If you had told me at the beginning of the season that the Phoenix Coyotes would be in a good position to make the playoffs, I would have laughed at you. A lot of people, including myself at one point, considered this season a minor miracle for the Coyotes.

With only 31 games left in the season, they are inching closer and closer to locking a playoff spot. With their solid defense not being broken, and the offense coming in with the necessary goals, they are able to win close and crucial games.

The reason a lot of people underestimated the Coyotes is because nobody payed attention to the off-season moves they were making. Instead, fans were bogged down with headlines about the bankruptcy issues or the fact that the franchise could have moved to Canada. While all of this was going on, the front office was building a solid roster to compete in the upcoming season.

They made two crucial trades for defensemen, dramatically improving the talent in their own end. They weren’t looking for the one all star defender, instead, they were looking for a couple of above average defenders that could make a big difference together. Lepisto and Vandermeer have both helped this team immensely. Add that to Aucoin and you have three solid defenders that have really helped this team.

More importantly, they had these strong defenders backed up by a solid goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov. To me, Bryzgalov is the most underrated goalie in the NHL, mainly because he hasn’t been playing for a great team. But, that doesn’t mean his role on the team is less important. His consistently strong play on a night-to-night basis has helped the team more than just about anything else.

When you put all of those things together; the trades, the goalie and the defense, you can understand why the Coyotes can have the seventh best defense in the NHL. These moves changed the entire setup for Phoenix.

Instead of having the 24th best defense like they did last year, they now have the 7th. Now, they have a strong part of their game that they can rely on, even when the offense isn’t all there, which rarely happens.

Offensively, the team was helped by Radim Vrbata who was also acquired during the off-season. He has played in every game, scoring 16 goals and posting 14 assists. Granted, one player can’t raise the offense from 26th in the NHL to 8th in the NHL which means that there has to be something else.

If you were to ask me, I would call that “something else” the development of chemistry. They are playing a lot better together than they were last year. Phoenix has a lot of great forwards on their team, mainly Doan, Lombardi, Vrbata, Upshall, and Jovanovski. Together these players have made a huge difference in the team.

Recently the offense has been picking up the defense’s slack. This offensive style is a lot different than the defensive style they relied on in October through December.

They were able to score four goals on the Predators, four against the Devils (second best defense), four against the Oilers, and six against the Wild. It’s interesting because they haven’t been scoring like this for the entire season. All of a sudden, they’re lighting up the net with goals.

The Coyotes are definitely still a strong defensive team, despite a few recent hiccups, but they are asserting themselves more offensively. But, everything has improved since last year. So, why did the front office start building a team that could compete, and why did they do it so aggressively?

Part of me says that the distractions Phoenix faced actually helped them win, just because they were forced to put a team together immediately. If they weren’t able to win games, the fans wouldn’t pay to come to  games. They recognized that they needed to give the fans a reason to come to the stadium, other than promotions.

They have started the long and painful process of building a better fan base in Phoenix, which has been the biggest reason for the team’s financial issues. All of these promotions, deals, and packages that are getting fans to the games are helping the teams create a loyal fan base that will want to come to future games. Again, that would be much harder if they couldn’t put a good team on the ice and win games.

If you don’t believe me on this, take a look at other clubs. The Detroit Red Wings do this better than anybody. Granted, it’s probably easier to establish a hockey team in Michigan than it is Arizona. But, that doesn’t mean that you’ll see the results that the Wings have seen. Their stadium holds 20,000 people and they have a sell out, or come close to a sell out every single night.

They have also made the playoffs every year for over two decades, and have always been a fun team to watch. Because of that, they have been able to create a loyal fan base that will come to every single game. That’s the power of a good reputation.

It looks like the Coyotes are trying to do the same thing. They’re bringing better players to the team to give fans a reason to come to games. I would imagine that their goal is to keep fans coming back for years to come and never have to deal with another financial situation like they just faced.

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