The 2016 NHL trade deadline arrived on Monday and with it came the end of Mikkel Boedker’s tenure with the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes sent the veteran Danish forward to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Alex Tanguay and a pair of prospects. Arizona will not have to wait long to play against their former teammate as the Coyotes face the Avalanche on Monday to start a four-game road trip. The last time the Coyotes and Avalanche met in Denver on December 27, Boedker scored the game-winning goal in the final minute of overtime to give Arizona a 2-1 win. Before the Coyotes face Boedker for the first time, here is a look back on his best moments during his stint in the desert.
Playoff Heroics
Arizona enjoyed a magical playoff run in 2012 and Boedker was crucial to getting the Coyotes their first playoff series win since leaving Winnipeg. In the first round against the Chicago Blackhawks, Boedker scored the overtime-winning goals in Games 3 and 4 at the United Center. The first goal was a sharp angle shot that found a way past Corey Crawford. The second goal was a partial breakaway that ended with the puck sliding through Crawford’s legs and into the net despite Boedker never getting much of a shot attempt from the play.
Neither one was rather memorable but they were both important goals, especially given Arizona’s past playoff history. The Coyotes had reached three wins in a playoff series three times in their first seven appearances and Arizona lost all three series in seven games (1997 vs. Anaheim, 1999 vs. St. Louis, 2010 vs. Detroit). Boedker’s two overtime goals set the stage for the Coyotes to erase those bad postseason memories, which they did with a 4-0 victory in Game 6 to clinch the series.
Hats Off
Boedker was not much of a goal scorer during his time in Arizona with just 80 goals in 445 games with the Coyotes. However, in the last two years he has shown a tendency to score in bunches when he finds the scoring touch. Boedker has recorded three career hat tricks and all of them have come in the last two seasons. The two most recent hat tricks came this season and both times were against the Ottawa Senators. He scored three goals to power the Coyotes past the Senators in Ottawa on October 24 and then repeated the feat in another Arizona win over the Senators in Glendale on November 28. Fortunately for Ottawa, they have already completed their two-game season series with Colorado so they will not have to worry about another three-goal outburst from Boedker this year.
Charles Woodall-Pike is a journalist who writes about the Arizona Coyotes for The Hockey Writers.
