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Coyotes GM Maloney questions team leadership, not Doan

Don Maloney, Dave Tippett

Phoenix Coyotes’ general manager Don Maloney, left, talks and head coach Dave Tippett looks on as Maloney talks about the upcoming NHL hockey season at a news conference, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, Glendale, Ariz.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

AP

Phoenix Coyotes GM Don Maloney has a reason for why his team has been inconsistent this season and it might surprise you: Questionable leadership.

Before you start pointing the finger at Shane Doan, as Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic shares, Maloney says it’s a team-wide problem.

“I really look at it and say it comes back to the leadership in your locker room,” Maloney said. “This is not a condemnation of (captain) Shane (Doan). I’m not pointing a finger at Shane whatsoever. This is the collective group … this group that’s been here for the last four, five years, that knows how we have to play and the focus we have to put in to have that group drag along the rest of the players. And that’s what has me doing a lot of soul searching right now.”

Doan hasn’t been the same player since returning from Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Before that, he was playing some of the best hockey of his career. Pointing the finger at him would’ve been rough.

The Coyotes have the same number of points as the Dallas Stars, but the Stars have the tiebreaker edge on the Coyotes for the final wild card spot. If Phoenix can find that consistency they’re lacking, they’ll be a tough opponent in the postseason.

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