It's amazing Hall had the edge and energy. For most of the game he looked like someone who hadn't played in a week and hadn't slept much the night before, which, of course, he was.
Hall's last game was with the New Jersey Devils at the Dallas Stars on Dec. 10. The Devils scratched him at the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 13 and at Arizona on Dec. 14 as a precaution while working on a trade.
After the Devils traded Hall Monday afternoon, he flew overnight to San Jose on a private plane sent by Coyotes minority owner Andrew Barroway. He didn't arrive until 7:30 a.m. PT. He had breakfast, rode the bus, skated for about 15 minutes with about a dozen of his new teammates, went back to the hotel and took a pregame nap.
"I think he maybe had four hours' sleep," coach Rick Tocchet said.
Hall pulled on No. 91, signifying his birth year, a number he had never worn before, and went through a new warmup routine. He played left wing on a line with center Christian Dvorak and forward Phil Kessel, and on the first power play unit with Ekman-Larsson, Dvorak, Kessel and center Clayton Keller. In 18:22 of ice time, he had one shot on goal.
"I didn't feel great, but that's hockey," Hall said. "I just wanted to be a part of the group, get that first game kind of over with. It's great to get a win. That's what we're here to do. It wasn't pretty, but they're not always going to be masterpieces. Find a way to make an impact. Find a way to win a game."
The Coyotes were tied for 24th in the NHL in scoring (2.69 goals per game) at the time of the trade. They needed a player like Hall, who won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in 2017-18, to help them generate three goals instead of two like he did here.
"He does it all, right?" Ekman-Larsson said. "It's not one thing that I would say that he's good at. It's a lot of things, and he showed it. Like, good forecheck, good speed, made a good play under pressure. So yeah, I think we're going to see a lot of that."