Coyotes - Joes Manchester Blog Corner

Saturday 28 February 2015

{coyotes} Antoine Vermette traded to Blackhawks by Coyotes

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Forward Antoine Vermette was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks by the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday for defenseman Klas Dahlbeck and a first-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.

Vermette, 32, has played the past four seasons for Arizona. The 11-year veteran also played for the Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets, and has 194 NHL goals and 430 points.

After the Coyotes were defeated by the Boston Bruins 4-1 Saturday, and before the trade was revealed, Vermette reflected on his time in Arizona, which ended with the Coyotes on a nine-game losing streak and near the bottom of the NHL standings.

"It's a strange position and it's not a fun one," he said. "It's not the way you see it. As a group here, this is not the position we want to be in."

Vermette has 13 goals and 35 points in 63 games and would likely play on one of the Blackhawks' top two lines as a replacement for wing Patrick Kane, who fractured his left clavicle Tuesday and will be out at least until late May.

"You've got to take [the trade] as a man," said Vermette, who can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. "It's part of the game, unfortunately. It's not easy. … [I had a] special group, special guys. I made some friends here."

Dahlbeck, 23 was the 79th pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. He has played four NHL games.

"Klas Dahlbeck is a big (6-foot-3, 207), strong, two-way defenseman who skates well and competes hard," Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said. "We're excited to welcome him."

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{coyotes} Rask returns to help Bruins defeat Coyotes

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BOSTON -- Five Boston Bruins had a multipoint game, and goaltender Tuukka Rask made 31 saves when they opened a four-game homestand with a 4-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at TD Garden on Saturday.

Forwards Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Zdeno Chara had one goal and one assist each, and Reilly Smith had two assists for the Bruins (31-22-9).

The Bruins, who have won six in a row against the Coyotes since Oct. 9, 2010, were in an 0-4-2 slump when they finished a recent five-game road trip. But they swept a back-to-back against the Coyotes and New Jersey Devils this weekend and are 3-1-0 in their past four games.

"The last few that we've lost we felt that we easily could've won," Marchand said. "We outplayed them. And you know it just seems when things are going wrong and you're having a season like we are right now, you know you play good hockey and you still end up with a loss. There's other years like last year where you don't always play your best but you always seem to find a way to win. We're very happy with how we're progressing and we're turning the corner and we're playing good hockey right now. So we're going to continue to build on it and continue to be better."

Rask, who played in 18 straight games before missing the 3-2 win against the Devils because he was ill Friday, had a shutout until 10:21 of the third period.

"It wasn't the hardest game; obviously you only have 30 hours to get all your energy and fluids back or you don't feel 100 percent out there," Rask said. "But then again, when you don't feel like that you just try to focus on the right things. I felt like I didn't do anything extra out there today; I was just trying to stay and be in the right position."

Forward Martin Erat scored for the Coyotes (20-36-7), who have lost nine in a row and went 0-4-0 on their road trip.

"You have to be embarrassed," Coyotes captain Shane Doan said. "I don't care how old you are, you have to be really embarrassed. You better be really embarrassed."

Arizona goaltender Mike Smith was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals on 20 shots. Backup Louis Domingue stopped the 14 shots he faced.

Coyotes coach Dave Tippett partially blamed the distraction of the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday for their recent struggles.

"Very much so. We have been dragging through this for a month now," Tippett said. "They are good people, good players that are possibly going to move, that's a miserable feeling in there. Between losing and guys not knowing where they are going to be, that's a hard thing to deal with. Hopefully we can get past that and come out of the deadline with whoever is in the lineup and hopefully get to work."

The Bruins took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Milan Lucic after Mike Smith missed a David Pastrnak dump-in. The bouncing puck went behind the Arizona net, where Lucic grabbed it and then banked it off the back of the goalie's pad into the net at 2:40.

Marchand gave Boston a 2-0 lead with a shot from the left dot that beat Mike Smith inside the far post at 14:13. Marchand started the breakout with a pass out of the Boston zone to Patrice Bergeron, and then Reilly Smith set up Marchand's shot.

