Desert Rising: The Phoenix Coyotes Are Future Contenders

Keeping your promise—a novel concept eh?

Thanks to a little wager I made during the Super Bowl, as well as the way the NHL’s regular season finished up, I’ve got to keep my promise.

What was the wager?

Well, I told my buddy Will that if the Phoenix Coyotes finished with a better record than the Toronto Maple Leafs, then I’d devote an entire article to the ‘Yotes. If he lost, he’d have to be quoted as being “Pro-Leafs” in one of my articles.

Both teams finished with 83 points; however, Phoenix had more wins (and I want nothing to do with Toronto until after the playoffs—good luck with that), so I’m caving.

Here you are buddy, the top ten reasons why the Phoenix Coyotes are so great. I told you it would happen:

10. Their Mascot

Understandably, the mascot, a coyote with teddy bear tendencies, is named Howler.

A list of mascots that I prefer to Howler: Spartacat of the Ottawa Senators; Thrash of the Atlanta Thrashers, Stormy of the Carolina Hurricanes; Thunderbug of the Tampa Bay Lightning; the creepy, kind-of-pedophile-looking New Jersey Devil; and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ interpretation of Foghorn Leghorn, Iceburgh.

On a fairly enjoyable side note: The New Jersey Devils’ old mascot was a giant puck with the Devils’ insignia. He was retired in favor of the “NJ Devil” because he inappropriately touched three women while in the costume. So, instead of having a creepy guy inside the costume touching people, they settled for a mascot head that looks like it wants to meet you in a back-alley after the game. These are the kind of things I think you should know...

9. They Are the Team Formerly Known as the Winnipeg Jets

Delving into Will’s mentality for a second, being a Winnipeger (Winnipegean? Winnipegite?), he loves this team because they originated from his hometown (and they were a Canadian team—gotta love that).

This was the team he watched growing up, and even though they left he kept on loving them.

With that being said…

8. The Fan Base

There is a fair amount of Canadian Coyote fans, but some left because the thought of losing the team made them sick. Although, after discussion with some of the fans, the team has a truly passionate following.

Granted, they’re currently sitting 29th in average attendance throughout the NHL, however 15 of their last 20 home games sported attendance over their home average (14,820).

If the team continues to improve with their infusion of young talent, that number may even increase.

7. Wayne Gretzky

Seriously, to have the “Great One” behind the bench is quite the honor.

Each hockey fan has a special memory of Gretzky, but only one fan base can currently (and who knows, maybe forever) say that one of the greatest players to ever live coached their team.

He could be one of the best teachers for the younger players on this team.

He was an underager (17 years old) in his first professional hockey season (with the WHA) and he personally understands what it’s like to have expectations piled on young players, while having to concentrate on the game.

In addition, Wayne knows the frustrations that come with the game—being an immensely talented player and being stuck at home watching the Stanley Cup finals can surely be frustrating for a young player. But again, Gretzky can impart ways of mentally dealing with that on some of his younger players.

I’m not saying Gretzky is the best coach in the NHL, but to know what it’s like on the players’ side of things, he’d be one of the best.

6. Shane Doan

Since Mike Ricci retired, Shane Doan is one of two guys (the other being Ryan Smyth) entrusted with keeping the “hockey hair” alive.

Aside from his flowing locks however, Doan doesn’t take a shift off for this team. Sure he’s never been at the top of the NHL in any offensive categories (he’s only topped 30 goals once in his career, and just netted a career-high 78 points this past season), but Doan brings grit, leadership, and perseverance to this young team.

Also, despite being 31 years old and having never reached the playoffs, Doan remains committed to this team—which undoubtedly means a lot to his teammates and the fans.

Just last season, he signed a five-year contract extension to remain with the Coyotes, despite the feeling that they’re in a constant rebuilding stage, the exact message you’d want your captain of five years to send to the team.

Maybe Doan is a second-line player at best on another team, but his attitude, commitment, and faith to his team are invaluable and are great values to leave to these up-and-coming rookies.

5. The Defense

Although the Coyotes have been at the bottom of the league the past few seasons, they’ve quietly been building a solid defensive unit.

The two names that headline it are Derek Morris and Ed Jovanovski.

Now, when Jovo-cop signed with Phoenix during the ’06 offseason, there was a lot of confusion—I mean this was a guy who could go to a legitimate contender and have a shot at the cup instead of a team that was more than 10 points out of a playoff spot.

Well, after a down year last season, Ed came back with an impressive season finishing in the top ten amongst defensemen in assists and points (while just missing the top ten in goals by one), while there have been murmurs that he is a contender for the Norris Trophy.

