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…

NEW YORK — When the New Jersey Devils fired GM Ray Shero on Jan. 12, 2020, the team was in last place (17-21-7) in the Metropolitan Division and had qualified for the playoffs just once in his tenure. Despite the offseason acquisitions of PK Subban and Wayne Simmonds, the Devils couldn’t replicate the formula that had led to a surprising 44-29-9 record and the end of a five-year playoff drought in 2017-18. “We don’t do these things lightly,” Devils managing partner Josh Harris told reporters after replacing Shero with assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald. “We take a long-term approach, but the reality is [Shero] is in [his] fifth season and made the Stanley Cup playoffs once and it was just time…

After the Tempe City Council voted to move forward with negotiations for the Arizona Coyotes proposed arena and entertainment district, it will now be voted on by the citizens in a special election. HBO Hard Knocks featuring the Arizona Cardinals and the struggles Steve Keim, Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray have experienced this season are featured throughout the TV series. The Phoenix Suns debut their new City Edition jerseys with Native American inspired themes. Join Makayla Perkins and Chierstin Susel or another episode of THE Phoenix Sports Podcast! 0:00 Intro 1:10 Welcome to the Show! 3:45 Calley Temperature Check 3:50 Updates on the Coyotes’ Arena 18:10 Coyotes are a wagon? 19:50 Say Whaaaaat? 20:00 Arizona Cardinals: Hard Knocks, Budda Baker…

NEW YORK — When the New York Islanders advanced to the Stanley Cup semifinals in 2020 and 2021, team staff had to make do with less-than-ideal accommodations at outdated Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. The nearly 50-year-old building didn’t have enough seats, it didn’t have enough suites, it didn’t have any hospitality areas to speak of, its few amenities were badly outdated and its press box, while close to the playing surface, was ill-suited for the volume and needs of modern-day broadcasters and digital/print media. As the Tempe City Council was busy voting on Thursday to send the Coyotes’ proposed arena and entertainment district to referendum in May, however, the Coyotes’ players, coaches, management and training staffs were getting a close-up…

The Colorado Avalanche, the Edmonton Oilers, the Toronto Maple Leafs and… the Arizona Coyotes. The first three teams are logical choices when you think of elite power-play units in the NHL. The last one? Not so much, yet 11 games into the season, that is exactly where the rebuilding Coyotes find themselves, ranked fifth in the NHL with 11 power-play...