Life in an NHL press box is OK when you’re a sportswriter. When you’re a hockey player and that’s where they put you when you’re a healthy scratch, it’s not so cool at all.
Take it from Coyotes right wing Viktor Tikhonov, who got so tired of watching games alongside hockey scribes and announcers that he finally did something about it.
“Yeah, that’s not the situation you want to be in,” Tikhonov said after practice on Wednesday, where the Coyotes were gearing up for Thursday night’s game against the visiting San Jose Sharks. “You want to be the guy who is irreplaceable in the lineup, so it gets you fired up, it gets you a little pissed off.