This was supposed to be a routine game.
Sure, it is on a somewhat long roadtrip to the other Conference where the Maple Leafs visit each team only once per season, and it’s the Coyotes, who have a player on their roster you may have heard of called Phil Kessel. But, still, it’s a game which if you checked the calendar at the start of the season you would expect the Leafs to fly in, play, and fly out to the next stop on the road trip quite uneventfully. Perhaps two beat reporters—the ones who would tack on some vacation days for golfing afterwards—would show up in person to cover a game likely to blend into all the others by the end of the season.