Another year of off-ice question marks were answered by another year of on-ice solutions.
For the third straight season, the Phoenix Coyotes dealt with the adversity of ownership instability.
But for the third straight season, they responded with the strength of on-ice stability.
Leadership still matters.
For years, a decade and a half plus, we have wondered out loud what it MIGHT be like around here if the Coyotes could find a way to win a round of the playoffs.
We wondered how this town would embrace them, how the media and other teams in town would react to their new-found success and a momentary lead on the all mighty entertainment dollar.
We wondered.
And now we know.
The Stanley Cup playoffs really are hockey’s “passion play,” as Doug McLeod, the first “Voice” of the Phoenix Coyotes, wrote and said way back in year one, prior to that first-round series versus Anaheim.
It took us a generation of hockey to learn up close and personal that he was right.
That passion was front and center and on display for any and all hockey fans statewide for three rounds.
A first-round triumph over Chicago.
A second-round win over Nashville.
And a third-round exit courtesy of Los Angeles.
Every single game beyond the first round qualified as the “next biggest game in franchise history” because they were.
And the best part?
It wasn’t enough. We want more.
