Phoenix Defenseman Ed Jovanovski Scores a Hat Trick

Ed Jovanovski of the Phoenix Coyotes just did the unthinkable. 

A. He scored a hat trick for the offensively challenged Coyotes

B. He scored a hat trick against the always defence minded Nashville Predators

C. He scored a hat trick as a defenceman.

When was the last time you heard of a defenceman getting a hat trick? I couldn't find any official stats, but I have to think it would have been before the dead puck era, back in the all offence days of the 80s and early 90s.

Someone, who actually is a Phoenix fan and follows the team more closely than I, can write an in-depth analysis of the game. I just want to write an article about one of my favorite defenceman. (Yes, I still have a Jovo jersey, even after he left Vancouver as a free agent)

Jovanovski was the main piece coming back to Vancouver in the Pavel Bure trade with Florida and was the best of a pretty good group of Vancouver defencemen that included Brent Sopel, Mattias Ohlund, Sami Salo and Marek Malik in the years before the lockout.

Coming out of the lockout, the Canucks were faced with having cap space to resign only one of two star players—Captain and Pearson Trophy Winner Markus Naslund or the swashbuckling Ed Jovanovski.

The Canucks chose Naslund, and in 2006, Jovo went to Phoenix to play for Wayne Gretzky, who had also selected him for the gold medal winning 2002 Olympic Team. At the time, it seemed like the right decision to make, keeping the once dominant West Coast Express line of Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison together.

But in retrospect, the Canucks would have been better off keeping Jovo. Bertuzzi and Naslund were never the same after the Steve Moore incident, and both would slump offensively.

Jovo was one my favorite players (and still is, otherwise I'd have no reason to look at Coyotes scoresheets) because he did everything. He wasn't the best in the league, but he was a complete defenceman, more so than even Scott Neidermayer or Nicklas Lidstrom.

He could make a breakout pass and spring his forwards for an odd man rush.

He could wire a slapshot top corner.

He could rush the puck up the ice himself, not afraid to take it coast-to-coast if that is what it took to score.

He could hit. (He didn't get that Jovocop nickname during Florida's run to the Cup Finals for nothing)

He could fight. 

He had a mean streak.

And Jovo did it all with emotion and passion for the game, leaving it all on the ice. You could question his decision making (he was a high risk, high reward player), but you could never question his effort.

My all-time favorite shift of any Canuck player was one where the Canucks played the Colorado Avalanche, and in the course of a single shift, Jovo crashed the net to score on Patrick Roy, then off the ensuing faceoff threw a huge open ice hit and got in a fight with Adam Deadmarsh and literally knocked him out with a flurry of punches. It was a highlight reel package all in a single shift.

I know it wouldn't work cap wise, but if the Coyotes were looking to offload players at the trading deadline, I'd love for Jovo to return to Vancouver. 

Unless that somehow comes to pass, Phoenix fans should enjoy watching Jovo patrol the blue line while they still can. (He is a free agent next summer) Jovo is getting older, but there aren't many defencemen in the league who put it all together like he does.