Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 16: Oasis in a Vast Desert

The Utah Mammoth has existed for exactly 2 seasons, made the playoffs just once and that playoff run ended in 6 games. I debated between focussing on just the Mammoth or allowing myself to use the Coyotes. I believe I have found the best worlds. This will be about the Arizona Coyotes, but it is connected to the current Utah Mammoth for reasons that will become very obvious. In 2012, the Arizona Coyotes went on a magical run to the conference finals. In round 1, the Coyotes faced the Blackhawks and played one of the greatest playoff series in NHL history. Each of the first 5 games went to overtime. The Coyotes won 3 of them, then won game 6 to win their first playoff series ever. They faced the Nashville Predators in round 2 and won that series in 5 to advance to the conference finals where they ran into the buzz saw known as the 2012 Kings and lost in 5. It was a run mainly led by the goaltending heroics of Mike Smith and leadership of longtime captain Shane Doan (his son Josh plays for the Sabres). After 2012, the Coyotes truly became a desert and relocation gradually became inevitable. The Arizona Coyotes were not a well-ran hockey team. I’m sure you could’ve guessed that considering they no longer exist, but it bears repeating. From when the Coyotes were formed from the ashes of the old Winnipeg Jets in 1996 (the Jets moved to Arizona) to their collapse in 2024, the Coyotes had the 6th least wins. Every team that had less wins played at least 4 less seasons. Out of teams that played every season in that span, they rank dead last. The 2020s were especially grim with rumours of relocation ramping up, ownership being the opposite of helpful and the lease on the arena expiring, forcing an NHL team to use Arizona State’s 5000-seat capacity Mullet Arena for their home games. That is a smaller capacity than the Moncton Wildcats’ home arena, the Avenir Centre (8800). It was not fun to be a Coyotes fan post-2012 and I honestly feel horrible for the fans that were forced to deal with this. Thankfully, those fans were granted one last great moment as a team. The 2020 Coyotes were clearly a rebuilding team. They had good young players, but clearly not enough to even make the playoffs. However, thanks to the pandemic shutting down the season, the Coyotes were granted a much simpler road to the playoffs. The NHL gave teams seeded from 5 to 12 in their conference the chance to compete for a playoff spot in a 5-game series. Arizona was the 11-seed in the Western Conference and thus, were granted a 5-game series against the 6-seed Nashville Predators. On paper, this looked like a wash. The Predators had been one of the best teams in the West the last 2 seasons. Only a fool would pick an inexperienced Coyotes team. Arizona proceeded to remind us why these games aren’t played on paper. The Coyotes won game 1 4-3 with goals from Oliver Ekman-Larsson (OEL) and one of Arizona’s 2016 1st round picks, Clayton Keller. It was a cool moment for Arizona that got some cold water splashed onto it when Nashville won game 2. On the plus side, Keller scored again along with Lawson Crouse in a failed attempt to come back from down 4-0. Still, Arizona proved they could keep up and they showed it again in game 3 when they won 4-1. No goal for Keller this time, but he assisted Connor Garland’s game winner in the 3rd. After a hard fought game, it looked like Arizona was going to win the series until Filip Forsberg scored a last minute goal to tie it up and send it to overtime. In overtime, Brad Richardson jammed it home and won both the game and series for the Coyotes; clinching them a spot in the playoffs. Sadly; their playoff run would be very short and come to an abrupt end. They faced the dynamic Colorado Avalanche. After losing games 1 and 2, they got their only win of the series in game 3, only to lose games 4 and 5 by a combined score of 14-2. The 7-1 loss in Game 5 was the final playoff game in Coyotes history. In that game, Clayton Keller scored Arizona’s final playoff goal. He ended his first ever playoff run with 4 goals and 7 points in 9 games. Lawson Crouse only had 2 goals. Another 2016 1st round pick, Jacob Chychrun managed to get his first playoff goal. The main downside of this run, aside from losing, was the fact that their leading regular season point-getter, Nick Schmalz, missed it. It’s easy to look on this run and brush it off as a meaningless effort, but I disagree. Keller and Crouse now play a vital role with the Mammoth and Arizona got to watch their team play playoff hockey one last time. It makes Keller and Crouse Arizona’s last Stanley Cup Heroes while also being Utah’s very first.