More in radim vrbata
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Phoenix Coyotes’ Talent Pool in No Short Supply
Last year Coyotes fans saw veteran forward Ray Whitney find his niche on a line that featured Czech’s Martin Hanzal and Radim Vrbata. Racking up 24 goals and 53 assists,...
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Phoenix Coyotes Should be Heading Home with Hardware
Who says that you can’t win Coach or GM of the Year multiple times? Since its inception in the 1973-74 season, the Jack Adams Award, given to the best head...
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Five Thoughts on Phoenix Coyotes – LA Kings Game 3
Jim Neveau, Managing Editor/Coyotes Correspondent The Phoenix Coyotes came into Game 3 of the Western Conference Final looking to wash away the rotten taste that Game 2 had left in...
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West Finals – Coyotes vs Kings Regular Season Recap
The Phoenix Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings made quick (no pun intended for the Kings) work of their Western Conference Semifinal foes and are in the midst of a long...
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Phoenix Coyotes – Chicago Blackhawks: First Impressions from the Desert
Jim Neveau, Managing Editor Glendale, Arizona – Coming into the NHL playoffs, there were a couple of series that really captured the attention of the hockey world. You had the...
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Chicago Blackhawks vs Phoenix Coyotes Preview: Six Burning Questions
The Phoenix Coyotes have now made the playoffs for three straight years, and in what has become a continual irony, the squad from the non-traditional market of Glendale, Arizona has...
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2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Preview: 5 Reasons Why Phoenix Will Win
The story is the same everywhere you look. The only debate surrounding the Chicago Blackhawks series against the Phoenix Coyotes seems to be whether Jonathan Toews will be healthy or...
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NHL Playoffs Predictions: Western Conference Edition
Jim Neveau, Managing Editor Yesterday, I released my picks for the Eastern Conference first round. Just for the sake of brevity, I’ll skip the long and winding intro, give you...
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Ray Whitney Joins 1,000-Point Club; Has Big Impact In Phoenix
Ray Whitney found Radim Vrbata at the back door on the power-play with a beautiful cross-ice feed to make it 3-0 as the Phoenix Coyotes secured a valuable 4-0 victory...
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Mike Smith Still Key To Playoff Chances Of The Phoenix Coyotes
Radim Vrbata scored two goals and Mike Smith stopped 38 shots as the Phoenix Coyotes beat the San Jose Sharks 2-0 on Thursday night moving into the Western conference’s top...
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Five Things We Learned from the San Jose Sharks-Phoenix Coyotes Tilt
Jim Neveau, Managing Editor While most of the talk in the Western Conference this season has been focused on the dominant play by the teams from the Central Division, the...
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Scorers-by-necessity: A look at secondary scorers providing first line points
Michael Ryder is having a career year with the Dallas Stars. This is a surprise, though it really shouldn’t have been.
When Ryder signed a two-year deal last summer with the Stars worth $3.5 million annually, he elevated himself from a third-line, secondary scorer on a Boston Bruins team with plenty of offensive weapons, to a first-line winger on a team that was losing star forward, Brad Richards, to free agency. Ryder was expected to become a primary scorer, a signing that would essentially have to replace the same point production that was lost when Richards left for the New York Rangers.
That’s right—Ryder, who surpassed 60 points only once, his rookie year in 2003-04 with Montreal, was supposed to replace the production of Richards, a player who’s only had one season out of ten under 60 points, an injury-plagued year in 2008-09 where he played only 56 games.
No surprise, then, that Ryder has 35 goals and 27 assists for 62 points with Dallas while Richards has 24 goals and 37 assists for 61 points with New York in the same amount of games played. Funny how that happens.