Coyotes History Throwback, Vol. III: Season 3
The third season for the Phoenix Coyotes found them finishing 2nd in the Pacific Division…
…(yes, they finally moved the team to a division more fitting to their geography) and 4th in the Western Conference, with a 39-31-12 record for 90 points.
It was a roller coaster season. The first twenty games found the team going 15-3-2, and looking like they would tear up the league- they had a 10-0-1 record in November 1998, with a nearly flawless eight-game winning streak. Good fortunes didn’t last very long for them, though- at the 40 game mark ,their record fell to 23-11-6. They moved back to 30-20-10 after sixty games, but from Feb 14, 1999 to March 11, 1999, they suffered two losing streaks of 5 and 4 games where their overall record was just 2-11.. hardly admirable.
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When you look back at the playoffs, though, it gets really painful. The Year 3 Yotes were up 3 games to 1 to the St. Louis Blues, only to lose 3 straight and choke in the conference quarterfinals (sound familiar, San Jose fans?).
The series was a good matchup, with 3 of the games being decided in overtime- and all but two games determined by one goal. Much of the Coyotes’ doom could be attributed to the fact they played the first six games without Jeremy Roenick their top scorer, who was sidelined trying to heal his fragmented jaw- courtesy of Darien Hatcher of the Stars. J.R. came back courageously to play game 7, but it was a little too late.
Captain Keith Tkachuk was only 4 points behind top scorer Roenick over the course of the season, while playing 10 fewer games. Behind those two, Rick Tocchet- who was acquired the previous year as a free agent- was third in scoring. These three brightened the team’s accomplishments with 21 power play goals… seems like the team has always had a beaut of a PP.
This threesome did more than score, though- the trio was also penalized 428 minutes combined.
Youngsters Daniel Briere and Shane Doan both chipped in 22 points to give the team some hope for the future, while Nikolai Khabibulin performed well in the net. His .923 save percentage, 2.13 GAA were exceptional, as were the 8 shutouts he threw in for good measure. He accumulated 32 wins, which was a huge factor in the team’s success this year.
The playoff loss to the Blues was enough to add coach Jim Shoenfeld’s name to the list of unemployed coaches, as Bob Francis took over the coaching duties. Let’s face it folks, when you start out a season just losing 3 of the first 24 games, and then finish the season playing six games under .500… your fate is doomed. (For those who believe that history repeats itself, Schoenfeld’s career’s tragic demise in Arizona should draw some strong parallels to the Randy Carlyle fiasco in Toronto. Just sayin’.)Francis hoped to instill some better defense, and continue with a strong offense. The only unanswered question would be if they could sign Khabibulin, who had a stellar year- and with that, the team headed into the 1999-2000 season. That’s right… this was the time to party like the world was ending.