Coyotes fall to Canucks in return of popular players
Conor Garland and maybe only a handful of folks know how he really felt about being traded instead of being resigned by the Coyotes last offseason. He said earlier on Thursday that it could have gone “either way” whether he would have inked a new contract with Arizona.
It might have served as motivation for the 26-year-old forward who came up through the organization and won the hearts of many fans with his fearless play and high effort. Garland assisted on a pair of goals for the Vancouver Canucks in his return to Gila River Arena for the first time since being dealt last July, and Vancouver kept alive its slim wild card hopes with a 5-1 win over the Coyotes.
Garland reached 39 points this season to tie a career high, but said before the game that he’d hoped for more goal production than the 14 he’s scored in 2021-2022.
“I was hoping Garland would get one, he’s tried so hard and has been snakebitten so much,” Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau said.
Thursday also marked the return of former captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson and another fan favorite, Brad Richardson. The Coyotes played a video tribute for Ekman-Larsson, after which he waved and smiled, and welcomed back Garland and Richardson with announcements during the first period.
Ekman-Larsson got the primary assist on an early-third period goal for teammate Alex Chiasson, who scored twice.
“Any time you face your old team you want to play well, and you want to win. They’ve been huge additions for us,” Vancouver’s Bo Horvat said. “Obviously, they had great careers here and they’ve been playing awesome for us this year, so we’re lucky to have them and we wanted to get them the win.”
For the Coyotes, new goaltender Harri Säteri made his Arizona debut after being claimed off waivers from Toronto on March 21. Säteri hadn’t played in an NHL game since February 2018 with the Florida Panthers, though the 2022 Olympic gold medal-winning netminder from Finland had 27 saves.
Säteri seemed pleased with his night despite the five goals allowed.
“It felt awesome actually. I was enjoying every minute (but) obviously, it’s been a little break, so it was not my best game but overall felt pretty good,” he said.
Säteri said he just needs more game action to get his timing right, and to get accustomed to the pace of the NHL
game.
“Timing’s a little off. It’s a different game here than in Europe. A little bit quicker, things happen a little bit quicker, like the second goal (allowed),” he said.
Coyotes head coach André Tourigny said he liked what he saw from Säteri.
“I liked the way he tracked the puck, I think he was good through traffic. He was good in the first period, made key saves. In the second, we had kind of too many breakdowns, we didn’t give a lot but we gave quality,” Tourigny said. “So I think for him, he didn’t play in a long time, he’s used to playing a lot. I think he played one game after the Olympics, something like that. He had one practice with us, but we had to put him there at some point because we need him, and I think there’s a lot of positives.”
Nick Schmaltz scored for the Coyotes in the second period, his career high 22nd goal of the season and second in as many games. The Coyotes cut the Canucks’ lead to 3-2 momentarily, but Nick Ritchie’s second-period goal was challenged and overturned for an offside call.
A tribute to a captain
The Canucks talked after the game about winning for the former Coyotes players, and Ekman-Larsson took time during pregame warmups to sign jerseys. Fans brought signs welcoming he, Garland and Brad Richardson back to Arizona.