Hockey’s back! Huzzah! Don’t worry, we’ll keep doing what we do on Wednesday mornings. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of bad hockey cards.

I certainly hope those were the conversations they really had on the ice back in the day.

» Continue reading “Hump Day Hockey Cards: Helter Skelter”

While Phoenix Coyotes fans were grumbling over the time it was taking Shane Doan to sign a contract with the Yotes, the Doan’s were going through an incredibly painful time. On July 6 Shane got a call that his 7 year old daughter, Karys, had been mauled by a dog.

For six days Karys sat in the hospital and underwent bone reconstruction to her face that required 150 stitches.

At this point, Doan was pondering retirement. Shane Doan being arguably the most loyal man in hockey can obviously be seen as an extremely loyal family man. He was thinking of becoming a full-time dad.

Once Karys was cleared to leave the hospital the family took a trip to their cabin in Kamloops, British Columbia. They enjoyed the solitude and peacefulness on Lake Shuswap.

There, the family healed together. Soon, after celebrating her eighth birthday Karys was soon able to join her three other sibling swimming.

The Doan family had come a long way and though Doan had once seriously considered leaving the game, his family was ready to begin “normal” life again.

I’m pretty sure Shane Doan could not be any more perfect. I am so, so glad that once this lockout ends he’ll be lacing up his skates once more for our desert dogs.

As a professional writer, you are supposed to stick to the facts and not let your feelings get in the way. Sometimes you need to make an exception.

Told you so.

Okay, I feel better now. Honestly, I think everyone knew Shane Doan wasn’t leaving the Coyotes. His heart is in the desert. It’s been there since the day he moved there sixteen years ago and it was going to take more than the threat of the team not being sold to get him out of town.

That said, could this mean there is good news coming on that front as well? Nevermind, Coyotes fans shouldn’t push their luck today.

He did surprise me by sticking with his latest deadline of September 15th. Earlier this week, word was he wanted the contract in before the league offices closed at 5pm EST today. News came out that he was staying at 4:50pm EST. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to tell everyone something they knew months ago.

Per Sarah McLellan of AZCentral, the contract is for four years, $21.2 million and includes a $2 million signing bonus. In other words, Shane Doan will retire a Coyote, exactly as he should.

Congrats Coyotes fans! At least one fanbase received good news today. Unfortunately no word as to when the first game of his new contract will be…

News, if you can call it that, broke this week in Phoenix that current Coyotes captain Shane Doan wants to remain with the team. Shocking, right? The difference this time is the news came directly from Doan as he stated on a local radio station that the deal was done and he was just waiting for the team to be sold.

Because Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic and AZCentral is awesome, you can read the entire transcript of his interview here.

I’m not going to sit here and predict what is going to happen. It’s not a secret what Doan wants and honestly I’ve been saying all summer that I would be shocked if he wasn’t a Coyote next season. Hopefully Glendale can get their act together and we can end both stories coming out of Phoenix this summer. Either way, according to his agent, the situation revolving around Doan will be decided by next weekend:

“You don’t know what the new CBA is going to have in it,” Bross said. “That’s really why we want to get in before the new CBA is in place. They may restrict signing bonuses. They may restrict length of contract. There are so many wildcards that we want to deal with what we know right now.”

Can’t say I blame him for that. Get it done Glendale! (Oh and if the NHL and NHLPA want to get the CBA done while they’re at it, that would be great too…)

Other than news that CBA negotiations are going nowhere fast, it has been very quiet the past few weeks in the NHL. Shockingly, this includes the Coyotes two sagas – their ownership and their captain. Oh, you’re not surprised there is no change on the status of either? Yeah, neither am I.

» Continue reading “Coyotes Update: Did You Expect New News?”

One day there will be good news to report on the Coyotes Ownership front. It may be good news for another city, but at some point there will be good news. Today is not that day.

Earlier this week, news came out that Greg Jamison might not have the funds to purchase the Coyotes after all and if he did finally find the funds, he wouldn’t have the money to run the team after he purchased it. Not surprisingly, there has been no confirmation on this from either Jamison or the league.

» Continue reading “Coyotes Ownership Update: The Story That Never Ends”

I’m going to start this by stating that I am a die-hard Rangers fan. They say us diehards bleed blue and that definitely includes me. But I also get attached to certain players and when Don Maloney became GM in Phoenix, it became a known fact that the Rangers and Coyotes would make at least one deal every year. That finally hit home when my then favorite player, Petr Prucha, got sent to Phoenix. I couldn’t give up the Rangers (although I actually tried due to the ridiculous emotional attachment I felt to Prucha) so decided to pick up the Coyotes as my “second team”. When people say you can’t have two favorite teams, I tell them I have one in each conference. Most don’t have a response to that.

» Continue reading “A Coyotes Fans’ Plea: Please Don’t Go Shane”

Lots of news coming from Glendale the past couple of days. I’m sure you are all paying close attention to the ownership issues with the Coyotes, right? No? Don’t blame you. The good news is we might, I emphasize MIGHT, be getting closer to a resolution. Yes we’ve all heard this before but stick with me.

» Continue reading “Good News All Around: Coyotes Ownership, Doan & MacLean”

At last, we arrive at the coda of the 2011-12 NHL season, the NHL Awards. The National Hockey League will spend the next few hours cringing at terrible jokes, raising an eyebrow just what Steven Stamkos is wearing, and hoping a Real Housewife doesn’t butcher another poor hockey player’s name. (Seriously, “Mar-TEN Saint Louissss” still rings in my ears to this day.)

The NHL Awards will air on NBC Sports Network starting at 7pm ET/6pm CT, and I’ll be here, live blogging the entire thing.

So grab your drink and pull up a seat. It’s going to be another long night.

All times in the liveblog are listed in CT. Newest posts will be on top.

» Continue reading “Kat Live Blogs The NHL Awards 2012!”

It looks like the League was facing a conundrum. On the one hand, they desperately want a New York-LA Finals. On the other hand, once they saw that the Kings wouldn’t sweep the Coyotes, they knew that they would make mad scrilla if they could hold another game at Staples (especially with both basketball teams ignominiously eliminated (go Thunder!)). This is my best explanation for why the Coyotes got 3 penalties in the first period of game 5.*

*On a side note, this is pretty good proof that the guy in charge of NHL conspiracies doesn’t pay much attention to stats, since anyone who spent 20 seconds looking at them would realize the Kings actually score MORE on the PK.

That, or the weirdly lazy way the Kings kept getting caught out of position, allowing multiple odd man rushes and being forced to commit penalties to make up for it. It’s only through the grace of, you guessed it, Jonny Quick that the Kings weren’t losing worst after the first.
» Continue reading “Coyotes Eliminated”