NHL Playoffs 2012: Shane Doan's Leadership Facing Its Biggest Test Yet

His team trailing in the Western Conference playoffs two games to none, Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan stepped up and set a tone for Thursday night’s Game 3 on his first shift. In fact, his play constituted the evening’s first scoresheet entry.

Unfortunately, it was for an unnecessary roughing infraction after a scrum along the neutral-zone boards with Los Angeles Kings forward Jarret Stoll.

Hardly the right way to start the night, especially when one’s team is in a de facto must-win situation and when one just escaped supplemental discipline for a boarding infraction in Game 2. Not to mention when one’s team has only just won each of its first two playoff rounds in half a century and in one’s 17-year tenure with the franchise.

Thursday’s opening frame would end scoreless, and the Coyotes happened to break the ice via David Langkow at 1:03 of the second period.

In turn, it is hard to argue that Doan’s lack of discipline in the wee phases of the game hurt Phoenix’s cause by night’s end.

Then again, after Langkow struck, the Kings perked up for two unanswered goals en route to a 2-1 victory and a commanding 3-0 upper hand in the series. And Doan was held without a shot on goal, with his only attempt going wide, so it is impossible to claim that the captain did much to help the Coyotes.

If there were any bright spots, one would be that Doan landed an unfathomable 11 body-checks in his 18:30 of ice time. But his energy and urgency could stand to be distributed with a little more balance.

Through three games in the series with Los Angeles, Doan has one assist and 19 penalty minutes, committing three infractions to match the number of goals his mates have scored on Jonathan Quick.

As a consequence of such shallow scoring and a rash of undisciplined resorts, the Coyotes face the specter of spilling everything they had percolated over the first two rounds in the quickest possible fashion.

Unless Doan finds a way to regroup internally and help his teammates regroup externally, he will squander what may ultimately be his only head-turning shot at a Stanley Cup.

In Doan’s career with the Winnipeg/Phoenix franchise, his team has faced elimination in 11 playoff games, going 3-8 in that scenario. Since Doan assumed the captaincy in 2003, they have gone 1-2 in do-or-die games, all against the Detroit Red Wings within the last three years.

Simply put, the Coyotes must improve to 7-8 and 5-2 in those categories if they are to sustain their 2011-12 season. But they cannot claim that they have had no suitable simulation of this exact situation.

The 35-year-old Doan, who has spent nearly half of his time on Earth working in Phoenix, is the chief reason why the Coyotes have been this year’s best NHL feel-good story through at least the halfway mark of the playoffs. He finally had a chance to stretch a campaign deep into May, when, at one point, there were doubts that his team would even be playing beyond the first week of April.

Mired in the middle of the non-playoff pack and only one game above .500 when February began, the Coyotes went on a 20-6-5 tear through the final two months of the regular season. They did so with the knowledge that every game essentially influenced the longevity of their season, as evidenced by the fact that they stamped their playoff passport with one game remaining.

In the postseason, the same basic principle applies. Every win emboldens a team’s posture, and every loss nudges one closer to spring cleaning in the locker room.

Phoenix did little more than carry on its February/March trend through the first two rounds, dumping Chicago and Nashville and posting a cumulative 8-3 record.

But this Sunday will mark the first time since, well, their last playoff run where the Coyotes’ continuity will depend directly on the outcome of the game. Even if they amass three consecutive victories, the same ground rules will apply for a week.

It is a lowdown new to this season, but not to most of these players and certainly not to Doan. And it will be on him, first and foremost, to replenish the same winning formula that salvaged the season and granted him this long-awaited, but now fast-fading, opportunity.