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Puck_Pun

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    Coyotes New Owner: "We Are Staying in the Desert"

    in Arizona Coyotes

    Posted

    Sell out games a possibility on the horizon

     

    Link

     

    Report: Coyotes working on deal to play at 5,000-seat arena at ASU

     

    The Arizona Coyotes are working on a multi-year deal to play next season at Arizona State University’s yet-to-be-completed 5,000-seat arena, according to a report by Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports.

     

    Morgan reported that the Coyotes would play in the arena, which appears to not have had naming rights sold for it, for the next three to four years while construction on an as-yet-approved arena in nearby Tempe is completed.

     

    The 5,000-seat capacity would be by far the lowest in the NHL. Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg currently has the lowest official capacity, at 15,294.

     

    NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Morgan in an email, “While we have arena standards, we would approach the entire situation in a way intended to accommodate the club’s needs in effectuating a successful transition to a new venue. While there may very well be some, I can’t think of any hard and fast rules that couldn’t be relaxed to accommodate what is necessary.” He added, when Morgan asked specifically about approving a move to an arena with such a small capacity, “depends on the totality of circumstances, but I wouldn’t rule it out.”

     

    When contacted by Sportsnet, a Coyotes spokesman replied with the statement, “As we have said many times, we are completely committed to building our future in Arizona. As part of that process, we are excited to be exploring some great temporary arena options here before we move in to a new permanent home in the Valley.”

     

    The NHLPA told Morgan a few issues must be sorted out before the move.

     

    “The Coyotes’ anticipated move in 2022-23 from Gila River Arena in Glendale to a temporary Arizona venue raises a number of matters that the league and the NHLPA will need to work through,” a spokesperson for the NHLPA said. “Ideally, these matters will be sorted out well in advance of next season.”

     

    The Coyotes have the third-lowest attendance in the league, averaging 11,575 per game, above only the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres.

     

    The new arena, which is just east of Sun Devil Stadium, is projected to open this fall and is still under construction. According to AZCentral.com, the new arena is intended to be the home to the Arizona State University NCAA Division I hockey team, “wrestling and women’s gymnastics and be a venue for concerts, conferences, youth competitions and other events.”

     

    Morgan added that because of NCAA rules, the Coyotes would have to construct their own team-specific areas, such as dressing rooms, training facilities, etc. A source estimated to Morgan that the cost to the Coyotes for the additions would be $15 million to $20 million.

     

    The Coyotes have been leasing Gila River Arena on an annual basis since the Glendale City Council voted to opt out of a multimillion-dollar long-term deal in 2016. Glendale announced recently that it will not renew its agreement with the franchise beyond the 2021-22 season.

     

    The Coyotes have played at Gila River Arena since moving from America West Arena, which they shared with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns in downtown Phoenix, in 2003.

     

    In September, the Coyotes proposed the $1.7-billion development in Tempe, a city just east of Phoenix, that included a hockey arena, restaurants, shops and apartments on a 46-acre tract of land near the city’s downtown. The proposal was in danger of not getting enough votes to pass, Morgan previously reported.

    OK, I've had it!

    in Philadelphia Flyers

    Posted

    A rebuild should be the next move. Look at Ottawa, at the beginning of the season they announced they're out of rebuild mode after several bad years and look at them go! Hmm bad analogy. 

     

    But yeah, to be serious it's needed. I remember a couple of years ago someone here shared an article describing the flyers as "consistently mediocre". The point made was that they never got to be terrible but never really were a threat in terms of making playoff runs, they just kinda floated in that middle zone. I think this is the eventual result, not enough planning in a long term sense has cost them.

     

    I guess the question is whether the GM can pull off a long term plan to pull apart and put the team back together, and whether ownership will have the patience to let him enact it

    • Like 1

    Sport that's incredibly niche in Australia starting pro league in smallest city available

    in Around the NHL

    Posted

    11 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

     

    The four major North America pro sports are:

    • Football
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Hockey

    Since the NHL is based out of North America, and represents the game of hockey at its highest professional level, they get to set the name, and it's hockey. Just hockey. Field hockey is a high school level game (usually played by girls). 

     

    The soccer vs football comparison doesn't hold because you have professional football in Europe and you have professional football in the US, and they're completely different games. The term soccer was created to avoid confusion between the two. 

     

    When you talk about professional level hockey, there is no confusion. When you say hockey you are referring to the NHL game and that's it. There are no other professional hockey leagues playing it wildly different in other parts of the globe.

     

    I imagine it's as irritating as someone referring to the NFL as "American football" every time... to American football fans. (Who probably look over and scowl.) 

