Washington, Buffalo, New York, New Jersey, New York, Las Vegas, Nashville, Carolina, Detroit, Minnesota and so on. One of the most special stories of the current NHL season is on right now: Juuso Välimäki and Matias Maccellin represented by the Arizona Coyotes is on an unprecedentedly long away tour – over a month long.
Arizona’s match schedule in the current season is looking for its peers by a longer stretch. Only Vancouver has run through the 14-game away match manacle due to the Olympics twelve years ago. However, traveling to Arizona is not limited to November-December. Its entire autumn season is one big journey.
The coyote pack started the season by playing the first six games on away ice. After that, the team got to play four games on home ice before embarking on an incredible fourteen-game road trip, starting on the east coast of the United States in Washington and ending in the second week of December on the west coast of Canada in Edmonton.
The team has time to stop somewhere in between at home to change clothes, but in practice it’s on the road for a mind-numbing 34 days.
– We’ve been able to spend a couple of days in Arizona a couple of times, the Arizona forward reached by Urheilu from Detroit Matias Macceli open.
The situation is special and, above all, very challenging, especially for a young and inexperienced team. The NHL has given Arizona a leeway in that it does not have to play on consecutive days during its trip, but despite this, the constant traveling eats up a lot of energy from the team.
– There’s a lot of traveling here, but on the other hand, it’s good to travel now, when everyone still has a lot of electricity. When the season goes further, the situation could be different. My first proper NHL year is coming up, so it’s great to see new cities and halls, Maccelli continues.
The defensive game is strong in the rush of matches
Maccelli still doesn’t try to deny the effects of constant traveling on coping.
– Yes, this traveling is felt. It’s always easier to play in your hometown when you can sleep at home, it’s a familiar environment and you don’t have to think about traveling or time differences. Traveling always has its own challenges, and this is generally more difficult.
Against all of the above, Arizona, which was predicted to be a throwaway, has started well. It has won 7 of its 18 games, including Toronto, Florida, Washington, New York Islanders and Carolina. The Coyote pack’s play has also surprised at times, even though it is one of the weakest 5-5 teams in the league.
So far, they have won four and lost four matches on their fourteen-game away trip. Considering the expectations in advance and the constant traveling, the performance is excellent. The team is only four points away from the playoff line.
– We have found a very good rhythm for this travel. As a result, we’ve played well and even though we weren’t believed in beforehand, we have a team that can win a lot of games this season, as long as we don’t sit terribly on the ice or otherwise make a fool of ourselves, Maccelli assures.
– There are only good teams in this series and anyone can succeed. It’s just a matter of how much the dudes want to win.
Arizona is unlikely to make the playoffs, but its discipline in the rink has to be given a lot of credit. New head coach Andre Tourigny has got his team excellently committed to playing defensive hockey. The team often doesn’t control the flow of the game, but it protects the center well and has been really effective in its possession game.
– Through defending, we have gotten to the goal posts ourselves and then won games through superior play. The goalkeepers have also been good.
The club joked behind their shoulders, but the player himself is satisfied
On the other hand, the club management cannot be praised for their discipline. The match schedule at hand is a shocking read, especially when you understand the reasons behind the extraordinary travel manacle. It’s all about the partying of the club management. In the current season, Arizona plays on rent in the university team’s home hall, which has an audience capacity of 5,000.
In the Coyotes’ most recent home game against Dallas, the crowd was recorded at 4,600.
It got the boot from its previous home arena because, among other things, it had tax arrears to the city of Glendale for a long time. The city simply got tired of running things like a poorly managed club and terminated the lease. The situation is shameful and embarrassing for Arizona – as well as for the NHL.
The situation is not made easier by the fact that the coyote team is renting their current home hall and is second only to the university team on the reservation list of the match calendar. For example, for the fall season, the team had two home matches on Friday and two on Saturday. In January-February, it does not play a single home match on the Friday-Saturday axis.
Maccelli does not blame the club management for the match schedule.
– The player doesn’t think of it that way. We focus on the essentials. The main thing is that we get to stay in Arizona, that we don’t have to change to another city. At least I like being there. I hope that the new hall project will start progressing soon, so that we can get there at some point.
The player is also quite satisfied with the home arena that serves as an official venue.
– I can’t lie that it was big, but there has been a good atmosphere there. The fans are loud and you can hear and feel it, praises the winger who made the effort to join the NHL from Ilves.
According to the half-full glass, Arizona also gets to spend a lot of time at home in the heart of winter and spring. The team plays 14 of its last 20 matches in the regular season at its home hall.
– It is definitely an advantage for us. When others take long trips in the spring, we get to be at home a lot. You don’t have to think about long trips, but you can settle in properly and get into a good rhythm in Phoenix, Maccelli assures.
Matias Maccelli is one of the Finnish bright spots of the early season. Hear below what he thinks about his own performances and what happened in the Arizona locker room before he scored his season opener?