All season, the Phoenix Coyotes acted like a fuse ready to explode.
Here was a team coming off its greatest season, having earned its way into the Western Conference finals. With the experience of playing within two wins of the Stanley Cup, the Coyotes set the bar high and promised themselves to reach the heights of a year ago. They were set to thunder across the NHL landscape, and serve notice the achievement of last season was not an accident.
Then, the lockout.
The energy, verve, elan and spirit which was perceived as a legitimate springboard to reach the similar achievement of last spring came crashing with a vengeance. The push and drive disappeared and the engine which powered the drive to atop the NHL choked and spurted.
The Coyotes opened the season by dropping four of their first five games. In the middle of this shortened season, they experienced a similar free-fall when they won just twice in 11 games from Feb. 23 to March 28. Then, they dipped perilously close to falling off the edge.
Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Mark Brown