Coyotes Spoil Luongo’s Return

Although the franchise is in turmoil, again...and the players aren’t sure if they are even going to be getting paid, the Phoenix Coyotes came into the garage last night and handed Vancouver a franchise record sixth straight home loss.

Not even Roberto Luongo’s presence could save the Canucks on this night, as the Coyotes trumped the home squad 4-1.

After missing 24 games with a groin injury, Luongo played his first game since November 22, 2008. He got off to a bit of a shaky start, but honestly how can you expect someone to come in after missing a couple of months to be on top of his game out of the gates? You have to have some support from your team.

It’s good to hear that Luongo is determined to get in some extra time in practice to sharpen up as much as he can over the next few days. I have no doubt that he will get it together.

As for the Coyotes, despite the struggles the franchise is facing financially, they are doing pretty well on the ice. With the win, they moved into a fifth place tie with Vancouver in the Western Conference race.

The Canucks barely tested the goalie, Ilya Bruzgalov, on the other end, who only lost his shutout bid because of an unlucky bounce off of his own defenceman’s shin pad.

For Phoenix, it was their third win in the past four games. Last year the desert dogs were one of the best road teams but this year they are just seven victories away from their arena in Glendale, Arizona.

Interesting to note, Kyle Wellwood was a healthy scratch, having not scored a goal in his last 4 game - or in other words, since Mats Sundin started playing.