Swedish defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has signed his first NHL contract with the Phoenix Coyotes, who drafted him in the first round, sixth overall in the 2009 Entry Draft.  The deal is a three-year entry level contract, standard for rookie players.

OEL just wrapped up a bronze medal with Sweden during the World Championships this past month where he posted a goal and two assists in nine games.

Analysts have claimed that Ekman-Larsson is an NHL-ready defenseman, but hopefully the Coyotes will take a year to develop him in San Antonio, although signing him is a great sign for the future of the Coyotes blueline, especially with the emergence of Keith Yandle last season.

In 81 games playing for Leksand of Allsvenskan, the second highest Swedish hockey league, OEL put up 12 goals and 44 points.

After an eight year absence from the postseason the Phoenix Coyotes shocked the hockey world by setting a franchise record for points in a season, 107, and locking in the fourth seed for the playoffs.

Unfortunately, the magic ended in the first round when the Coyotes drew the card very few teams wanted for their playoff match-up, the Detroit Red Wings, who knocked the Yotes out in a grueling seven game series.

Outside of the early playoff exit, there were no other gloomy aspects to the Coyotes season as the team played consistently strong hockey for an entire 82 games.  Sure the attendance looked a little bleak for the first five months of the six and a half month season, but when March rolled around ‘the Job’ was bumping.

So lets take a look back at this glorious season and see who the key components of the success were and who and what this team could have done without in part one of the Phoenix Coyotes Season Awards Ceremony.

Team MVP: Ilya Bryzgalov

When a number of analysts and bloggers question Bryzgalov’s omission from the three Hart Trophy nominations, its pretty obvious who your team MVP is.

Ilya Bryzgalov did for the Coyotes exactly what they were looking for when they plucked him off of waivers from the Anaheim Ducks two years ago, he gave the team a chance to win night in and night out.

With new coach Dave Tippett introducing the team to a defensive style of play, the key ingredient for success was a strong goalie to be the last line of defense, and Bryz performed magnificently.

Bryzgalov set the Jets/Coyotes franchise record for wins with 42, tied the record for shut-outs with 8, was named 2nd star of the month, 3rd star of the month, 1st star of the week, and 2nd star of the week this year, got nominated for the Vezina award for top goaltender, and posted his career best Goals Against Average with 2.29.

Even in the playoffs Bryzgalov continued to be the backbone of the team, especially when captain Shane Doan went out in the third game of the series with injury, and showed that he would not be intimidated by the powerful Red Wings squad.

In the end the team relied too much on Bryz while providing him with insufficient help and allowed the Red Wings to finish them off in the seventh game by a disappointing score of 6-1.

Pretty sure no other player on the team can even come close to boasting as impressive of a resume as the one Bryzgalov had this season, and nobody was as heavily relied on to guide the team to victory, thus why Ilya Bryzgalov is a no-brainer choice for the MVP of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Runner Up: Keith Yandle

Anyone who has ever talked hockey with me knows just how difficult it was for me to write what I just wrote.  Want to know why it was so long between this blog and my last blog I wrote?  It was me trying to write that Keith Yandle was the runner-up for MVP for the Phoenix Coyotes this season.

At the beginning of the season the Coyotes suffered a lot of injuries in the back end with Ed Jovanovski missing 16 games, Zbynek Michalek missing 10 games, and Kurt Sauer missing the whole season, but Yandle was always up to the task of filling those voids and playing more minutes.

Honestly though, there was nobody on the Coyotes who was as important to the team as Bryzgalov was, therefore a runner-up is pretty hard to choose, but Yandle did show such strong leadership on the blue line and I really think it was a major influence on how the rest of the team played.

Top Defenseman: Keith Yandle

See?  Again with writing Yandle as the Top Defenseman just takes a lot out of me and a sort of black out after each time I do it.

Yandle gets a lot praise from broadcasters for his ability to score from the blue-line and confidently skate the puck up the ice knowing that he is a strong enough skater to get back on defense once he rifles his shot head high, around the glass, and out of the zone.

Ok, so he may not get praised for the last part, but that is what I usually saw when I attended every game for the three seasons before this one, and I still saw a lot of it when I watched the games online from Toronto this season.

But Yandle had an incredible season this year and, as mentioned earlier, really stepped up big during the injuries the defense suffered, playing over 20 minutes in those games.

He set a career high in all major stat categories with 12 G, 29 A, and 41 pts (leading all defenseman on the Coyotes), a +16 rating (which led the whole team) and 45 PIM.

I really am starting to come around to Yandle, but he shows too many signs of a future Jovanovski, which isn’t always a bad thing, but it can be a pretty bad thing at certain times.

When I watch games in person I don’t necessarily watch the game itself, I watch certain players and critique them.  Sure you’re probably asking ‘what does some kid from Arizona know about the skills needed to make a good hockey player’?

I am not saying that my vision is professional quality, but when I watched Keith Yandle play I see too many dumb passes up the middle, lazy penalties from trying too hard to be a tough guy, shots that could easily ‘Bryan Berard’ a fellow teammate, or just overall moronic plays that usually overshadow his strong plays.

