Its hard on nights like tonight to try and retain a positive demeanor and not just rip the team for playing terribly.
You can look at this game and the team's recent record and you could put on a record by the Cure, maybe watch Love in the Time of Cholera and cry yourself to sleep in a pool of sadness.
But what's that going to do? It is, after all, just a game.
The NHL season is an 82 game grind, and unless you are one of maybe two or three elite teams, there are going to be periods in which it is tough to be a fan.
Sure, the Coyotes have not beat a team in a playoff position for over a month(December 10th against the Avalanche) and have only three wins since then.
And yes, their star goalie and Olympian who is the first year of a six year $34 Million Dollar contract which, considering his age (31) is maybe starting to already not be looking so great in some people's eyes. (I think it's fine; someone's gotta play goal and the cap hit is not bad.)
And they have indeed played the last two games as if their reputation (and Tippet's) as a defensive minded and tough checking team is meant to be ironic.
And of course, tonight, they employed a strange psychological tactic whereby they attempted to play the entire game with only four players on the ice. (I exaggerate, but they did take 10 minor penalties, which is a third of the game.)
So, if you want to focus on the negatives - of which there are many - you can get predictably insane and call for the coach to be fired, for Smith to be replaced by Greiss or you can be like that little baby in Edmonton who through his jersey on the ice. Maybe you can even call into a sports talk radio station do your best Bill O'Reilly impression. (By which I mean non-nonsensical and indignant.)
You could do all that, but what would the point be?
It's not like this is a team people were expecting to contend for the cup. And it's not like the team isn't trying or has quit. A successful season for the Coyotes this year is to make the playoffs and try to pull off an upset or two.
And that can still easily happen.
Here are some positives:
-Even with their bad play of late, the Coyotes are only 4 points out of a playoff spot, with games in hand.
-They have Michael Boedker and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to build around.
-They have the best group of young potentially top-end defenseman in the league.
-They have a great coach, and (I think) a smart GM, tons of potential, underrated fans and a roster which presents tons and tons of options. (As in it makes sense to both attempt to add with the hopes of competing, or to tear down and start a mini-rebuild.)
-Their losing ways can seemingly be traced back to the injury of their best defensive defenseman, Zbynek Michalek, who has not been present for the recent collapse of the team's defensive identity. So, theoretically at least, help is on the way.
-Tonight's game, though tough to watch, and terrible from an execution standpoint, featured a team that was scrappy, which fought twice, and which at least kept playing once the game was out of hand.
-The Jets just got a new coach, so they were probably always going to win tonight anyway!
My advice is to relax.
The season is 82 games long and we have just started the second half of it. The Coyotes are not even close to as bad as they have played lately. Good teams (all teams, actually) go through spells like this, and really, they mean nothing in the long run. They could easily rattle off a similar hot streak.
It's important too, to remember that the Coyotes don't have a true game-breaking forward, which means that in games where they don't get a full team effort, or a stellar goaltending performance, they are not going to win very much.
Until they get that forward, and until they can ice a more balanced roster, they are not going to be contenders- so there really is no point in getting mad.
I mean, even if it sucks to watch your team lose, there's still something fun (almost poetic) about watching Oliver Ekman-Larsson play hockey for 27 minutes.
It is my sincere hope that Coyotes management realizes this and doesn't make a crazy overreaction to this streak and fire their coach, because its not the coach. It's the lack of a player who would play on the first line of probably 26 of the other 29 teams.
So, relax.
And hey, remember: If you live a life that allows you to get angry, even for one second, about a hockey team - then you're doing alright.
Thanks for Reading.
Drop me at Tweet @coyotes1234