A wild Wild loss (vintage 2005 edition)

The year was 2005. The Patriots had just won the Super Bowl. “W” begins his second term. North Korea admits to having nuclear weapons.

Playstation 3 was just born. Hurricane Katrina introduces herself and inflicts major, major damage. King Kong, Crash and Brokeback Mountain topped the box office charts. Garry Kasparov shocked the world and retired from chess!

Fallout Boy was cool and Kanye wasn’t a jerk, yet. And, it was the last time the Phoenix Coyotes won a game at the Xcel Energy Center…….until last night!

Our Coyotes have gotten back to playing .500 hockey in the month of November with a win against the Minnesota Wild. Radim Vrbata led the way, Brizzy stood tall in net and Scottie Upshall hushed the wild Wild crowd late in the 3rd.

With less than five minutes to play and the Xcel Energy Center peaking with energy after tying the game, Upshall smacked in a rebound of Keith “Useless” Yandle’s shot. The goal secured a victory for the good guys and drained the caffeine high from the home crowd.

Newly-recalled Kevin Porter looked really good in his limited time. Aside from a super-hustle attitude, he made the most of his six-and-a-half minutes of playing time and had a shot on goal and a sweet hit on an unsuspecting member of the Wild (it happened so fast, I couldn’t get a name). His Hobey Baker acceptance speech is below, what a gent and a jokester.

Owen Nolan was the real shocker of the game. He didn’t do anything though. I just forgot about him and was shocked to see him playing again. (Insert “LOL”).

Vrbata was the real hero of the night collecting a goal and an assist. Oddly enough, Niklas Backstrom was awarded the third star even though Brizzy’s stat line was much better:

Backstrom: stopped 29 of 32, lost and had a save percentage of .906.
Bryzgalov: stopped 24 of 26, won the damn thing and left with a save percentage of .923.

The Coyotes will now travel to St. Louis to face David Perron, David Backes, David Rogers and the Blues. This may not be a huge match up on paper, but if their last meeting tells you anything, it shall be 60 minutes of excellent hockey. I predict that Porter will collect his first assist of his career tonight and the Coyotes will win 5-3.

Tags: Ilya Bryzgalov, Keith Yandle, Kevin Porter, Radim Vrbata, Scottie Upshall