Arizona hockey fans had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the future when prospect Josh Doan and prospect Logan Cooley squared off in a two-game series between Arizona State and Minnesota this past weekend at Mullett Arena. Fans can also watch prospects live in the CHL, USHL or NCAA on readily available streaming options. If fans want to watch European...

The design of the play was simple. The reward for proper execution was massive. About halfway through 3-on-3 overtime against the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday at Mullett Arena, ASU coach Greg Powers called a timeout. He wanted Josh Doan to take the faceoff, but he wanted his sophomore captain to do more than just win that draw. “Center wins it forward and when he does, the winger goes,” Powers explained. “Center sends it, breakaway.” Doan won the draw to the weak side and Robert Mastrosimone went, getting in alone to score the game-winner and give ASU a 6-5 win that it needed in the worst way. https://twitter.com/shawn_depaz/status/1596728499553075201 “Another benchmark win for us,” said Powers, who apologized for…

It’s rare to see a Coyotes draft pick play in Arizona in the same season in which he was drafted.  Jakob Chychrun made the NHL roster in his draft year of 2016 and Clayton Keller played three games for the Coyotes late that same season; games in which former coach Dave Tippett humorously noted that he looked like a child on the ice.  Mikkel Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov made the NHL roster in their draft year of 2008, Kyle Turris did it in 2007, and JJ Moser did it last season.That’s it. Until the past two years.  Sort of. Which is another way of saying just how much hockey has grown in Arizona since the Coyotes’ arrival in 1996. It…

When PHNX Sports began highlighting dogs for adoption and fostering last year at Maricopa County Animal Care & Control’s east shelter in Mesa, I steeled myself for the depressing conditions at that overcrowded, underfunded, understaffed and badly outdated facility. When I stepped inside Heidi’s Village for the first time this summer, I had a “Wizard of Oz” revelation. You’re not in county anymore. Instead of rows of tiny kennels housed by psychologically deteriorating dogs who hadn’t been walked or talked to for days, I entered a bright and open campus with eight separate buildings for dogs and cats, play areas outside each of those buildings, a splash pad, an on-site veterinary clinic, an on-site groomer, training rooms and evidence of…

Coyotes fans have come to expect alternate ledes from me in these mailbags. Today’s topic is covers of songs that equaled or surpassed the original. What led me down this path? The discovery that perhaps my favorite Amy Winehouse song is a cover, not an original. More on that in a second. Anybody who knows anything about music knows that...

Up until about a week ago, you could not find odds for Matias Maccelli winning the Calder Trophy on the DraftKings Sportsbook App. This in spite of the fact that at that time, Maccelli was leading all NHL rookies in points. Before the Sunday slate of NHL games began, Maccelli was second in rookie points (10) to Seattle’s Matty Beniers (11) and first in points per game (.63) among rookies with at least five games played, yet he still wasn’t getting much love from Vegas in the race for rookie of the year. Eleven players had better odds. Odds via DraftKings “His whole career, he has had to prove people wrong,” said Dubuque Fighting Saints GM Kalle Larsson, who had…

NEW YORK — When I arrived at the new offices of the NHL in Manhattan on Nov. 10, the ominous facade of the building had me imagining dark and evil internal machinations. I imagined overbearing leaders, suffering workers, sterile gray spaces and a general feeling of oppression and hopelessness. The skyscraper that houses the offices of the NHL at 395 9th Ave. in Manhattan West. I expected to be greeted in every public space by loops of video of the high chancellor from “V for Vendetta,” threatening crackdowns on players and punishment for underperforming workers while instilling an overwhelming culture of intimidation and fear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXb_rNyknEU When I arrived at the reception desk on the ground floor, however, my amusing narrative…

NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer surprised me when I ran into him during a tour of the NHL’s offices in New York on Nov. 10. I asked Mayer when the Coyotes might host an outdoor game, but I wasn’t expecting anything more than a vague response. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman promised the Tempe City Council in June that the Valley would host an NHL All-Star Game and an NHL Draft should the team achieve its dream of building an arena along the southern bank of Rio Salado. I figured that any additional events or commitments by the league would carry the same caveat. Not only did Mayer commit to an outdoor game for the Coyotes, he said it was…

NEW YORK — The Coyotes weren’t far away from having a great road trip. They won their first three games, they were tied with the red-hot New Jersey Devils halfway through a game on Saturday, and on the back end of a back-to-back, they outshot the New York Rangers 17-3 in the first period at Madison Square Garden. They just couldn’t solve goalie Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers eventually found their legs after a pair of Coyotes turnovers to record a 4-1 win on Sunday. That left the Coyotes at a good 3-2 on this now completed five-game segment of their NHL-record tying 14-game trip. “I think we got much better,” coach André Tourigny said of the trip. “Look at…