Last season ended in a way that created a countless number of nightmares for myself and other Coyote players. We gave up the winning goal with just a second left in the third period. The ending could only have been more "storybook" if it was in overtime.
I think the impact of losing in that way is immeasurable. The body language after the game was as poor as I've ever seen it. The tone of voices in the locker room were depressing in itself. We should have celebrated though - we played incredibly well. We had never played that team so well.
Summer has come and gone for the Coyotes. Only four Coyotes said they'd play with the team in the summer. I was not one of them. The captain of the Coyotes would break his leg in the summer, and be out until February.
So there was a lot of unfortunate things that happened. This created a lot of uncertainty going into the season. Who will be captain? Who will our full time players be, who will be our subs, and will we add anyone new?
About a week ago, the decision was made to make me captain for game day activities - setting lines, running the locker room, etc. I accepted for a number of reasons - someone needed to do it, I'm one of the guys with the most experience on the team, It'd be a good challenge for my people skills, and many other reasons.
Last year, there were times where I was almost bored on the blue line. I took a "hands off" attitude. I was quiet in terms of what we should be doing, and just let the team develop and work on what I wanted to work on for myself. Maybe that is selfish? I would help when asked in the past, but it won't be that way this year. I'll be responsible for helping get the most out of the team, and taking them to the next level. This is going to be my first time doing something like this, and I have prepared myself as best as I can for these challenges.
I think our biggest challenge will be our attendance since we don't have as many full time players as we'd like. We've also added a handful of players who we need to get integrated with the team. I want to get the team to the next level, and away from being just a beginner team.
There are lots of good and exciting challenges for the Coyotes.
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