Tag: Arizona Coyotes

Maple Leafs’ tying goal was wiped off the board on a controversial, confusing hand pass ruling

This was a tough one to swallow for the Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs may not have deserved to win this game, but a controversial official ruling cost them a chance to try.

On Monday, the Maple Leafs were playing host to the winless Arizona Coyotes in an early season bout. Through two periods, the Maple Leafs looked listless as the Coyotes built a 2-0 lead on their opponents, but Toronto made a furious comeback in the third to tie the game.

After Shayne Gostisbehere regained the lead for the Coyotes on a power play with less than two minutes remaining, things were looking dire for the Maple Leafs. With 39 seconds left in the game, however, Alexander Kerfoot seemingly tied up the game for the Maple Leafs with a stellar goal. Unfortunately, the goal wouldn’t stand as Morgan Rielly was called for a hand pass just before Kerfoot’s tally.

Wait, what? Sure, Rielly does stop the puck with his hand, but to call a hand pass — intentionally directing the puck to a teammate — in that situation feels quite absurd. Here’s how the NHL’s rulebook defines a hand pass.

That’s a rough one to take right there. The Coyotes ended up beating the Maple Leafs 4-2 thanks to the controversial call, a wound that will certainly sting until the two teams meet again in late December on ESPN+.

Maple Leafs fans were not happy about the call, to say the least.

The Coyotes’ front office wore matching blueberry suits to the NHL Draft and fans crushed them

They’re gonna like the way they look. It was guaranteed.

While they had a top-three pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, the Coyotes have had better days lately. Let’s walk it back for a second.

First, they lost their lease with Glendale Arena. Then, Arizona State (yes, a college) mandated that the team share logos on center ice with their squad. Throw in their seventh losing season in the last decade, and Arizona pro hockey might genuinely be on edge.

The man tasked with revitalizing the Coyotes, Bill Armstrong, has different aspirations. Armstrong took over as Arizona’s GM in 2020, knowing he’d have a significant on-ice rebuild ahead of him.

Before Armstrong and his front office brain trust made their top-three selection official in this year’s, he and his crew wore identical blueberry suits to the festivities:

Can you imagine all the calls they had to make the night before to ensure they all wore the same thing? What a headache.

Arizona State, Coyotes will reportedly have both logos at center ice. Here’s how it will work

The Coyotes and Arizona State will reportedly share center ice space with one another.

The Arizona Coyotes and Arizona State University will reportedly share the space at center ice for both of their logos when the NHL team plays at the multipurpose college arena next season.

According to a report from 12 News’s Cameron Cox — and first reported by Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports — Arizona State and the Coyotes will both have their logos represented at center ice. The clarification comes a day after a report from The Athletic stated that the Coyotes would not be able to use their logo at center ice, alongside having a “good behavior clause” that would allow the college to back out of the deal.

Starting in the 2022-23 season, the Coyotes will play their home games at Arizona State after their deal with the city of Glendale fell through. Here’s Arizona State’s statement on the joint center ice logo.

“We will have both the Coyotes and ASU logos on center ice. The Coyotes are prohibited from including any of their other normal in-ice branding. They are also prevented from digitally covering up our logo on their broadcasts.”

Though the Coyotes will have their logo at center ice alongside Arizona State’s, we do not yet know what form it will take. Also, the Coyotes will be unable to put their branding on the ice outside of the center ice logo and will not be allowed to change, alter, or hide Arizona State’s logo or branding.

Only time will tell how the college arena’s center ice logo incorporates both Arizona State and the Coyotes into the mix.

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Arizona State won’t let the Coyotes use their logo at center ice in their embarrassing arena deal

The Coyotes will be under a “good behavior” clause while playing at ASU.

The Arizona Coyotes new arena deal gets more embarrassing by the day.

In case you missed it, the Coyotes will be playing their home hockey games for the foreseeable future at Arizona State University after their previous arena deal with the city of Glendale fell through. Yes, a professional NHL team will be playing 41 games a year in a college hockey arena for at least multiple seasons.

