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Mike Smith Phoenix Coyotes

NHL Playoffs: Phoenix Joins Los Angeles In Western Finals

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The NHL’s Western Conference finals are set, as the Phoenix Coyotes finished off the Nashville Predators in five games to move forward to face the Los Angeles Kings. And while the Coyotes were reaching new heights for what’s been an embattled franchise, the Washington Capitals were reaching new heights in finding ways to torture their loyal fan base, as they dropped a heartbreaker in New York. TheSportsNotebook looks back on both games and ahead to Tuesday night’s lone game…

Phoenix 2 Nashville 1: The Predators did what they had to and hammered Phoenix goalie Mike Smith with 33 shots, while shutting down the Coyote attack and limiting them to 17 shots. But for the third time this series, the Preds got an unsatisfactory outing from goalie Pekka Rinne, who allowed two goals, while Smith turned back 32 of 33. It’s generally accepted in the NHL playoffs that not only does a goalie have to sustain his regular season level of play, he has to lift it. Rinne, one of the league’s best, went in the opposite direction this series, with subpar games all three times in Phoenix. Nashville is not a great offensive team—even with the 33 shots, the problems of depending too heavily on the defenseman showed, as Shea Weber’s seven shots were easily the most on the team last night. Phoenix is built around one singularly great goaltender who continued to carry his team. Nashville is built on a deeper team defensive concept, but that doesn’t work when it only takes 17 shots to score twice. Congratulations to the Phoenix Smiths—we may as well name the team after the guy—as they get set to host the first two games against Los Angeles.

NY Rangers 3 Washington 2 (OT):  Washington was seven seconds away from stealing a road win at Madison Square Garden and taking control of the series, when the Rangers tied the game and then won it a minute and a half into overtime. The Caps now trail this series 3-2 in games, and they’re a triple-overtime game plus seven seconds away from having closed it out in five. For a franchise desperate to win its first Stanley Cup and exorcise years of frustration, this one’s reaching new heights.  But we also have to acknowledge that as close as Washington came to winning this game, they were not the better team on the ice last night. The New York defense played its best game of the postseason, limiting Washington to 18 shots and astonishingly holding Alex Ovechkin without a shot. While Ovechkin did get an assist, it’s probably a bigger miracle they were seven seconds from winning than it is that New York finally tied it. Ovechkin’s non-activity contrasts sharply with Ranger stars Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan who combined for 12 shots and helped keep the pressure on Capital goalie Braden Holtby, whom they peppered with 38 shots. Cut the kid a break—to hold off that kind of sustained attack, most of it coming from the team’s best players all game long is almost impossible.

New Jersey can reach the conference finals tonight when they visit Philadelphia. The Flyers got word that center Claude Giroux is suspended one game for a hit in Game 4. Giroux is one of the NHL’s best passing centers and the key to a prolific offense. To take him away is like the NBA suspending Chris Paul from the LA Clippers. I don’t write this to say the NHL was wrong in handing out its sentence, but to illustrate how big an impact this will have on Philly. I would say that they’ll have to do it with defense and goaltending, but I don’t have a laugh track to insert here. Between a weakened Flyer team tonight and a home game in Game 6, if New Jersey can’t avoid a Game 7, they deserve to lose. As for Philly, you have to take all the problems and turn them into an opportunity—if they can win without Giroux, all the pressure goes on the Devils the rest of the way.

NHL Playoffs 1st Round Preview: Chicago-Phoenix

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The Phoenix Coyotes were the survivor of a wild four-team race in the Pacific Division and earned the #3 seed in the Western Conference. The Chicago Blackhawks are seeded 6th. Like their 6-seed counterpart in the East, the New Jersey Devils, Chicago enters this series with a better record than Phoenix and is in the favorite’s role. TheSportsNotebook previews the Chicago-Phoenix series…

If this series were about frontline talent between the nets then Chicago would sweep and win each game in a blowout. The Blackhawks are loaded with players who can move the puck and light the lamp. The team operates best when it moves leftward, the wing that runs out Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa, an assault team that ensures a top scorer is on every line. The defenseman, led by Brent Seabrook are good passers from the back end, and it adds up to an offense that ranks sixth in the league in goals. And it could get better—the team has been missing center Jonathan Toews to a concussion, but Toews is practicing and listed as a probable for Thursday’s series opener in the desert. The center is one of the best puck distributors in the league and an able scorer himself.

Phoenix is thin on offense by any measure, ranking 18th in goals scored. Ray Whitney and Shane Doan are respectable at the forward spots, while Radim Vrbata is the closest the Coyotes have to a genuine offensive threat. But when put side-by-side against Chicago’s star power, Phoenix’s light goes dim quickly.

But playoff hockey isn’t always about the players between the nets, it’s about the ones in the net and Phoenix has an edge here every bit as big as Chicago’s among the starting five. Mike Smith’s 93 percent save rate is tied with New York’s Henrik Lundqvist. And that’s in spite of a woeful defense in Phoenix that has left Smith ruthlessly exposed. Only two defenses in the league allow their goalies to be hammered with more shots, and Smith just keeps turning them back. That a team that poor in overall defense can be 5th in the NHL in goals allowed speaks volumes to how good Smith is, and it will be a crime if he doesn’t win the Hart Trophy, given to the league MVP.

Chicago is almost the complete opposite. Whether you spell goalie “Corey Crawford” or “Ray Emery”, the results haven’t been appealing to Blackhawks fans. Chicago’s team defense—led by Seabrook, trade deadline acquisition Johnny Oduya and Duncan Keith, is a good group and ranks in the top third of the league in shots allowed. But the team is in the bottom third in goals allowed. Any guess where we might put the blame?

Phoenix has a couple other edges going for them besides the goaltending. They actually play better in the 5-on-5 than does Chicago. That’s no small edge given that the Blackhawks are lousy on the power play, whether it’s cashing in their own or killing someone else’s. Phoenix, thanks to Smith, is at least sound on the penalty kill.

The Coyotes are a one-man team. I don’t deny that for an instant. They are not better than Chicago for the long haul because of it, I don’t deny that either and the just-completed 82-game body of work backs it up. But in the NHL playoffs, an advantage this sizeable in the net is too much to pass up. I think Smith puts Phoenix on his back and carries them to the second round.