A Phoenix Coyotes Holiday Wish List

With the holiday roster freeze coming into play Friday, I figure now is as good a time as ever for us to gather around the fire and sort out a wish list for Jolly old Saint Nick to bring the Coyotes for the upcoming New Year.  Obviously the ‘Yotes are performing well above expectations thus far but there are definitely aspects of their game and environment that needs improvement if they want to continue this success all the way until April.  So let’s take a look at what the team is asking for as they sit on Santa Claus’s lap.

1. A New Owner- Well this one was an obvious request as the team has never had a very good owner since its arrival to the desert and now it appears this wish will come true.  With Ice Edge Holdings signing a letter of intent to purchase the team, and listening to CEO Anthony LeBlanc discuss his business plan the other night, it appears this team will finally get an owner who treats them as a sports team.  The Ice Edge group has done the research and believes that the city of Phoenix can support a hockey team; all you have to do is win to attract the fans.  He compared sports fans and the team they cheer for to a relationship between a man and a woman.  If things are going right, then they will be very happy together, but if things go sour, you can bet the sports fan will not support the team and find other more exciting places to spend its money.  Hopefully Chris Cringle can get this letter of intent turned into an actual purchase so that the Coyotes can finally have someone who actually cares about them, instead of the team that’s owned by the NHL, who has way too many other issues to take care of right now.

2. FANS!!!!- Boy, oh boy, would it be nice to see some more bodies in the stands and not so many vacant red seats.  Maybe Santa will include tickets to every household in AZ so they can come and watch how much fun an NHL game really is.  The Coyotes are a defensive style hockey club now, but are still a blast to watch and if you have kids, there is no doubt in my mind they won’t enjoy Howler, who is far and away the most entertaining mascot in the league, I even laugh at his goofy face frolicking through the stands trying to get the fans on their feet howling the Coyotes on.  And I know that it is a long drive for a lot of people, on a weekday, during rush hour traffic, but the Coyotes are now offering a shuttle service to and from the game so I suggest fans take up on that and get out to Glendale to show why Phoenix deserves a team.

3.  Over 5,000,000 balloons filled with helium- Now, I’m sure Santa will laugh when he reads this request, but hear me out.  Obviously the biggest problem in getting fans to the arena is the fact that the main fan base is almost an hour drive during a weekday to get to the rink.  So my thought is to tie these balloons and try to lift the arena up from Glendale and move it to somewhere closer to the main fan base, sort of like the movie UP.  I worked at two different hockey rinks in Arizona, and the sport has grown tremendously over the years for youth players.

When I have asked why parents don’t go to many games, almost every single one of them have said it is too far of a drive for them, and with the increase strictness of DUI laws in AZ, it’s even more of a risk to even have a single adult beverage and have to drive home.  The ticket prices are the cheapest in the league, so that is not what is preventing people from going by any means, it’s the location.  And the number one rule for a successful business is… LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.  Sure the balloon theory might be a bit of a stretch, but recently the state has built a light rail to help transport people throughout downtown Phoenix and students to Arizona State University.  If they were smart they would make the light rail go out to Glendale, therefore driving will no longer be a situation for fans, therefore allowing them to consume more adult beverages, but not too much, everyone hates an overly intoxicated hockey fan.

4. A Go-To Goal Scorer- The Coyotes are defense first club now, and are doing extremely well with Ilya Bryzgalov in net and having Jason Labarbera performing well in the backup role.  Only 3 teams have allowed less goals then Phoenix.  Sadly, only 6 teams have scored less than the Coyotes so far this year.  It has been said that defense wins you hockey games, which TECHNICALLY isn’t right, defense isn’t responsible for scoring goals, it’s responsible for preventing them.  Offense scores goals, which if you don’t score goals, you can’t win the game (See how I explained the technicality?)So what the Coyotes need most for Christmas is a guy that can go out almost every night and get you that one goal that counts.

I have a feeling that the new owners will have the same feelings towards this thought and will attempt to snag a premier number one goal scorer.  The Coyotes current number one guy is Shane Doan, who is a great player, and outstanding leader, and one of the hardest working guys in the league, but is not a go to guy when a goal is needed.  The team is surrounded by guys who can provide secondary scoring every other game or so, but the Coyotes need a Dany Heatley, Vinny Lecavalier, Ilya Kovalchuck type player who will go out and get you that much needed goal to help relieve a little pressure off of Bryzgalov.  Hopefully one of the young guns such as Kyle Turris, Peter Mueller(who I will get to in a minute), Brett Maclean, or Chad Kolarik can be that guy in the future, but in order to win NOW and get the fans to come NOW, the team needs a franchise face like the earlier mentioned players above.  Hell, maybe even toss all your eggs in a basket and attempt to squeeze Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin out of Pittsburgh.  Anything is possible if the right deal comes along; remember when Gretzky got traded, TWICE???

5.  The Rookie Version of Peter Mueller- Peter Mueller is young, so let’s not get too angry with his lack of production last season and this season thus far, because guess who else took over three seasons to finally pan out to be the player every expert thought they would be?  Joe Thornton, Marty St. Louis, Jarome Iginla, and Ryan Getzlaf took a few seasons before they reached their true potential.  I’m not saying Mueller will be as good as any of them, but he will be a goal scorer who can pot 25+ a season once he gets his game back.  A concussion last year is still obviously having an effect on his play and the constant benching is obviously going to hurt the morale, but he has to use that as motivation to play better.  I still have faith in Mueller, I watched him his rookie year and the kid can be an offensive force, he just needs to regain his confidence.  Hopefully Santa can return the Mueller of old back to the Coyotes and he can help keep this team running in to the second half of the season.

And Finally…

6. A Strong Second Half and the first White Out since 2002- If anyone followed the Coyotes last year, you will know that it was after the All Star break that the team plummeted to the bottom of the standings.  They were as high up as 5th place in the West going into the All Star break and fell to 12th in their conference and 24th overall.  A lot of that had to do with such a young roster not being use to the long NHL schedule.  Now that the majority of those young players are playing in the minors to help groom them properly, and the team consists of a lot more veterans that have played this long intense schedule for a number of years, it shows promise that another free fall to the bottom of the standings is not very likely.  Don’t count it out, because it is a Phoenix based team, and Phoenix based teams are quite notorious for choking towards the end of the season, but it gives hope that maybe, just maybe the fans at Jobing.com Arena can get the pleasure of witnessing a true White Out, with the team that originated the tradition (or at least relocated from the team that came up with it).  I have faith that it will happen, and I think many Coyotes fans out there do to, after all, the Coyotes motto for numerous years has been:  BELIEVE!!

If you have any other presents you would like Santa to drop off to the Phoenix Coyotes, feel free to add them in the Comment box, and I will be sure to fax them right over to the North Pole.