What a long, strange trip it’s been for the Phoenix Coyotes.The team formerly known as the Winnipeg Jets has been in the Arizona desert (an interesting place for ice hockey) since 1996 and hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2001–02 season, when most of us were still in middle school.
In May 2009, the Coyotes' holding company filed for bankruptcy, leading the NHL to strip the group of their ownership rights and effectively take control of the team.
For a while it looked like the franchise would be sold to Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, who wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario.
After a bankruptcy judge rejected Balsillie’s bid, the Coyotes were sold to the NHL for a meager $140 million, so the problem of finding a long-term owner who wouldn’t move the team became the NHL’s problem.
Not only were things messy off the ice, but the Coyotes didn’t have great on-ice prospects either.
Most experts picked the young squad to finish near the bottom of the standings, and the Great One himself (Wayne Gretzky) resigned as head coach and head of hockey operations just weeks before the start of this season.
Fast forward to the Coyotes today:
Phoenix, in the midst a franchise-best nine game winning streak, has surpassed the mighty San Jose Sharks for first place in the Pacific division. The Coyotes currently hold the No. 2 playoff seed in the West, and catching Chicago for the first seed seems pretty feasible.
How have they done it?
Under Coach Dave Tippett, a mostly no-name roster has bought into a defensive philosophy that has frustrated opponents all season long. These Coyotes don’t score the most goals in the league, but with a focus on two-way hockey they limit their oppositions’ scoring chances and have been able to score just enough to consistently win.
Tippett is considered a virtual lock to win Coach of the Year honors.
Veteran leaders such as Shane Doan and Ed Jovanovski have kept the team focused despite the ownership issues, and goalie Ilya Bryzgalov has had a Vezina-caliber (Goalie of the Year award) season.
The 2009-10 Phoenix Coyotes are an amazing story and a Stanley Cup run could make this season one of the greatest Cinderella stories in sports history. However, the mainstream media is largely ignoring them.
So for all of you fans of hockey, sports, and news in general: spread the word of the Phoenix Coyotes! That way, if the Coyotes make a serious Stanley Cup run and the media finally starts to play up their bad-to-good underdog appeal, you can say you jumped on the bandwagon first.
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