Max Domi - Alex Galchenyuk trade between Montreal Canadiens and Arizona Coyotes was one of the notable ones this offseason. In 2018-19 season Max Domi already played all 8 games with the Canadiens and with the point-per-game scoring (8 points, 2+6) leads his team in points along with Tomas Tatar and Jeff Petry. And it's better tendency than used to be in Arizona last three seasons.
Unlike Domi, Alex Galchenyuk debuted with Coyotes just on Tuesday after leaving the injury list. Alex was injured in the preseason camp after just two games and about a month was out of the game. And his debut for the new team against Columbus Blue Jackets was ambivalent a bit.
Only Detroit started worse than Arizona Coyotes this season. 4 points after 7 games played and only 11 goals scored is a poor result and it seemed Coyotes will have another awful season. But what we saw on Tuesday gives a hope they will change their game (and result) this season.
Rick Tocchet put Galchenyuk on a line with Klayton Keller and Lawson Crouse, finally as a center after some seasons at wing in Canadiens. However, he's out of his best shape and hasn't performed really well with only one shot on goal and -1. Instead, Derek Stepan moved to the second line to play with Brendan Perlini and Christian Fischer and they performed very well. Fischer scored a hat-trick (all three times assisted by Stepan) in addition to the goal by Dylan Strome and helped Coyotes to win 4-1 over Columbus Blue Jackets.
Well, it's too early to draw conclusions, but after 11 goals scored by Arizona in 7 games this 4-1 result looks exciting and gives a hope Galchenyuk is the remaining piece of the Coyotes puzzle. It's a chance for Alex to reload his career and fully use his potential in center to help the Coyotes achieve good results.
The next game Arizona plays today against Vancouver Canucks, interesting to see how Coyotes will perform.
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