Last night the Coyotes lost again. It was their fourth straight defeat, although it was the best game they have played in a while; at least since they beat the Flames 6-0 five games ago. Unlike the last three losses, the Coyotes played a solid game and gave themselves a chance to win a close game with a bevy of chances late in the third.
Unfortunately, a loss – even when it’s not a demoralizing beatdown – is still a loss and the Coyotes season continues to teeter on the brink of disaster, as they have now lost four straight.
Yet, there are a lot of positives to take from last night’s game – such as the team kept it close against a top opponent, Smith played well, and they were competitive. Yet, even though the effort was there, the losses are piling up and the team continues to be stuck in the uncomfortable “too good to pick high in the draft, not good enough to compete… purgatory. (Back to this in a second.)
While I don’t think four straight losses is ever a good thing, you really have to be able to differentiate between them. For instance, the 5-3 loss to Anaheim on Saturday and last night’s loss to the Blues were are not the same type of loss. On Saturday, the Coyotes were garbage and you could replay that game a thousand times and Phoenix is never going to win. The fact that they made it 5-3 late in the third period, instead of 5-1, only looks good to anyone who didn’t watch the game. The loss was a low-point of the season because the effort just wasn’t there. Compare that to last night’s game versus the Blues, which was a game that could have gone either way, and it becomes apparent that there are two different types of losses. The game was an example of the parity in the NHL where any team can win on any given night, and the result was more of a coin flip than anything and the Coyotes probably deserved better.
It doesn’t get any easier as Phoenix heads back home to the most poorly named arena in the NHL to take on the Canucks – a team whose position in the standing belies the fact that they are very much a Cup Contender. The Canucks are also a team who recently (Monday vs. LA) played probably their best game of the season (at least it was being written about it that way) So, the upshot is that it’s a tough week for the Coyotes: playing the Jets in their first game with a new coach, playing the Blues in St. Louis and then facing a possibly rejuvenated Canucks team.
One scheduling positive: after a recent tough stretch of schedule, the Coyotes catch a bit of a break when they follow the Vancouver game with matches against New Jersey, Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton next week.
----- So that was the game re-cap, here is the main event:
Should they tear it all down?
As I mentioned up top, the Coyotes sit in maybe the worst position an NHL team can find themselves: not good enough to compete for the championship and too good to finish low enough to get the kind of draft pick that can alter the franchise’s fortunes for years to come.
This is not meant to be a reaction to the recent downward spiral the team finds itself in. I don’t advice panic and I don’t think that they should tear it all down because they lost four in a row.
But there are several, I think, compelling reasons to consider a rebuild. They are:
1. With Ekman-Larsson, Gormley, Stone, Murphy, Boedker and Hanzal to build around they won’t have to do a fifteen year Edmonton-style rebuild.
2. While the team has goaltending and Defense to match anyone in hockey, they might have the worst collection of forwards in the NHL. They do have a decent, balanced group but no one (outside of maybe Boedker) who would play on the first line of any other team. They need an elite forward to be competitive and the best way to get one is to draft high.
3. Sure, anyone who makes the playoffs has a chance to win but the Coyotes are at best, an extreme long-shot to win the cup with this group. And yet, they aren’t missing that many pieces.
4. The upcoming draft is considered by many to be one of the best and deepest drafts in recent years. Conceivably, the Coyotes could strip their roster down this year, get a top five or ten pick, and regroup over the summer with a few free agents and then with the strength of their defense coupled with another year of development from their young core, be as competitive next year as they are now.
5. With new ownership and the lowest attendance in the NHL the rebuild carries almost no risk.
I think that if Don Maloney decides to tear it down, he could pull in a decent hall of draft picks and young players to build around. Vrbata, Doan (hate to see it, but it might be for the best), Ribeiro, Smith, Vermette, Korpikoski and even Yandle (hate to trade him worse than I'd hate trading Doan) would all bring in assets that would be more useful to the future than the current collection of players is now.
Ideally they would trade Yandle for a scoring forward who is young with top line potential and move the rest out for late first or second round picks. With some creativity Malone could assemble himself two or three first-round picks for the upcoming draft – a top five with his own and a couple lottery tickets.
Again, this is not a panicky reaction to the team’s recent slide. It is logically and objectively the best thing they can do for the future.
That’s what I think. You?
Thanks for reading.