This year, while watching his games on a screen instead of in person, I started to like how the young Yandle was maturing.  The television aspect of the game may have taken away from my chance to actually watch him as closely as I did when I was actually at the games, but that now allows me to see what the analysts and broadcasters see in him.

He is a really strong player who has the ability to quarterback a power play, score a goal from the back-end if needed, and bring a sense of leadership to a younger Coyotes team for years to come.

Hopefully, Yandle continues to grow as a player, which I am sure he will, and can one day be the number one defenseman that he showed glimpses of this season.

Runner up: Adrian Aucoin

Known as the Big Oak or, more recently, The Closer, Adrian Aucoin was also instrumental in helping the injury-riddled Coyotes defense keep their form and help limit the number of scoring opportunities from the opposition.

He was signed to bring leadership to a young locker room and he did just that.  With his great personality, Aucoin was able to lighten the room up during these confusing times of ownership debacle and dealing with the concept of actually winning hockey games consistently.

His experience was also key in the playoffs for a defensive corps that had three of their top six have zero playoff games under their belts.

Not to mention this guy was the clutchest of the clutch in the shootout after scoring 6 game-winning shootout goals.

Best Forward: Radim Vrbata

When the Coyotes traded for Vrbata this summer, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas.  Vrbata put up his best season when he wore the Coyotes jersey two seasons ago and provided the team with that much needed goal-scoring ability that it lacked for the majority of last season.

Vrbata led the Coyotes in goals with 24 while playing on the Czech line with Martin Hanzal and Petr Prucha, who formed instant chemistry in the preseason probably because they are from the same country and that is just science. (please understand my sarcasm and not take the ‘reasoning for the chemistry’ comment too seriously).

In the end, the player who was usually the one floating from the end boards to the front of the net to score an important goal in the game was usually Radim Vrbata, and his offensive punch was just what the defensively minded Coyotes squad needed.

It was hard to justify Doan for this award after he put up his worst statistical season since he only posted 49 points in 2001-02 (surprisingly the last time the team made the playoffs) and failed to crack the 20-goal mark for the first time since before the new millennium (1998-99 season).

But Doan did lead the team in points and has done that for the past eight seasons, plus his ‘grind-it-out/hit-everything-that-moves’ style of hockey provided the Coyotes with plenty of open ice to help produce more goals, and that was why he garnered strong consideration for this ‘invisible’ award that I am sure he will sulk about for days upon hearing the news that he didn’t win it.

Runner Up: Lee Stempniak

If Stempniak had been with the team for the whole season, then his efforts in the month of March would have alone gotten him the Best Forward award, but he was in the desert for just under two months, so his contributions were great for the team, but Vrbata provided offense all year round.

Stempniak’s offensive output cannot go unnoticed in this awards ceremony as he was able to score the same amount of goals, 14, in 18 games with the Coyotes then he did during 62 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs this season.

He earned himself the 1st Star of the Week after his first full week with the Coyotes and finished the month of March off by being selected as the number 1 Star of the Month by the National Hockey League.  Unfortunately, Stempniak failed to score in the playoffs, a time where the lackluster Coyotes offense needed a go-to goal scorer to help advance, and he failed to be that guy for the team.

Regardless, his contributions to the Coyotes were more then anyone in the right minds would have thought possible after being run out of Toronto by the overly-critical Canadian media, and thus a great success and an inexpensive gamble by GM Don Maloney.

Tomorrow the awards will get a little different as I determine the biggest surprises and disappointments the Coyotes faced this season.

Now y’all come back reeeeeeeal soon, ya hear.  Go Yotes!!

No matter where you watched the game, chances are you heard the same storyline about the Phoenix Coyotes: “Ownership struggles, Summer of bankruptcy court, No coach for training camp, coach steps down, predicted to finish low, surprise everyone and make the playoffs.”

Whichever way you slice it and no matter how many times you hear it, it’s still a feel good story and probably one of the best ‘feel good stories’ in sports in a very long time.

The Phoenix Coyotes have had such a roller coaster ride of a season that was filled with excitement and shock, and that magnificent season came to an abrupt end Tuesday night when the Detroit Red Wings literally curb-stomped the Coyotes 6-1 to advance to the second round of the NHL Playoffs.

Very few people in their wildest dreams would have thought the Coyotes would be in the playoffs this year, much less holding home-ice advantage against the two-time Western Conference Champion Detroit Red Wings and taking them to the seventh game.

But game seven showed who the true dominant force was, and game seven showed which team was ready for a do or die scenario, and that team is continuing on to the second round for the fourth consecutive year.

This is not a time to ramble on and on about the negatives of the game (there were too many, winky face) because anyone who saw the game knows that the Coyotes just weren’t ready to face the Red Wings in an elimination game.

Right now is a time to reflect on the positives of this season and admire how special this season really was for not just for the fans in Arizona, but for the sport of hockey itself in Arizona.

