Coyotes players try to ignore uncertain future
The Arizona Coyotes should have no problem keeping busy with the on-ice issues that have rimmed this season with disappointment and contributed to their latest three-game losing streak.
Spotty defensive zone coverage emerged as a recent culprit during a now-completed six-game homestand that went 2-4 and is surely an area that needs to be rectified during a three-game road trip that starts Saturday night against the Wild in Minnesota before the team pauses for the All-Star break.
But after the Coyotes traded goalie Devan Dubnyk to the Minnesota Wild Wednesday in what could be a precursor to more roster changes in an attempt to help the franchise remodel for future success, it's probably tempting to focus on that uncertainty.
"When your team goes through a tough season like this one, people start looking at the team as a whole, what changes can be made to make the team better in the long run and start pointing fingers," defenseman Zbynek Michalek said. "It's normal, I guess, and our team is going through it right now, and it's up to the management and ownership which way they want to go. You just have to accept it as players. Sometimes it's hard to get it out of your head that this is what's going on, but our job is on the ice."
General manager Don Maloney has made it clear he isn't waiting until the March 2 trade deadline to make moves, shipping a pending unrestricted free agent, Dubnyk, to the Wild for a third-round pick in this year's draft.
Other players poised to become free agents this summer are center Antoine Vermette and wingers Martin Erat, Dave Moss and B.J. Crombeen along with Michalek.
Already, coach Dave Tippett has discussed with players the importance of only worrying about what's in their control and that's how they perform on the ice.
"You deal with it in a professional way," Tippett said. "You come to work and make sure you don't let your teammates down and look at the guy beside you and make sure you play hard every night and doing your job. If that guy beside you does his job, you'll stay competitive and I think we're still a good enough team that we should win some games.
"But we need everybody to pull to do that."
If any team has experience in blocking out distractions, it'd be the Coyotes who had to try to ignore an ownership search and subsequent relocation rumors for four years. But these are different circumstances.
They've been stuck on 36 points since the midway point — the lowest of a full-length season during the franchise's tenure in the Valley and worst total since the Jets had 35 in 1993-94.
"We'll do a lot of things to prevent it from going stale," Tippett said. "The reality is you're going to put young players in your lineup. They're getting great opportunity. If they're coming in stale, we might have the wrong players there."
Gauging the potential of prospects is another facet of this process and a reminder of the overhaul that a roster can undergo amid adversity. And considering the extent of the Coyotes' struggles, those decisions to spark change are certainly expected.
"Definitely it's creeping into my head more and more as we get closer to the deadline," Michalek said. "The season that we're having, the changes that are already in progress. I know that I'm a free agent at the end, and I could be one of the guys moving on, too. Just try to stay off the Twitter if possible and Internet and just focus about the next game.
"But it's hard. It's definitely hard. But it's part of our business and as hockey players, you have to be prepared pretty much for anything. Have a suitcase packed in a few hours and move on. If it comes, I'll have to deal with it. But right now I'm committed to this team."
Sarah McLellan writes for the Arizona Republic
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