Last night Arizona said goodbye to their Coyotes. They did it in winning fashion with a 5-2 win at home over the Oilers, but really who cares about one “meaningless” game. For as much as I watch hockey every night, I haven’t watched a whole lot of Coyotes games this year, but I did watch last night’s in it’s entirely on the main TV. The end of an era. And it was honestly so sad and depressing and it really brought a tear to my eye seeing the franchise come to an end, while it made me so grateful to have my pathetic, yet still very beloved Sabres here in Buffalo.
I was still in high school the last time a city lost it’s NHL team as the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg to once again become the Jets. I don’t really remember that transition much. Just that it happened. But watching this last night was so sad. Hockey in the desert has been a mainstay for a pretty long time now. Really for as long as I can remember watching hockey, even though the Yotes aren’t relatively that old of a franchise, they’ve been there. When the original Winnipeg Jets moved to Arizona to try to make hockey work in that region, it was a big unknown at the time in 1996 if that part of the country would care about hockey. And the city made it…kinda…work for 27 years. There’s still a lot of ways this franchise didn’t work. Ownership never really worked. They got sold multiple times with five different owners, almost went bankrupt, were owned by the league itself at one point, couldn’t find an arena in multiple cities, couldn’t pay hotel bills, were always rumored to move, and were really kind of a laughingstock for a long time. Even with Gretzky behind the bench at the time, generational talents like Shane Doan, and a Western Conference Finals appearance in 2012, they didn’t really sustain success over the years. But they were always there.
If it wasn’t for the Coyotes and an NHL team being there, even with their limited success, how would they have effected the hockey landscape in Arizona? Does the kid who just scored 69 goals this season that grew up in Arizona ever pick up a stick and end up being a generational talent in the NHL? Would we have ever even seen Auston Matthews or Matthew Knies develop into this talented of players? How many other kids started playing hockey watching the Yotes out there growing the game?
I wasn’t really surprised last week when it got announced that the team was moving to become a new team in Utah. But as sad and pathetic of a franchise as they’ve been for so long, even playing in an embarrassing 5,000 seat college rink, it’s still even more sad seeing that city lose that franchise. The whole situation fucking sucks for those fans out there to lose their National Hockey League team. No matter how you look at it.
It does really make suck for the fans, but from an ownership perspective for the league, it completely makes sense that they’re gone. Current Coyotes owner, Alex Meruelo has been horrendous as an owner for a professional team. This team got kicked out of Gila River Arena when they couldn’t pay the lease there, they couldn’t pay hotel bills, they couldn’t solidify plans for a new arena in Scottsdale, Tempe, and wherever else they were rumored to be looking at land. But even more so it’s been embarrassing for hockey in the desert lately. They threw out their best franchise player, Shane Doan’s banner when they left Gila River Arena, such disrespect for the player that essentially built that organization. They played the last two seasons out of a college barn on Arizona State’s campus. How shitty did that have to be for players to be in the show and have to play in that joke of a 5,000 seat arena. It’s pathetic that a professional franchise was run the way it was, and that comes from ownership. Meruelo got a five year hold on the team in Arizona to “restart” the Coyotes as an expansion franchise down the line. So here’s to hope that five years down the line from now, Arizona gets their team back in expansion with a new ownership group.
Moving to Salt Lake City likely is a great move though for the league. Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith will take over relaunching this team in Salt Lake as a new franchise. That region is the fourth fastest growing city in the country and although you wouldn’t think it was a hockey town, you never know how that shakes out and for growing the game it could be something huge. People didn’t think hockey would work in Vegas and now the defending Cup Champs have one of the most rabid fan bases in the league. Seattle’s thriving with their Kraken despite a lack of success two of the last three years. Growing the beautiful game of hockey in more and more places in the United States is so huge, and who knows, the next Auston Matthews could come out of the Salt Lake City area in 15 years.
What this move really did to me though, and it didn’t hit me until I watched last night’s game, and more so the post game with the players and organization on the ice saying goodbye to the state of Arizona, was it made me see how lucky I am to still have my favorite team. The Sabres have a lot of comparisons to the Yotes. We’ve been a complete joke for a decade and a half. Haven’t made the playoffs in 13 years, just perpetually mediocre or just downright bad. But we have them. They’re here. The last few years I’ve heard people say that they wouldn’t really care if the team got sold and moved with the lack of success, but I strongly disagree. We’re blessed to have a National Hockey League franchise here and although we haven’t had anything to cheer for the last decade, there’s still that hope for the future, and I still love that I have my team. Let’s Go Buffalo.
It’s 1:34 AM as I’m finishing this blog up. It felt good to write one like this again. Guess I’ll publish it in the morning.
Yotes Forever.
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