From the drop of the puck it was painfully obvious which team was not going to rely on their goaltender in order to try and squeak by with a 1-0 victory (the Red Wings).

Ilya Bryzgalov did what he could knowing that without captain Shane Doan in the lineup again, he would be looked at to provide the energy for the Coyotes by not allowing any pucks past him.  One period and 17 shots later, Bryzgalov was showing he was not intimidated by the Winged Wheel and that he may be that source of energy for this triumphant Coyotes group.

Two periods and 33 more shots after that, and it showed that the Coyotes did not have the skill to keep up with the Red Wings and were putting too much weight on the shoulders of Ilya Bryzgalov.

If the voting for MVP started after the first round of the playoffs, it is almost a no-brainer as to why Bryzgalov truly is the Most Valuable Player to his team.  The entire night was spent playing defense for Phoenix, but with the lack of true skill to match Detroit, they had no other choice.

The six goals scored may have seemed like Bryzgalov had a bad game, but had any other goaltender been in net, it could have easily been a double-digit goal differential.

The Coyotes have won all year by sticking with a system of defensive hockey while using role players to provide some occasional offense.  The system works extremely well for most teams, but the Red Wings are not like most teams.

Playing a defensive system against Detroit is like backing a rattlesnake into a corner.  You can use size and intimidation to frighten it and keep it on its toes, but just when you think you have overpowered the snake and you have it right where you want it, the little bastard strikes you and literally ENDS YOUR LIFE!!

And that is how this series played out.

The Coyotes kept with the Red Wings the entire series despite being seen as heavy underdogs, and using their defense to negate the Wings’ star players, the ‘Yotes were able to embarrass the Wings in their home barn.

They had overpowered them, beaten them in their hometown to force a game seven, and put the team right where the Coyotes wanted them.  And just as quickly as a rattlesnake strikes, the Red Wings had dismantled the White-Outed Phoenix crowd and struck midnight for the Cinderella Coyote squad.

It is hard to imagine that this season of such magic has finally come to an end, and for anyone to say they are glad that Phoenix is finally out of the picture, I’m pretty sure you have no soul.

There was no reason to cheer against the Coyotes (unless your team was the Detroit Red Wings) as this team never backed down when facing an obviously more skilled team.

This team had such a big case of ‘Little Man-Syndrome’ (no-pun intended), it made Joe Pesci look like giant teddy bear.

On paper, this team was without a doubt one of the worst teams in the league, but with a properly executed strategy, this group of over-achievers  stood up to every ‘favorite’ team, every all-star riddled team, and every team that looked down at them as an easy match-up and played a full 60 minutes, never giving up, and making believers out of everybody.

Hopefully, this group of players can return to the same form next season, and there are high hopes for it since the coach will be returning, the ownership debacle will be over with and resolved, and this team never did show signs of slowing down (with the exception of game 7) during the entire season.

Until then, we Coyote fans must now sit back, soak in the fact that our team was just in the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons, and hope that this can be a sign of positive things to come for this franchise for many, many more years.

Thanks for this tremendously emotional and joyful season, Coyotes.  Next year, we shoot for Round 2!!!

GO Yotes GO!!!

The Phoenix Coyotes are returning to the desert with a 2-2 series split with the Detroit Red Wings.

The Coyotes started the two game series in Detroit off well by beating the Wings 4-2 in the first game before getting shutout 3-0 in Game 4.

The past game and a half the Coyotes have been without the heart and soul of the team, Captain Shane Doan who injured his shoulder after he tripped over Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard.

The Yotes finished the 4-2 victory in Detroit without him, but looked extremely lost the next night when they were shutout by the rookie Howard.

Quick note:  How impressive is Jimmy Howard to admit to the media and to his team that he needed to be better or the Wings weren’t going to win, and then go out and post a 29-shot shutout.  That is the signs of a future star: to note that he is not playing as well as he should be and then gets a shutout the next game, truly amazing that he is just a rookie.

Ilya Bryzgalov has played extremely well this series for the Coyotes looking very confident in his play, minus a couple weak goals, and gives the team a chance to win night in and night out.

The Coyotes and Red Wings now face a best of three series with Phoenix regaining home ice advantage.

Without Shane Doan the Coyotes need the veterans of the team to step up and help guide this youthful Phoenix squad to victory and help get them back on track.

In both of the Coyotes wins the team straight up out worked the Red Wings through all three periods, especially the third, which is what they have done all year in order to win games, and this attribute to their game needs to return.

A lot of analysts in the media world believe that the Wings have now woken up after their 3-0 drubbing of the Yotes during game four and will cruise to a series victory, but these are the same people who said the Wings 5-0 shutout victory in game 5 of last years Stanley Cup Finals was the Wings waking up game and that the Cup was theirs to lose.

What happened?  Right, they lost the next two games and as a result, failed to win back-to-back Stanley Cups.

The Coyotes need to get back to their defensive style of play and continue to out-work this older Detroit squad, and give the city of Phoenix its first playoff series victory.

