The Arizona Coyotes are better than many expected them to be this season.
A team that has very firmly been in rebuild/ stock up on as many LTIR contracts as possible mode for some time now has been putting together some solid performances. And they turned in one of those solid performances against the Canucks tonight.
The Canucks opened the scoring thanks to Andrei Kuzmenko — more on him later — but the Coyotes scored three unanswered before Elias Pettersson potted his 32nd of the season to bring the Canucks within one late. Unfortunately for the Canucks, that would be all they had in the tank, as they lost by a final score of 3-2.
On the bright side, at least Aidan McDonough should get a shot now! Tocchet made it clear that he was unsure when McDonough would make his debut, and considering McDonough was signed while the Canucks were on a five game winning streak, that makes some sense. It’s hard to take a guy out of a winning lineup when nobody really “deserves” to come out.
One thing I feel needs mentioning — did you forget Travis Boyd was a Canuck? Boyd was claimed off waivers by the Canucks when the Toronto Maple Leafs sent him down in March of 2021. Boyd played 19 games with the Canucks, scoring two goals and recording zero assists in the process, before signing with the Arizona Coyotes as a free agent. It’s been in Arizona that Boyd has enjoyed the most success of his career, tallying 18 goals and 17 assists last season, and 14 goals and 15 assists this season. Two of those 14 goals came tonight against his former team tonight. That was also the second multi-goal game of Boyd’s career.
On the Canucks’ side, Anthony Beauvillier continues his strong play, as he had some solid drives to the net to go along with a pretty passing play with Elias Pettersson to set up Andrei Kuzmenko for his 34th goal of the year. That ties Pavel Bure’s record for the most by a Russian player in their debut season with the Canucks. The Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Beauvillier trio was impressive once again, to the surprise of nobody.
This was probably the weakest start for Thatcher Demko since his return from injury, and that’s fine. He wasn’t bad, he just wasn’t the same level of spectacular that he has been since returning. The Canucks will continue their road trip Saturday in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for The Stanchies later tonight!
