Coach André Tourigny announced there will be some lineup changes ahead of the Arizona Coyotes game tonight against the St. Louis Blues. The most notable change is that Logan Cooley will move to center on the first line alongside Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. Tourigny explained his reasoning behind his decision to put Cooley with arguably the Coyotes two most explosive players. “I talked to him,” Tourigny said of Logan Cooley. “Obviously Cooley is not playing his best hockey lately and I told him that. He is trying really hard, he is competing really hard but trying too hard. Playing with that line, will demand a lot of focus. André Tourigny spoke prior to the Coyotes matchup against the Blues. “Those guys are really demanding. Will ask him to go in the dirty areas. He will have responsibilities but I think it’s an unbelievable opportunity for the young guy but with the opportunity comes responsibility so I’m sure he will do just fine.” This is the perfect move for the Tourigny to make at this point. Barrett Hayton is out for 4-6 weeks so the Coyotes need to find a player that could produce offensively on the first line. Playing alongside talented players like Keller and Schmaltz could help Cooley truly breakout. His play has been sporadic but maybe this is all he needs to really get himself going at a consistent level. It’s a low risk, high reward type scenario. Either it won’t work out and Tourigny can just change the lines again or these three players can find a groove together which would boost the potential of the Coyotes offense tremendously. Cooley is fast and dynamic with the puck, something that fits the game of Keller and Schmaltz very well who are also lethal scorers. While Cooley’s two goals, 10 assists and 12 points in 18 games is not necessarily bad, his offensive ceiling is just so high that he needs to be tested with different players in order to see what works for him. Tourigny also announced that Alexander Kerfoot will be the center on a line with Jason Zucker and Michael Carcone while Travis Boyd will man the middle alongside Liam O’Brien and Jan Jeník.
