Getting To Know The Arizona Coyotes: Dave Moss
Talking about Dave Moss
Dave Moss has been with the Arizona Coyotes since the lockout shortened 2012-2013 season — and he made the most of it, scoring 5 goals and 15 assists for 20 point in 45 games.
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This season, though, the mid-line forward — who excels on the defensive side of things, but was initially hoped to be an offensive contributor — has come up short with some of the least lucky scoring chances in the league. No matter how many golden scoring opportunities he gets, he comes up short time and time again for whatever reason. A terrific save by the opposing goalie, hitting the post — every time, it’s something different. Sometimes, he’s even the guy who gets his glove caught in the door of the penalty box — he’s having ‘that’ kind of season.
Moss missed seven weeks of action after blocking a shot with his hand, and the injury cost him 22 potential contest appearances — but for Coyotes fans less familiar with the veteran forward, he’s the kind of tenacious skater who said that he will continue to try to block shots.
"“Whenever you’re on the penalty kill, it’s your job to block shots,” Moss said. “It was just unfortunate I got hit in a bad spot. Aside from having more padding in my glove, I think everything will be the same.”"
Moss’s History
Moss, a native of Livonia, Michigan, attended and played high school hockey at Detroit Catholic Central High School. He earned a degree in sports management from the University of Michigan — then went on to play in the NHL.
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He’s not the only hockey player in his family, either — cousins Amanda, Blake and Phil Kessel of the Toronto Maple Leafs are also hockey players.
Moss played a season of junior hockey with the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the United States Hockey League in 2000–01, scoring 20 goals and 38 points in 51 games before the Calgary Flames selected him in the seventh round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. He committed first to play for the University of Michigan Wolverines, though — where in four full seasons, he scored 93 points in 163 games.
The Flames assigned Moss to their top minor league affiliate, the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights of the American Hockey League (AHL), for the 2005–06 season, where he led the team’s rookies with 21 goals and 48 points.
He remained with the Knights to begin the following season, but was then recalled to Calgary on December 19, 2006. In his NHL debut that night, Moss scored his first goal — the game winning tally, nonetheless — in a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
Moss played for Calgary from ’06-’07 to ’11-’12, when he signed a free agent contract with the then-Phoenix Coyotes. His best NHL season was ’08-’09 when he earned 20 goals and 19 assists in 81 games before adding three goals in six playoff games.
This season, he’s had some trouble with offense — but he FINALLY scored in the game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 5, 2015. Before that, his last tally came when he scored the game winning goal against the Dallas Stars in Arizona’s final game last season. It wasn’t enough to push Dallas out of Arizona’s old playoff spot, but it was good to put them within two points of that elusive second Wild Card place — not bad, considering how long the team had been without their starting goalie.
Dog Biscuits:
In a second period interview, Todd Walsh asked Dave Moss what he might have done differently to finally score.
"Moss replied, “I changed sticks, so maybe I should have done that 30 games ago!”"
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