Leafs Snooze & Lose in the Desert !

Should we all throw a pity party for the pathetic Arizona Coyotes ? 

Oh sure, they’ve been around for 20 years, they stole our original Winnipeg Jets, went to one conference final, have gone through a billion uniform/brand changes, ruined Wayne Gretzky’s coaching career and have generally sucked.  But pity ?

We don’t get to see them much here in the east, but most of the news is bad.  Who’s in as coach, who’s the latest GM, do they even have a rink to play in ?!?   Can they even afford Austin Mathews if/when he becomes available ?

The bright side is a new General Manager in Bill Armstrong who will benefit from a full cupboard (2 first rounders, 5  seconds) of draft picks this summer.  Add to this the trade bait of scoring warrior Phil Kessel, solid D-Man Jacob Chychrun and 2-time Canadian Junior Champ Lawson Crouse and the future looks OK.  This year – not so much.

What can you say about a lackluster period played at half speed to a half capacity house ?  A cheap goal off the stantion on only their 3^rd shot of the period gave the Desert Dogs a 1-0 lead.  This despite being outshot 20 to 6 by their guests.

This gives me an opportunity to cautiously support my old pal Glennie’s theory that maybe the Leafs don’t really need Mitchell Marner and his boat anchor $11m hit against the cap.  Trade him and Holl for a tough/stud, 2nd team RD and Dubas has just found himself with the $5-6m to pay Soup and still give raises to Kase and Rasmus Sandin.  Hmmmmm.

I may be the only one in Leafs Nation that was still awake when the second period buzzer sounded.  A late Leaf flurry only added to their 33-12 SOG advantage, to no avail.  As Chandler Bing used to say : “Could I have BEEN more bored ?!?”  Not one of the Leafs “secondary scorers” (nor supastas) stepped up.  Granted the Coyotes had a special eye on Mathews, but come on !  The only ones I felt sorry for was the broadcast team.  They probably needed a smack in the head every now and then just to keep them awake.

And then, just 14 seconds in, Austin Mathews buries his 24^th and more importantly his Leaf team record 9^th road game goal in a row.  Frank Mahovlich, Babe Dye and Daniel Marois step aside.  That well known sniper Dzingal got his second of the night to assure the Coyotes got their 3^rd home win of the season.

HOPPER NOTES: Great interview by Renatta Fast pre game indicating that the Women’s Team Canada has already started isolating in anticipation of Bejjing…always love to hear the original Hockey Night in Canada theme used on TSN…second most boring story on the sports docket: Novaxx (thank you Dave Hodge) Jokovitch at the Australian Open…who would ever thought that Phil Kessel would be playing his 934^th  consecutive NHL game, closing in on current Iron Man Doug Jarvis ?…Just finished my first Christmas gift book, Mark Messier’s “No One Wins Alone” – great read…next is Hayley Wickenheiser’s “Over the Boards”…And, for the second game in a row, where was Captain Johnny T ?…final shots on goal 46-18…

Cheers – Discuss – comments always welcome !