Coyotes 2002-2003 Season: Seventh Heaven (But Not Quite)
The seventh season for the Phoenix Coyotes was NOT a memorable one
They lost some good players to trades and free agency, and had to play with the roster they were given.
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Gone were: Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick, from the previous year’s trades and free agency. Then, during a period from Jan ’03 to March ’03 four more players would be wearing different uniforms. They included: Claude Lemieux sent packing to the Dallas Stars (near the end of his career); Daniel Briere was traded to the Buffalo Sabres for Chris Gratton (WHO? This is who- 30 points in 82 games).
GM Mike Barnett was criticized heavily for this trade. The infamous Danny Briere trade was a classic case of giving up on a smaller player’s talent too soon. While Chris Gratton was a serviceable NHLer for the Coyotes, Briere could have been their franchise center for a number of seasons. This is surely one of the more lopsided trades in NHL history.
The Phoenix club also gave up on Tony Amonte, whom they signed to a free agent contract on 7-12-02, and sent him to the Flyers. To finish off the “clearing house” player movement, Brad May was also sent to the Vancouver Canucks. Whew. That was like half the team.
Obviously, with the teams’ poor 31-35-11-5 record for just 78 points and a 4th place ranking in the Pacific Division, something had to change. The individual statistics were just as disappointing this year. Mike Johnson, (once again, WHO?) whom they acquired in the Khabibulin trade with Tampa Bay, was the leading scorer with 23 goals and 40 assists. Shane Doan was next with 21 goals and 37 assists. Ladislav Nagy, who came over in the Tkachuk trade with the Blues, was third in scoring with 22 goals and 35 assists.
This team held the distinction of allowing the most power plays goals (77) in the entire league.
They gave up 230 goals, so that factors out to 33.5% of their opponents’ goals came on the power play- a sure recipe for failure. Every team has winning and losing streaks, but this team dropped six in a row from March 22, 2003 to March 31, 2003. They fell short by 14 points in making the playoffs, so finishing strong was not in the cards for them. Sound familiar? Last season comes to mind when the Yotes missed the playoffs by 2 points after dropping 7 in a row. Maybe with their slow start this season, they will finish strong.
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I can’t help but to draw a comparison to the recent Coyotes teams where the squad had maybe one player scoring 50 plus points, and then it dropped off from there. How they managed 89 points in the 13-14 season with such low offensive output is beyond me. I think they are experiencing the same dilemma this year, but the defense is also weak… thus a slow 5-6-1 beginning, as of November 6th.
With the new Glendale arena holding a “topping off” ceremony on April 7, 2003 marking the completion of the vertical construction, the future new home for the Coyotes was beginning to become a reality. I have a memory of a similar roof raising when the Cardinals University of Phoenix stadium was being constructed. I had just left from working a Coyotes game on a rainy night, when I looked over towards the construction site, and I swear it resembled a UFO ! It took days to SLOWLY raise the roof to the supports. Just thought I’d share that with you….
Next up: 2003-2004 Season – A New Arena, a Fresh Start?