Two other prospective buyers were recruited by the NHL to submit bids to purchase the team but neither made any formal offers to the bankruptcy court.
The team arranged a budget under the NHL ownership while allowing general manager Don Maloney to run the club.
The team signed numerous NHL veteran free agents in the off-season, including Vernon Fiddler, Jason LaBarbera, Adrian Aucoin, Taylor Pyatt, Ryan Hollweg and Robert Lang.
As the fourth seed in the West, the Coyotes had home ice advantage in a playoff series for the first time since 1998-1999, when they lost to the St. Louis Blues in seven games.
However, there are members of the media who favored the Coyotes in the series, citing their home-ice advantage and regular season home record, Tippett's coaching, the play of Vezina Trophy and Hart Memorial Trophy candidate Ilya Bryzgalov, and the additions of wingers Wojtek Wolski and Lee Stempniak, who have provided an offensive punch to a team built on defense.
Tomas Holmstrom and Nicklas Lidstrom scored for the Red Wings while Phoenix's three goals came via the power play, which was a rare occurrence for a team that had been struggling with the man-advantage all season.
Two days later, on April 16, the Red Wings evened up the series at 1–1 behind a strong game from Henrik Zetterberg who recorded a hat trick to propel Detroit to a 7–4 win.
However, Detroit added four goals in the third period, including the eventual game winner by Zetterberg, to take home the win.
With just 29 seconds elapsed in the first period, defenseman Sami Lepisto followed up a rebound given up by Jimmy Howard off a shot Petr Prucha and fired it into the net.
Early in the second period, the Phoenix captain and on ice inspiration, Shane Doan was injured after tripping over Jimmy Howard in the goal crease and crashing heavily into the boards.
The Red Wings would tie the game up at 1 off a shot by Valtteri Filppula that snuck past Ilya Bryzgalov on the short side and crossed the goal line just enough.
Later, with less than a minute in the second period, Wojtek Wolski broke the tie, punching a rebound in off a shot by Matthew Lombardi to give the Coyotes a 2–1 lead heading into the third.
The Wings would get back into it however off of a goal by Johan Franzen that also snuck past Bryzgalov's short side, making the game 3–2.
Later in the third, Vrbata would propel the puck past Howard from the left faceoff circle, giving the Coyotes a 4–2 lead, which would be the final score.
Henrik Zetterberg had the final goal of the game at 16:18 minutes played in the third, with assists from Todd Bertuzzi and Brad Stuart.
Ed Jovanovski would tie the score 1–1 at 9:45 in the second period when an Adrian Aucoin shot from the point bounced off of Jimmy Howard's right pad and lay just outside the crease when Jovanowski spun around and slipped the puck in short side.
The game didn't start out well for Phoenix when they took three penalties in the first 5 minutes of the game, but Bryzgalov came up huge on the penalty kill, blanking the Red Wings on three chances including a short 5 on 3 power play and then Lauri Korpikoski scored a shorthanded goal at 4:10 of the first period and momentum in hand, Phoenix never looked back.
Taylor Pyatt added another power play goal in the third Brad Stuart and Darren Helm scored for Detroit.
1:41 seconds later, Datsyuk would score again on a breakaway that Henrik Zetterberg helped set up with a precise pass through the neutral zone during a four-on-four sequence.
Detroit killed off the disadvantage masterfully with defenseman Nicklas Kronwall blocking multiple shots and Jimmy Howard making timely saves, at the end of the disadvantage they Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle missed a Lee Stempniak pass back to the point which bounced off the boards into the neutral zone just as Detroit player, Brad Stuart was coming out of the penalty box, Stuart picked up the puck and scored on the break away, roofing the puck over Bryzgalov's right shoulder.