Best of 3 series begins tonight. Go Yotes Go!!

The Phoenix Coyotes season has finally come to a close and now the team sits back and waits for the draft come.  Wait a tick, the Phoenix Coyotes are actually being granted into the very selective post season gathering?  Well that’s a howl of a different color!! (You see what I did there with ‘howl’ replacing ‘horse’?)

I could start here with all the hoopla of the Yotes off-season debacle and over coming that to qualify for the playoffs, but chances are you have heard enough about it and are well aware that this team is without a doubt the Cinderella team of the regular season.

Now the question becomes ‘Can this overachieving squad continue its run into the playoffs?’

The Coyotes first round opponent is the team that nobody wanted to draw first, the Detroit Red Wings.

The Wings lost a lot of goals from their squad that took them to the Stanley Cup Finals last season, not to mention it was almost the identical team that won the Cup two years ago, and limped its way through the season after a number of players went down with injury.

But the team finally got healthy and went on a 10-1-1 run to end the season, a record that struck fear into those in the top four seeds awaiting to see who their opponent would be.

Low and behold, the Phoenix Coyotes were the team that got stuck with the bully in class that is gonna make you do all the work.  That’s right, the Wings are going to make the Coyotes work and as usual with Detroit, it will most likely look as though it isn’t trying on most nights.

Twice this season the Coyotes did end up victorious against the Wings, both of which were in overtime, not the shootout, and ended the season almost as hot as Detroit as the team won nine straight games in March.

This whole year has been full of proving doubters wrong for Phoenix and they are probably considered the underdog again by many of the mainstream analysts, but the good news for Phoenix fans is this team strives on being the underdog, and that should frighten Detroit.

Obviously, Detroit has playoff experience that overpowers the Coyotes and will use it to help them attempt to advance, but will experience be enough to fight off “the little engine that could” team know as the Phoenix Coyotes?

Well lets break down each important category and determine the who will come out victorious.

Forwards

This Red Wings team, as mentioned earlier, was hampered with injuries all season so it 229 goals scored is very deceiving, but the forward clan in Motown is finally healthy and starting to play well together.

The Wings are led by “The Magic Man” Pavel Datsyuk and “El Diablo” Henrik Zetterberg (Talledega Nights reference for those unaware),” who combined for 140 points this year, 70 each, which is 20 more then the Coyotes top two scorers, Shane Doan and Wojtek Wolski, who have 55 and 65 respectively.

A player the Wings didn’t have for 55 games this season was Johan Franzen, who put up 34 goals last season and has scored 25 goals in the past two playoffs, showing that he has no problem finding ways to score.

The Coyotes addressed their scoring needs at the deadline by acquiring Wolski and Lee Stempniak who have definitely been helpful in the goals department, they just aren’t enough to top Detroit’s now healthy forward core.

If the Coyotes do want to try and keep up with the Detroit offense, Captain Coyote Shane Doan needs to come back to Earth and find his scoring touch as he only managed a goal and seven assists in the final 19 games.

If Doan can start scoring and/or helping this team produce then the Coyotes can breathe a heavy sigh of relief.  But in the meantime, they need to brace themselves for a very powerful and very potent Detroit offense. Advantage: Detroit

Defense

The defense in Detroit is the same group that brought the team to the Stanley Cup Finals two years in a row, and the Coyotes have produced the most goals by defensemen in the league.

The Coyotes play a strong defensive system with a group of defenders that know how to use and sacrifice the body in order to take the puck away from the other team.

The Red Wings defense has more playoff experience in one player then the Coyotes do in their entire defensive roster, and that player is Nicklas Lidstrom, who has played in 235 games with 165 points.

The Coyotes have Adrian Aucoin, who will beat anyone in the shootout.  Dammit, there aren’t shootouts in the playoffs.  Uh, well, the Coyotes defense allowed the third least amount of goals this season.

The Red Wings have a second player who’s playoff experience may equal that of all the Coyotes defensemen combined as well, and that player is Brian Rafalski, who has 145 playoff games.  There are four other defensemen on the team too that have some experience, care to continue who has the stronger D? Advantage: Detroit

Goaltending

Both teams have been successful this season because of the way the men in net have played for them, with both Ilya Bryzgalov and Jimmy Howard putting up very similar numbers across the board.

The one difference between the two is that one is a veteran with playoff experience and the other is a rookie.  But that rookie also has a wild card known as Chris Osgood there to back him up in case he falters, which may not frighten many, but remember how many times Ozzy has been to the Cup Finals and how many he has helped the Wings win.

Face it Osgood is clutch come playoff time.  But the Wings may not even need to turn to him if Howard can keep playing as well as he did during the regular season.

Bryzgalov on the other hand has had playoff experience, and winning playoff experience at that, as he was the starter for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks during the 2005-06 run that saw the team go to the Western Conference Finals.

Being not only talked about for Vezina consideration, there is even mention that Bryz may even deserve the Hart Memorial trophy for MVP, which is no surprise to anyone who watched this man almost carry the entire Coyotes team on his back, with the help of a Dave Tippett system.

