The Edmonton Oilers, winners of six in a row, are off to their best start in a quarter-decade. They'll be the visitors tonight at Jobing.com Arena as they face off against the Phoenix Coyotes, who after a five-game unbeaten streak fell victim to Pekka Rinne's 23rd shutout on Thursday.
The Coyotes, who were 3-1 against the Oilers last season, sent Andy Miele back to the AHL's Portland Pirates yesterday, as Cal O'Reilly is expected to start tonight. Mike Smith will likely be the starting goaltender, and Martin Hanzal's status is still questionable. Out for the Oilers are Cam Barker, Ales Hemsky, Ryan Whitney and Darcy Hordichuk.
The Coyotes will look to play a full, consistent 60 minutes tonight to avoid the same fate as their last two meetings against the Stars. Loui Eriksson scored with 28 seconds remaining on October 10th to send the game into overtime and ultimately procure his team two points. Jamie Benn was a similar culprit on March 1st, except he scored with 4.8 seconds left in the game. The last five matchups between these two teams have been decided by one goal. This one gets underway at 7 p.m. Arizona time at Jobing.com Arena.
The Stars are presently first in the Western Conference and are off to ...
Hobey Baker Award winner Andy Miele makes his NHL debut for the Phoenix Coyotes tonight as they face off against the 4-2-0 Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Centre. Puck drop is at 5 p.m. PST.
The 2-3-1 Coyotes, despite putting in a better effort against the Los Angeles Kings, were blanked as Jonathan Quick recorded his 100th career win with a shutout, 2-0. The Ducks are also coming off a loss, their first in five games, as they got off to a slow start against Dallas and were never able to recover in a game that head coach Randy Carlyle referred to as "turnover fest. It looked like we were working in a restaurant flipping flapjacks."  Corey Perry m...