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Intriguing Coyotes battle ownership controversy
By Ross McKeon
September 23, 2009
The good news is attendance improved for the Phoenix Coyotes during their second home preseason game on Friday night. The bad news is the count was approximately 3,000, or about half of the 6,200 announced for the 17,800-seat arena.
This is how it’s going to be until there’s a definitive answer to the future of the franchise, and even when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Redfield T. Baum decides who should own the franchise – the league, Jim Balsillie or no one at present – then support for the club is going to be minimal.
And that’s a real shame because what few fans realize is that general manager Don Maloney has worked hard and smart to put a pretty decent roster together. If all the talk wasn’t dominated by the ownership of this team, focus would be on the fact that the Coyotes might actually surprise a few people this season.
Recall just past the midseason point last year when Phoenix was 24-19-5 and sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference standings. That’s right, with nearly 60 percent of the season in the books the Coyotes were right in the thick of a playoff chase despite featuring a lineup of youth and inexperience.
The success didn’t last as Phoenix proceeded to drop nine of 10 and 13 of 16, but instead of feeling like a failed season it provided a window into the opportunity the Coyotes might have going forward. And that brings us to here and now, never mind all of the predictions of franchise gloom and doom.
There is a lot of young talent that should have benefited from the experience, players such as Mikkel Boedker, Martin Hanzal, Peter Mueller(notes), Viktor Tikhonov, Keith Yandle, Kyle Turris and Daniel Winnik. Every one of those players was drafted and developed by the Coyotes, and each appears not only fit to play on an NHL roster but to contribute to a winner, too.
Maloney blames himself for not having enough experience around the young core for the stretch run last season, and despite the uncertain future and a limited budget the GM did a nice job of addressing those needs in time for the start of the new season.
Maloney bolstered the defense with the steady Adrian Aucoin(notes) and the physical Jim Vandermeer. He added to the group up front by getting Vernon Fiddler and Radim Vrbata and made sure to re-sign Scottie Upshall and Petr Prucha for the same reasons.
All in all, the Coyotes are in as good a shape as anyone could expect considering the circumstances.
Last season: 36-39-7 (79 points), fourth place in the Pacific Division, 13th place in the Western Conference and 25th in the overall standings. The Coyotes have missed the playoffs for six straight seasons, but they’ve got bigger problems than that.
Imports: D Adrian Aucoin (Calgary), G Jason LaBarbera(notes) (Vancouver), C Vernon Fiddler (Nashville), RW Radim Vrbata (Tampa Bay) and D Jim Vandermeer (Calgary).
Exports: RW Taylor Pyatt (Vancouver), LW Nigel Dawes(notes) (Calgary), RW Brian McGrattan (Calgary), LW Todd Fedoruk (Tampa Bay), RW Steven Goertzen (Carolina), D David Hale(notes) (Tampa Bay), D Dmitri Kalinin(notes) (Russia), C Garth Murray (Calgary), C Brandon Prust(notes) (Calgary) and Steven Reinprecht (Florida).
Re-signings: RW Scottie Upshall, D Keith Yandle, C Lauri Korpikoski and C Petr Prucha.
Salary cap: No surprise here, the payroll of approximately $45 million is among the lowest in the league and closest to the minimum that must be spent according to cap rules (staying within $16 million of the ceiling). The Coyotes have about a $14M pad.
Three keys: First and foremost, the Coyotes are going to have to forge ahead with blinders on. The irony of their situation is the fact the team might be able to focus more intently on the task at hand since they already are so tired of hearing and reading about all the possibilities of the franchise’s future.
Still, it presents a challenge because the crowds will be small at home and the questions will be endless on the road. There will be no escape from trying to answer the same questions day after day, especially when there are no answers.
Second, Ilya Bryzgalov was not the same goalie last season that he was in 55 games the previous year after moving from Anaheim to Phoenix. Whether he struggled to perform after establishing himself as a No. 1 and got complacent or truly didn’t have enough help in front of him can be argued.
