[Ed. Note: Some lists chronicle the best in hockey. Others the worst. Others the most memorable or greatest or essential. What Puck Daddy’s 2016 Summer Series seeks to do is capture those indefinable, quirky, oddities that occur every season. Moments that defy prediction or, in some cases, logical explanation. Welcome to WEIRD NHL.]

By: Sarah Hall, writer for Five For Howling

#1) Shane Doan and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

It started after the December 4th, 2013 game against Calgary. Shane Doan had a strong game, picking up an assist. Everything seemed normal.

He got sick and missed the game the next game versus Vancouver. And the next one against Colorado. The Coyotes were coy at the time saying it was just illness. As the days went on and Doan missed more games; it became clear something was very wrong with the Captain.

Midway through December, the Coyotes announced that Doan was being treated for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is a bacterial infection usually caused by a tick bite. It can cause blood vessels to leak and a myriad of other very serious issues. It is rare to catch in Arizona. Doan has many dogs and horses on his Arizona ranch, so the theory is a bite from a tick that had tagged along on one of his many furry friends.

Doan was cleared to play in January of 2014. He came back in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers and looked exhausted after each shift. As the rest of the season started to progress, Doan got stronger with every game; however, he didn’t start feeling like himself again until June of that year.

It’s safe to say, learning about what happened caused a lot of Coyotes fans to start to wonder if the team was cursed, as the next season Mikkel Boedker received a ruptured spleen on a seemingly innocent hit. Anders Lindback won the strange injury award in 2015-16 when he ruptured his Achilles tendon while getting up from stretching before a game.

#2) The Mike Smith Experience

Mike Smith is a strange goalie. He fights, he dives, he scores goals, and he scores goals for other teams.

I have to start with the ‘Butt Goal.’

Via SBNation.com More

Coyotes fans yell about this every time someone brings it up. They should have called the play dead as soon as the ref lost sight of the puck. They could have used that extra point. What if, what if, what if. RIP the playoff dreams of 2013-14.

Everything about that play was a comedy of errors. As the Sabres enter the zone, Mike Smith does as Mike Smith is want to do and came out to poke-check the puck. The puck flies up into the air and Martin Hanzal attempts to ‘help.’ In his ‘helping’ he knocks the puck down into the back of Smith’s pants. Everyone scrambles and Smith slides back into the net, not knowing about the puck in his pants. When the whistle blows the Sabres are yelling that it’s in the net and the Coyotes are trying to figure out what happened.

It was the most Coyotes thing to ever happen.

Mike Smith has also banked a puck off of Brandon Sutter’s behind during a game against the Penguins into his own net. He came out to clear the puck during the penalty kill and just as he cleared it, Sutter came into view and Bob’s your uncle. Mike Smith has yet another weird goal to add to his resume. It’s one we’d like to forget, thank you.

He also has the tendency to get himself into the some precarious situations when being hit. From Evander Kane to Alex Edler and most infamously Andrew Shaw, Smith has taken a lot of hits that may not have been entirely on the fault of the skater that hit him. I’m not here to debate which hit was legal and which was not, but sometimes it’s a bit over the top and I’m saying that as a Coyotes fan.

… what?

Okay, fine, I’ll say it. Mike Smith is a diving diver who dives. Smith has been known to get touched in the crease and flail dramatically to the ice to get the call.

(If you think he’s the only one, may I introduce you to Jonathan Quick and Henrik Lundqvist?)

Smith also has a temper. He is known for smashing his stick…

Story continues