like a late night in May of 1995 in double overtime of Game 7 between the Sharks and Calgary Flames.
Since his Sharks days, he has bounced from Edmonton, Florida, Columbus where he was captain, Detroit, and Carolina as a part of the team that won a Stanley Cup in 2006 with Sharks studio analyst Bret Hedican. He is in his second year with the Coyotes and could be a player that moves at the trade deadline. I would love to pick him up. A great, hard working player that can score. In fact he has as many points as Joe Thornton entering tonight’s game.
Remember this is a 5pm game time and a great start to an epic sports weekend. Let’s pucking do this!
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