If Bryz can remember how to play in the playoffs and continue stopping pucks the same way he did all season, then the Coyotes will have that advantage on the Wings, which is the first category they have more playoff experience in. Count it. Advantage: Phoenix

Special Teams

Well lets make this fast: Power play, Detroit is 6th in the league with 19%, Phoenix is 28th with 14%.  Penalty Kill, Phoenix 84%, Detroit 83%.  That 5% difference in PP% really makes this just about an easy mark for Detroit. Advantage: Detroit

X-Factor

The X-factor in this series is fatigue, something one team will feel, or may feel soon, and something another team has shown no signs of all season.

The team that needs to worry about fatigue is the Red Wings with three years in a row going to the Conference Finals or beyond, and having 7 of their top players competing in the Olympics this season.

While the Coyotes only had three players compete and one of them only appeared in two games, who was fortunately goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

If the Coyotes were smart they would implement a strategy to just makes the Wings skate.  Sure try to chip in some offense every now and then, but if they spent the majority of the game moving the puck around and forcing Detroit to chase the puck, it could increase the possibility of tiring them out more.

Fatigue is an important factor in a playoff series and no team has played more hockey in the past three seasons then the core group of players on the Detroit Red Wings roster, and the Coyotes need to expose that.

Phoenix is a young team that can skate fast and move the puck well amongst each other, which can be a deadly combination to a group of older vets such as the ones playing for the Winged Wheel. Advantage: Phoenix

Overall, the Coyotes may have the home ice advantage and may have put up more points this season then Detroit, but the fact is, they really are the underdogs when going up against the two-time Western Conference Champions and are going to be relying heavily on their goaltender, which can be good, but can easily turn bad for this inexperienced Phoenician squad.

As a Coyotes fan and a Red Wings fan, this series is the last match up I wanted for either team and am going to be going crazy watching these games.  But as much as I want my Coyote side to finally get a whiff of the sweet, sweet smell of success, I feel this will be the last dance for this Cinderella squad.

I have had a personal stipulation/superstition for years never to predict “my team” to win in a playoff series, in fear of being wrong and feel completely to blame for their loss, and will be continuing this superstition to this series.  Although I do have a feeling the arena in Glendale wont be howling past this playoff series.

Lets Go Yotes !! 16 wins to go

When the 2009-10 preseason began the Phoenix Coyotes were missing an important piece to their organization, their head coach.

Their coach for the previous four seasons, Wayne Gretzky, was the greatest hockey player to ever play the game and the holder of some of the most unbreakable records in NHL history.

But Gretzky’s success on the ice never seemed to transfer to any form of success behind the bench as the Coyotes went an abysmal 143-161-24 during his coaching career, leading the team to zero postseason appearances and only one season with a record over .500.

The NHL’s greatest player decided in the midst of the ownership debacle, not knowing if he was going to be paid and if so by whom, that it was time for him to step down after failing to make an appearance for the Coyotes entire training camp and the beginning of their preseason games.

In less then five hours later Dave Tippett, who had been fired after the 08-09 season by the Dallas Stars for failing to make the playoffs for the first time during his coaching reign, was announced as the new head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.

And just like that the Phoenix Coyotes were finally graced with a coach who had a proven track record behind the bench.

Dave Tippett came in to the organization and gave something to the Coyotes they had lacked for the past four seasons behind Gretzky, a system to play that actually gave the team a chance to win every night.

Tippett had used a very successful defensive system in Dallas, which worked well due to the Stars having a very strong goaltender in net and core of excellent defenseman, which the Coyotes were fortunate enough to be in possession of before Tippett signed on.

Relying heavily on goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to have a bounce back year after a disappointing 08-09 campaign, Tippett’s system helped turn a team that was predicted to challenge for the first overall draft pick in the 2010 draft, into a team that, at one point late in the season, was on top of the Western Conference, albeit for only one day.

With the experience Tippett had coaching against Phoenix (42 times during the course of his Dallas Stars coaching career) he knew the Coyotes were not a high-scoring power house and that they relied on their goaltender too much, thus giving him an opportunity to execute his defensive strategy in order to turn this once storied franchise (sarcasm) into a contender.

The Phoenix Coyotes were mocked, ridiculed, and basically written off at the beginning of this season, making it as high as number 25 in pre-season rankings by the mainstream analysts.  Even when Tippett was brought on, there were question marks to whether he can really make a difference or if the results would mirror those Gretzky was able to get out the Coyotes.

But Tippett proved all of the doubters wrong early in the season, coaching the Coyotes to the top of the Pacific Division for a few weeks in October, finishing the month with an impressive 9-4-0 record, but the team didn’t just start strong and fall back to reality and into the bottom of the standings like they had done in past years.

Instead the Yotes kept up with the rest of the Western Conference pack and stayed in the top eight for the majority of the year, only dropping below the eighth seed a couple of days during December.

