Game 71: 'Yotes 5, Hawks 4 (SO) - Mel drinks to make it all better

I stated in my last post I would be happy if we got a point out of this game. I lied. I'm annoyed. Only because this is a game we should have won. I'll contribute this loss to three factors.

1) I think this is a game where having our three missing D-Men (Seabs, Soupy and Johnnson) would have made a difference. Mind you they didn't play horribly. But when I can say that Byfuglien played better than Sopel, that is an indictment of our favorite shot blocking caveman. Hell, Boyton looked better than Sopel - poor Dunc must have been exhausted carrying his ass on the top D pairing. And I forget which goal and what D pairing was on the ice when there were *two* uncontested Coyotes hanging out in from of Niemi, but that Can Not Happen.
2) Ben Eager is a brain dead bag of shit. There, I said it. His contribution to the game was six penalty minutes, all of which came after the whistle and four of which was a double minor for spearing. Spearing?? WTF? True, his PIM didn't lead to any Coyote goals, but that was six minutes of shorthanded hockey we had to play in a game of utmost importance in the conference. This type of goonery was markedly absent when his teammates were being run at left and right. I hope Q parks his ass in the press box - permanently. Fraser deserves a chance on the ice, or even Bickell or Dowell from the Hogs.
3) So, we go to the skills competition after an apparent winning goal by the 'Yotes is waved off for a "distinct kicking motion" (the right call for once), and Kane misses a wide open net. Q goes with the standard shooters of Toews (a rare miss) and Kane (miss - sigh). Former Hawk Radim Vrbata scores on the Coyotes' third attempt. With the game on the line, I fully expect Hossa to be out there. Nope, Q sends out Sharpie - with a career 20 cent (see what I did there?) success rate. So of course he misses. Why wasn't Hossa and his career 40% success rate out there? I've seen more bad coaching decisions out of Quenneville lately than I have all year. This is worrisome.

So with Phoenix winning another shootout last night, low and behold we are now tied with them atop the Western Conference. I would like to thank the San Jose Sharks for their overachieving and pushing up their usual April swoon to March. Seriously, I watched part of the Oilers-Sharks game last night - they were Terrible. This makes tomorrow night's rematch vs. the 'Yotes at the UC that much more important. Reports are that Seabrook might be back - though if he's still seeing birdies circling around his head, I'm ok with him resting another game or two. In any case, here's hoping for a better finish tomorrow night.