Darren Pang appears courtesy of PhoenixCoyotes.com

I want to pass along my gratitude to every Phoenix Coyotes hockey fan.

I moved my family here to the desert four years ago with the intention that we would be here for a very long time, and of course, never expecting what has transpired in the last three months.

I am a hockey guy that does hockey on TV. It is pretty simple. That is what I get paid to do and have done for the last 20 years. When there is no certainty of a TV contract, then things get a little scary and that is what has taken place here in Phoenix. I am sure that this will all get resolved at some point in the near future.

This is no one’s fault, except for the sudden bankruptcy filing, and I can tell you for certain that no one was prepared for that happening, at least not inside the organization.

With the current situation, I had phone calls from other teams and an opportunity to do national studio NHL work as well, but was really having a difficult time as to what to do as I have gained so many great friends inside the Coyotes family and socially as well.

I have been working side by side with one of my closest friends in Dave Strader, and it feels empty to leave behind a friend and partner. Todd Walsh is a fixture in Arizona and always manages to say the right things at the right time and bring the viewer so much closer to the game and to the players. He is as solid as they get. The great thing is they will always be friends, and I am sure the text messages throughout the season with be flowing, especially when we are about to meet up!

Being on a broadcast team doesn’t just mean the TV group, and I would really be missing out if I didn’t thank two terrific people who love the game and bring it to the people for the entire 82-game schedule, and they are radio personalities Bob Heethius and Tyson Nash.

The gang at FS Arizona is a close group and Mike Roth and Mike Connolly have such passion for the game of hockey, and I will always be grateful. They always stick their necks out for the good of the broadcasts, and that is a very good thing.

On the production side, it started with Graham Taylor as producer when I got here and it went to Andy Bock after one season, with Graham getting back in the “big chair” again last year. They are great producers that love going to and producing the game…chasing me around for production meetings…and getting all fired up for another game and a couple of stories later. Thank you guys. The happy bus was always the best place to be!

To Liz, Meg, Mitch, Derek and everyone else involved in production, you know how much I think of you all, both personally and professionally. Thanks.

Dave Vest manages the content of this Web site, and is as good as it gets. My many thanks Dave, for being a real pro and great guy.

I am a very lucky person. I was asked four years ago by Mike Barnett, Doug Moss, Cliff Fletcher and Wayne Gretzky to come and join the Coyotes. I moved my family after 20 years in Chicago. That is never easy, as you can imagine. We feel as though Phoenix is a place we will want to maintain a residence, as we love it here.

I am an avid golfer and am a member at Blackstone Country Club in Peoria. We moved here to the Northwest Peoria area because it is growing by leaps and bounds, and close to Jobing.com Arena, yet easy to get to Scottsdale as well.

We have met some great people socially and through our church, Copper Hills, and their Pastor, Brad Klassen and his wife Elfie. Both have been great friends and will always be, and I know how much my wife, Lynn, will miss them and all their hiking pals!

To be leaving a person as great as Wayne Gretzky is terribly difficult, not to mention his business manager Darren Blake, his coaching staff and trainers to go along with Don Maloney and his staff, is not easy. Wayne, as you all should know by now, is an even better person than he was a player, and that says it all about him.

The Coyotes are one of the very few teams that have full-time security travel with them. Not only does Jim O’Neal, aka The Inspector, take care of all of us, he is simply a tremendous friend. Thanks Jim! All secure pal!

To be able to join the St. Louis Blues and their President, John Davidson, makes me feel really fortunate. I grew up as a broadcaster admiring and emulating JD and we had the honor of working the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics together as well as several national games on ABC. He is a tremendous person and the Blues organization is outstanding and on the rise. I am looking forward to working with John Kelly and Bernie Federko on the Blues broadcasts.

We will always have a bond here with the great fans of the Coyotes. I believe in this team, the great players and character that is on the team, led of course, by Shane Doan.

We will see each other often and I will be keeping an eye and a Holy Jumpin out for you!

All the very best,

- Panger

Darren Pang appears courtesy of PhoenixCoyotes.com

A week or so has passed since the season ended for the Coyotes and I left Phoenix to continue broadcasting in the playoffs on TSN and NBC.

That wasn’t what I had in mind when the 2008-09 season started, as I felt very confident in our chances to progress and take that next step to the postseason.

Make no mistake; I enjoy doing the playoffs and being in the heat of the action. Why wouldn’t I? That’s what I came here for. I came to be part of a winning team. I came to the desert to be broadcasting Coyotes games in the playoffs.

We will.

Here are five keys to the Coyotes getting into the Stanley Cup Playoffs next year:

• It is an 82-game schedule no matter how you slice and dice it up. For the past several seasons, the Coyotes have been a pretty competitive team for 60-68 games. Not an 82-game team. When adversity hits this team, the record falls. It’s time to get playoff tough…in the regular season.

