The view from Glendale

Dave Tippett is highly regarded around the NHL, and rightfully so. He’s a very good coach and a very good, decent man, but Tippett did a poor job of representing himself and his team last night. Publicly belly-aching about officiating in the playoffs always sounds sour, especially in the way that Tippett did it. Tippett, for all practical purposes, accused the Kings of playing a “dishonest’’ game and directly said the Kings were “getting some breaks on calls.’’ To be fair, Tippett makes a good general point. There is too much embellishment in the game today, and the Kings, like every team, are guilty of it. Two things, however. One, if Tippett felt so strongly about this subject, why did he wait until after Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals — with his team trailing 3-0 — to become a pillar of morality? Two, to Tippett’s credit, he didn’t exempt his own team from criticism, as he noted that there was embellishment on a call that benefitted the Coyotes. That’s admirable honesty. But if Tippett really believes that, how about cleaning up his own house before he starts throwing lobbing verbal grenades? If Tippett’s intentions are pure, his statements would carry more weight if he corrected some of his players’ habits first. In Mike Smith, the Coyotes have 6 feet, 4 inches, of grown man that is often liable to tumble over in a stiff breeze. The irony is that Tippett is “embellishing’’ his own opinion on this subject in an attempt to influence the referees through the media.

Regardless, Tippett is smart enough to drop this subject within his dressing room and get the Coyotes to focus on winning Game 4. He knows his locker room has bigger issues than the officials. The only good thing about trailing 3-0 in a series is that a team’s focus narrows considerably. The whole season is about one game, and the Coyotes, no doubt, will give a huge push on Sunday. Here’s how The Arizona Republic covered last night’s game, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Coyotes…

The Arizona Republic’s Coyotes coverage

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COACH DAVE TIPPETT

(on the game…) “It was a tight game all the way through. We didn’t create a lot, but we hung around the game, gave ourselves a chance to win. I thought we’re not generating enough to put any pressure on them. We were all right early. We hung around the game. Ultimately, you know, they’re a pretty good team. They’re getting some breaks on some calls. I think that eventually wore us down.’’

(on the feeling in the locker room…) “Yeah, I mean, we’re disappointed that we didn’t get the results we want. Certainly through the playoffs there’s been some real positives to how we played. But, you know, this last series, we just haven’t been able to get enough guys to the level that we need to get to. We talked about that after the first couple games. The level is being raised here. We just haven’t been able to get to the next level.’’

(on being frustrated with the officiating…) “If I told you what I really thought, I think it would cost me a lot of money. Personally, I’ve talked about this in a lot of meetings with Don, our general manager, that the game is turning a little dishonest, and it’s embellishment by players. When it’s done well, it’s very hard for the referees, very hard, because if you fall down near the boards or you drop your stick or you throw your head back, you’re putting the referee in a very tough situation. You know, not just our game tonight. You see it all through. The referees have a hard job. What it does, it makes the game dishonest. In actual fact, to make it work to your favor, you’ve got to do it more. You’ve got to do it. If everybody else is doing it, you better do it, too. We saw more than one penalty out there, for us and against us, that were called that I thought were plays where there was embellishment. It’s too bad it has to go that way. It’s too bad you get to this point in the season that that becomes a factor, but it’s the reality of our game right now.’’

(on having only four shots on goal in the third period…) “It’s a case of us killing too many penalties, a case of us not generating enough, not executing enough to give ourselves chances.’’

(on a lack of offensive-zone pressure…) “I thought our first period today was the best we’ve been in the series so far. We need more people making plays at critical times. If you see, a lot of our execution, some of the execution starts in the defensive zone, the neutral zone, to get you to the offensive zone. We continue to turn over some pucks that I think are easy plays to make. We’ve had trouble executing. Whether the speed has gone up, we can’t get to that level, whatever the reason is, we’re not generating enough and not getting enough sustained stuff in the offensive zone to feel like we have a hard push on.’’

