Game 16 Preview: Coyotes at Avalanche

Phoenix Coyotes	7:00 MT / 9:00 ET	Colorado Avalanche
9-5-0	November 4th, 2009	10-3-2
18 pts	Pepsi Center	22 pts
5th in West	Denver, CO	1st in West

By now, I think you know that I like to draw paralells. Sometimes its a stretch for me. Not this time.

The Coyotes and Avalanche both endured a very tumultuous offseason and neither were expected to do much this year. Both teams have used exceptional goaltending (Craig Anderson edged out Ilya Bryzgalov for player of the month honors in October) and timely scoring (18 players have scored for the Avs, 15 for the Coyotes) to surprise the hell out everyone. I personally don't think either team is going to be at the top of the standings in a few weeks, but they both deserve a lot of credit for their unexpected fine play to date.

As you may have noticed, the Avalanche have had some trouble scoring recently, and it won't get any easier tonight. Bryzgalov already has 3 shutouts and even if he gets hit by a bus on the way to the rink, backup Jason Labarbarino has been excellent as well. And they play behind a stingy defense that is 4th best in shots allowed. That doesn't bode well for an Avalanche team that's struggled to get to the 20 shot mark recently.

The Coyotes have a lot of new faces on the team as a quick glance at their recent line combos reveals. Paul Bissonette? Lauri Korpuskristi? Not ringing any bells, I'm afraid. I have heard of that Radim Vrbata fellow though. Sadly, another former Av - Kurt Sauer - is on the IR; I don't know what's wrong, but I'm going to assume he dislocated his jaw talking with that fantastic Minnesota accent he has. Don't laugh. It could happen to you too...

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