UPDATE: It turns out Boedker's mysterious injury was that his spleen ruptured and had to be removed. Upper body my butt!!! That means 4-6 weeks out, but word on the street is he is fine and resting - one assumes - in a Winnipeg hospital.
That's crazy, I am pretty sure it happened to someone else earlier this year. If you'll excuse me now, I am going to first learn where the spleen is, and then head to my garage to invent a spleen protector which I will then patent and become very wealthy from.
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Lets kick this mother off with a stat sure to knock your socks off: The Coyotes haven't lost at the United Center (in regulation) in almost five years.
When you consider that during those five years, the Hawks have been the NHL's preeminent team and the Coyotes have been, well, the Coyotes, that is pretty damn impressive.
Small things, I guess, when you're 16-29.
If an almost sure defeat gets you down, there is, however, a bright side: the Coyotes are the team to watch at the trade deadline this year and as we inch closer, every hour brings the possibility of a trade.
My advice (as if they'd take it) would be to move sooner than later. Conventional wisdom (oxymoron) dictates that you get more value the closer you get to the end of the day on March 2nd. I wouldn't argue with that, but I will suggest that the value of players the higher you go in the draft far out weighs the difference in value you'll get for - say, Antoine Vermette - today as opposed to five weeks from now.
Basically, I think that if you move your guys early, you'll lose more games and pick higher and that that outweights whatever gains are made by making a trade closer to the deadline.
With that in mind, and I believe Don Maloney is well aware of this idea, I expect to see some moves sooner than later.
Vermette, Michalek, Korpikoski, Vitale, Erat - all these guys are likely to go, but what about guys Like Hanzal? Boedker?
Will Yandle get moved? Will he shock the world by re-signing?
Could he move Smith? Would anyone be desperate enough for a goalie?
What about Gagner, he cost a 6th, could be tempting to flip him for a profit.
What about Doan? How can a trip to the Playoffs not entice him?
If I was in charge I would keep OEL, Boedker, Domi, Perlini, Dvorak, Samuelsson, Murphy, Gormley and Stone.
Everyone else would be available and I'd be open to crazy franchise altering trades as well. Like, I don't know, sometimes I imagine if I was a GM how fun it would be to just do something totally unexpected and crazy. Like, for instance, I might call up Edmonton and offer them OEL and Boedker for their first pick. Then I'd pick up the phone and call Buffalo, I'd offer them Yandle, Domi and a 2016 first for their first.
Then I would start Mike Lee for 37 games straight and take the first three picks in the draft.
Also, i'd be a marketing genius: I would sell-out every game for the rest of the season by giving every fan a chance to sign a one-game contract to be the team's back-up goalie. Imagine the shock to all the squares when Lee gets hurt and Margie from section D-2, via Scotsdale, is forced to make her NHL debut against the Penguins.
Under my reign, the Coyotes would be the talk of league constantly.
Anyways, our record is 16-29 so indulge me my fantasies.