(on the Kings tying the game quickly after the Coyotes took the lead…) “It was a breakdown in coverage by us. We went into the game knowing we were going to have to play a tight, tight game. We get that goal, get a break on a pretty good play, give it up that quick again. But one thing you’ve got to do in a game like this is, it’s not as if we we’re going behind there. We were still tight. We had to keep playing. The goal in the third was deflating because we brought some trouble on ourselves. We were going to get a penalty on what I thought was an embellishment call, so the momentum goes against you. Then we ended up killing a couple more. It’s tough to come back when we’re doing that.’’

(on his message to the team now…) “Well, we’ll take a couple days here and rest up. What do we got to lose? Might as well come and play as hard as we can. They say one game at a time. We got nothing to lose. We might as well come and make sure we give a real honest evaluation of who we are and how we got here. It’s as simple as that. Play as hard as we can. We’ll see what happens.’’

(on the fourth game being the hardest to win…) “Like I say, we’re going to come and play as hard as we can. Like I say, we got nothing to lose. We might as well give everything you got, because if you don’t do that, you’ll go the next day and feel like you should have. That’s the mindset we’ll have.’’

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KEITH YANDLE

(on the game…) “I think we played hard. Obviously we’re not happy because we didn’t get the win. This time of year you have to play every shift. I think they found a way to get one more than us. We’ve just got to focus on the next game, trying to make something happen here.’’

(on trying to avoid penalties…) “Obviously that hurts any team, when you’re getting calls like that, momentum taken out of the game. We were doing a good job of rolling four lines. On those penalties, you got to run only four guys. That’s something that took us out of the game a little bit. But you can’t blame it on that.’’

(on the high shot-on-goal total in the first period…) “That was our goal coming in, to get shots. He’s a good goalie. To beat him, you have to get as many shots at net as possible, kind of get him out of his comfort zone a little bit. We were only able to get one by him. For next game, we have to try even better.’’

(on giving up the tying goal quickly after scoring…) “It’s tough. You have to be mentally strong, battle
through that, realize we had to go out there and get the next one. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to. To win games, you’ve got to be mentally strong and be able to battle through that, to be able to get another goal.

(on needing to regroup now…) “It’s a good two days’ rest. We’ll be able to get focused, have a good day of practice, whatever goes on, and just focus on Sunday. It’s something that, we have nothing to lose. We’ve got to come out and play. It’s not like it’s never been done. We know, in this group, we’re a resilient group, we can battle back and play hard.’’

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MIKKEL BOEDKER

(on the mindset of the team…) “It’s tough. I mean, obviously it could have went both ways. I thought we played a lot better as the game went on. We came out strong in the first. Yeah, I mean, it could have went both ways, but they got the upper hand.’’

(on having a lot of shots on goal early…) “Yeah, obviously they tightened down the defense a little bit. Got some more shots off there. They had a few more power plays than we did. That’s obviously why they had more shots.’’

(on not generating enough second chances…) “Yeah, obviously the puck might be laying there, but they clear it pretty good. We’ve got to get a little more aggressive and keep our heads up and win Game 4.’’

(on the way the Kings are playing…) “I mean, obviously they’re a good team. But obviously a lot of people are doubting us. We’re used to that. I mean, obviously they think the Kings are going to the Finals already. But the series isn’t over. We still plan to win it. We’re not done yet.’’

(on giving up the tying goal quickly after taking the lead…) “Obviously we want to play with the lead. But we didn’t have a chance to play with the lead that long. They came right back. They got a breakaway. Obviously, if you ask Smith, he probably wants that one back. It is what it is. Obviously, we wanted to win this game badly, and they came out on top. But that’s why we play seven, right? I mean, the odds aren’t in our favor, but we can still win Game 4 and keep coming at them.’’

(on the Coyotes’ strong first period…) “We came out strong. We were focused at getting after them. I thought we had a real good first period. Obviously we generated some more chances, and that’s what we got to do in the full 60.’’