The Jack Adams Award is given to the coach who adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success, and there have been a few coaches who have led their non-playoff teams from 08-09 season into the postseason this year.

Colorado, Los Angeles, Nashville, Phoenix, Buffalo, and Ottawa all failed to make the big dance last season and of those teams only Phoenix and Colorado made a coaching change this summer, and of those two teams, nobody put more points in the standings then the Phoenix Coyotes (107).

There are really only two coaches that deserve to be in the same conversation when it comes to determining the Coach of the Year this season, Joe Sacco of the Colorado Avalanche and the man I have been preaching about for the past 675 words, Dave Tippett of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Joe Sacco has done alot with an Avalanche team that has gone through a major rebuilding stage in order to return to the top of the NHL just like they did once they arrived to Denver and up until just before the 2004-05 lock-out.

The Avs appeared to have quickly “completed” the turn-a-round into a contender in one season, holding the top spot in their division up until December, but started to see a decline in play once the young players hit the “rookie wall” and first-time starter Craig Anderson began to show signs of fatigue from playing too much.

Meanwhile, Tippett not only used, basically, the exact same core of players from the 08-09 Coyotes team and turned them into a contender, but he kept the Coyotes in the middle of the West for almost the entire year, minus of course the few days here and there when the standings were so close that a win could move you up four spots and a loss could drop you four.

After the Olympic break the Coyotes basically kept a strangle hold on the fourth spot in the West after going on an impressive nine game winning streak after one of the busiest trade deadline days in team history.

When it comes down to a Joe Sacco/Dave Tippett showdown for the Jack Adams award this season, Tippett will emerge victorious because:

• he kept the Coyotes in the hunt for the playoffs throughout the majority of the season (playing in what has been one of the stronger NHL divisions in the past 3-4 years)
• he provided an actual system and strategy (something they had not been with for four seasons)
• he helped coach a team who had 79 points last year to that point total on February 10th, and finished the season with 107 points, good enough for fourth in the entire league.

So if the league has not already done it, it may be an intelligent move to go ahead and start engraving “David Tippett/Phoenix Coyotes” onto the Jack Adams Award because without his help behind the bench you can almost be sure that there would be no white-out, there would be no miracle of Lee Stempniak, there would be no fair-weather Arizona fans bombarding the ticket offices at Jobing.com Arena, and there very well could have be no more Phoenix Coyotes after this season.

Oh no! The Phoenix Coyotes are entering the month of April riding their worst losing streak since the Olympic break, going 0-2-0 in the past week against the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames.

The first game of the week against the Canucks was a poor showing by team MVP Ilya Bryzgalov who allowed an Alex Burrows goal a mere 37 seconds into the game.  But that wasn’t the worst of blunders for Bryz as he made the blooper reel by weakly throwing the puck behind the net where it was easily intercepted by Art Ross front-runner Henrik Sedin, who quickly wrapped it into the net.

Sedin wasn’t done there as he set up a beautiful behind the back pass to his brother Daniel who tipped it past Bryzgalov for the Henrik’s third point of the night.

Mayson Raymond also scored for the Canucks after his shot bounced of Matthew Lombardi and past Bryzgalov.

The Coyotes goal was a bit of a cheat play after Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo lost his stick and Martin Hanzal, standing in front of the net, pushed Lou’s stick farther away from the goalie.  Radim Vrbata skated across the slot and banked the puck in off the post.

Luongo was livid about the referee’s decision, but his temper tantrum did him no good and the goal stayed.

The night was clearly not the greatest outing by Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, but he has only had a couple of them all season, so with a playoff spot intact, the Coyotes can look at this flub game by Bryz as “getting it out of the way”.

The next night Phoenix traveled to the next province to play Calgary to a 2-1 loss where a goaltender’s battle determined the winner of this game.

Both Miikka Kiprusoff and Jason Labarbera made 29 saves.

Lee Stempniak continued to score at an amazing pace by getting the Coyotes only goal, giving him 13 since he he joined the team at the trade deadline and 27 on the season.

So now the team takes their two game losing streak, that was the back end of a 1-3-1 record in the past five games, into the Edmonton to take on the Oilers, who carry with them the worst record in the league.

The best case scenario that comes from this game would be a victory to help this team get back on track heading into the playoffs.  A win will also put them one step closer to clinching that fourth spot in the West.

Right now the opponent the Coyotes would face if placed in fourth is to close to tell as Detroit, Nashville, and Los Angeles are all within a two-point margin of each other.

If Coyotes fans want to start cheering for a team to play against, right now it would be the Kings as they have hit a rough patch of games as of late, despite their recent 8-3 victory over Vancouver, and and are a team the Coyotes are very familiar with.  Their goaltender Jonathan Quick has not been playing well lately either, so they may be the ideal choice to play right now.

A team the Yotes may want to steer clear of is Detroit and that is because they are a team just as hot as Phoenix as of late, they are just starting to get healthy again and mesh well together, and not to mention they have been to the Stanley Cup finals the past two years, winning it the first year.

