One Fan's Perspective

During the pre-game show of FSN Arizona Monday night, my wife and I became sort of nostalgic.  The Coyotes faced the Tampa Bay Lightning, and we followed that team closely.  When we lived in Florida, we saw every game, for better and for worse, and when it became better, the results were awesome.

In 2003, we saw the Lightning survive the first round of the playoffs and move on, only to get eliminated in the second.  In 2004, they won the Stanley Cup.  In 2004-2005, there was a work stoppage and we arrived in Arizona during the summer of 2005 to adopt the home team as our own.  We still kept tabs on the crew out East, and learned through painful experience that after that Cup run, they became a shell of its former self.

The connections between the two clubs were somewhat tangential.  Former Coyotes assistant coach John Tortorella was the head coach of the Lightning and turned that ship right around, and the goaltender of record for both playoff runs (inluding the Cup run of 2004) was Nikolai Khabibulin.

As expected, after winning the Stanley Cup, his contract was up and he wanted a pay raise.  Unfortunately, he had competition between three young players and a savvy defenseman (Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards, and Danny Boyle respectively).

Now, the Bolts are not the same club.  It seems that Steven Stamkos is the goal scorer and Lecavalier and St. Louis are struggling to put the puck in the net.  Welcome to aging boys, it’s hell, eh?

Believe it or not, as fun as it is to wax nostaligic over times gone by, the purpose of today’s thought processes are truly not related to the Lightning.  Rather, it’s the goalter Khabibulin.

When Khabibulin went to the Lightning, his preparation routine was coffee and cigarrettes before the game.  Someone over there (Jeff Reese perhaps) drilled some sense into the often quizzical netminder to get healthy or get prepared to be shipped out.  He had a bad stretch of games during his Cup run, but got it together at the right time.

Now, after leaving the goaltending carousel in Chicago, he finds himself in Edmonton, playing with the Oilers franchise with an incredible history.  He might have been one answer for their aspirations for another visit in the Stanley Cup Finals.  Plus, it would have been pretty cool to see him play yet again against the club he shared the goaltending load with many seasons ago.

Unfortunately, it may not happen.  It looks like Khabibulin has back issues…and is day-to-day missing his start against the Blackhawks on Sunday.

The Desert Dogs are 13 – 9 -1 and the Oilers are 9 – 11 – 3; I bet most of the world would have thought those records would be reversed with the Coyotes taking more of the worst of it.  Hopefully, they will continue their hard work and good fortune continues for them with their own Battle of Alberta.

If you are looking for some pre-game material, this is what I’ve read today:

Tags: Edmonton Oilers, Hockey, John Tortorella, NHL, Nikolai Khabibulin, Phoenix Coyotes, Tampa Bay Lightning by pbcoyotes
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If you have come back here (or if you are new), you might have notice some prolific writing (some good and some not) from 2007 ish to 2008.

And then, the entire last season has vanished from the blog.  Well, there are reasons for that.

First off, during last season, I referenced my sojourn through graduate school that heavily conflicted with my full time job, and my overall life.  Before then, I watched and completely consumed hockey.  I followed multiple teams, read multiple blogs, and found myself immersed into the hockey culture we love.

Then, I had to take a break.  Life was just too difficult then.

Then, my busiest summer academically occurred and the next thing I knew, the Phoenix Coyotes were in bankruptcy court.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep up and honestly, I was pretty bummed about the entire ordeal.  Usually, my day job is much slower in the summer – in the past, I could have joined the other Coyotes’ bloggers in their pursuit of the truth (and commiserating in the despair), but I just had to watch from the sidelines and wonder.

Thanks to Save the Coyotes, Five for Howling, and to Hip Shot Blog, I was able to keep up albeit from the sidelines.

Next, when I decided to come back, after my summer of hell was complete, I went to my site, only to find a 500 internal server error.  I called the support service of my hosting company and they stated that there was a .php error.  Many early readers knew that I was a video freak – I liked embedding the scenes of what I was talking about.  Some I took from YouTube, and others I took from elsewhere.  Most likely, it contributed to the internal combustion of the blog as well as to my potential burnout.  I liked showing the video and Panger’s breakdown of what happened.  That will happen much less often this time around, keeping things simple as they say.

So, the only recourse I had was to delete the blog since I had no way to get in and I had no idea how to fix the .php issues I had.  Of course, I didn’t back up anything, and I lost the entire last season.  That’s the way it goes I guess.  It’s not like there was that much there to begin with anyway.

When I started, I was the only one.  Out there in NHL land, I was kicked around pretty good by the average fan, saying that hockey doesn’t work here, Coyotes are not good, and I’m an idiot for following them.  It seems that others are too – par for the course, really.  But when I was far removed from hockey, these other writers took up the charge and held on for dear life.  Even though I wasn’t writing about hockey or the Coyotes, I was reading – feeling the despair and angry about it the whole way.

So, I’m back, just in a different role.  I’ll leave the game previews and the game recaps to the others.  Five for Howling and the community over there does a masterful job with it.  I’ll just add my perspective, here and there, just like the blog title says.

Tags: Coyotes Hockey Blogs, Hockey, NHL, One Fan's Perspective, Summer by pbcoyotes
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The Coyotes played an inspired game against the Flyers tonight.  Shane Doan has been completely snakebit and can’t buy a goal.

Unless the Flyers pull their goaltender Ray Emery in the final minute and Pronger can’t stop a Shane Doan rush.  Pronger commits a penalty as Doan attacks, and because of Rule 26.1 (the awarding of a goal), Doan gets his goal that he has fought so hard to earn.

Here is the text of Rule 26.1 for those that don’t believe me:

Rule 26 – Awarded Goals
26.1 Awarded Goal – A goal will be awarded to the attacking team when the opposing team has taken their goalkeeper off the ice and an attacking player has possession and control of the puck in the neutral or attacking zone, without a defending player between himself and the opposing goal, and he is prevented from scoring as a result of an infraction committed by the defending team

So, that’s what happened, not that they really needed that clinching goal, but Tyson Nash and Bob Heethuis stated that they have never seen that type of thing before.  I would have to agree as I haven’t either, but the logic of the rule sort of makes sense.  If Pronger didn’t commit the penalty because Doan beat him, Doan might have scored.

The Coyotes take 5 points of the last 6 available.  Hopefully, the trend will continue when they travel to the Great White North.

Tags: Hockey, NHL, Philadelphia Flyers, Phoenix Coyotes, Shane Doan by pbcoyotes
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