Since many of you Coyotes fans are new to the Playoffs and all that it entails, there’s one battle that you may not be familiar with…..the battle in the Media. For years some coaches leverage the media in attempts to gain psychological or other advantages in a given series. Current Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coach Ron Wilson is a master at leveraging the media for his own benefits. Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs aren’t in the playoffs this season so I am unable to use one of Ron Wilson’s examples here.

However, I was poking around one of the Coyotes related forums where one poster, Yotesgirl19 posted the following quote from Red Wings forward Johan Franzen (via the PhoenixCoyotes.com website). Franzen said the following about all the hits in game 1:

“I didn’t feel it was that intense at all,” Franzen told reporters on Thursday. “I thought (the stat crew) was very nice to them. Every time the fans cheered, they marked it down as a hit.”

My reply to Yotesgirl19 and now to all of you is that one of the fun things about the playoffs is that a times there are two battles going on. One battle goes on during the games. The other battle goes on in the media where opposing players and coaches try to spin negatives from previous games into positive.

As I see it, this is the best manner in how to view Franzen’s comments: