Coyotes’ Imama makes NHL debut in loss
Arizona’s losing streak reaches nine games
As the Coyotes play out the string of regular season games remaining and on Friday were a week away from their Gila River Arena finale, there isn’t much intrigue beyond whether they will end up with the lowest point total in the NHL and improve their chances at the No. 1 overall draft pick this offseason.
But there was something worth witnessing on Friday night, aside from the large crowd that lined up early for a shot at a Jakob Chychrun bobblehead. It was the NHL debut of forward Boko Imama, who after almost five seasons in the AHL with the Ontario Reign and Tucson Roadrunners got his shot when he was called up from the Roadrunners earlier Friday.
The Coyotes (22-50-6) hung tough against the playoff-bound Capitals, but fell 2-0 for their ninth straight loss. Conor Sheary scored off a rebound and deflection in the first period, and John Carlson scored an empty-netter in the final minute for Washington.
Imama isn’t a highly touted prospect, but he’s a player who has paid his dues in the minors and overcome incidents of racism throughout his youth, juniors and professional career. The Montreal native had 12 points in 54 games with a whopping 178 penalty minutes — he embraces the enforcer role — and the Coyotes were down five forwards on Friday, with Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse done for the season, Christian Fischer still trying to come back from injury and both Nick Ritchie and Jay Beagle scratched due to injury.
He got the traditional solo skate on the ice for players making their NHL debuts, after being congratulated by teammates coming out of the locker room.
“That’s when it sunk in that I was going into my first NHL game,” Imama said. “I was like ‘yeah, this is it.’”
Imama didn’t play much, only 4 minutes, 4 seconds, but he became the 11th player to make his NHL debut with the Coyotes this season. He also did what he does well, delivering five hits despite not playing in the third period.
“Huge achievement for him. I think he can be really proud of himself, staying with it, battling every year to improve his situation,” Coyotes head coach André Tourigny said.
Imama was serving a six-game suspension administered by the AHL on April 14. Per the league, Imama was suspended one game for a match penalty
assessed in the first period of the Roadrunners’ game at Rockford on April 9, and five additional games as a result of his off-ice actions following the incident.
He kept working out on his own and
was surprised by a call from Roadrunners general manager John Ferguson Thursday informing him that he was going to Glendale.
“I always train, I always keep myself in shape. Good thing I did, because the speed of the game was pretty good. So I was able to follow,” Imama said.
Imama has become involved with the Hockey Diversity Alliance, raising money for the group through sales of a Tshirt bearing the anti-racism message of “Enough is Enough“during a weekend of Roadrunners games in Tucson a couple of months ago. He also traveled to New York City to help launch a campaign called “Celebrating Black Excellence and Joy in Hockey.”
“It’s my fifth year as a pro, even before that since juniors I would say I’ve been getting a lot of messages from young players or their parents that look like me,” Imama said. “I’m sure they’re proud of me. For sure I’m going to keep on inspiring kids. Having more players like me having a chance to achieve their dream is going to lift all these young kids that are trying to do the same.”
The game was delayed a few minutes by a ceremony on the ice in honor of Coyotes forward Andrew Ladd’s 1,000th career NHL game, which was Wednesday. Ladd received a silver stick, a watch from his teammates and a framed jersey for reaching the milestone and celebrated it with his wife and children, all looking up at a video in which former teammates congratulated him.
“He had injuries, surgery, all of it, and he stayed with it and he played with passion all year for us,” Tourigny said of Ladd. “The way he got to the finish line, he will have my respect forever.”
Jack McBain hit the post with a shot and almost pushed the puck past Washington goaltender Vitek Vanecek a few moments later in the first period. McBain was in his sixth career NHL game, at times on the ice against the Capitals’ talented top line of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson.
Karel Vejmelka had 27 saves for the Coyotes, who mustered only 19 shots on goal.