Coyotes In Playoffs Good For Hockey Fans?

There's a good article over at Deadspin that makes the case that the the Coyotes need to make the playoffs, as they would be a compelling story for casual hockey fans. The article is written by Greg Wyshynski of the Fanhouse and The Fourth Period. It's a good article, if however brief, and mentions our young talent core and outstanding goalie. Read the article here...

Don't Mess With The Coyotes

Your Phoenix Coyotes

Ok folks, here's the deal: I spent a few posts over the summer, back when i was just starting this lovely little blog, writing about i had lost all interest in the hockey the last few years, did not watch it anymore, and really couldn't see myself getting back into it because the Coyotes have been, historically, really bad. Not exactly a team that draws you back in, right?

Well, not right. In fact, way, way off from being right. This young team, as i'm just starting to discover, is really entertaining. And, they're actually pretty good. They started off just a touch slow, but have been playing really well as of late, putting together a four game and five game winning streak in the last month.

With 49 points, the Coyotes currently sit in 10th place, but just four points separate them from the eighth and final playoff spot in the West. While it might have been ambitious going into the season to shoot for the playoffs, at this point in the season i think you have to be thinking about it and setting it as a goal. They have played well enough of late, showing an ability to put up goals and coming up with big saves.

The Coyotes themselves are an interesting mix when you think about it. They have a big-name (if unproven) coach in Wayne Gretzky. The have some hard-nosed veterans in Shane Doan, Steven Reinprecht, and Ed Jovanovski. They have some great young talent in Peter Mueller, Keith Yandle, and Radim Vrbata. And they have a young up-and-comer, potential lockdown goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov. And not for nothing, but they have one of the best announcers in the game, Darren Pang, as their TV color guy.

This seems like it should be a big-time franchise then, right?

Only it's Phoenix, a town notorious for being indifferent to sports teams unless they are great. And the Coyotes have been anything but great the last few years, finishing below .500 and missing the playoffs every season since 2001-2002.

But the base has been built here in the desert. The Coyotes spent the last few years telling fans they were in a rebuilding phase, and now we are starting to see the progress of that rebuilding. They have good young talent. They have talent in the farm system (Kyle Turris at UW). They have a coach is is coming into his own. And they have a fan base that is beginning to take notice.

The Coyotes may or may not make the playoffs this year, though the way they have been playing i wouldn't count them out. Regardless, what i am excited about, and what other fans here in the Valley should be excited about as well, is that the Coyotes will be good. And soon.

Plus, they have me watching hockey again, and being entertained. And though it's debatable whether or not i need more sports to watch, i certainly enjoy it...

The Hockey

I don't write nearly enough about the Coyotes, or hockey in general, because i haven't had a chance to watch much of the Coyotes or the NHL this year yet. That being said, there is something going on with this Coyotes team. While still very young and inexperienced, they are an entertaining team with lots of talent, albeit raw. They are playing well, getting some wins, and not playing bad.

I have been watching more of them lately, though not enough yet to put together a coherent post. Wait until football season is over. Until then, check out my friend over at One Fan's Perspective. He writes a great blog and loves the Coyotes (and hockey in general).

Also, be sure to meander over to the Coyotes official site. They are the only professional team here in Phoenix, or anywhere for that matter, who have read my blog and actually contacted me about that. That impresses me.

The Hockey

The Coyotes season is underway, and i have managed to not say a word about them up to this point. I do actually feel kinda bad about it. I admittedly do not follow the NHL as much as other sports. My friend over at One Fan's Perspective is a passionate fan, and can do a much better job writing about the Coyotes than i can, but here's a small piece on them.

Two weeks ago the Phoenix Coyotes once again took to the ice for the start of the 2007-2008 season. Starting off with a bang, the Coyotes won their first game, but promptly dropped their next two. Currently, the 'Yotes sit at 3-6, staring another long season in the face. However, unlike the last couple of years, there is reason to be optimistic about this franchise in the near future.

The Coyotes are stocked with young talent, including nine players 24 years old or younger. Their youngest, Peter Mueller, is just 19 and scored his first goal last week. They also have a decent core of veteran's including Shane Doan, who is off to his typical slow start goal-scoring wise, Steven Reinprecht and Ed Jovanovski. Doan does actually lead the team in points, but needs to start finding the net more with just one goal so far this season (his 200th career goal).

The goalkeeping has been decent, although not spectacular. With a GAA of 2.83 and 3.35, both Alex Auld and Mikael Tellqvist need to keep a few more shots out of the net to give this team a chance to compete every night.

The good news for the Coyotes is that Josh Gratton has been recalled from San Antonio after his conditioning assignment. Phoenix played well with Gratton in the line-up last year, and missed him when he wasn't there. Also, their first round draft pick, Kyle Turris (who i wrote about here), is absolutely destroying for the U. of Wisconsin. He has 5 goals and 7 assists in just 4 games so far, a ridiculous pace. This is why he was considered by many to be the top center in the draft.

So while the Coyotes are struggling a bit now, there is a bright future in store for them. This team is a hard-working, good-skating team, and eventually their fortunes will start to turn. Until then, they just need to hang on.