Derek Morris, meanwhile, has started to develop into a strong option behind Jovanovski on this Phoenix defense. Although he’s not big on the offensive side, his hard-nosed, grind-it-out style of defensive play (along with that of Nick Boynton) certainly helps the development of other young blueliners, such as Zbynek Michalek and Matt Jones.

4. Ilya Bryzgalov

Although he didn’t necessarily come out of nowhere, Bryzgalov certainly gave the ‘Yotes management something to smile about this season.

On a young team, Bryzgalov came over on waivers from Anaheim and immediately provided stability in net. Not only did he record a shutout in his Coyotes’ debut, but he also won his first four starts in the Desert.

Following that opening streak he lost four consecutive games, but remained strong during the rest of the season, as he never went more than two games without recording a point for his team (although from March 15th to 22nd he was buoyed with two losses, a no-decision, and another loss—the no-decision was in relief of Mikael Tellqvist).

With a team moving forward, it’s valuable to have a goalie that has some playoff experience (15 games), as well as a Stanley Cup ring (not to mention a 9-5 record, a 1.68 GAA, and a .937 save percentage in the playoffs).

Furthermore, he’s only the third goalie of the decade to win more than 25 games for Phoenix in a season (Curtis Joseph and Sean Burke are the other two), which is impressive when you consider fifteen different goalies have started games in Phoenix since the 2000-2001 season (which is about the same rate at which Ben Stiller makes a comedy in which he twitches and yells).

3. Daniel Carcillo

In all honesty, I can’t help but love this kid.

First of all, he’s got the gumption to be the only player to accumulate more than 300 penalty minutes this season (324), while playing in 18 games fewer than his nearest competitor.

What’s more is that it was all done “cleanly,” if that’s even possible.

He missed time due to knee injuries (a combined 20 games)—not suspensions for dirty or questionable hits.

The best thing about him is that when he’s not taking penalties, the kid’s got mind-numbingly soft hands, to the extent that Wayne Gretzky has told him to stop taking penalties.

In his last two games alone, Carcillo accumulated five goals, including a hat-trick in the second-last game of the season against Dallas, and he was also able to total 24 points in 57 games—which isn’t terrible considering that he spent just over 5 hours in the penalty box, and he saw just under 13:00 minutes a game.

Once this kid gets those penalty minutes under control, he could be a very dangerous player who can make people think twice about who won that Georges Laraque deal with Pittsburgh last season.

From what I’ve seen just this season, I think that change of opinion isn’t too far off.

2. Kyle Turris

I’m not going to lie, I was skeptical of the Coyotes when they took him third overall in the 2007 draft.

Actually, I’m still skeptical.

However, every time I see film of this kid, I start to see why they chose him.

For one, Turris has proven he can perform.

Whether it’s that he nearly averaged two points a game in the BCHL (1.73 points per game), or that he was able to prove himself in the college ranks (named to the All-Rookie team, totaled 19 points in 26 regular season games, and 16 points in 10 playoff games), but the Coyotes have a kid that’s gifted with both play-making and finishing ability, plus has the vision to play the game.

More experience will definitely benefit Turris, although now that he’s signed to a contract, it’ll be NHL experience.

While he ran into a little trouble in the NHL level this season (-5 rating), he was also able to post his first career assist. Seeing what he does in a larger sample size next season (he only played three games this year) will certainly be interesting.

1. The Young Attitude

Some call it cockiness, some call it inexperience, some call it brashness, but the young stars on the Phoenix Coyotes play the game with an energy and passion that can be dangerous against some of the older, more-mellow teams in the league.

What’s truly exciting about this team, is their ability to create and experiment.

Granted, because they’re young, they make mistakes. However, their ability to improvise when plays go awry is certainly impressive.

The team also has no fear.

I remember about midway through the season there was a highlight of either Peter Mueller or Martin Hanzal (I believe it was one of them) trying the “Marik Malik” move on an in-game breakaway.

It wasn’t a shootout, it wasn’t a penalty shot, but the kid was on a breakaway.

Now he took some heat for trying such a questionable move on a breakaway, but I applaud it.

Yes, it’s kind of cocky, but it showed a level of confidence that not too many young players can display, and it also showed the ingenuity and fearlessness of the “young blood” on this team.

The Coyotes missed the playoffs this year, and who knows, they may even miss them next year, but I’m sure of one thing:

This dog may be barking right now, but soon it’ll be biting and biting hard.

The rest of the NHL should be on Coyote-watch from here on out.