The "Not Going to Surprise Anyone" Fallacy

This article just made me want it to be Saturday even more. I agree with everything you said here, its nuts that a lot of the “experts” aren’t including the Yotes in their discussions of teams to watch out for this season like a full year under Tips, new offensive weapons in Whitney and Belanger, and the best goalie not named Miller arent going to lead an even better season than last year. We’ll all just have to keep supporting this team and disregard the vast majority of media outlets that still dont get it. Heres to another great season, Go Yotes!

Teams will almost every year lay a “stinker” out in a game where they are heavily favored. The crux of the issue at hand is that these commentators and sports writers are claiming that this is the reason the Coyotes did well last year, but they don’t explain how this happened over and over and over again. It is simply not possible that the Coyotes were on the right side of opponent “let downs” every other night. The fact of the matter is that they BEAT teams with skill and urgency. Every game felt like a big game, and one that “mattered”. I remember the Panthers game in which we were down 3 goals in the 3rd, got a lucky break with a fluke goal that got the game close and we ended up winning in a shootout if I remember correctly. Most teams would keel over and submit to defeat even though they were heavily favored and should’ve had no problem putting the opponent away, not this team. Like I said in an earlier post, if the Coyotes can limit the times their opponents score first, this team will be even more dangerous. They are excellent at holding leads, and I believe are more talented this year.

I completely agree. this is the greatest article ever written about the Yotes. No team, coach or anybody else just sits back and says " I do not need to get any goals" or " I’m tired, so i’ll just glide around the ice and wave to the fans tonight". Yes, you may use the back-up goalie and start and play your seconary lines more than your primaries, but every team shows up to play! Weither it is for a job, the coach, their own personal stats, whatever. The truth and reality has just been told. Anyone who took the Yotes for granted after the first few weeks, were pure idiots.

I don’t think any team thinks any other team is going to be easy. That being said I do think teams play a little different when they know it is going to be a tough game. I don’t think we won any games buy teams taking it easy on us. I do think we did win some games early in the season because of Tippets new system. It was a Coyotes team that played different then we did the year before. The scouting they would have had on us would have been outdated and different then the way we played. Also we had a lot of new faces then the previous year (thanks Don). This would have been a issue for the for the coaches as they adjust to the way we played, causing them to react to us not play their game. Was it the X factor that lead to the winning season we had, I don’t think so. You can tell because we never had any blowout games. Teams never said “we were totally surprised and just weren’t ready for them”. We also were figuring out our system and building the chemistry needed to be a winning team. We had a good coach, good players, a good system and the desire to win, day in, day out.

I think the reason why analysts say we are not a surprise team anymore is so they can cover up their lack of knowledge on team. I never see any real in depth analysis on the team. Its all general and short or about the other team. Its like they are afraid to get invested in the team. Part of it is we have no superstars on the team they can latch on too. The whole move back to Winnipeg thing isn’t helping and neither is the ownership situation. And if you need proof just watch Michalek rise to stardom in Pittsburgh,