Wednesday’s game between the Arizona Coyotes and Edmonton Oilers was set to be unremarkable in terms of standings, but with the NHL set to announce the Arizona Coyotes’ franchise move to Salt Lake City on Thursday, it marked the last game played by this iteration of the NHL in Phoenix. Calvin Pickard was starting for the Oilers while Connor Ingram got the start for the Coyotes.
The Coyotes open up the scoring
Arizona dumps the puck in but it goes off the ref and bounces to the middle. Vincent Desharnais got beat around the corner and Philip Broberg pivoted the wrong way, leaving Arizona with an odd man rush. Liam O’Brien walks into the one timer and is able to beat Pickard over the glove, who collapsed into a block without much of a puck track before trying to chase it back over his shoulder.
Edmonton ties it
Evan Bouchard goes d to d to Mattias Ekholm, with Connor Ingram being a bit casual getting over but setting a sightline to the shortside. Ekholm walks into the slap shot for the perfect shot pass to Sam Carrick on the back door. This has Ingram slide fat through the layers of screen and is unable to reach the tip into the net.
Arizona up one again
Matias Maccelli gets sprung for a breakaway, beating a pairing of Bouchard and Brett Kulak. Pickard has a bit of backwards momentum and makes a correct read, but his glove comes behind his pad rather than attacking the stick which lets Maccelli roof the puck over him.
Crouse scores early in the third
The Coyotes convert on a late developing three-on-two, with Connor McDavid missing his check on Lawson Crouse. Pickard makes a good t push to get to Crouse then starts some momentum back, but again is caught opening up and reaching behind him leaving the top of the net open for the goal.
Foegele scores his 20th of the year
The Oilers have a three-on-three entering the zone, with all three Coyotes keeping their check. Warren Foegele is able to cut to the middle and release a shot that originally looks like it’s going low before it’s redirected into the top corner by the defending stick and eludes Ingram.
Arizona scores on the power play
Dylan Guenther is going to terrorize goals for a long time in the league, and makes no mistake here. Desharnais steps in front of Pickard which doesn’t help the sightline without blocking the shot. Pickard’s head drops again, indicating he’s not tracking the shot but rather trying to react to what he thought the location would be on the release as he gets beats high again.
Summary
The Oilers looked like they were running at half speed with nothing to play for in the game, while the Coyotes had a lot on their mind. Ingram was relatively good with what he faced but it wasn’t much. Pickard is starting to give up a lot over his glove, which could be a concern if he needs to see action during the playoffs.