But the numbers are rather disappointing. Bryzgalov went from sporting a winning record (26-22-5) with a 2.42 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 2007-08 to a 26-31-6 mark with a 2.98 GAA and .906 save percentage last season. The 29-year-old Russian needs to work as much on his mental game as the fundamentals physically to pick up the pieces.
Third, the Coyotes need to be ready to make adjustments on defense if the mix isn’t right. Outside of Yandle, who is 23, and the under-rated Zbynek Michalek, 26, Phoenix’s defense is older than it would probably like to keep the blue line in sync with the core group of forwards.
Ed Jovanovski(notes), Adrian Aucion, Kurt Sauer and Jim Vandermeer need to prove then can still keep up with the pace of the new NHL. The Coyotes are fully aware of the possible blue line turnover, or need to force it, as they had 25 players listed on defense among the preseason candidates at the position.
On the hot seat: Everyone is wondering what the future holds for Wayne Gretzky. Because of the franchise uncertainty and his ties to the old ownership, Gretzky felt it was in everyone’s best interest if he just stayed away until something is decided.
What an odd predicament for the modern game’s greatest player. Truth be told, Gretzky might not be as cut out for coaching as he thinks. While more patient and less impulsive than when he began, Gretzky is still very emotional on the bench and he’s going to have to be held accountable for Phoenix’s missteps at some point.
Poised to blossom: Take your pick – Mueller, Hanzal, Boedker – or even all three. Hanzal has the most size at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds. He’s 22 years old and still will fill out. The Czech native got his feet wet the last two seasons by scoring a combined 19 goals and 66 points in 146 games.
Mueller, a Bloomington, Minn., native, has a little better numbers – 35 goals and 90 points in 153 games – and pretty good size himself, too, at 6-2, 205. Boedker surprised the most, stepping from junior hockey into the NHL last year at age 18 and scoring 11 goals and 28 points in 78 games. Plucked from the unlikely destination of Copenhagen, Denmark, the 5-11, 195-pounder might have the biggest upside of the three.
Time has passed: The decline showed last season, and don’t expect the numbers to improve any this year because 33-year-old Ed Jovanovski is not only not getting any younger he also not getting any better. Not that offensive numbers are the ultimate gauge, but Jovo slipped from 12 goals to nine and 51 points to 36 while appearing in all 82 games last season. He averaged 22 minutes a night and logged a career-low minus-15.
Jovanovski generally skates free of the criticism that might label him a draft bust, but consider the fact the No. 1 overall pick by Florida in 1994 has cracked the 50-point plateau only once and he’s hardly regarded as the defenseman players fear to go up against.
Prediction: It’s easy to write the Coyotes off because of their predicament, but Shane Doan is a pretty savvy captain and he has heart and character. That’s what it’s going to take for this group to move forward through this season. And if Los Angeles isn’t ready to climb the ladder and Dallas slips, Phoenix could be the third-place team in the division and challenge more seriously for a playoff spot.
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Top 10: Backup goalies
By John Grigg
September 23, 2009
It’s the most unheralded position in hockey, but also one of the most important. There’s nothing worse for players than when they feel they can’t trust the man guarding the twine during the odd night their No. 1 netminder needs a night off – or has an off night. Such worries shake up systems and usually end up in losses.
With that in mind, we thought it prudent to take a look at NHL backups. While training camps are still going on and battles for jobs continue, it’s difficult to handicap everyone. But looking around the league, there are some clear-cut No. 2s who obviously stand out – not just based on ability, although putting some pressure on the starter is an important factor, but on their willingness to take on the role; a usurped No. 1 generally isn’t happy backing up.
The situations in Anaheim, Washington and on the Isle jump to mind there. If J-S Giguere and Jose Theodore begin the year on the bench, we don’t expect them to flourish in the role. The same goes for Martin Biron and Dwayne Roloson.
