So far, we have covered the Centres and Defensemen, but in the interest of my waning enthusiasm for the project, we will cover the rest of the roster today!
Mikkel Boedker i
Boedker is simultaneously my favorite and most hated forward on the Coyotes. His speed, his creativity and his moves when in close make is seem like he should be a superstar, and in one of every three games, that's what he looks like.
Boedker put up 19 goals and 51 points, which is good enough to place him in a tie for second in the team scoring race, but considering his skill, those are not good enough totals. They are however, good totals for a player who gets second line minutes and is still growing into what he will eventually be.
While I want 40 goals out of Boedker and I do not think 19 was enough this year, I also recognize that players grow at different rates, circumstances dictate what can happen as much as talent, and he has had an up and down tenure as a Coyote.
Some circumstances that lead to Boedker's 19 goals: Hanzal injury, Playing on second line, playing on a team with low offense players and a low offense coach/system, ice time (a ridiculous 4 Coyotes forwards had more ice time per game than Boedker) and PP ice time (4th on team in PP ice time).
In the shootouts, Boedker, along with Vbarata, was the best Coyote, scoring 5 times on 13 shots. (Vbrata scored 5/12). Both of them scored some beautiful shootout goals, and Boedker is probably destined to be one of the league's best shootout players: his moves are unreal. To put it into perspective however, T.J Oshie lead the league with 9 goals and a 75% scoring rate.
Going forward, Boedker has all the potential in the world. He has wheels, a shot, moves, basically anything you could want. I think if he was on the first line with a true game breaking centre and not Martin Hanzal, I think he could be among the league leaders in goals.
His rating is that of a band that you know has it in them to produce a classic, but just gives you something that is only pretty good instead, something like the Shins 2012 completely adequate release Port of Morrow. (Since you probably haven't the proper frame of reference for this rating, I'll tell you: It's a B- !!!)
Shane Doan
Shane Doan is old. (He is actually Teemu Selanne's step-dad). Shane Doan is not the player he once was. Shane Doan has played one billion games for the Coyotes and he missed a large portion of the season with some rare and terrible disease he got from a tick. This is a pretty serious and potentially lethal disease, but Doan is such an animal that he returned to play hockey and was pretty much the best forward on the team.
He scored 23 goals in only 69 games and had 47 points and the highest point per game average on the team. He also was a physical force, and a constant source of after-the-game cliches.
Doan is an all time classic. Perhaps unknown in the United States, The Tragically Hip remain one of, if not the absolute quintessential Canadian band. Their 1992 Classic Fully Completely is pretty much unanimously considered the greatest record by a Canadian band in the history of recorded music, despite it be universally ignored in other countries.
Shane Doan is a well respected hockey player, but he is like the Bobby Orr of Phoenix. The similarities are obvious. Do get yourself a copy of this record if you are so inclined.
Mike Smith
Mike Smith had a rough year.
In the first year of a six year contract, he struggled to live up to it early. Playing some of his worst hockey since establishing himself as the Coyotes starter, the early going of this year was tough.
The Coyotes struggled and criticism of the contract (ridiculous by the way, but I'll get into that another time) lingered around the team. Smith began to play well leading up to the Olympics, won a gold with Canada, and then returned to be the best goalie in hockey (along with J.Quick) for the next month.
The Coyotes looked unbeatable and to be playoff-bound when Smith got his knee and leg crushed in the crease during a game vs. the Rangers in late March.
Watching him writhe around the crease, screaming in pain, it was obvious he wasn't going to play again this year, and I said as much. Yes, for once I was right, but I wish I wasn't.
While the team acted as if it was a minor injury from which he could emerge and play at anytime (and who can blame them?) the more cynical among us (i.e anyone who wasn't a mainstream writer/team stooge....and that's not to say those two things are mutually exclusive, some of the mainstream Coyotes writers are decent) distrusted the team and predicted he would be out a while.
I have absolutely zero connections that would lead me to make an educated guess one way or the other, but just based on the amount of pain he appeared to be in when it happened, I am not even sure I think he'd be playing tonight if the Coyotes were still alive.
Anyways, Smith was good and bad and unlucky and mostly just inconsistent this year. For that, I rate him as the Clash's 1980 triple album (!) Sandinista which, like Smith, is one of my all-time favorites, but which is also inconstant and at times terrible, and of which, not everyone is a fan.
It is, however, on the whole, a superb record that gets better with each listen and which if you give it the time is really very rewarding. Like Smith, though, you might get a little frustrated before that happens, and consider how expensive it is, maybe you would rather spend your time elsewhere? (its also a B- in case you were wondering!)
The Rest of the Team
The rest of the team gets the collective rating of a random Phil Collins solo album. i.e it sucks.
I think Vbrata is an effective player, but he's getting up there, he isn't as good as he used to be and I think the team could use a change. Certainly it doesn't matter who they dress, they aren't going to be worse at scoring. Vbrata is an FA and I don't see him being back, certainly I wouldn't resign him.
I think also that Korpiskoski is an all right third liner, a decent PK player, etc. but he's not someone I find myself falling in love with or anything. Basically, the Coyotes forwards, outside Hanzel, Doan, Vermette and Boedker are all interchangeable. Sure, sometimes you enjoy a Korpiskoski or a Klinkhammer, but these are fringe players and really, the team needs to make a move towards youth, speed, and being harder to play against.
As individual players, sure there is stuff to like about Chipchura and Bissonnette et. al, but really, as a group, they are not good enough. Check out the third and fourth lines of Chicago, San Jose or St. Louis: do they appear to have a place to play any of these guys?
The Coyotes need to work to gain an edge on their bottom six as this is one obvious place they can improve and steal points while they work on getting an elite scoring forward.
Anyways, that's all. Thanks for reading. The Coyotes clearly have some work to do on forward going forward (haha) but when all is said and done, the defense and goaltending look great and with guys like Boedker, Doan, Hanzal, and guys like Domi and Samuelson on their way, things could be much worse.
Final analysis: This team isn't that far away from contending.
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