The last time the we saw the Phoenix Coyotes they were shaking hands with the Blackhawks on United Center ice and moving on to the Western Conference semifinals. Tonight the Hawks have a chance to spoil a second home opener in two days. They will be riding high on the momentum of a 5-2 victory in Los Angeles on Saturday. I have been seeing the word revenge being thrown around for tonight’s game. Hopefully the Hawks won’t do anything stupid to cost them the game tonight. You always have to worry about stupidity when Andrew Shaw and Brandon Bollig are suited up. In a 48 game season every point is crucial, so trying to get revenge instead of 2 points makes no sense.
The Blackhawks will have a bit of different look tonight. Ray Emery will get his first start of the year in goal. Coach Q told the media that Daniel Carcillo will miss at least a month after suffering a leg injury in yesterday’s game. That means top prospect Brandon Saad will get his shot to stick with the big club. He will jump right up to the first line with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. Funny how Saad is good enough for the top line tonight but wasn’t good enough to beat out Bollig for the 4th line yesterday. I would also imagine we will see Michal Rozsival for the first time tonight after Sheldon Brookbank dicked the dog on both LA goals yesterday.
The Coyotes lost their season opener yesterday, 4-3 to the Stars in Dallas. They did not make many changes from last year’s team that won the Pacific Division. They were able to resign their captain Shane Doan and bring in veterans Steve Sullivan and David Moss. Former Blackhawk Radim Vrbata, who lead the Yotes with 35 goals last season, scored twice and added an assist versus the Stars. The Hawks will most likely have to face Academy Award winner Mike Smith between the pipes tonight. One person they will not have to worry about is Raffi Torres who still has 7 games left on his suspension. Watching Marian Hossa score goals yesterday while that assbag was sitting on his couch made me very happy.