10. Yann Danis, New Jersey
Danis, you may remember, played for the Islanders last season. It’s fair to say he was peppered with shots playing for the worst team in the league – he faced 32 per 60 minutes during 31 appearances. But Danis still managed a respectable 2.86 goals-against average and .910 save percentage. He obviously isn’t worried about playing time or he wouldn’t have signed with the Devils, so expect a happy camper whose numbers should improve playing in the New Jersey system.
9. Tuukka Rask, Boston
Rask’s inclusion is based as much on potential as anything else. In his lone NHL game last season, the 22-year-old, 21st pick of the 2005 draft posted a 35-save shutout. He’s big, quick, technical and hard to rattle. Tim Thomas is the clear starter in Beantown and Dany Sabourin may get the No. 2 job so Rask can get more American League starts, but the youngster is clearly the best option after Thomas.
8. Alex Auld, Dallas
Incumbent Marty Turco is coming off the worst season of his career, while Auld is coming off one of his best: 43 games played, a 2.47 GAA and .911 save percentage with Ottawa. Auld will be hungry for minutes and give Turco a nice push, just what you want in a backup.
7. Brian Boucher, Philadelphia
Boucher’s numbers the past two seasons have been outstanding. The man who had five consecutive shutouts for Phoenix in 2003-04 to set the longest streak in 80 years (332:01), was great last year for San Jose (12-6-3, 2.18 GAA, .917 save percentage in 22 games). Boucher has had NHL seasons where he’s played a lot of games and also very few, so he knows how to handle the backup role. He, too, will provide good competition for the No. 1 job.
6. Corey Crawford, Chicago
Crawford is expected to push Cristobal Huet for starting minutes with the Hawks. If Huet falters, Crawford will be given the task of backstopping a young team with loads of pressure to match or improve on last season’s Western Conference final appearance. Crawford has put up excellent AHL numbers and in limited NHL appearances, has shown an ability to step up to the next level. For seniority reasons, Crawford gets the nod over Antti Niemi who will likely start in Rockford, though he too could get an opportunity if Huet slips.
5. Dan Ellis, Nashville
The 29-year-old lost his starter’s job to wunderkind Pekka Rinne last year, one season after stealing it from former Pred and current No. 1 in St. Louis, Chris Mason. Ellis makes our list because he’s played the backup role before and will be hungry to prove he’s No. 1-worthy, even if he’s destined for that job on another team a la Florida’s Tomas Vokoun and Mason in Nashville before him.
4. Jaroslav Halak, Montreal
With Carey Price showing last season he’s not necessarily the next Patrick Roy, Halak stepped in and added his name to the starter’s mix in Montreal. In 34 games he was 18-14-1 with a 2.86 GAA and .915 save percentage. Price is the starter to begin the year, but Halak is a close second until proven otherwise and may be destined for a bigger role on another squad.
3. Ty Conklin, St. Louis
When Chris Osgood couldn’t get it done in Detroit last year, Conklin stepped in and almost usurped him as the starter. In 40 games he had 25 wins, a 2.51 GAA, .909 SP and six shutouts. The year before in Pittsburgh: 18-8-5, 2.51, .923. He’s steady, has played for winners and is good enough to offer real competition for incumbent Chris Mason.
2. Josh Harding, Minnesota
Harding may not be a backup for long. Although Minnesota is loathe to move him, he simply can’t go without a real shot at a No. 1 job much longer. Last season on a non-playoff Wild team, Harding won just three of his 13 decisions. But that wasn’t his fault. The 25-year-old’s numbers were Wild: 2.21 GAA and .929 save percentage. If he makes it to restricted free agency this summer, an offer sheet is not out of the question.
1. Scott Clemmensen, Florida
Many were surprised when Clemmensen signed in Florida during the summer. He’s the obvious No. 2, but played like a No. 1 last season in New Jersey, finishing with the seventh-best GAA in the league (2.39) and the ninth-best save percentage (.917). With Clemmensen knowing his situation, we have to assume he’s happy with it. But everyone can also assume he’ll provide a stabilizing force on nights Vokoun doesn’t play and is an excellent insurance policy if Vokoun struggles with injury or gets off to a poor start, as he did last season. Clemmensen is also a good man in the dressing room and a loyal soldier, as he showed last season when demoted to the AHL without complaint upon Martin Brodeur’s return from injury.