The regular season is about preparing for the grind of winning the Stanley Cup. The Coyotes can’t fall in love with 5- and 10-game segments, and then fall out of love with the same group of players after a few losses. There has to be consistency. There has to be belief. It starts now.

• Accountability is a prominent word when talking about the good to great teams. There is character on the team when there is accountability in the room. Check your egos at the door when the first day of training camp begins. This is not about individual accomplishments. This is about winning as many 10-game segments as you can, especially in February, March and April. This is about believing in the dream and in the process of accomplishing the dream. It will be about not accepting poor play, from the players in the room to the coaches on the bench.

• Specialty teams win hockey games. Period. The Coyotes can not be in the bottom five in both the PP and the PK. There is no excuse for that. Wayne Gretzky has said it many times about key moments in games when the PP has to step up. Too many one-goal games were lost because of it. The PP needs structure, as it had late in the season with the likes of Matthew Lombardi, Scottie Upshall, Keith Yandle and Shane Doan on the ice. The trades brought hockey sense and chemistry, and now we have to add to the skill level.

• There has to be no negotiation when it comes to mistakes that get made, no matter who the player. I was between the benches for NBC for Game 2 between Washington and the N.Y. Rangers and the phrases you hear from players and coaches are all the same. Here they are:

“Get the puck deep”
“Chip it in and chip it out”
“No one-on-one late in the period, don’t turn the puck over”
“Take a hit to make a play”
“Close the gaps, hold the line”

There are many more, but these are staples in our game. If you can’t follow these simple sayings as an NHL player, you shouldn’t be in this league.

• There is NO entitlement. With the movement the Coyotes have made toward the draft picks and the youth, there appears to be entitlement. That can not be the case. The message at the exit meetings for all the young players was simple: Here is what you have to do in the off-season to be on the team next September. If you don’t do that and get better in these areas, then the AHL is waiting for you.

There are ZERO guarantees to be on the big squad. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Simple enough. We need an extra layer of skin if we are going to be known as a tough team to play against and a team that will compete for the Stanley Cup, not just the playoffs.

Do me a favor and watch as many playoff games as you can. Check the phrases that I have listed above. You will see them all. When the season starts, see how we are doing. Remember that in October, November and December, the teams that have gone a long way in the playoffs don’t quite have that intensity just yet. It will be in the later months that the Coyotes will have to play like men. That’s when the little things will be the biggest of all things.

Enjoy the playoffs.

- Panger

So this is it. The season has come and gone. Just like that. In the blink of an eye, it’s over. It seems like only yesterday we were sitting in Montreal watching the pre-game video presentation on the jumbotron HD video scoreboard. I was moved to tears that night. It was a celebration of hockey. The season was barely underway. There was so much hockey to be played.  So much hope on the horizon.

Yes, the Coyotes went out in style … winning on the road in San Jose and back at home, in a shoot out, against Anaheim. We have documented what did and didn’t happen to this team here on this blog all season. But it’s not important what I say! The purpose of this is to chronicle what the Coach has to say. We try and record and post every word that he says.

It’s amazing to witness what he goes through as not only the Coach of the Coyotes, but still as one of the faces of the NHL. Through it all he always remains consistent in what he says and in his access. He measures his words and more often that not delivers exactly what a reporter needs, and then some. We should all be so lucky in the other sports that we might cover!

So, one last sit down. A one-on-one at the conclusion of the roller coaster ride that was the 2008-2009 season.  Listen below for the full the interview with the head coach, Wayne Gretzky:

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Enjoy the playoffs.  See you back at the rink soon.

- Todd

Well, at the very least we got to see a prelude to a piece of hockey history, but that’s not why we came to New Jersey! A long night for the Coyotes as the New Jersey Devils stormed to an early lead and cruised to a 5-2 win.  For a moment in the first period this was a hockey game as Phoenix cashed when they had to, on a four minute power play. But the Devils are just too good and this is their time of year. As Tyson Nash said on the radio broadcast, “this is a team that is built for the playoffs.”  They sure are.

Coach Gretzky:

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The longest trip of the year felt like the longest trip of the year.  But home awaits and as you will hear Shane Doan say, there are players playing for jobs.  Is there any better motivation?

- Todd

I stopped counting after 5…..or was it 6? 7? No matter.  They all hurt.  Adding insult to injury, literally, the Coyotes have lost their best defensive forward, Martin Hanzal, for at least two weeks with a shoulder injury.

The losing streak is at six with a brutal two game stretch at Dallas on Wednesday and back at home against Vancouver on Thursday.  Following the loss to Carolina the room was closed. 20 minutes? 25?  I stopped counting.  But, it’s the longest closed door meeting that I can remember in quite some time.