Boston leads the Florida Panthers by four points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

"One thing that we say often is that we really kind of try to prepare ourselves right now. You know I said to the guys before the game, 'It's not who we play, it's how we play that matters right now from here until the end,' and that's the approach we have to take," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We can't afford to not be prepared for games like this just because of their record right now or what they've been going through. I think it's important if we want to be in those playoff spots that we are a team that's ready to play on a nightly basis, and we've got to gain as many points as we can."

The line of Marchand, Bergeron and Reilly Smith was on the ice for the Bruins' third goal. Bergeron's backhand to the front of the net went past Reilly Smith and deflected off Arizona defenseman Keith Yandle's skate before beating Smith at 3:02 of the second period.

Chara's power-play goal put the Bruins ahead 4-0 at 11:50 and sent Mike Smith to the bench in favor of Domingue.

Arizona scored with 9:39 left, when Erat tipped a Shane Doan pass by Rask.

The Bruins are off until they host the Calgary Flames on Thursday. The Coyotes return home to play the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.

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{coyotes} Status of Rask uncertain as Bruins host Coyotes

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BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins proved they could win without goaltender Tuukka Rask on Friday.

Now they'll try to build on their 3-2 victory against the New Jersey Devils, with or without their star goaltender.

Rask, who had played 18 straight games, was ill and did not dress against the Devils. Goaltender Niklas Svedberg started Friday for the first time since Feb. 10 and made 29 saves in the overtime victory. The Bruins, who have now won two out of three after going winless for six (0-4-2), did not hold a morning skate Saturday in advance of their 5:30 p.m. game against the Arizona Coyotes. Coach Claude Julien will speak about an hour prior to the game.

Goaltender Jeremy Smith, who was recalled on emergency basis from Providence of the American Hockey League and backed up Svedberg against the Devils, was returned to the minors Saturday. But he could be easily recalled if necessary.

The Coyotes, who also did not have a morning skate, will complete a four-game road trip against the Bruins. So far Arizona is 0-3-0 and it has lost eight in a row overall. The Coyotes' winless streak is the longest since they went 15 games without a victory (four ties) in 2003-04.

Goaltender Mike Smith says the Coyotes have made life difficult for themselves most nights.

"We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot," Smith told the Coyotes website after a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday. "We constantly turned pucks over. Against good teams, you're going to get it jammed right back down your throat."

Here are the projected lineups:

COYOTES

Lucas Lessio – Antoine Vermette – Shane Doan

Tobias Rieder – Kyle Chipchura – Sam Gagner

Martin Erat – Mark Arcobello – David Moss

Lauri Korpikoski – Joe Vitale – Henrik Samuelsson

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Michael Stone

Keith Yandle – Andrew Campbell

Brandon Gormley – Connor Murphy

Mike Smith

Louis Domingue

Scratched: B.J. Crombeen, Dylan Reese

Injured: Zbynek Michalek (upper body), Martin Hanzal (upper body), Mikkel Boedker (upper body)

BRUINS

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Reilly Smith

Milan Lucic – Ryan Spooner – David Pastrnak

Daniel Paille – Carl Soderberg – Loui Eriksson

Jordan Caron – Chris Kelly – Brian Ferlin

Zdeno Chara – Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski – Dennis Seidenberg

Torey Krug – Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask

Niklas Svedberg

Scratched: Craig Cunningham

Injured: Gregory Campbell (upper body), David Krejci (knee), Kevan Miller (shoulder)

Status report: Campbell is near the end of the first week of his injury absence. The original prognosis was for him to be out at least a week.

Who's hot: Arcobello has two goals in his past two games. He will play in his 100th NHL game Saturday. … Paille has a two-game goal streak.

Team Stats

	GP	Record	Home	Road	L10	G/GP	GA/GP	PP%	PK%	PIM/GP	S/GP	SA/GP	FO%
	62	20-35-7	9-16-4	11-19-3	1-9-0	2.14	3.31	21.7	77.3	9.3	29.5	32.1	52.4
	61	30-22-9	17-10-4	13-12-5	3-5-2	2.61	2.52	17.1	82.0	10.4	30.6	29.5	53.7

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{coyotes} Ekman-Larsson is Coyotes' foundation moving ahead

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It's not totally out of the realm of possibility, because nothing is when it comes to trades at this time of the season, but the Arizona Coyotes might have a better chance of storming back into the Stanley Cup Playoff race in the Western Conference than there is of general manager Don Maloney trading all-star defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

The Coyotes are 24 points out of a playoff spot and in seller's mode heading into the NHL Trade Deadline on March 2 at 3 p.m. ET. Their hope is to secure some assets and get a good position for the 2015 NHL Draft Lottery in order to enhance their rebuild.

