Coyotes Take Two
It looked dismal. First, Fiddler is out with an upper body injury.
Then, Shane Doan avoids the goaltender (instead of taking the cheap way out and sliding into him) smashes into the boards and doesn’t come back.
The team could have folded like a cheap card table. Instead, they outplay the team from the mid-western state East of Wisconsin and take home ice advantage back.
I’ve written several times before that the team’s identity goes through Shane Doan. As he goes, the Coyotes go. But this time was different. This time the Coyotes emerged.
And the team from the mid-western state East of Wisconsin didn’t know what to do, especially when the one-man wrecking crew wasn’t there any longer. Instead of fighting back, they took a soft-skating approach.
Yeah, I told you these guys weren’t tough. Because of their lack of tactics, they allowed the Coyotes to dig in and rip them apart.
It’s the lack of respect thing I wrote earlier. Yeah boys, you didn’t listen to your coach. Please continue doing that – it’s awesome.
There is a reason though that the Coyotes did not panic. From late January Doan couldn’t buy a goal or a vowel. Nothing worked and the monkey on his back starting turning into King Kong. Do the Coyotes lose (because remember, the team goes as Doan goes)?
No, they still won games. Today they remembered, and they won.
There is still a threat and a price that was paid for the Coyotes physical play on the ice. Hopefully, if they played within themselves, they had a chance.
And they did. With the playoff drought ending, Doan gave up his body for his team, so that they can win. So we can believe.
They need to recognize what he did and hope he is on the ice sooner rather than later. I sure hope he is – it will be a damn shame if he can’t go another game because he sacrificed more than enough.
To see another playoff run.
I’ll read articles about the game later and post them here when I do. I’m going back and watching that game again.
Oh before I leave though, you know the jelly fish we saw on the ice at the beginning of the game? And the guy that picks it up with his hands and swings it around his head? Yeah, I saw you drop it – I told you they sting.
Oh another thing…I read some comments on some blogs about how they loved seeing the fair weather fans of Phoenix leave when their team was losing 6 or 7-4? Yeah, I saw you leave too when your team was only down two goals.
Fair weather fans indeed.
I always wondered if the media stuff was exposed when the Coyotes were doing well. Then, the team lost its focus because no longer were we talking hockey, but the distractions instead. When John Tortorella was with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he had a skill to take the heat for his team. Gretzky didn’t have this skill. Tortorella thrived on the conflict whereas Gretzky sometimes avoided it.