The Red Wings are a very dangerous team who were plagued with injuries, but managed to stay within reach of the playoffs the whole season. Now that they are getting healthy, they are a team that not just the Coyotes should be a bit scared of, but the whole Western Conference should be keeping an eye on throughout the postseason.

Here’s to getting April started on the right foot.  GO YOTES GO!!!

One of the best stories in the NHL this season can do the unthinkable tonight and become a playoff team with two different opportunities to do it.

That story is the Phoenix Coyotes and they play host to another unexpected playoff contender, the Colorado Avalanche, Saturday night in hopes of bringing the White Out back to Phoenix.

But before the puck drops the team could possibly have that fabulous looking ‘x’ next to their names in the standings signifying a playoff berth.  How so you ask?  The Calgary Flames, the only team outside of the playoffs that has a mathematical chance of catching the Coyotes, play the Boston Bruins in an afternoon game that will be completed long before the Coyote players will even arrive at ‘The Job’ (Jobing.com Arena).

With the playoffs now within their reach the team needs to begin working on finishing the game in the first 60 minutes, rather then finishing games in the shootout, something they have done A LOT of in the month of March.

Their opponent tonight is the only team in the playoffs that the Coyotes are below .500 against this season, the Colorado Avalanche.

The Avalanche were in the same boat as the Coyotes earlier this season, being overlooked by almost every analyst in the broadcast world to make the playoffs.  But here they are in the top eight of the conference and could very well be a first round opponent of  the Yotes seeing how the Avs are a mere win away from moving up to fifth place.

The Avalanche also have this young stud sniper who has put up 15 points in 11 games for the Avs since they acquired him at the trade deadline.  That player is Coyotes castaway Peter Mueller and he has been on fire since re-gaining his confidence.

The last time these two met was the day after the trade deadline and saw the Coyotes win 3-1 with a goal scored in the final 30 seconds by Wojtek Wolski, the player the Coyotes traded Mueller (and Kevin Porter) for.

With a win tonight the Coyotes will officially have a .500 or higher record against every team currently in the playoffs, which is a great sign for when the post season rolls around.

It has been announced that the game is once again a sell out, which again proves my theory that in Arizona, if you don’t win, you will not have fans.  Hopefully the team will give their hometown fans another exciting game tonight and can give a good preview of what this team and the atmosphere will be like come playoff time.

Here is to hoping for another winning streak starting tonight.  GO YOTES GO!!!

Updated 3:52- Calgary Lost, THE WHITE OUT RETURNS TO THE DESERT!!!!  COYOTES ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!

Before we get started on the Phoenix Coyotes 3-2 shootout victory against the Dallas Stars and everything that came along with it, I would like to take a journey down memory lane to an article I wrote on January 23rd of this year.

The article discussed a recent home stand that put the Coyotes 13 points behind the San Jose Sharks for first place in the Pacific Division and I noted that it isn’t out of the realm of reality for the Coyotes to catch the Sharks.

Fast forward to March 21, 2010 and my “pipe dream”, as I referred to it, has become “reality” as the Phoenix Coyotes have taken their spot atop their division by defeating the Dallas Stars in the shootout Sunday night.

Re-read that last sentence again if you still don’t believe it, the Phoenix Coyotes, the team currently owned by the league, who was almost moved to Hamilton this summer, that has had attendance issues all season, who haven’t been to the playoffs since 2002 when they played at the US Airways Center wearing those hideous jerseys, are first place in the Pacific Division.

Go ahead and rain on my parade and say it may only be for one night and they could very well be dethroned by the Sharks during their next game, but right now this team is where NOBODY expected them to even get a whiff of at the beginning of the year, leading the Pacific Division.

But wait, it gets better.  Not only is Phoenix first place in the Pacific Division (You know what, I have said that a lot tonight, but I don’t care because it sounds amazing), but as of today they are also tied for first place in the Western Conference.

Sure the Blackhawks have played two less games, but its pretty amazing nonetheless.

The win tonight was also the team’s ninth straight victory, but you know no big deal when you think about where in the standings this winning streak has put the team.

Now for the minor problem fans of other teams might not be too happy about, and that is the amount of shootout victories for the Coyotes.  During the teams nine game win streak, five have been shootout victories.

That could pose a problem for the team come playoff time as they will not have that luxury since overtime consists of 20 minute periods until someone scores instead.

The game against Dallas on Sunday night saw the Coyotes get a number of scoring opportunities during overtime and the team was much more aggressive during the extra period then it was the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, with the period only being five minutes long it makes their effort look minuscule, so hopefully when they have twenty minutes of extra play in the postseason, they will be able to capitalize on their opportunities.

And if all else fails in the overtime, just send out “The Closer” Adrian Aucoin to rip a shot from the slot and the game will be over.  Aucoin scored his fifth game-winning shootout goal for the Coyotes on Sunday to beat the Stars.  He is 5-for-5 on the season.

Radim Vrbata has also quietly been scoring at a solid pace as he again scored a goal in regulation as well as in the shootout, just as he did against Florida on Thursday, and added an assist.  He currently leads the team with 23 goals, not bad for a player who was not in the league for most of last season.

