DesertRatWingsFan

Once again, I would attribute a good share of the trouble filling seats with moving the rink out to the middle of nowhere and then charging high ticket prices. I am Very happy with how the Yotes have looked throughout this young season. I watch and or listen to most coyote games, but just can't make it out to the west side a couple times a month with times as rough as they are now. I will be at the arena to see the Wings on Thursday, so hopefully they give us a run for our money and make it a good game.

I hope you are defending Detroit and not those fake ass commercial products...

That was the best line I have read in a while.

Yup, you have to give it to Iginla. That guy is a true leader, and has earned it. Crosby is just a trendy marketing ploy, and has not proven that he is mature enough. You earn things like that over the course of at least 5 seasons, not because Buttman licks your balls like your the messiah.

I have to unfoutunately agree that it is hard to sell hockey in Phoenix. Not because its a desert, but because there are a lot of transplants here. As i said in the "NHL as a product" thread, the team needs to be better to pull people in and get them hooked. Selling todays Coyotes is like trying to sell someone a s*** sandwich. They also really f***ed up when they put the arena in California to save a little dough on land. The fact of the matter is, that most of the existing hockey fans seem to live in the East Valley. Maybe if the city's could get their heads out of their fiscal asses and get the rail going out to Westgate it would make a difference, but who knows. I am glad that they are staying but without some major reform I am afraid that it wont amount to much. Bottom line is, Wayne needs to go, something has to be done about location, and the team needs to contend. When they contend people get interested, I have seen it. You simply aren't going to pull transplant fans from their old teams without some success.

Another point to be made is that i don't think that people like myself that grew up watching hard nose, old school hockey and enjoyed that style of play will be as willing to transition to the new soft play. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy the fast break stretch passes and the like that happen in todays game. I do miss the physical element though. I know that hockey of any kind or brand is physical, but i mean the old Probert and Grimson days. There was a clip on here of Stevie Y hooking it out, and at the end Probert sent the dude a message on the end of a diving uppercut. Those were the days... Maybe that makes me a caveman or something but nonetheless, it was entertaining.

Huskies hit that one on the head. Although we enjoy seeing the Wings be successful year after year, it is not necessarily what the league wants. Especially when they are trying to hype up the pens, and we took the cup from them last year. Put yourselves in his shoes. They want the pens to be the face of the league, in a rematch like there was this year thats reason enough to dislike the Wings. When we were having limited success in the late 90s with JR and Tkachuck the Yotes were really starting to take off. Even when Gretzky was announced as head coach there was a lot of excitement. As you said though, if the team was a little better it would help bring people in. Sadly enough as was said on this board in the thread on the coyotes moving, they play 82 away games a year. The flip side of that is that there are a lot of transplant hockey fans here. They simply need a team that they can gather around and be proud of.

Once again proof that the NHL = WWE! They should just call the pens the Pittsburgh Michael Jordans.

I could not agree more. Oz had it going on this SCF. He left it all on the ice, all but a few of his teammates just didnt want it enough.

I think that "protecting the stars" has already taken effect. Thats what the "New NHL" amounts to. It is quite obvious that the Officials were effecting the outcome of games all playoffs, and in the regular season to a lesser degree. Bettman obviously was pulling for the pens, and has a dislike for Detroit. The list goes on and on. I think that its time for the NHL to go Bye-Bye, and then maybe we can look forward to a REAL league. Its the last thing i want to see happen, but the NHL has almost gone beyond the point of no return. I hope that they can get rid of Bettman and pull someone in that really knows what they are doing and does not go with the old Michael Jordan formula, because that is not what hockey fans want to see. I hope that I can stomach the NHL next yeah but with the coyotes leaving in the next couple of years its looking pretty bleak here in the desert.

Hey there all. I just found this site a few weeks ago, and have been lurking. I had to join right now though because i just cant believe the horribly biased officiating in this whole series but most of all in this game 7. I have been watching hockey for my whole life and have not seen this kind of bull s*** since the great one would get these kind of Jordan Rules calls. It makes me sick. When did the Ducks draft these zebras anyways?