They were winning awards, re-signing key players, and hoping to build off last season's success.
And then this happens: President Doug Moss gets canned by the National Hockey League.
The team's owned by the NHL, which is why the Coyotes didn't fire him, technically.
The move is surprising. Why not get rid of Moss earlier in the offseason? And why give him the ax the day before free agency starts?
His replacement, Mike Nealy, has been an executive with the team since 2006 and is now the chief operating officer.
Moss had been with the organization since 2002 and finally seemed to have the team headed in the right direction, as was obvious by their success last season.
But hockey is a business, and sometimes life isn't fair. Yes, the ownership issues had been in shambles for the past few years, but Moss shouldn't take all of the blame for that. Others were involved as well.
Maybe the new ownership group, if one ever steps up and takes control, would have given Moss the boot anyway.
"On behalf of the Nationa Hockey League, I send thanks to Doug for his devoted service to the team, the fans, and to Jobing.com Arena," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. "We wish Doug the best as he moves on to a new chapter in his career."
It's too bad Moss couldn't write a few more chapters for the Yotes -- a few featuring Lord Stanley would have been nice.