Ekman-Larsson, 23, is the foundation of Arizona's rebuild.

"If he was on any other team in the entire NHL everyone would be talking about how he is not just top-five [among defensemen in the NHL], he'd be talked about as the best," Coyotes captain Shane Doan said. "He's unbelievable."

That said, almost one month ago Arizona general manager Don Maloney surprisingly mentioned Ekman-Larsson's name in a conversation about trades on TSN 1200 Radio in Ottawa.

"Oliver Ekman-Larsson is a player that we would certainly be very, very reluctant to part with," Maloney said Jan. 30. "But as far as I'm concerned when you're sitting with our record, and we're [one of the] three or four worst records in the League, then everybody is up for grabs."

Maloney's comment went viral through the hockey community, but it was taken out of context. All he meant from Arizona's perspective was if, for example, the Pittsburgh Penguins offered Sidney Crosby in a trade for Ekman-Larsson, then yes, the defenseman would be up for grabs.

Maloney is refraining from commenting publicly until after the trade deadline, but a Coyotes spokesperson said the GM has no intention of trading Ekman-Larsson.

"I'm really happy in Arizona and I'm happy about playing a lot," Ekman-Larsson said. "I just love being in Arizona."

The Coyotes love having him. Why wouldn't they?

Ekman-Larsson is their best player. He leads NHL defensemen with 17 goals and is second behind Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson with 203 shots on goal. Ekman-Larsson is third on Arizona with 31 points.

"He's a combination of a dynamic player and the most sensible, reasonable, thoughtful player you can have," coach Dave Tippett said. "He has a dynamic shot but he plays hard minutes, plays against other teams' top players, and he makes hard plays look easy. He's just an all-around good player but he has a dynamic element to his game also. I think he's one of the top defensemen in the League. Obviously this year with our team it's not going the way anybody would like, and Oliver would certainly like to be better, but if he was a lot of other places there would be a lot more fanfare, that's for sure."

Location might be the biggest knock on Ekman-Larsson.

"If he was in the East you'd hear more about him with prime-time TV," Yandle said. "But we're happy we have him."

Like everyone with the Coyotes, Ekman-Larsson hates all the losing they have done this season and is struggling to come to grips with the idea that Arizona is heading into rebuilding mode. This is the first time since he arrived in Arizona in 2010 that the Coyotes have been in this position.

"It's hard," Ekman-Larsson said. "Obviously when you don't have the success you're looking for change is going to happen. That's where we're at now. It's hard to say what happened."

What happened doesn't matter anymore. For the Coyotes, it's what they're going to do about it. Trading assets, veteran players with expiring contracts, is the obvious solution. So is building around Ekman-Larsson, who loves that idea.

"That's what I want," he said. "I want them to build a team around me, an organization around me. Look at Shane Doan; they have been building around him for 20 years now. I want to be that guy who everybody likes and that they want to build around."

Doan, 38, isn't ready to cede the captaincy yet, but depending on what happens with Yandle, Ekman-Larsson could be the next captain in Arizona. Yandle is signed through next season but he might be traded either before the deadline or in the offseason.

"I wouldn't say no to that," Ekman-Larsson said of being captain one day. "It's up to the coaches and the staff so I don't focus on that. But I would love to wear a letter."

"I think he has all the potential to be and he has the personality to be," Doan said. "I think having Keith Yandle around is huge for him because [Yandle] is a natural leader and Oliver sees the way he is with everybody and that gives him so much more comfort."

Having Ekman-Larsson around gives the Coyotes comfort as they head into their rebuild. He's the cornerstone defenseman, their gem. He's not leaving the desert.

"Oliver is special," Doan said. "The way he sees the game is incredible. He is unbelievable defensively. He plays physical. He does everything that you want him to do. He's just an unbelievable teammate too. He's exactly what you want in a player."

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