The New Coyotes

After a hectic and worrisome summer, the Phoenix Coyotes came into the 2009-2010 season completely revamped.  With a new coach, Dave Tippett, and a new owner, the Coyotes have remodeled their roster, acquiring fourteen of its 25 players in the year 2009.

The new roster has proven to be a successful change, as the Coyotes with 45 games played sit fourth in the Western Conference with 26 wins, and 56 points. They are on pace to shatter the Phoenix Coyotes franchise record, of 95 points (achieved in the 2001-2002 season)*, with a total of 106 points. If the Coyotes want to establish the Coyotes fan support in Arizona, they will need to make the playoffs—and ideally, win the first round. Through half the season, the Coyotes have proven they are a new, rejuvenated team (average age of team is 27.8 years) that can win.

Though attendance has not been outstanding this season at Jobing.com Arena, the Coyotes have posted a great home record (16-6-1), and fared decently on the road (10-8-3). Hopefully the days of 5,000 fans in attendance are gone, as they will need the support to continue winning.

Though the Coyotes dropped their home opener to the Columbus Blue Jackets (2-0), bringing back the White-Out showed how great the momentum and energy can feel when the Coyotes play in front of a nearly sell-out crowd.

Goalie Starters 12/29/2009

Please remember to keep refreshing this page or follow me on Twitter for the fastest updates. Here are your expected starting goalies for tonight:

• Chris Botta of Islanders Point Blank reports Dwayne Roloson gets the nod tonight.
• Ryan Miller expected by Seth Rorabaugh’s Empty Netters.  No word yet on the starter in Pittsburgh.

UPDATED @ 1:17 PM

• Marty Turco in nets for the Stars says Mike Heika of The Dallas Morning News.

UPDATED @ 1:27 PM

• Cristobal Huet in nets for the Hawks according to Chris Kuc of The Chicago Tribune.

UPDATED @ 1:37 PM

• Chris Mason faces Pekka Rinne tonight according to The Official Twitter Page of The Nashville Predators.

Goalie Starters 12/17/2009

Please remember to keep refreshing this page or follow me on Twitter for the fastest updates. Here are your expected starting goalies for tonight:

• Henrik Lundqvist makes his eighth straight start writes Andrew Gross of The Record. Chris Botta of Islanders Point Blank writes Dwayne Roloson should get the nod.
• Dave Vest of Coyotes.com writes Jason LaBarbera starts for the Yotes.  Likewise, he will face Mathieu Garon says Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch.
• Dave Stubbs of Habs Inside/Out reports Carey Price as tonight’s starter.
• Seth Rorabaugh’s Empty Netters predicts Brian Boucher facing Marc Andre Fleury.
• Ondrej Pavelec in tonight says Ben Wright of Blueland Blog.  Mike Heika of The Dallas Morning News states Alex Auld starts for the Stars.
• Mike Smith gets the start for the Lightning, says Damian Cristodero of Lightning Strikes. Jimmy Howard faces Smith writes Ansar Khan of Mlive.com.

Goalie Starters 10/28/2009

Here are the expected starters for tonight:

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 3:45 PM:

• Adrian Dater reports, via Twitter, Craig Anderson will start again.  Per TSN Ice Chips, Miikka Kiprusoff will get the nod.
• Expect Evgeni Nabokov to start, I wouldn’t imagine Thomas Greiss making two straight starts.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 3:30 PM:

• Mike Heika of Dallas News has it at Marty Turco and Jonas Gustavsson.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 3:20 PM:

• John Glennon of Predators Insider announces Dan Ellis will make his second straight start.  Likewise, due to Josh Harding‘s injury Niklas Backstrom will start for Minnesota.  More about Harding’s injury status here.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 3:15 PM:

• According to Official Twitter Feed of the Ottawa Senators, Pascal Leclaire will start against the Panthers.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 3:05 PM:

• Jaroslav Halak makes his fifth straight start according to Kevin Mio of Habs Inside/Out.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 3:00 PM:

• Ryan Miller is expected to start, per the Buffalo Sabres Official Site preview.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 2:50 PM:

