Follow @james_tanner123 Pretty excited today because not only is today the first day of a two-week vacation, but I just got a copy of MLB 15: The Show for my PS3 and good times are about to commence. Even better? I got it for free after the computer I bought this weekend forced me to return to the store the day after I bought it and the day after that. They also credited me for some blank cds that I had bought.
The moral of the story is this: don’t grumble under your breath when things don’t go your way. Instead, give your grumbles to the store manager and he will give you free expletive deleted. I don’t know how excited I should be though, I didn’t really play NHL 15 all that much, and to be honest I never seem to have that much time for vids these days.
Oh well. Back to the reason for being here: hockey.
Specifically, the Arizona Coyotes.
Here’s my conspiracy: The NHL was all set to embark upon a conspiracy to reward the Coyotes – as everyone knows, Gary Bettman’s favourite team – with the first overall pick. However, after an expose on the series Vice revealed Bettman’s secret plan, a double conspiracy was enacted to prevent the Coyotes from even getting Jake Eichel and they were pushed down in order to make it look like everything was on the up and up.
The final coupe de grace was when the NHL gave the pick to the Oilers. Like everyone says (OK, not everyone, just my Uncle Chuck) the Oilers getting the pick proves the lottery was legit.
Or does it?
No word on whether Dick Cheney was called to organize this whopper.
But, we will just have to move on. No Eichel, no Problem - I believe Puff Daddy said that. And we’ll just have to dig on that because Hanifin, Strome and Marner are all good picks, all elite prospects, and even with the lottery loss, things are looking amazing for the Coyotes future. I mean, can we pause just for a second and imagine a top five NHL D grouping of OEL, Hanifin, Strome, Gormley and Murphy? Connor Murphy may have had some growing pains this year, but on the bottom pairing as he improves and moves into his prime? That has potential to be flat-out insane.
Or they can go with Dylan Strome. Add him to a group that already includes Domi and Duclair. And don’t forget, the team that finished second last in the NHL did so without Boedker and Hanzal for the second half of the season. Boedker is a guy who is about to break out – his talent is something to behold. As for Hanzal, when he’s healthy he’s essentially a monster as my boy Pierre would tell you. His injury woes hold him back, and he’s never going to be offensive enough to be a legit #1 centre, but he is so talented and so effective that should he actually stay healthy, the Coyotes are so much better already than anyone thinks.
And they have a second first-round pick. And two seconds.
And two first-rounders next season.
And encouragingly, after the trade deadline when the Coyotes punted the season, Mike Smith came back alive and found his game. We’re stuck with him, so hopefully he can keep going, but he had a good end to the season, turning away 38 of 40 shots on a regular basis.
So how do we deal with losing the lottery?
By actually looking at the pieces our team has assembled and realizing that they are on the verge of something very, very special. Sure, McDavid or Eichel would have been nice – I’m not gonna lie – but it wasn’t a make-or-break situation: everything is still looking really, really good and the people of Arizona are about to enter their first period of prolonged competitiveness that the team has ever had.
Thanks for reading.