The Do’s and Doan’s of Building a Contender: Why the Phoenix Coyotes are Mired in a Slump

It used to be that Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan was a fantasy hound. He struck the perfect balance between contributing the odd point and making the odd trip to the penalty box, with the odd alleged slur aimed at French Canadians added in for good measure. But no longer. Now the only slurs he’s uttering are solely in karma’s direction.

Doan recently found himself on the receiving end of an awkward collision with Dallas Star Nicklas Grossman, sustaining a lower-body injury last Friday with the hit. As a result, he’s been put on the shelf for what is being called an extended period of time. This after he nearly sidelined Anaheim Duck Dan Sexton with an illegal hit last month and broke Cam Fowler’s nose in the same game. 

Meanwhile, his Coyotes have lost more than their captain, going 4-5-4 in the team’s first 13 games this season. Last year after the same amount of games they were 9-4 en route to a franchise-record 107-point season. So, without further ado, a simple do’s and Doan’s list to be used as a reference guide for head coach Dave Tippett and general manager Don Maloney:

Do play your best players. I don’t think anyone knows exactly why Wojtek Wolski was a healthy scratch for two games, except for his obvious goal-scoring drought that has somehow made its way through the entire roster like a new strand of the Black Plague. I mean, Ed Jovanovski’s a good guy, but not who you want leading your team in scoring. Truth be told, Wolski does have six points in his last six games, with his two games out of the line-up coming smack-dab in the middle. So, the next best guess regarding his benching: Wolski spit in his coffee and instead of snickering behind Tippett’s back, he was all in-your-face about it. Smooth, Wojtek.

"Easy as spitting in your coach's coffee... I mean pie! Spitting in your coach's pie!"

Doan sign Eric Belanger and make him your number-one center. Too late, apparently. While Belanger is a healthy addition to any line-up, he should only be signed for depth purposes only. Belanger excels as a third-liner and can really only be expected to put up lower-tier top-six numbers, if that. The defensive aspect of his game is his strong suit and that should be embraced, not taken as a sign that he’s ready to step up and become a late-blooming French-Canadian Sidney Crosby.

Do examine your goaltending options. Ilya Bryzgalov has been decent in nets and cannot legitimately be considered a one-year wonder after his spectacular 2009-2010, but the team’s depth chart in goal is surprisingly thin. As it stands now, his being the best use of money by the name of Ilya in the NHL isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. With Vancouver Canuck Cory Schneider potentially available, maybe it’s time to think further down the line. Maybe it would be wise to consider actually challenging Bryzgalov to maintain his ever-softening grip on the number-one spot. Sure, Jason LaBarbera isn’t scaring anyone, but, put another way, neither is Al Montoya as your next viable option.

Doan trade for Marc Savard, no matter how in need your team is of a first-line center. Considering the logjam the Boston Bruins currently have at forward, it would be wise to wait until Savard actually gets healthy, at which point you should still be able to catch them desperate enough for cap relief to get him relatively cheaply. The rumours may not be true, but sometimes where there’s smoke there’s fire. And if the ones concerning Keith Yandle going back the other way are even remotely true, Maloney may end up being burned at the stake.

Do finally ease Kyle Turris into the line-up. Admittedly, Turris has been playing lately, but Tippett’s generosity has been inconsistent with his ice-time varying from a low of just over six minutes to a high of just under 18. I thought the Coyotes were trying to groom a first-liner, not an actual desert dog through behavioural conditioning. He’s been through enough already, missing out on being a Chicago Blackhawk being at the top of the list had Dale Tallon not guessed right with Patrick Kane three years ago.

"If this isn't a license to get crazy on the ice, I don't know what is."

Doan dole out illegal hits and then pretend you don’t know how you got suspended by the league. That has a nasty way of catching up to you and your teammates.

Obviously it’s still early in the season and a lot can change, but improvement can’t come soon enough. They take to the ice against the Detroit Red Wings, and, considering they were the team that eliminated Phoenix last post-season, it would make for a fitting time for the Coyotes to actually start living up to their potential. Maybe they did play over their heads last season, but, as Doan can attest to, hunting those of opponents is no way to get back on the winning track.

Brown Gets Retribution for Hit on Doughty... Three Games too Late

Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown has always been known to get his hands a little dirty working in the trenches from game to game. That isn't to say he's a dirty player, but one can hardly say that about Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan, even taking into account what transpired two Sundays ago when he delivered an illegal check to the head of Anaheim Duck Dan Sexton.

It's true that Doan did also break defenseman Cam Fowler's nose in that game, but, for all intents and purposes, Doan is not a head hunter. I mean, he's a lot of things, most definitely: a 15-season veteran, an overrated player, the cousin of Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (apparently overratedness runs in the family), etc., etc. But he's not a head hunter. In a lot of ways Brown has been torn from the same cloth. He's rough around the edges as a player, but can contribute in a lot of ways including on the scoresheet every now and then. Despite this fact, the hit he delivered on the Minnesota Wild's Antti Miettinen on Monday was dirty and a to-the-letter example of what is a suspendable offense these days in the NHL.

So, as much as Brown is like Doan, they differ in one way in particular... Brown has got the memory of an attention-deficit-disorder-diagnosed kindergartner whose parents forgot his Ritalin on the kitchen table before taking him to school.