• Dave Vest writes that it is highly likely Jason LaBarbera will start tonight.  Full preview here.  Don Maloney also made a similar comment to Vest here.
• Henrik Lundqvist starts per Newsday’s Steve Zipay’s.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 1:05 PM:

• Chris Mason confirmed by Jeremy Rutherford’s Morning Skate.  The entry also mentions no confirmation on Ty Conklin starting tomorrow.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 12:10 PM:

• Marc Andre Fleury is expected says Seth Rorabaugh of Empty Netters. Still awaiting word on the starter for the Habs.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 11:55 AM:

• Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice confirms Martin Brodeur in net, with a possibility of Yann Danis starting tomorrow against Boston.

UPDATED 10/28/2009 @ 11:30 AM:

• Chip Alexander reports, via Twitter, that Cam Ward will start against the Flyers tonight with Michael Leighton probably  starting against San Jose.
• Chris Botta of Islanders Point Blank projects Dwayne Roloson as the Isle’s starter.

UPDATED 10/27/2009 @ 10:45 PM:

• Jon Quick will start both Wednesday and Thursday, according to coach Terry Murray.  Rich Hammond of LAKingsInsider.com has the full story.

UPDATED 10/27/2009 @ 10:00 PM:

• Steve Mason will be in net according to The Official Twitter Page of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
• Steve Gorten of the Sun Sentinel reports Tomas Vokoun will start for the Panthers against Ottawa.
• As you may or may not have read here, NHLHotStove.com is coming soon.  Right now I have added an About page and solved numerous formatting problems as well as sources for all 30 teams.  Check out our ever-changing beta here!

That’s all I have for now.  More updates to come.  If you have any tips, email them to me at thehotstove@gmail.com.

Yesterday’s Count: 6/6 = 100%
Year-to-date Predictions: 243/246= 98.8%

Follow me on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates

-Alexander Monaghan

Goalie Starters 10/08/2009

Here are the expected starters for tonight:

• Henrik Lundqvist is assumed to be playing against the Capitals, in a recent Andrew Gross post.  Gross here assumes him to play Saturday against Anaheim and then sitting to Valiquette on Monday versus Toronto.
• The Associated Press reports Jonas Hiller and Tim Thomas to be tonight’s starters here.
• Chris Mason is expected to be in net according to this AP article.  The article says the same for Ondrej Pavelec of Atlanta.
• Los Angeles Kings starter Jon Quick looks to rebound against the Wild, according to Kate Hedlin’s preview.
• Jeff Mezydl reports that Dan Ellis for Nashville and Craig Anderson will start, here.
• Marc Andre Fleury is projected to be in the lineup, according to Jason Seidling’s game preview.  This is also confirmed here, as well as the assumption Ray Emery will be in net.
• Ilya Bryzgalov and Ryan Miller were both mentioned here.  They are both assumed to start tonight.
• The same theory works for Evgeni Nabokov and Steve Mason, as they are both featured here.
• Chris Osgood and Christobal Huet should start according to this game preview.
• Lonnie Herman reports that Mike Smith will be in net, here.  Martin Brodeur is also expected to rebound against Tampa Bay.
• Looks like Nikolai Khabibulin and Miikka Kiprusoff for the Battle of Alberta.  Both were written about in-depth by beat writer Randy Sportak, here.  Kiprusoff should have a night off coming soon, fyi.
• The consensus is Dwayne Roloson and Pascal Leclaire going tonight. No official confirmation yet, but every source I have seen today has those two projected.
• I am going to say my educated guess is that Jose Theodore will be in net.  Corey Masisak of the Washington Times confirms this here.
• The same goes for Niklas Backstrom of the Minnesota Wild.

UPDATE: Jason LaBarbera is in net for Phoenix tonight against Buffalo.  Link here

UPDATE: Josh Harding is making his season debut tonight as reported on the Wild official site here

UPDATE:  Katie Strang of Isles Files reports here that Martin Biron will make his season debut as well.

That’s all I have for now.  More updates to come.  If you have any tips, email them to me at alexander.monaghan@gmail.com.

Year-to-date Predictions: 4/4 = 100%

-Alexander Monaghan