The New York Rangers tonight are in Glendale to take on the Arizona Coyotes, as they look to make it three in a row against pretty bad teams. The issue though, is that the Rangers, while still putting up W’s, aren’t really playing that well. Yea, they beat Colorado, and they beat Toronto, but both of those wins were ugly, especially that Toronto win. Better teams beat the Rangers in those games, luckily the ‘Yotes aren’t a better team.

Simply put, the Coyotes can’t score at all, and their goaltending has been horrific. The goalie with the best SV% for the ‘Yotes is now with the Minnesota Wild (Devan Dubnyk), while the Wild suffer through a .897 SV% with Mike Smith. That’s not just horrific, that’s worse than backup horrific. Only the Sabres have allowed more goals (Oilers are tied with the ‘Yotes), and only the Sabres, Devils, and Hurricanes have scored fewer goals. Simply put, this team is quite terrible.

So naturally, this is a trap game.

What have they done lately?

Arizona has lost two in a row, but have gone 4-4-2 in their last ten games, including impressive wins over Montreal and Chicago. This is usually where you get a good breakdown of recent streaks, and how FF/PDO might be influencing them, but the ‘Yotes are just bad. Here’s their FF, rolling 10 game average, which cracked 50% for a five game stretch once this season.

nyr ari ff

Yotes are the brown line.

And now PDO, which is heavily affected by SV%, has been below 100 the entire year. That’s on Mike Smith.

nyr ari pdo

Yotes in brown.

There’s no reason why the Rangers should lost this game. Hence trap game.

‘Yotes Systems

On the ice, Dave Tippett runs a very conservative style of play. The Coyotes run a 1-2-2 hybrid trap, which is something they’ve been running for some time down in the desert. They aren’t anything out of they ordinary when it comes to defensive zone schemes (zone defense), power play strategies (umbrella), or penalty kill formations (hybrid, depends on puck location/situation). This is a very passive hockey club that will capitalize on mistakes in the neutral zone.

‘Yotes Lines

Tobias Rieder-Antoine Vermette-Shane Doan
Lucas Lessio-Mark Arcobello-Sam Gagner
Lauri Korpikoski-Brendan Shinnimin-Martin Erat
Jordan Martinook-Kyle Chipchura-David Moss

Oliver Ekman-Larsson-Zbynek Michalek
Keith Yandle-Michael Stone
Andrew Campbell-Connor Murphy

PP1: Korpo-Gagner-Erat-Yandle-OEL
PP2: Doan-Rieder-Vermette-Yandle-OEL

PK: Reider, Vermette, Moss, Korpo, Doan, Chipchura, Martinook, Michalek, Campbell, OEL, Murphy, Yandle, Stone

Mike Smith gets the start.

Rangers Lines

Rick NashDerek StepanMartin St. Louis
Chris KreiderDerick BrassardMats Zuccarello
Carl HagelinKevin HayesJ.T. Miller
Tanner GlassDominic MooreLee Stempniak

Ryan McDonaghDan Girardi
Marc StaalKevin Klein
Matt Hunwick-John Moore

PP1: McDonagh, Stepan, Nash, Brassard, Zuccarello
PP2: Boyle, Girardi, Kreider, Hayes, MSL

PK: Stepan, Nash, Girardi, Staal, Moore, Fast, Hunwick, Boyle, Hagelin, Klein, McDonagh, MSL

Cam Talbot is in net.

Scratches/Injuries: Henrik Lundqvist (throat), Jesper Fast (leg), Dan Boyle (sick)

Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 8pm on MSG.

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