The Arizona Coyotes failed to score a goal against the New York Islanders as they drop their second consecutive game.
The Arizona Coyotes got shutout as they lost 1-0 to the New York Islanders, dropping their second consecutive game.
It's exhausting playing a back to back and the Coyotes clearly showed that.
They were immediately gifted with a four minute power play at the beginning of the first period.
However, similar to how the five-on-three advantage went against the Rangers, Arizona wasn’t really able to generate anything, squandering a major opportunity to get ahead early.
This served as a bad omen for the rest of the game.
At the end of the first, the Coyotes were out shot 10-3 and unfortunately for them, it didn’t get better from there.
Mathew Barzal scored a power play goal just a few minutes into the second period to break the scoring.
Through the second period, the Coyotes just looked more sluggish specifically on the offensive end. The Islanders physical brand of hockey seemed to put Arizona out of their comfort zone.
The Coyotes with desperation on their side, played with a lot more urgency and even doubled their shot total from the first 40 minutes of play in the third period but it still wasn’t enough to get the puck past Ilya Sorokin.
Arizona’s goaltender, Karel Vejmelka, was one of the team’s only bright spots making 33 saves and is a major reason why the score was just 1-0.
While the Coyotes are an improved team from last year, they are still young and will have games like these. It's all part of the rebuilding process and only natural.
General manager Bill Armstrong stated this offseason that the team is in “Phase Two” of the rebuild. The Coyotes are expecting to take some steps but it doesn't mean they are just out of the rebuild completely.
Things will take time to progress and fans have to continue to be patient as Arizona continues to go through these growing pains.
The Coyotes travel to St. Louis to take on the Blues Thursday night.