It was just a matter of days ago (six, to be exact) when Carolina Hurricane Erik Cole blind-sided and injured his teammate and arguably his team's most valuable player in defenseman Drew Doughty, and he has the gall to complain when he was given a game misconduct for the same thing? Say what you want about the league, but at least they're realizing that something needs to be done, even if it is a few weeks late (it's actually a few months, but whatever).

If you watch the video of the hit, you can almost see it in referee Wes McCauley's eyes as he's announcing the penalty, a cross between:

"Here we go again..."

And

"I don't want to do this, but..."

Meanwhile, as he was leaving for his dressing room, all Brown was doing was mouthing off. He has a right to be upset, but really when all is said and done only at himself. He should also be grateful that Miettinen was left uninjured, not because that means he won't get a suspension (Doan got three games under much the same circumstances and there wasn't even a penalty on the play), but because now he doesn't have to have his conscience sullied by something so stupid as treating another player like a glorified punching bag on which he can let loose his frustration. There's already too much disrespect in the league that it doesn't need the good guys resorting to outdated goon tactics to be effective. Hopefully one night's rest will have helped Brown realize the truth. If not, he's at least got a sturdy fine coming his way (hopefully a suspension) that should serve the same purpose more effectively.

Doughty Injured by the Injury-Prone Erik Cole... Ironic That

Apparently all the doling out of mere fines has, surprise, surprise, caught up with the NHL with the number of blind-side hits increasing exponentially. Now, one of the game's brightest young stars in the Los Angeles Kings' Drew Doughty is injured thanks to this collision from Carolina Hurricane Erik Cole on Wednesday night. I would say Cole should get suspended, but when Phoenix Coyote Shane Doan makes a case as to why he shouldn't have been suspended for his clear-cut illegal hit on Anaheim Duck Dan Sexton last weekend, it kind of makes you wonder if discipline for this kind of thing is a waste of time and energy on the league's part. Doughty will reportedly not be able to play in the Kings' Thursday game against, ironically, the Coyotes.

Doan Does the Trendy Thing and Lays out Sexton

"Wow, so this is what it's like to be on the receiving end. Not so sweet."

The saying is “Another Day, Another Dollar”, but, seeing as NHL salaries have skyrocketed in the recent past, maybe that’s not so apt an expression... at least as it would apply to professional athletes. In fact, even taking into account the $2,500 fine imposed on Ottawa Senator Nick Foligno, I would hazard a guess that he’s doing quite alright. So, if we’re looking for a true expression of the times, how about this: “Another Day, Another Dirty Hit”.

Sure enough, only two days after Foligno got fined on Friday for his hit on Carolina Hurricane Patrick Dwyer, Anaheim Duck Dan Sexton got blind-sided by Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan. The hit was to the head, it was late, it was illegal. Case open and shut. Or at least it should be.

I’m not naive enough to think that if the NHL would have suspended Foligno on Friday instead of just taking away his lunch money that Doan wouldn’t have hit Sexton. I apparently was born recently enough, however, to think that if the NHL had got it right with Foligno, we wouldn’t be having this one-sided conversation right now because the right precedent would have been set and everyone would know what was coming.

Unfortunately, because the league decided that illegal hits to the head are the less-expensive NHL equivalent to pre-game tweets in the NFL, Doan can now argue that he should be fined as well because he too has never been suspended. Maybe he can tweet it out and see what the league does in response. I’m guessing league senior vice-president Colin Campbell is writing the strongly worded letter as we speak.

Well, it would seem we’ve run into a classic catch-22, where a player can never get suspended because he has never been suspended. It’s a shame this thought process was just in its infancy way back when Steve Downie gave Dean McAmmond a love tap behind the Ottawa Senators’ net just a few short seasons ago. If only he had the good sense to argue that he had never been suspended by the league either!

Another illogical argument would be that because neither Dwyer nor Sexton were injured neither one of the perpetrators should have been suspended. While you can’t penalize a player based on his intent in general (you can’t penalize someone for missing a flying elbow if it lands 10 feet wide, as entertaining as it would be to watch), you can for deliberately trying to injure an opponent. Injury a result of someone’s actions or not, they need to be made to face the consequences, even if those consequences are becoming increasingly laughably lenient as time goes by.

Really, forget the players. It’s time for the league to take a long hard look at itself in the mirror - maybe not Gary Bettman; we don’t want him to mistake himself for a troll and get frightened – and ask itself if it wants to sell a product that consists of second-rate AHLers scoring garbage goals because all the actual talent is in the infirmary ward.

Now, Doan should get suspended, but, again, I thought Foligno should have gotten 10 games. Taking into account the deflationary phenomenon on lengths of suspensions that is Mr. Campbell, Doan will likely get two games. If he doesn’t, you can take one of two things to the bank:

1)      The NHL brass has taken numerous illegal checks to the head itself recently.

2)      The NHL just doesn’t care.

Considering it’s likely been years since anyone of any importance has played full-contact, competitive hockey, I would say number two is the best bet. But we will wait and see. It’s sad when the league’s response to the hits and not the hits themselves are the most shocking part of the sport. In this case, I would be truly shocked if the league did the right thing.