Tuesday, October 24
By Nancy Marrapese-Burrell
Special to ESPN.com
They have worn the label of underachiever for the last four years. When spring rolls around, the adage is that the Phoenix Coyotes (formerly the Winnipeg Jets) would perish in the playoffs faster than a mirage in the desert.
|  | | Jeremy Roenick's five-game suspension is one of a few interesting events in coach Bob Francis' inaugural campaign with the Coyotes. |
For all three of their seasons in the perfect climate in Phoenix, the Coyotes have crashed and burned in the first round. It wasn't due to a lack of talent, certainly. The team was even ahead three games to one on St. Louis but couldn't put the Blues away.
Enter new coach Bob Francis, the franchise's third coach in four years. It is his first head coaching job in the NHL, although he was a head coach in both the IHL and AHL.
His belief? Be better today than you were yesterday. Perhaps it sounds simplistic considering the talent and ego factors involved with the team. But so far, Francis has made it work.
Even when Jeremy Roenick was suspended for five games after a bizarre stick incident in which he hit former high school linemate Tony Amonte of the Blackhawks in the face, Francis is keeping the ship steady. It's no small feat considering the circumstances.
Several reports revealed Roenick had a loud argument with his wife, Tracey, in the downstairs hallway after the second period of the Coyotes' game against the Blackhawks in Chicago on Oct. 8. Roenick, upset afterward, is said to have destroyed a portable fan before heading out on the ice for the third period. Early on, Roenick clobbered Amonte. Roenick declined to comment on the evening in question and is due back in the lineup Saturday night at America West Arena against Washington.
"I don't know if the circumstances off the ice had more to do with the severity than the actual infraction," said Francis, when asked about Roenick. "It was kind of a bang-bang play. He went to chop his hands, which happens I don't know how many times. He got him. He was careless with the stick, I'm not going to say (he wasn't). A suspension was warranted. But it was a little severe. I think that's the trend that's going on right now."
When asked if he was concerned about Roenick's mental health, Francis laughed.
"Of course," he said. "I'm concerned about all our guys' mental health. I'll tell you, J.R. has been a pleasant surprise. His work ethic is outstanding, he's been very cooperative. He's got a lot of individuality to him and you have to be careful about taking that away. At times, you have to know when to harness it and when not to, but it's part of what has made him successful and you don't want to take that away from him. But yes, you have to harness it."
One of the aspects of the Coyotes' season that makes them so interesting is how Francis, who spent two years under the defensive-minded Pat Burns in Boston, could shape his system around a go-go offense. Francis said it's a matter of evaluating what you have and playing to those strengths.
"You build the system around the players and not the players around the system," said Francis. "It was obvious that an area we had to address was creating more offense. We felt we had some pretty good skill on the blue line in terms of mobility. We wanted to have the defense jump up into the play and help our transition game and become more aggressive in their thinking in terms of getting involved in the offense. Saying that, though, you don't disregard defense completely. We wanted to somehow someway generate more outnumbered rushes and I think the guys are starting to catch on."
Roenick said the players are very excited about the opportunities it has created. This system is quite a bit different from that put forth by former coach Jim Schoenfeld.
| | | He's all offense. He wants to go. He sends five guys. You can tell by some of the games we've had. We've had breakaways against in a lot of our games. You can tell our defense is thinking offense. | | |
Jeremy Roenick, on coach Bob Francis
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"He's all offense," Roenick said of Francis. "He wants to go. He sends five guys. You can tell by some of the games we've had. We've had breakaways against in a lot of our games. You can tell our defense is thinking offense. When we don't have the puck, we have to be responsible. We're not so much a trap team, we're a go team and back-check through the middle more so than in past years. It's worked for us so far. Our kids really like it. Our kids seem to be playing the best out of everyone. Shane Doan has been our best player, game in and game out through the first seven games. It's been fun to watch and with the addition of (Trevor) Letowski, he's been fantastic."
One area of the Coyotes' game that has been somewhat unresolved has been goaltending. Nikolai Khabibulin, like Boston goalie Byron Dafoe, is on the sidelines in a contract dispute. However, Mikhail Shtalenkov has filled in admirably and the Coyotes added Bob Essensa as insurance.
"From day one we knew we weren't going to have a goaltender," said Francis, referring to the Khabibulin saga. "But you never know when you're going to get it or not get it, so I think you have to be committed to the system you want to play and you have to be careful about changing your system depending on if you have a goaltender or not. I think we've made a pretty good adjustment to the system in that we have an emphasis on strong defensive play. Good defense creates good offense and we kept on reinforcing that."
In Francis' eyes, Shtalenkov has never been given his due. He said as well as the new No. 1 netminder has played, he isn't surprised.
"I saw him when he first came over and I was coaching in Salt Lake and he was playing in Milwaukee, and I was always impressed with him," Francis said. "I don't know if it was a situation where he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he was never given the opportunity to carry the ball. He's made the first stop and we've done a pretty good job of eliminating any second-shot opportunities. Where he's really impressed me is his sense of seeing a play materialize before it actually does. He gets in the proper position as a result."
Francis said in his view, the team wasn't deep enough to sustain a run in past playoffs. Another factor could be that the older players were relied on too much and the young players not relied on enough.
"Last year, they had a tendency to rely on a select group to play a lot of minutes and it eventually wore on them," he said. "Then if you have an injury or what have you, if you rely on somebody else, they didn't have the experience or the confidence to be able to do the job. The growth of our young people is going to dictate how far we go."
Roenick, who turns 30 in January, said he's been impressed by Francis' conditioning emphasis as well as his preparation for each individual opponent. He said that means there won't be any hand-wringing about the Coyotes' past playoff failures.
"We have a very solid team in terms of leadership and age," said Roenick. "We're not a young team by any means. We do have young kids on the team, but the nucleus of the team is veterans such as Rick Tocchet, Keith Tkachuk and myself, Jyrki Lumme, Greg Adams. It's a new start for a lot of guys so it really is an energetic situation."
Roenick started the year playing with Tkachuk and Dallas Drake. Since the suspension, Travis Green has stepped in and played very well. When Roenick returns, he said Francis shouldn't fix it if it isn't broken.
"I don't want to rock the boat when I come back," he said. "I feel I can play with anybody. It doesn't really matter. I think that's one of my strong points. I feel I can be productive in any situation. If that's a case where Green is going really well and putting points on the board, then just let him stay. They should just let him keep going. If things go dry, then switch it up. I could play with Tocchet and Greg Adams."
Roenick said the other aspect of not caring who he plays with is that the worst part of this is not being able to play at all.
"I really haven't watched much," he said of the games he has missed. "I just look at the scores the next day. It's a lot more frustrating, especially when you're talking about five games. That's a long time to sit out when you're going good and feeling really strong. It's not fun to know you could be helping out but you're sitting in the stands with healthy legs."
He said all the Coyotes are dedicated to making the best showing they can in the regular season and a much better showing in the postseason. The prospect of drinking from the Stanley Cup, rather than being left thirsty in the desert, is never far from their minds.
"It is very frustrating," he said. "When you're up 3-1 in a series (against St. Louis) we just can't seem to break it. We had a lot of injuries and guys got burnt out, not to mention St. Louis played great hockey. I don't want to take anything away from them. They were great. It is frustrating but you can't do anything about it. I've been to the finals once (in 1991-92 when he was with Chicago) and lost and it's not a good feeling to be on that end of the spectrum. And I haven't gotten a sniff since. I haven't gotten past the second round since. It's very frustrating."
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe writes a weekly national NHL column that appears on Fridays.
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