The Press in Arizona | Small loss, big win for the Coyotes

(TEMPE, AZ) If anyone knows pain, it’s Charles Lutz. He’s a lifelong Coyotes fan, a hockey fan long before that. “I’ve been here since 1971, I was here in the days of the Roadrunners in the WHA! “, he said, proudly, in the corridors of the Mullett Arena, Friday evening.

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

For additional proof, his jersey of Robert Esche, who kept the goals in the early 2000s around here. But also, the many pins that adorn his sweater. “That one is from the Coyotes’ first year. I have one from the Jets here, another one here,” he points out.

All this for a club that has participated in the playoffs once in 10 years, 4 times in 20 years. A club which, over time, was sent to Hamilton, Quebec and Houston, which today plays in an arena that is so out of the ordinary that the Players’ Association had to send Ron Hainsey to make sure everything was fit for this game.

So how is it to love this team?

“Being a Coyotes fan is a long story of stress, psychotherapy and visits to the shrink! he replies. He puts a bit of it, but we understand the idea.

Collegial atmosphere

For one evening, the Coyotes fans no longer had to be embarrassed. They no longer had to be ashamed, to justify why they lined up behind this club of unloved people.

It was true even though in the end it was the Winnipeg Jets who came away with the win, 3-2 in overtime. It’s the kind of evening where the stakes exceeded two points in the standings.

A bit like the fans of the Alouettes in 1997, who discovered a real football atmosphere while moving from the Olympic stadium to the Percival-Molson stadium, the hockey fans of Arizona have reconnected with an atmosphere worthy of the name. The crowd of 5,000 was not NHL-sized, but the atmosphere was.

Everything was there to please the crowd, starting with the ceremonial face-off. The guests ? Shane Doan, who played 1,466 games in a Coyotes uniform. And his son, Josh, captain of the Arizona State University Sun Devils, who the Coyotes will share Mullett Arena with for the next three seasons, minimum.

“We have excellent ambassadors like Shane Doan. You can’t listen to him and not be sold on his idea, ”says Jack Johnson, not the singer or the defenseman of the Blackhawks, but rather a young man in his mid-twenties, just happy to be here with his friend.

For this inaugural game in their new home, the Coyotes went all out. In addition to inviting the hockey royals here, they left a wig worthy of Beaudoin’s hair on each seat in Cruising Bar, a nod to the name of their new home (“mullet” means “cut Longueuil”, in English).

There was also Cameron Hughes, famous fanatic that we see in stadiums and arenas, who dances like a madman while removing a dozen t-shirts one after the other. He gave the performance of a lifetime; 10 minutes later, in the elevator, he was still pumping oil.

Without forgetting the borrowings made from college hockey, starting with the percussionists who play the drums in the student section, behind the net defended twice by the Jets. The four drummers are not members of the university marching band, to be precise. They work for a private company. “I’ve never been to college. That’s why I’m a professional drummer! “says Tyler, self-deprecating.

The Coyotes open the scoring as we pass behind them. The crowd howls, the drums resound. “It feels a lot less empty here than in Glendale,” says Tyler, all smiles.

The Coyotes double their lead in the 16th^e minute. “He shoots, he scores, hey goalie, you suck! the students shout in unison. (Free translation: he throws, he counts, hey goalkeeper, you suck!)

The cries start again after each penalty taken by the Jets. “You can’t do that” (you don’t have the right to do that), shout the academics.

Optimism

The questions about the size of the locker rooms, the grumbles heard here and there about the NHL standards to be respected… For three hours, all that was forgotten.

In fact, that was forgotten until Blake Wheeler, unfazed by his game-winning goal, spoke to the media after the game. How was the atmosphere? “It was okay. Did that remind you of your college days? “I was playing in front of 10,000 people. »

Pierre-Luc Dubois, author of the decisive pass on the goal of Wheeler, was more jovial. “There are locker rooms in the NHL where one or two guys sit in a chair. Here, at least, everyone is on a chair! It could be worse. We are still lucky to play in the National League, regardless of the arena, ”sums up the Quebecer.

At the Coyotes, no one misses the games in Glendale. It might be an NHL amphitheater, but the many empty seats weighed on everyone’s spirits.

The evening was far from perfect. The promiscuity of the place meant that we had an obstructed view as soon as the crowd got up. The music manager clearly did not know, in the first period, that he had to weigh in on the break once the face-off had taken place. The traffic was laborious, the security guards, not really aware of their mandate. We had the misfortune to go through a restricted area to get to the Jets post-game interviews. Security let us through, but Jets coach Brad Lauer’s murderous gaze said it all. We made it, finally.

Whatever. In the post-game press briefings, it was pretty much all about the festive, intimate atmosphere of the Coyotes’ new home. So much so that spectators should almost be reminded not to get too attached to this arena, because the goal remains to return to a room where they will be 15,000, not 5,000.

“We want to be the new Tampa of the NHL. The Lightning played in an airport hangar and today is one of the best franchises, ”recalled Coyotes CEO Bill Armstrong in a press briefing the day before the game.

The goal is ambitious. It requires an adequate amphitheater, but also sustained success on the rink. Two areas where the Coyotes have failed for too long.

But supporters believe it. Even Charles Lutz, our friend in the Robert Esche sweater.

“To be a Coyotes fan, you have to be resilient. A coyote roams the desert to find food. He sleeps when he can, where he can.

“There, we will sleep in Tempe. »