End of the Season

The season has come to an end for the Phoenix Coyotes. They were eliminated from the playoffs on Friday when the Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues.

The Coyotes still had two games to go; one against the Sharks and the last one against the Stars. It has been a long season, full of ups and downs. There are s few areas that need work in the off season (we will save this for a later post, as the off season can be just as long).

Saturday’s game against the Sharks is how they should have been playing for the last 10+ games. They didn’t win but they showed a spark of passion. They played like the game meant something. Although this did not surprise me. All of the must win games were terrible. It was as if the pressure was too much.

We did get to see Mark Visentin play his first NHL game. At 21, he is the youngest goalie to play in NHL game for the Coyotes since 1999. He looked a little nervous to start but as the game went on he seemed to really get his skates under him. With some time, experience and coaching Visentin could be a great NHL level goalie. He looks a little small for 6’2 and 196 but he is still young. I bet in a few years he will put on some weight and muscle.

Visentin had some good saves and pulled off a Mike Smith like pass down the ice. Although I don’t think anyone on the team was expecting that from him.

We also saw Murphy and Gormley. I think this indicative of what is to come. I will save more of this for later but I think we see more young D next season. Obviously they weren’t perfect but they showed flashes. Like Visentin, Murphy needs to fill out a bit. He is a little skinny now but so was OEL when he first played in the NHL.

I make a great protein smoothie; I’d be happy to make it for the youngsters. The Coyotes could hire me as the official protein smoothie maker. I just require the ingredients and a ninja blender. I also can make some great protein brownie pancakes and am working on other recipes. I can make more than smoothies.

Sunday we played Dallas and it was epic! Dallas scored first. We tied and then it was just a battle. This is how they should have played all season. Of course they wait until almost the very end of the third to score again. The arena went crazy.

The last few seconds were agonizing. Everyone was either standing or on the edge of their seat. Would we allow Dallas to tie?? Thankfully we didn’t. We went out with a bang. Overall it wasn’t the best season but the boys made sure to give us a treat for the last game. Here’s to next season building on our foundation and being better than this season.

And thank you for reading my blog Coyotes. I finally won something at the fan appreciation game. Autographed jersey! We received Schlemko’s jersey. Now just to get one of those jersey frame thing-a-ma-bobs.

I took plenty of pictures from last nights game and a few from the Sharks game. I didn’t have a chance to even upload them. Tonight we will be at the Dbacks game (a win would be nice) so no pictures this Misconduct. Maybe a special picture post later this week/weekend or next Monday’s Misconduct can be a picture post.

For the off season I plan to work on a who to keep, what to change, who to add etc piece. I am also planning a Dave Tippett profile, as I am sure he will still be around next season despite fans calling for his firing. I will keep up the weekly Monday column. I am not sure if there will be much else, probably a draft day and free agency day. Otherwise, you can always follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Facebook tends to be all business, while Twitter is more personal and I talk about everything on there. I throw up little tidbits on Facebook as I hear about them.