The view from Arizona

[Note: I’ve been politely informed, by a Phoenix Coyotes staff member, that there is a no-photography rule in the Jobing.com press box, a rule that I was not previously aware of. So, out of respect to them and their regulation, I have removed the photo that was posted here, and rewritten the relevant part of the post.]

First, there were a couple questions last night about the crowd size inside Jobing.com Arena. The announced attendance was 7,128. The estimate of the actual crowd was somewhere around 4,000, and that’s not even the smallest crowd I’ve seen there. This is not, at all, to dump on the Coyotes. The people who work for the team and the arena are some of the most pleasant people in all of the NHL, but they’re in a bad spot right now.

As for the game, here’s how The Arizona Republic covered it, followed by some postgame quotes from the Coyotes’ locker room…

Phoenix Coyotes fall to Los Angeles Kings

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COACH DAVE TIPPETT

(on the difference with the Kings from last season…)
TIPPETT: “They are playing the same style. Obviously Richards gives it some depth in the middle that they didn’t have. Their center ice is pretty good. They’ve got some quality players over there; I thought we competed hard and we were looking for a way to win and we just couldn’t do it tonight.’’

(on the game…)
TIPPETT: “We were more determined. I’d like to see us execute a little better with the puck. There were some situations where we could be a little bit cleaner with the puck. Mike Smith was excellent. The bottom line is you’ve got to find a way to win and we didn’t do that.’’

(on how to prevent losing from becoming a trend…)
TIPPETT: “Well, you’ve just got to continue pounding away at it. We have to play well as a group, we all know that. There are situations that arise in a game where you’ve got to find a way to get on top of it and the one thing is … the two games where we got a lead we got in a rhythm. when we’re chasing it’s a little harder for us and you know that’s where we’re at. We have to try and execute a little better. We’ve just got to keep pounding away at it.’’

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MIKE SMITH

(on the game…)
SMITH: “It was kind of a blah game, I thought. You know we did have some chances to score but Quick came up with some big saves. We did some good things but it’s an ongoing process and we have to keep the pedal on the floor and keep improving every game.’’

(on the Coyotes’ scoring chances…)
SMITH: “Like I said, we had some scoring chances to score, but Quick is a good goalie and he made saves at times when he needed to make them. Saying that, we need to find ways to score on goalies. There are a lot of good goalies in the league but it’s tough to score. Goalies are good and teams are very good in this league.’’

—–

SHANE DOAN

(on areas of needed improvement…)
DOAN: “I think we have played three good games in a row, even though last game was a bad one and this one was better. We are going the right direction. We just have to make sure we clean up our own zone.’’

(on any discouragement from tonight’s game…)
DOAN: “I don’t think we are discouraged, but we are disappointed. We know this was big because we wanted to get above .500. Tonight wasn’t the way we wanted it to end and we have to make sure we are better on Sunday.’’