This year’s feel-good story in the NHL — and quite possibly in all of sports — has hit a major pothole. Major as in the size of the kind that the Powers Who Be with the state and local road crews make a priority to fix as opposed to the ones the folks on social media claim have just been annoyances throughout the winter months. As the driver of Hyundai Kona as opposed to being an Ice Road Trucker, those of all sizes prove of equal challenge to me on my 1.2-mile commute to work, but I digress. (Did I mention this transplanted Texan saw his first moose while driving home Saturday morning after work at 2 a.m? Talk about awe-inspiring!)
But back to the NHL... North Pole resident Pheonix Copley was called up to play in goal for the Los Angeles Kings on Dec. 6. The veteran professional who turned 31 last week had long toiled in hockey’s junior, college and minor leagues. That included four seasons before college in the NAHL (the Corpus Christi (Texas) Ice Rays), USHL and NAPHL; two years at Michigan Tech; and the bulk of each season since 2023 in the AHL, to include with the Hershey (Pennsylvania) Black Bears.
After from a couple of games over four seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Copley’s first longterm introduction to the NHL was in the 2018-19 season when he posted a 16-7-3 record with the Washington Capitals. From there it was back to Hershey, where I’ve got to be honest if I lived in that town I’d easily top 350 pounds with all of my trips to the chocolate factory and theme park.
Before the season he signed a one-year, $850,000 contract with the Los Angeles Kings which will roughly cover rent in a nice two-bedroom apartment and fill up ones gas tank at $6 a couple of times. Sure, I exaggerate to some degree, but having visited my son in Orange County two weeks ago and stopped by Five Guys for a burger, fries and drink that ended up running $52, I’m not stretching the truth by much. Suffice it to say he clearly signed with Los Angeles for love of the game, and not because he’s getting wealthy playing.
Assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign, he was off to a pedestrian 6-4-1 start with a 2.48 goals against average when the call came.
And in net for the Kings, with a pair of candy canes painted on his mask in homage to his hometown, the wins kept piling up. Suddenly he was 12-2 with a 2.48 goals against average. The latter would have ranked in the league’s Top 20 had he played in enough games, and the number of wins he had ranked 17th among all goalies, including those who started the season outside of middle Pennsylvania.
And how surreal was it that he found himself slapping a high-five with Will Ferrell after a recent Kings win at the Crypto.com Arena. Did he and Buddy the Elf know each other in high school?
We tuned in Thursday night to watch the Kings take on the Dallas Stars, who had two night earlier blown a 3-0 lead to the San Jose Sharks in a 5-3 loss. Even with the Kings missing three starters and a backup, nobody expected the night to turn as sour as it did for Copley.
After two periods the Kings were down 4-0 and Copley had been replaced by Johnathon Quick.
No reason to worry, right? The Kings were also coming off an extended rest and given that Copley’s three losses at that point were to the Stars (28-13-7), Boston Bruins (36-5-4) and Buffalo Sabres (23-19-3), there was no need to panic.
Kings’ TV announcers Alex Faust and Jim Fox noted that Copley had been “absolutely fabulous” for the Kings, logging almost half (12 of 25) of the teams’ wins. Next time out he’d be back in form, right?
Likewise was the immediate response from Kings coach Todd McLellan.
“Do we have a goaltending problem?” McLellan told a Tribune News Service reporter, repeating a reporter’s question. “We have goaltending moments, but we have [defense] moments and forward moments that don’t go our way. Pheonix obviously has played well for us lately. It wasn’t his best night. Maybe his poorest that he’s had with us.”
Copley acknowledged his poor night and refused to blame being in goal for the first time in eight days for his loss to Dallas.
“Just a tough effort by me. I guess it is always a little tough but that’s no excuse,” he told the Times.
Except now the news making the media and social media rounds is from Saturday night’s opening at Nashville, when the Predators ended his night with two shots in the first 40 seconds of the game.
Suddenly, team observers like Los Angeles Times columnist Helene Elliott are writing that “Copley was never going to be the long-term answer in net, but his teammates rallied around the career minor leaguer who came out of nowhere to supplant two-time Stanley Cup champion Quick and gave them respectable goaltending when they most needed it.”
And that was before Saturday night’s meltdown.
But if there’s one reason to believe Copley will overcome this hiccup, err, uhh, loud belch, and be back in the win column this week, it’s the same reason why he is on the 2022-23 Los Angeles Kings’ roster. And that’s his resilience.
Most 31-year-olds who dreamed of athletic greatness are now sitting behind office desks or coaching gym class. Copley, on the other hand, has had the wherewithal to ensure that he lives out his ambitions.
Personally, I’m still drafting out a proposal to visit with him during the Kings’ three-game road swing to Calgary, Edmonton and Seattle in late March/early April. There’s an amazing story he has to tell. The belief here is it will end in Los Angeles, and not back in the AHL.
Your Dad Joke of the Week:
Me: Why did the moose visiting Broadway go to “Cats” instead of “Death of a Salesman”?
Me: Because he wanted to see a moose-ical.