You couldn’t question this team’s effort during this losing streak…..until Saturday night. On home ice.  Now, it is up to the leaders in that room to teach these young kids a thing or two about not caving in.  This is now the biggest challenge of the season.

Thought it was important for you to hear the post game comments not just from the Head Coach, but the Captain, as well.  Click to listen:

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Dallas is next, on Fox Sports Arizona Wednesday night. Remember when the Stars were dead last in the West?  That was WITH Sean Avery.  Now they are in 5th!

- Todd

Think this job is cool?  Get to fly around North America, stay at the best hotels, see hockey games at some of the best arenas in the world….yeah, it’s cool. Really cool.  But no matter how many games you covered, no matter how thick your skin becomes, some nights it just isn’t easy walking into the locker room to talk to a team, a player, or a coach, after a gut wrenching defeat.

And that’s exactly what happened last night at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.  The undermanned Coyotes battled and battled back all night long before tying the score late in the third.  At point was within reach.  Perhaps even two.  A losing streak was about to come to an end.

Then it happened. A hooking penalty on Joel Perrault at 19:14 of the third.  A PP goal at 19:21 and it was over.  The streak continues.  The free fall remains in motion.

Listen in on the emotion of the moment from Ed Jovanovski, Shane Doan and Wayne Gretzky:

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Back on the ice Saturday night at home against Carolina.  See you then on AZTV.

- Todd

Parity is everywhere.  It has been in the NHL since the lockout of 2004-05.

So by now the players, coaches, media and fans are all very much aware of how difficult it is to make the playoffs.

There are roughly 30 games left.

In the Western Conference, as of the writing of this blog, there are six teams within six points of the eighth and final spot. The 14th-place team (Colorado) is six points away with Nashville and LA, while Vancouver is only one point back and Phoenix, Columbus, Edmonton, Minnesota and Dallas all have the same amount of points, 53. Only two games ago, the Coyotes were holding the fifth spot in the West, only to lose two consecutive games by 2-0 scores, and three overall…..and Holy Jumpin!…right in the 10th spot.

Wayne Gretzky has been saying it for two months now. Don’t get too excited. You win a few and you are in the playoff picture. You lose a couple or three, and you are right below the line. You just can’t get too high, nor can you get too focused on the line that separates the playoff teams from the outsiders. You also can’t lose more than three games in a row. You have to manufacture points, no matter how tough.

You really have to learn from experiences. Last season when the Coyotes were looking strong and were right in the hunt, they narrowed down an actual number that was needed to make it. They openly spoke of “HUGE” must-win games, and when they didn’t win them, well, the morale, from everyone involved in the team, went south. You could see it on everyone’s faces and in their demeanors. How could you not show it? It was much too black and white. The problem with that is when you lose. What is there next? When you say it is the biggest game of their lives, and they lose, what do you do the next day? How can you get them to re-group and re-energize?

The game was in Vancouver, a must-win that ended up being a tough, hard-played, 3-1 loss. They played well. Very well. The next night in Edmonton, the Coyotes battled back to tie the score 4-4 in the third period, only to lose focus and the game 7-4. For all intents and purposes, the season, and the team morale, was done.

The lesson is much clearer now than it was then. You can’t give up. As the Coyotes lost steam and the playoff poise needed, the Oilers took that win from the Coyotes and battled so hard, they came from below the Coyotes and nearly snuck in. They missed it by just three points. I am sure they learned an awful lot from that experience. They will be in the race until the bitter end this season, I guarantee it.

The Coyotes will too, as Wayne Gretzky has an uncanny knack of keeping things in the present. He also learned from last season and that is why he analyzes the game so well, especially after losses. He breaks it down as a simple matter of fact.

The last few games, losses at San Jose and vs. Buffalo, the power play has gone 0-13.

The effort and spirit of the team was excellent. The execution on the PP was not. He doesn’t take away all the good things that were done, he gets right to the point.

Big players that get on the PP have to be big players. They have to be difference-makers at important times. He will play the heck out of Olli Jokinen and Shane Doan in games at Nashville and at Detroit.

He will also put rookie Kyle Turris on a line with Jokinen and fellow rookie Mikkel Boedker, as they ended the last game against Buffalo with many good chances.

It doesn’t get any easier for Gretzky and company, but maintaining an even, business-like approach for every game, and for every morning the team wakes up and looks at the standings, will be essential when it comes to making the playoffs.

- Panger

What’s a penalty?  You can stop, rewind, freeze the play then and do it all again.  You can watch Shane Doan’s hit on David Backes time and time again in the 1st game of the Coyotes 3 game road trip that began in St. Louis.

It is a hockey hit. It is not a hit from behind, nor is it a boarding infraction.  It is a battle for a puck, 2 players, and they actually brace themselves, nearly stop, and Doan is stronger on his feet and catches Backes not quite as well prepared for a hit and unfortunately, gets injured on the play.

