Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Coyotes Face Harsh Reality With Depleted Roster
The Arizona Coyotes lost 5-2 to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night marking their second consecutive loss.
Going into this matchup all the attention was on what the Coyotes were doing off the ice.
Troy Stecher was traded to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday afternoon while Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba were both scratched for trade-related reasons, so Arizona’s roster was pretty depleted against the Wild.
The Coyotes played a solid first two periods and were really matching Minnesota’s level of play despite trailing 1-0 after 40 minutes.
To start the third period, Arizona caught fire.
Clayton Keller and Michael Carcone scored less than 10 seconds apart from each other and all of the sudden the Coyotes led 2-1.
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That lead lasted all but 32 seconds as Zach Bogosian tied up the game. Joel Eriksson Ek’s goal a few minutes later sealed the deal for the Wild, giving the Coyotes yet another disappointing loss.
“I don’t think we played a bad game,” coach André Tourigny said. “It was a good game, we played well. We had grade A chances, their goalie made really good saves on Grade A chances… Two turnovers in the third, we lost our game on that.”
The fact is that unfortunately this is the reality for the Coyotes.
After the trade deadline it’s hard to improve as a team after trading away multiple players who ate up critical minutes which it seems the Coyotes will do.
It’s a difficult pill to swallow after the amazing start that they had to the season, but the Coyotes are rebuilding and this is just simply part of the process no matter how hard it is.
It’s now all about making sure the young players develop properly and continuing to grow as a team through this final stretch of the year even if they are supposedly playing meaningless games.
The Coyotes will be back in action on Friday night to face the Detroit Red Wings.
