'Hockey The Hard Way'

Enlarge Image

mark terrill / the associated press Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan (centre) scored both goals in his team�s 2-0 road win in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. (CP)

Enlarge Image

Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan (19), coach Dave Tippett, center, and Taylor Pyatt, right, watch from the bench in the third period of Game 3 against the Nashville Predators in an NHL hockey Stanley Cup Western Conference semifinal playoff series, Wednesday, May 2, 2012, in Nashville, Tenn. The Predators won 2-0. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (CP)

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Los Angeles Kings' 7-0 road record is such a dangerous topic of conversation at their end, and such a tantalizing target for the Phoenix Coyotes that both teams are pooh-poohing its relevance heading into Game 5 of the Western Conference final.

The Kings would rather not flaunt it. The 'Yotes would love to put a dent in it.

"I really think it's tough to come into a building and do it three times," Coyotes captain Shane Doan said Monday. "They did it to Vancouver, and we acknowledge that, but it's tough to do it again."

"To me it has no bearing on anything," said L.A. coach Darryl Sutter, whose Kings won Games 1 and 2 at Jobing.com Arena, 4-2 and 4-0. "It's always now, today and tomorrow, not last week, next week. That's the best part about being in the playoffs, is it's always about your next game, not about something that happened 30 years ago or two days ago, right?"

The site of the game, he said, is irrelevant.

"Could be in Tucson or Toledo or Los Angeles."

But it's not in any of those places.

It's in Phoenix -- well, technically Glendale, where parking is convenient -- and that is not an insignificant point. Because the Coyotes, which as a franchise and a hockey club has been leaning into a strong wind for years with its heels hanging over the edge of the abyss, may finally have reached their comfort zone.

Given up for dead, with no margin for error, is their natural state.

"I don't understand why we have to push it to the limit," said Doan, who scored both goals in the Coyotes' season-saving 2-0 win Sunday at Staples Center.

"If it's playing with the lead, you give up the lead and have to win it in overtime. If you're kind of on the outside looking in at the playoffs, and you get in, thinking everything's good, then you struggle and let everyone catch up to you, and then have to scrape away at the end to crawl back in. That's the way our group is. We joke that we need to change our slogan to Hockey The Hard Way.

"As a group, we're comfortable being in a situation that's difficult... but you don't want to always have to be going there."

The court of last resort, though, is home court for the Coyotes, on both the hockey and business sides.

And here is where the two intersect: Today's game will represent the ninth home gate the hockey club has contributed to the franchise's coffers in these playoffs, at least to help defray its losses, which the City of Glendale has agreed to cover to a maximum of $25 million this season.

If the Coyotes net, say, a million out of each of those nine bonus dates -- they don't charge a lot for tickets -- well, it's a start.

One way or another, surely, someone out there must appreciate what Dave Tippett's hockey club is doing to put a happy face on this beleaguered outfit, in hopes of closing a sale, so that it might become a semi-normal operation, and not continue as the ward of a reluctant National Hockey League. . . or worse, relocate.

"You're asking the wrong person about that," said Tippett.

"The only bank account I worry about are wins. The business side can take care of itself.That's inconsequential to us. It's great that there's a buzz in the city. We created a buzz because of wins."

The coach wasn't interested in any chit-chat about what part his players are doing to make the Coyotes a more valuable commodity, but Doan was willing to go there.

"Well, I'm sure we're not doing anything bad for it," he said. "We fully accept that this is a business, and that it's our job to entertain, and there's a whole business side of it. And obviously this doesn't hurt, and you hope we can find a way to keep going and help them even more.

"The whole situation for the last three years has been difficult, and I don't think we're here if we don't win and have the 107-point season three years ago. And then last year, to kind of reaffirm that we're back in the playoffs and obviously now to have this run we've had -- it's kind of been cumulative, the fact that three years we've been getting better.

"I don't think it's a fluke, and hopefully the people who are involved on the business side can recognize that."

Anyone who can't appreciate the stubborn, stiff-upper-lip tenacity with which Doan and a few other long-serving Coyotes have kept plugging away at what must have felt like a hopeless salvage operation has no feeling for the people inside the sweaters.

The odds are still heavily against them, but desperation is nothing new to the Coyotes. And you can bet the Kings want to put them away before they start to believe they're alive.

"I'm sure they're pretty confident with what they've done on the road," said Doan, "but this next game is the biggest one of the year for us."

-- Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 22, 2012 C3