Don’t Panic: why losing Max Domi isn’t the end of the season
Sep 23, 2013; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Phoenix Coyotes forward Max Domi (15) comes from behind the net of Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo (1) during the second period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
So, ah, let’s talk about how I apparently have no forecasting skills.
I’ve spent the entire off-season telling everyone how awesome the team is going to be with Max Domi on the ice. Oh my God, Max Domi is going to save us! He’s going to swoop in with his amazing 93-point scoring abilities and the team is going to be fine on offense and they’ll make it to the playoffs no doubt!
It’s easy for a fanbase to look at a move like this and criticize the front office. Based on what fans have seen- both in London and during this pre-season’s training camps and exhibition games- Domi was ready to rock and roll. He wasn’t looking like the cream of the crop, but he certainly was looking like he could shape up into something valuable for the team.
When a player who ‘seems’ ready to debut with a franchise gets cut, emotions run high. Fingers get pointed, names get called, and everyone starts to talk about how ‘they’d make a better GM than these guys running things now’.
Oh please.
Dave Tippett Knows Best (and so does Don Maloney)
There’s no way that Dave Tippett missed the four points in four preseason games that Domi produced. There’s no way that Maloney missed it, either. The team’s head coach and GM weren’t too busy checking their Twitter feeds to observe what kind of on-ice production was happening with the franchise.
What Tippett and GMDM were able to see that none of us could, though, is the off-ice production. Maybe Domi was getting too confident, and hadn’t recognized that his performance was still a ways from being consistent top-six material. Maybe he wasn’t feeling confident enough on the ice against players like the Sedin twins and Ryan Getzlaf *, and was forthcoming about this with the team’s front office. Maybe he wasn’t keeping up with the other players in training camp as much as he should have been, or wasn’t behaving as he should, or…
You get the picture. What fans (and even the media) see on the ice is only a tiny fraction of what gets considered when determining whether a player stays or goes. Let’s trust the coaches on this.
Offense isn’t looking too shabby, with or without Domi
I have to bring this up, because I think that everyone was too focused on Domi (and Sam Gagner) to really appreciate what the team’s offense looks like this year.
The Arizona Coyotes are by no means a high-scoring offensive powerhouse. They prefer to implement a score-by-committee system and emphasize a consistent blue line when winning games- so already, observers shouldn’t be evaluating the team’s front lines based off of high-scoring models.
What the Coyotes are left with in the wake of Domi’s departure isn’t as bad as it could be. Take a look-
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First, the team still has five extremely strong top-six forwards that are veterans of the Arizona system. Martin Hanzal, Martin Erat, Shane Doan, Antoine Vermette, and up-and-comer Mikkel Boedker will be able to produce on the top two lines, with or without Max Domi.
Then, the team has an abundance of effective bottom-six players. Joe Vitale, for starters, is already exceeding expectations. Should the team play him too high (as in, anywhere on the top six), he’ll be considered below average. On the third- or even fourth- lines, though, Vitale will probably emerge as an elite bottom-six player. In the pre-season matchup against the Vancouver Canucks, he notched a goal and an assist on what looks to be an extremely promising third line with Brandon McMillan; this line could be completed by Lauri Korpikoski or Sam Gagner.
The team has also retained Justin Hodgman, leaving him as the only ‘youth movement’ player not reassigned to the minors. Hodgman has looked the most consistent of all the new young guys, and will most likely make a nice addition to the offense.
So for all of you out there panicking and trying to start hashtags to fire Maloney, hold off. The team might just do it all without the young guns- and next year, they’ll be primed to make an even bigger impact.
*Yes, I know that neither Domi nor Getzlaf played in the Ducks-Coyotes exhibition game.