A "Live" Report from LA

Some thoughts after the Coyotes season-opening 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings in LA. I was fortunate enough to attend the game with some other Coyotes fans and, I must say, other than the first three or four minutes of the game, there was little not to like. What we saw was the continued maturing of a team that, when the rest of the league wasn't looking at the end of last season, went 8-4-1 down the stretch. But before going into Saturday's game with LA, a brief recap of how we got here.

Anyone who followed last year's team knows the post-All-Star Game disaster that saw the Coyotes fall from 5th in the Conference to out of the playoff race within a month. We watched the moves made at the trade deadline and saw what GM Don Maloney was attempting to do: add speed and depth to a young core that, when faced with injuries in January, could not shoulder the load and collapsed under the weight. And after a few rocky games with the new faces in town things started to come together. Players like Matty Lombardi, Scottie Upshall and Petr Prucha brought energy and feistiness, and began putting up points. Lombardi even showed us it is possible for the Coyotes to have a center who can win more face-offs than he loses.

We played out the season, disappointed the Edmonton Oilers by knocking them out of the playoff race, and reminded teams like San Jose and Anaheim there are 82 games in a season, no matter where you sit in the standings.

The season ended with a lot of optimism for the 2009-10 campaign, only we got gut-punched a month later when our owner who, as it turned out, walked away from the team at the beginning of the season, was now walking out on us. He lost a boatload of money, no question, but it would have been nice of him to share his intentions with us in April before he asked all of us to fork over our money for this year's seats. No coincidence, I'm sure, that shortly after the renewal deadline passed he filed for bankruptcy protection, and we became unsecured creditors in a court battle.

No need to rehash anymore of that than I already have. You all know the Coyotes are in Phoenix for this season and many of us hope for years to come. The core we finished the season with returns. And new additions that added even more speed and depth, along with some special teams players who would improve our woeful power-play and PK, along with strong two-way forward play. The dump-and-change lines style that Gretzky preached would be gone, replaced by a pesky pressure game that will look to cause turnovers, make it difficult for teams to rush end-to-end as they did so effortlessly in years past and, instead of dump-and-change, I like to call it dump-and-chase with a purpose of being the first to the puck.

The pre-season practices, scrimmages and games gave us a taste of what to expect. Interim Coach Ulf Samuelson's version of the Coyotes looked nothing like the Gretzky-version. Privately, even the players talked about the increased intensity of camp. So, when Dave Tippett was named coach a week before the season started, no one was too surprised. We were elated, but I don't think surprised. And as we learned of the long-time playing and coaching connections between Tippett, Ulf, Assistant Doug Sulliman, new Assistant Dave King, and newly-promoted Goaltending Coach Sean Burke, it wasn't hard to figure out this had been in the works for awhile.

In fairness to Gretzky, as much as I disliked his coaching and believe he was the one most responsible for the Coyotes failings on the ice post-lockout, every Coyotes fan still owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude. We're in a dark place still, yes, but if Gretzky had not stepped up in 2000 and 2001 the Coyotes would be playing in Portland. He saved this franchise then and, as history may show, he may have done it again.

If new ownership emerges committed to staying in Phoenix, and the team responds by excelling on the ice, maybe even playing some games this season in March that truly matter, the fans will begin to come back. And hockey in Phoenix will be reborn. And if that happens, we better not forget to give a shout-out to The Great One, once again.

Now, to the opener in Los Angeles. Despite all the pre-season previews most of you read on the Coyotes, predicting our on-ice version would resemble the Mighty Ducks before Coach Gordon Bombay had arrived, followers of this team bit our tongues, itching for the season to start. We hoped to come out of the gate fast, display the new style that Ulf initiated and Tippett continues to develop. And fast we did.

Kings fans on the message boards are still whining and complaining about losing to the lowly Coyotes. They blast their young team for making too many turnovers, failing to initiate enough hits, and looking pathetic when trying to get anything going 5-on-5. Yet as I sat amongst all the Kings fans in Section 119, next to the Coyotes bench, it didn't take them long to see they were getting beat, at least on this night, by a far better team.

Were there turnovers? A bunch. But most were forced by aggressive play from the Coyotes. Were hits missed? Again, yes they were. But it's difficult to hit a constantly moving target. Even defenseman like Jim Vandermeer and Adrian Aucoin, after going into a corner to snap up a loose puck, showed an intuitive on-ice awareness that always saw their feet moving, and they'd slide just enough so the onrushing player lining up a hit got more board than body. And it happened over, and over.

And when it came to 5-on-5 play, it's pretty hard to set something up when you can't clear your own zone because your being checked and battled everywhere on the ice. And if you do manage to find a passing lane, that pass is met either with a stick deflection or a body to say "hello" to the recipient of that pass. It was kind of reminiscent of a full-court press in basketball. You need speed, quickness and instinct to run an effective FCP. And all those elements seem very evident with this year's version of the Coyotes.

The 2nd and 3rd periods were much like the first. The Coyotes dominated everywhere on the ice. The only complaint was glaringly obvious, and that was the inability to kill a penalty. A lot of work still needs to be done there. A lot of work. But with proven PK'ers like Fiddler and Korpikoski, as well as Radim Vrbata and Matt Lombardi, things will improve. Even having Lombo for a full season who is now joined by another face-off beast in Fiddler has to make the PK better. Last year, we were ~40% in the FO circle on the PK and the PP. Having two guys that will improve that % by more than 25% means more chances to clear the puck on the PK, and more chances to set up in the zone on the PP. It was very tiring these past few years watching a team live in our zone with a man advantage, while we spent most of our time on the PP chasing down cleared pucks.

There is no way you could watch that game and honestly say, "The Kings sucked, and it was just an off night. No way the Coyotes are any good." Everyone there saw the Coyotes are good and, other than power play, the Kings have a lot of work to do, especially in the defensive end.

When it came to 5-on-5 play, the score was 5-0 Coyotes. Ask a Coyotes fan the last time that happened. They'll have to go look it up. Same with dominating in the face-off circle. It just hasn't happened here, and it's such an important part of controlling a game. And turnovers, the Coyotes had few. We'll see how they look against the top-tier teams, but no way this team is not better in many key fundamental areas than in years past.

Am I looking at this game through such rose-colored glasses that what I saw was a fluke? A great effort by a below average team against a team that will finish even lower in the standings than the Coyotes? Perhaps. But I've followed this game long enough to know what I saw, and when a team can perform at the level the Coyotes did for 60 minutes last Saturday, it will be a very competitive NHL team. And plenty of Kings fans I spoke with agreed. This wasn't a game you could look back on and say, "If only Doughty didn't turn that puck over," or, "If Frolov's shot had just caught the inside of the post instead of the outside, the result would have been different." Uh-uh. The Coyotes did too many things right that caused the Kings to do too many things wrong.

It's only one game, I know. And I'm certainly not ready to say start printing the playoff tickets now. But this is a new brand of play the Valley of the Sun hasn't seen before. Not flashy, and no big names, but a group of players who look like they'll play their hearts out 60 minutes of every game. No one played liked their jobs are safe, not even Doan or Jovanovski. Too many times over the years it seemed Coyotes players were simply going through the motions. Not this pre-season, and not last Saturday.

I'll come back to this blog in December for a check-up and see how I did. I feel pretty good about the diagnosis. And I feel even better knowing that no matter what happens this year we still have hockey in the desert, and if we want to keep it here we have to fight or it. Looks like we have a team ready to do its part, I just hope we fans are ready to do ours. And filling the Job on Saturday against Columbus will be a great start.