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Hockey: Why Can't The NHL Just Keep It Canadian?
By Frank Deford
September 23, 2009
Long ago, one evening in 1966, I was in a suite at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto with some folks from the National Hockey League. They were all feeling pretty heady. The league was about to double in size, an incursion into the United States that would take Canada's game as far south as Los Angeles.
Since the NHL was a huge success in all its six franchise cities in Canada and the northern U.S., everybody was certain that great times must lie ahead in the expansion outpost.
Also, optimism was fueled by a bottle of good Canadian whiskey. When the last drop was consumed, someone tossed it onto the floor.
"Dead soldier," he said. An old coach pointed at the empty bottle and laughed. "That'll be the National Basketball Association after we start next year."
And everybody raised their glasses, confidently.
Of course, it didn't work out quite that way.
Within a few years, Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Los Angeles franchise, would moan: "They told me there were 300,000 Canadians who'd moved to Southern California. How was I to know that they were the 300,000 Canadians who didn't like hockey?"
What the NHL found out is that it's hard to export a sport to where most residents are unfamiliar with the game. Hockey? The NHL has even tried to move into territory unfamiliar with ice.
But the league has pressed on, forever sprinkling franchises into places like Miami and Nashville and Raleigh in a vain effort to be a fully national American television sport. It doesn't seem to do any good. NHL ratings are traditionally woeful, especially down South.
By contrast, nobody has been dumb enough to try to force grits on the good citizens of Saskatchewan or Nova Scotia.
The Phoenix Coyotes, largely unnoticed by the inhabitants of Arizona, have now gone bankrupt. A wealthy Canadian wants to pay almost a quarter of a billion dollars to buy a franchise that is worthless in the desert, and move it to Hamilton, Ontario, where it would be positively adored.
But the NHL is fighting in bankruptcy court to hold on to the Coyotes.
What a shame. Look, it's no insult for a sport not to be appreciated everywhere. Pride and television are no match for love and cheers, and hockey is too good a game to be held up to ridicule just because its vainglorious patrons' reach exceeds their grasp.
The NHL should render unto Canada what is Canada's and let the Coyotes go where they are wanted.
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Does video of brutal Kariya injury hurt or help Russian league?
By Sean Leahy
September 23, 2009
Thanks to YouTube, video of the Martin Kariya incident we discussed yesterday is now available and shows that KHL medical personnel weren't as slow as earlier believed:
As you see in the video, it took about 30 seconds from the time Kariya -- younger brother of Paul Kariya of the St. Louis Blues -- was hit for two personnel to attend to the Dinamo Riga forward. It's undetermined in what capacity the two men who first reach Kariya work, but after almost a minute and a half, a trio of medical personnel reached the scene.
The delay might have been cut short if there had been more entrances to the ice other than where the Zamboni comes out, as Spartak Moscow Coach Milosh Rziga said after the game on Friday evening. Like we pointed out yesterday, Kariya was taken off the ice in a tarp through the bench door, which his body needed to be lifted over in order to get through. Kariya suffered a concussion after hitting his head on the ice and is expected to miss four weeks.
This incident brings up more questions about the medical techniques of KHL personnel, as covered by Ken Campbell of The Hockey News on Monday. Kariya was the victim of a head injury, yet there doesn't seem to be any support given for his head and neck area -- and thankfully none of his Dinamo teammates stumbled and dropped him off the tarp as they took him off the ice.
In the past week we've have both Alexander Ovechkin(notes) and Evgeni Malkin(notes) state their intentions on playing in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The Pittsburgh Penguins star even saying that if he were to be suspended for a couple of seasons from the NHL for participating, he could leave to play in Russia.
At what point does a player take into consideration the medical and safety precautions of a League before they take their big bag of money and run? And how can the KHL continue to throw around these large, tax-free contracts to lure NHL'ers, yet not outfit their arenas with proper medical care?
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