Petr Prucha scored the other Coyotes goal in regulation when he tipped in Vrbata’s pass from the end boards with just under a second remaining in the first period.

Jason Labarbera did a nice job filling in for Ilya Bryzgalov stopping 30 shots put his way including a diving save at the end of the third period to help keep the game tied at two.

The Coyotes will get a chance to take full control of the Western Conference when they take on the Blackhawks on Tuesday in Chicago.  Who would have thought even two weeks ago that the top spot in the West would be up for grabs during a game between the Hawks and the Coyotes?

If the Coyotes win it will also give them the season sweep of the Blackhawks after going 0-4 last season against them.

Win again and make it TEN!!!  Go Yotes Go!!!

The Phoenix Coyotes came back from two different two goal deficits to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 in the shootout Saturday night for their eighth straight victory.

The win also put the Coyotes within one point, that’s right you heard correctly ONE POINT, of the San Jose Sharks for first place in the Pacific Division and two points behind the conference leading Blackhawks, who did receive a point in this game.

The red hot Lee Stempniak got his second two goal game since his arrival to the desert, giving him nine goals in eight games since being dealt to the Coyotes at the deadline.

“I wanted to come here and have a fresh start. I’ve scored goals before and I know how to do it. To be part of a team that’s winning and to chip in is a lot of fun,” Stempniak said, “This was a big test for us. Coming back after a long road trip, it would have been easy to have a letdown game. But we found a way.”

Minus a fluke goal scored by Andrew Ladd, Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov continued his MVP-worthy play stopping 34 shots as well as all three shooters in the skills competition.

The Blackhawks started the game off with the first goal to give their home crowd something to get behind.  What’s that?  The game was in Phoenix?  But there were so many Hawks fans at the game.  And it was a sellout, are you sure it was at The Job (Jobing.com Arena)?  Weird.

Regardless, Troy Brouwer opened up the scoring ten seconds after a Radim Vrbata penalty expired when he snapped home a centering pass from Patrick Kane.

Kane would then go on to score the first goal of the second period to give the Hawks their first two-goal lead.

New-comer Wojtek Wolski would cut the lead to one after banging in a rebound goal past Anti Niemi, who stopped 31 shots.  Stempniak then tipped in an shot from the point to tie the game up at two just over a minute into the third period.

Captain Shane Doan notched an assist, which was his 400th assist, on Wolski’s goal and despite not putting anymore points on the board was probably The Coyotes best forward throughout the night.

Doan never gave up and was playing a very aggressive game which even included a hard check to John Madden, who’s face hit the cement-like glass and went down in pain, and created numerous chances by grinding his way through the injury-plagued Chicago defence.

Chicago battled back as it would score two goals, including the little ‘whoopsie’ by Bryzgalov, to give itself another two goal lead just over two minutes after the Coyotes tied the game.

But Phoenix, as they have done all season, failed to give up and outworked Chicago leading to “The Ninja”, Stempniak, scoring his second goal of the game to cut the lead back to one.  Head coach Dave Tippett then looked over to the bullpen and called upon his closer to tie this game back up.

The closer, for those unaware, is none other then defenseman Adrian Aucoin who has, surprisingly, been known to score clutch goals for Phoenix this season, and he did just that as he fired home his usual top glove shot that tied the game up at four with five minutes to go in the game.

Again, the Coyotes had come from behind in the third period to force extra time.

During that extra time Phoenix was awarded a penalty shot for Matthew Lombardi, which he missed but appeared hurt after the initial play that gave him the shot, and saw a goal by Vernon Fiddler, who kicked it in thus did not have it count.

Vrbata would be the lone goal scorer in the shootout, his second game winning shootout goal in a row, to complete the unthinkable comeback for the Yotes.

Winning eight games in a row has many of the analysts and experts in the hockey world, the same people who predicted the team to finish no higher then 25th this season, getting incredibly drunk of the Coyote Kool-aid as the team is getting more and more press due to their surprising success this season.

More and more publicity is being given to this team, who couldn’t even pay to get a story on the front page of the Arizona Republic sport’s section earlier this season or seasons passed, but now the state of AZ is starting to take notice, just like they always tend to do when their hometown team is winning.

The Coyotes will attempt to overtake the Sharks for the Pacific division lead on Sunday as they take on the Dallas Stars in the Lone Star State and will try to win their ninth straight victory.

This game is the third time in just over a month the Coyotes have played the Stars on the second game of a back-to-back series.  The Coyotes lost both of the previous contests.

Get behind this team Arizona, the white-out is one of the most amazing sites to witness first hand and it looks the best when it’s a sold out game.

Lookin’ Fine to Make it Nine!!! GO YOTES GO

*- For those confused about the headline, during the ownership debacle this summer Jim Ballsille created a site called makeitseven.ca in order to rally fans in his attempt to bring the Coyotes to Hamilton, which would be Canada’s seventh team.