I am not sure how to start this Coyotes op-ed. It does not seem as easy as it was to write my novel. In novels when people get hurt, it is not real. In professional sports when fan bases get shredded daily by a barrage of mean-spirited, self-serving and uneducated outsiders while the team that they cheer for is silently sitting…
When you cover the Coyotes, there is no offseason. While Canadian writers retreat to their summer cottages on lakes, and American writers use up all those accrued Marriott points, the news keeps flowing in the desert in what we now call arena season. This summer may turn out to be the most extreme example of that annual tradition. In order…...
There are four confirmed facts that impact the future of the Coyotes in Arizona. First, team president and CEO Xavier A. Gutierrez confirmed on Friday that the team is not for sale. Second, a league source confirmed this week that the NHL has no desire or plan to force owner Alex Meruelo to sell the team. Third, despite reports to…
The atmosphere at the Four Peaks tasting room in Tempe was festive on Tuesday night. The Tempe Wins campaign and its supporters were confident that good news was coming in the special election that would decide the fate of the Coyotes’ proposed arena and entertainment district along the south bank of the Salt River. They were confident that two-plus decades of…
For 23 of the Coyotes’ 26 seasons in the Valley, arena location has been a crippling handicap to their financial and on-ice success. On Tuesday, the Coyotes may finally put those struggles to rest. In a special election for propositions 301, 302 and 303, Tempe voters will decide the fate of the Coyotes’ proposed arena and entertainment district along the…
The most critical date in Coyotes history is five days away. All of the eligible mail-in ballots have been sent. The drop-off ballots are still coming in. We won’t know the tenor of those ballots before 8 p.m. on Tuesday, but one thing is clear: Tempe voters are turning out in record numbers for the special election for propositions 301,…
Coyotes fans have grown so accustomed to disappointment at the NHL Draft Lottery that Monday’s events felt like a relief. Ottawa remained at the No. 12 draft position instead of jumping into the top five and robbing Arizona of the Senators’ 2023 pick. On top of that, the Coyotes held at their own No. 6 position in a lottery that…
Many of you have mildly chastised me for the tenor of my Coyotes NHL Draft Lottery previews this week, noting that they were awash in negativity while also dwelling too much in the past. Some of you even threatened not to read them. I get it, but as the great writer Saul Bellow noted, “The truth comes in blows.” I…
Coyotes captain Connor Bedard. It has a nice ring to it, in an alliteration kind of way. Just don’t hold your breath on ever being able to utter that phrase, unless you run a certain Twitter account. https://twitter.com/BillArmstrongGM/status/1653952135896104960 We all know that the Coyotes’ lottery luck has not been good. We all know that Mullett magic ruined the probabilities of…
There will come a year when we won’t have to add another family member to the Coyotes’ long lineage of lousy lottery luck. The law of averages dictates it. This is not to suggest that the Coyotes are alone in their suffering. The Columbus Blue Jackets, this season’s second-worst team in the standings, have their own demons to slay. The…
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