NHL Playoffs 2012: Phoenix Coyotes Are This Season's Top Feel-good Story

The 1970s folk group America could not have foreseen Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan’s story when they sang “In the desert…there ain’t no one for to give you no pain.”

There may not be anyone, unless you are the last holdover from a hockey team that relocated from central Canada 16 years ago and have since endured one year after another with no postseason success.

Over his protracted tenure in arid Arizona, Doan has had an abundance of adversaries to inflict pain upon him, along with teammates and supporters to share it with.

But Monday night constituted Doan and the Coyotes’ second wave in the emotional equivalent of a rare, long-awaited desert flood. The franchise won its second playoff round since moving in from Winnipeg and its second in as many tries this spring, upon finalizing a five-game triumph over the Nashville Predators.

The 2-1 series clincher, which came before the white-wearing masses at Jobing.com Arena, occurred within hours of the encouraging announcement that the Coyotes plan to stay where they are under the auspices of new owner Greg Jamison.

And to think that, along with the ongoing business-related tension away from the ice, this campaign began with the two-month holdout of Kyle Turris, who was eventually exported to Ottawa in mid-December. To think that there were incessant rumors surrounding veteran winger Ray Whitney throughout the autumn and well into the winter, leading up to the NHL trading deadline.

To think that Phoenix was a subpar 22-21-8 at the start of February, right before a five-game winning streak set the tone for a 20-6-5 sprint through the home-stretch.

The Coyotes were not even assured a playoff passport until April 5, an off-night, when there were two days and two games left in the regular season.

But by the time they had completed those 82 games on April 7, Whitney had played in all of them and topped the team charts with 77 points. And Phoenix had the Pacific Division title, its first such crown in franchise history, and was riding into the playoffs on yet another five-game winning streak.

Goaltender Mike Smith backstopped that entire streak with three straight shutouts followed by a pair of one-goal affairs. That helped him set the tone for his first postseason in an NHL starting position, one year after he backed up Dwayne Roloson with the Tampa Bay Lightning on a run to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The 30-year-old Smith, a veteran of six full NHL seasons, and the rest of the Coyotes have not slowed down much since. Other than their forthcoming opponent from Los Angeles, which went 8-1 over the first two rounds, no team has made it to the halfway mark of the playoffs as efficiently as Phoenix, now an aggregate 8-3 against Chicago and Nashville.

Of the remaining postseason goaltenders, Smith (.948) trails only Kings stopper Jonathan Quick for the best save percentage (.949), and only by a single point at that.

In front of him, an appreciably balanced strike force piloted by Antoine Vermette (five goals, nine points) has garnered at least one goal from 12 individuals through 11 games. Eight of those players have tallied at least two and five have inserted at least three goals so far.

Right in the middle of the production chart are Whitney, with a 2-4-6 scoring log, and Doan, with three goals and three assists.

With an assist on Derek Morris’ icebreaker Monday night, Doan etched his career-high sixth point in a single Stanley Cup tournament. His current plus-five rating is also the best he has had in the playoffs since a plus-four in 1999, when Phoenix lost to St. Louis in seven games.

That may be altogether unremarkable data for those players who have had earlier and more ample blessings. But for the 35-year-old, whose rookie season was this team’s last ride in Winnipeg in 1995-96, it is a savory nugget, naturally seasoned and spiced by years of patience.

And however long Doan lasts hereafter, the fanbase he has catered to for all but one of his NHL seasons can now look forward to their team building on the landmark 2011-12 campaign.

That is, of course, after this run is over, which it very well may not be for another full month.