It is not the Mike Van Ryn injury. It is not a case where a player is facing the boards and vulnerable, and gets drilled from behind.  It is a hockey hit.

Doan gets a 5 minute major and it is a case of an overreaction to the far too many bad hits in the game. There should not have even been a penalty called.

In the meantime, veteran defenseman Ed Jovonovski and Derek Morris both get blatent high sticks to the eye area, and there are no calls. In both cases, the puck was close to both players.  From the broadcast booth, it is a much easier game, I understand that.

Here is another issue I have been having.

We know the sticks have “weak points” after a stick on stick, or a blocked shot to the shaft of the stick.  So a player blocks a shot, and the defending player is strong on his stick and the opposing playerks stick snaps, as a result of the puck hitting it originally.

Penalty. For slashing. For slashing? Or for having a stick that is already weakened by a puck?  Just because a stick breaks, doesn’t mean its a penalty.

There has to be some reward for a player that is strong on the puck. You can ask any top player about an opponent that is soft on the puck or a player that is hard on the puck. It is a strength. It is an asset that you have from an early age and likely a big reason why a scout rated you high or even just had you on the radar.  So, why do we take that away?

Just because a player falls down, it doesn’t mean it is a penalty on the nearest player around him.  Let’s get back to some on ice hockey sense.

See the play develop. Use common sense. Get the flow back into the game. I personally don’t enjoy a specialty teams game, where the flow and pace gets going and then the whistle blows and 10 guys are on the ice looking around, wondering where the infraction took place. It likely had no bearing on the play anyway.

It is a far more entertaining game when there is constant flow, back and forth action where chances are exchanged.

The honour of battling through checks and sometimes sticks is what separates the soft perimeter player, to the guy you want in the trenches in close games. Let’s not confuse the two types of players.

Call what the penalty is. Not what you think it was, as you may not have seen anything but a player falling down. They have big cushy pads on. They can handle it.  The other part about honour, or lack of it, occurred in Chicago with 2 seconds remaining in a 7-1 Blackhawks win.

A scrum in front of Hawk goalie Cristobal Huet, and Enver Lisin gets poked at by Brent Sopel and then Kyle Turris and Hawks rookie Kris Versteeg pair up.  Both have their gloves on, and then Versteeg pops him square in the nose. He said after the game that Turris, the 19 year old 180 lb offensive minded kid “challenged” him. He is kidding, right?

I spoke with Turris about it. Not a chance he challenged him.

Wayne Gretzky wasn’t amused with Versteeg, and in a 7-1 humiliation with 2 seconds left, it wasn’t impressive and didn’t leave the Great One with a good impression.

The Coyotes next face Versteeg and the Hawks on Jan. 6 in Phoenix.

You can be sure the Coyotes will be ready for the game and not just for what happened at the end of the game, but the lack of preparation to begin the game.

- 40

Let’s personalize this one, shall we? Tonight, one of the true great spirits in the world of pro sports takes to the ice for what will be his 900th career game. Shane Doan has reached that milestone, and for me, it seems like only yesterday when he was sent back to Springfield back in 97-98.  It was shocking for those of us covering the Coyotes.  He was “the future.”  What happened?  What was going wrong?

That’s ancient history now. Tonight we will celebrate his accomplishment on our coverage of the the Coyotes and the Blackhawks on Fox Sports Arizona. Pre-game at 7, face-off at 7:30.

Check out Wayne’s reaction to Shane’s 900th and just for the heckuva it, here’s the captain, as well:

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On a personal note, I have covered the NBA. the NFL, MLB, men’s and woman’s tennis, the LPGA, the PGA, the Senior Tour, NASCAR, CART, Formula One, college baseball, football and basketball.  Heck, I even broadcast from the unlimited Hydroplane races at Firebird Lake, and, yes, I have to admit, I pretended that “Gravedigger” and the Monster Truck event was a sporting event.  Never.  Not once, have I ever come across a person like Shane Doan.  I can’t imagine coming to the rink and the “Doaner” not being there.  Last man off the ice.  Sitting at his locker.  Making the bus wait … and that’s ok.

As he said today, “I love to play the game.”  Isn’t that what it is supposed to be like?

- Todd

These are the times that you remember and cherish always. A team on a roll, and you have a front row seat! The Coyotes went to Columbus and carried the play to the previously red hot Blue Jackets and did so pretty much at their will.

This may have been the most dominating performance from the Captain, Shane Doan, that I have ever seen.
(Still looking for that first career hat trick…….as he clanked one off the post, short handed, no less…..)

Coach Gretzky:

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Off to St. Paul.

See you later tonight on Fox Sports Arizona. Anybody feel like four in a row???

- Todd