Thoughts and Missives
Since moving out here, and adopting the local hockey team, we have been fortunate enough to see our share of hockey games. I still remember our first game (or one of them) where the promotion was something like a hockey beach towel/blanket that the first 10K or so received (we somehow go to this game every year…we have a collection of these things now. They changed the design to a fleece blanket, which is a vast improvement). The blanket/towel thing was good enough then, but viewing the packed house was cooler still.
Fans would display this item before and during the game, and the view from the lower bowl was pretty amazing.
The game on Saturday night was something special. Honoring Shane Doan, one of the most loyal and hardest working hockey players out there, was definitely a big deal.
Besides honoring Doan, there was a scene that I witnessed Saturday night that brought me back our first visit to the arena. The packed house where the Coyotes fans outnumbered the visitors.
It was by far, one of the best game the Coyotes have played since the lockout. Besides the penalty calls (and lack of them for obvious infractions), having the team kill off a 6-0n-3 with 45 seconds remaining was short of spectacular. Seeing the crowd display their fleece blankets during those waning minutes brought us back to our first game.
So, Coyotes’ head coach Dave Tippett has this team playing extremely well. Many people are seeing that Tippett’s coaching prowess and comparing this experience to Wayne Gretzky’s tenure here. I saw a fan almost having his head ripped off for stating his thoughts about Gretzky’s coaching to a very drunk L.A. Kings fan wearing the jersey from circa 1992. Luckily, the drunk fan had a friend (who was also drunk) push him away from certain jail time.
Usually, about this time in the season, when the Coyotes are showing that they are a good hockey team, something from the press comes in to derail the party, hoping to distract this team. What we’ve seen though, is this team cannot be distracted, or Tippett tries his best to keep the distractions outside the locker room.
One can say that tonight’s game is a huge game for the Coyotes. What does Tippett say?
“Every game for me is the biggest game of the year; (today) is the next one”
quoted in Arizona Republic
He has done a masterful job keep the team focused on the job at hand. Besides many of the criticisms leveled at Gretzky (some fair, some not), the problem with having such a high profile coach is that when something goes awry, (Rick Tocchet gambling, Jeremy Roenick leaving the team for a beer, the ownership issues) the media is all over it. I can only think that some of those distractions found their way into the locker room.
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.
I liked Gretzky while he was here, but it is clear now he didn’t have his coaching chops. He couldn’t keep the distractions away and that’s the main difference.
So today, they face the number one team in the West the San Jose Sharks. This will be a good test as they face adversity on the road. I don’t buy the idea that this team will implode by the all-star/olympic break. However, they do have to prove that they won’t.
It’s up to the team and Tippett’s staff to not allow that to happen.