-----

A couple of other things regarding hockey and the Phoenix Coyotes. I have no idea why anyone from a professional sports franchise would take the time to look at a hack site such as this one, but i got a nice email from one H. Khan with the Coyotes saying he enjoyed the site. As such, i thought i would pass along a couple of things their website has going on:

CoyotesTrax, where different player's iTunes playlists are listed, and CoyotesHockeyHQ, where you can play games and create your own 'Hockey Face'.

Out like a fat kid in dodgeball...

I'm off to Iowa for the weekend to visit family (assuming my flight EVER leaves Phoenix), and thought i would post a few quick hits for the weekend.

I hope you are watching, catch highlights, or at least read about the MLS All-Stars playing Celtic tonight. They are drawing near the end of the game and the MLS All-Stars are up 2-0. While this game means very little, it is still encouraging.

Speaking of the MLS... I love soccer, but it is hard to take a League seriously when they don't even own the rights to mls.com, or mls.net. It's mlsnet.com for those counting. This is ridiculous and needs to be fixed immediately. Unfortunately, MLS either doesn't have the money or the want to correct this grievous tragedy.

The Dbacks and Eric Byrnes have apparently broken off talks of contract negotiation, with Byrnes saying it appears he won't be back next year. While I understand the Dbacks reluctance to spend the kind of money Byrnes is sure to go after, it is disappointing to see him, and probably O'Dog, leave next year. They are arguably the Dbacks two biggest fan-favorites.

The Coyotes signed David Aebischer to a contract today. You may remember him as the man who took over goal in Colorado after Patrick Roy retired. I don't really have anything to say about this, other than i hope he doesn't suck. I (still) can't get excited about hockey...

That is all folks. Enjoy the weekend, hopefully my brother and the girl will put up some posts in my absence!

The Hockey

So yesterday was the 2007 NHL Draft. Most of you probably knew nothing about it, partly because it was shown on the Versus channel, mostly because no one cares about the Hockey anymore.

The main story from the draft was that it was the first ever time Americans went 1-2, Patrick Kane to the Blackhawks and James vanRiemsdyk to the Flyers. Like you, i have never heard of either of these people.

Going third in the draft was a 17-year old kid by the name of Kyle Turris to our own Phoenix Coyotes. Again, like you, i had never heard of this kid. But, unlike you, i took some time and did some research on the kid. That way, if for some reason you decide to care about the Hockey again, you will at least be edumacated.

Turris, born August 14th, 1989, hails from New Westminster, British Columbia. (That's in Canada). At 6'0'' and 170lbs, he has played the last two years for the Burnaby Express, an amateur hockey league in Canada. His rookie year he helped them to the Championship, tallying 46 points in 32 games. He also helped Canada West to the title in the inaugural World Junior A Challenge. As a Sophomore back in league play, he tallied 121 points in 53 games, a fantastic 2.28 points a game. This led to him being named the Canadian Junior A Player of The Year.

(As a side note, if you understood next to nothing of the previous paragraph, rest assured you are probably not alone...)

Considered the top Center in the draft, Turris was speculated by many to be a possible top pick, but teams had been backing off of him lately because he has committed to play the Hockey at the U. of Wisconsin. The Coyotes, however, had Turris number 1 on their board all along, even sparking a rumor they had traded with the Blackhawks for the #1 pick shortly before the draft. In the end, their man fell fell to them anyway. One curious fact about Turris was that he is the only right-hander taken in the top five picks.

And that, folks, is about all i can tell you about the Coyote's new draft pick. All told, i think that's more information than just about all of you will ever need. And so ends posts about the Hockey for, in all likelihood, a long time. Sorry, it's just not that interesting...

-Thanks to ESPN, NHL.com, and Wikipedia.

Ahh, The Hockey...

Really, does anyone care about Hockey anymore? I used to watch almost every game of the playoffs in college. Now? Not so much. I think i saw about ten minutes of one playoff game this year. Pathetic...

As for the Coyotes... About all i can say is that i went to more Coyotes games (2) than Cardinals games (1) this season. And i had 4th row tickets to another game, though i was out of town and they went unused.

Here's what i do know about them: They had their worst record since moving to Phoenix. They haven't had a winning season since '01-'02. They haven't been to the playoffs since that same year. They, like hockey in general this year, were largely irrelevant to the populace of Phoenix...

So, in the spirit of pretty much not caring about 'hockey', i'll tell you my favorite story of the year that can loosely be related to it.

My brother and i somehow stumbled into free tickets to the Budweiser Suite at Jobing.com Arena (Jesus, will somebody PLEASE stop selling stadium naming rights to crap companies that no one has heard of or care about...). Anyway, as you can imagine, we had free Budweiser all night long. Somehow, the game got tied in the last minute of regulation, and as such, everyone in our suite got fresh beers before they cut us off. Then, 38 seconds into overtime, the Coyotes scored the game-winner (One of their few victories...).

Now, with an entire suite of people with freshly topped off beers, we all hung around while the stadium emptied out. After the scrubs in the regular seats left, they brought out some goals, and let some kids on the ice for some spirited games of broom ball. Now because there was a bunch of us left, and because we had been drinking for free all night, we did what came naturally: We heckled them unmercifully. I distinctly remember shouts of 'Hey goalie, you suck!' to a poor 10-year old.

Ahh, the Hockey...