     

    :)

     

     

    Field hockey is played at the Olympics, Australia regularly medals for it

    Sport that's incredibly niche in Australia starting pro league in smallest city available

    in Around the NHL

    Posted

    1 hour ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

     

     

    Unless/until the day comes when the game of hockey is played on anything other than ice at its highest level, people (and by people I mean anyone who isn't Canadian) are hereby ordered to stop referring to the game of hockey with the word "ice" in front of it.  NOBODY in Canada calls it that. It's just HOCKEY. 

     

    (End rant.)

    😡

     

    In Australia hockey refers to field hockey. 

     

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_hockey

     

    I guess you would agree with the creators of soccer and only refer to it as football? 

    • Like 1

    League refuses to delay games for covid ravaged senators

    in Ottawa Senators

    Posted

    https://ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/ottawa-senators/garrioch-nhl-wont-postpone-games-as-covid-ravaged-senators-set-to-face-penguins

     

    Despite nine players in COVID-19 protocol and the club’s lineup also ravaged by a growing number of injuries, the Senators will close out this home stand with back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday and the Calgary Flames on Sunday at the Canadian Tire Centre, as the NHL is unwilling to shut down the Senators.

     

    The Penguins have had COVID-19 concerns of their own and will likely be without captain Sidney Crosby.

     

    The good news is the Senators didn’t place any more players into protocol on Friday. That’s the first time in five days that’s happened, so maybe there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

     

    The league instructed the Senators to cancel practice for the third time this week on Friday to try to stop the spread of the virus. Despite efforts by the Senators to have games postponed until several players have the ability to get back on their feet, it doesn’t appear the NHL is in any mood to make changes.

     

    The indication is that, as much as the NHL head office has sympathy for the club’s situation, the league doesn’t want to reschedule games unless the Senators have almost no players left to recall.

     

    Nikita Zaitsev was added to the list of players on COVID protocol that includes Austin Watson, Matt Murray, Dylan Gambrell, Connor Brown, Alex Formenton, Victor Mete, Josh Brown and Nick Holden, along with associate coach Jack Capuano.

     

    The Senators learned of Zaitsev’s positive test 40 minutes before the their 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. He’ll likely have another two tests to confirm he’s positive. Brown and Gambrell weren’t confirmed positive until they had two more tests, so we’ll see where this goes with Zaitsev, Murray and Formenton.

     

    The good news is Watson, the first player to enter protocol, can rejoin the team Wednesday.

     

    Until there’s four days without a staff member or player being found positive with COVID-19, the Senators are being tested daily at the rink. Veteran defenceman Michael Del Zotto told TSN’s Claire Hanna after the first period against the Kings that players were tested twice on game day because of the way the virus is spreading.

     

    Already short on the blue line with Zaitsev, Holden, Mete and Josh Brown out, the Senators then lost Artem Zub early in the game to an upper-body injury. His status for the game against the Penguins isn’t known — since there wasn’t a skate, we’ll have to see which defencemen are on the ice on Saturday to see who’s available.

     

    After calling up Dillon Heatherington and Lassi Thomson to suit up against the Kings, the Senators have only three defencemen left in the organization that are under contract. Only Belleville’s Jacob Bernard-Docker and Max Guenette are eligible to be recalled because the only other blue-liner available, Jonathan Aspirot, is injured.

     

    Belleville was so desperate for help it had to sign defencemen Cody Goloubef and Chaz Reddekopp to 25-game tryouts Friday. The club will also play back-to-back games this weekend.

     

    The NHL has been reticent to postpone games because of the compressed schedule and the fact the league wants players to be at the Olympics in Beijing in February. The San Jose Sharks just released seven players and four staff members — including head coach Bob Boughner — from COVID-19 protocol on Friday.

     

    The feeling has always been the league doesn’t want to postpone games for teams experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks because they don’t want to set a precedent. It’s believed the Senators have told the league they’d just like the opportunity to stop the spread, but it appears to be falling on deaf ears at the league level.

     

    Thursday’s game went ahead because the Kings were in town, they wanted to play the game and Los Angeles doesn’t make another trip to eastern Canada again this season. While the Kings will play the Western Canadian teams, getting them back to Ottawa again this year would have caused some difficulty with the schedule.

     

    Health and safety has to be the first priority, but clearly the NHL isn’t concerned about possible spread to opponents. If it was, it wouldn’t allow these games to continue. Still, if the club’s four home dates and road game in the next week had to be rescheduled, there are days available in the coming months to make it feasible.

     

    The Senators are quite rightfully concerned about their ability to compete, but they put their best foot forward against the Kings.

     

    Give the Senators credit — they did everything they could to keep the Kings at bay, and if Ottawa had gotten a bounce or two, the result may have been different. But when the Senators look back at this stretch at the end of the season, they’ll wonder what would have happened if this outbreak hadn’t taken place.

     

    The task doesn’t get any easier with the Penguins coming to town, but the NHL wants the Senators to keep on playing.

     

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