On Tuesday, a report from The Athletic‘s Katie Strang and Sean Shapiro outlined a “good behavior” clause for the Coyotes and owner Alex Meruelo. In said clause, if the Coyotes become part of a public scandal or do anything untoward that reflects poorly on the ASU brand, the school will be able to back out of the deal.

In The Athletic’s report, the clause states that anything that violates “widely held principles of public morality, failing to conduct its business affairs with a high degree of integrity and honesty and/or failing to act as a good corporate citizen” would be cause for the agreement’s termination.

That’s… rough.

The Coyotes have a history of having a less than favorable reputation across the league, from skimping on rent payments to the city of Glendale to knowingly drafting a player who admitted to racially abusing a teammate. Arizona eventually walked that pick back and forfeited it after the backlash from the hockey world at large.

Also of note in this report is that the Coyotes won’t even be able to use their logo at center ice in Arizona State’s arena!

In-ice advertising will be a revenue source for Arizona State, and the Coyotes aren’t allowed to modify the look of the ice surface – including the Arizona State logo at center ice — on broadcasts to protect ASU’s permanent advertisers in the building. It is noted that this doesn’t and shouldn’t impact opposing broadcasts filming at ASU.

While the Coyotes can control the — temporary — branding of the scoreboard and arena boards, the team will have to get approval for any alcohol or beer advertisements and are limited in which sponsors they can partner with.

Look, I get that the Coyotes came into this deal with no leverage whatsoever, but this arena deal becomes more and more embarrassing to the team and the NHL every time it’s in the news. What a shambolic organization.

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25 franquicias que pudiste haber olvidado que cambiaron de ciudad

Dato curioso que puede no sepas si estĂĄs leyendo esto,equipos como Oklahoma City Thunder y Washington Nationals no existĂ­an en sus versiones actuales. Fun fact that you may not know if you’re reading this: Up until fairly recently, teams like the …

Dato curioso que puede no sepas si estĂĄs leyendo esto,equipos como Oklahoma City Thunder y Washington Nationals no existĂ­an en sus versiones actuales.

Fun fact that you may not know if you’re reading this: Up until fairly recently, teams like the  didn’t exist in their current versions.

Esta lista es para tĂ­ si olvidaste que unos equipos se mudaron y de dĂłnde. Veamos cuales son las franquicios que se mudaron de la NFL, NBA, NHL y MLB:

 

A mic’d up Drew Doughty delightfully talks golf handicaps with Clayton Keller before a faceoff

LOL.

Ah, mic’d up moments. Good in any sport.

And this one from the NHL is perfect: The Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes played earlier this week and Kings defenseman Drew Doughty had a mic on him.

What was captured was a delight: Doughty had a pre-faceoff chat with Coyotes winger Clayton Keller and asked what the forward’s golf handicap was. Keller said he was a scratch golfer (!) and Doughty claimed a 7.

“Let’s play!”

Isn’t that so perfect? Right in the middle of a game! No chirping, just an honest, casual chat about hitting the links with an opponent. Love it:

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The Arizona Coyotes vs. the city of Glendale and a possible Gila River Arena lockout, explained

How is this happening?

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. You may have seen some stuff about the Arizona Coyotes and how they might get locked out of their home at Gila River Arena. If you’ve wondered what’s up with that, we’re here to help.

Yep, that’s right. An NHL franchise was actually threatened over being locked out by its own home arena. It’s kind of wild for the Coyotes and another chapter in a book full of woes for the franchise.

But how is this all happening? Let’s dive in:

The winners and losers of the Jesperi Kotkaniemi offer sheet saga

Jesperi Kotkaniemi is now a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Montreal Canadiens have not matched the Carolina Hurricanes’ offer sheet for Jesperi Kotkaniemi, making this the first successful acquisition of a player via offer sheet in the NHL since Dustin Penner in 2007.

It’s exciting times in the NHL when we get to talk offer sheets, considering their rarity in terms of usage, even more-so in terms of their success rates. In return for signing Kotkaniemi to a one-year, $6.1 million deal, the Hurricanes have sent their first and third round picks in the 2022 NHL Draft to the Canadiens as compensation.

It’s a steep price to pay on a one-year deal for a 21-year-old third overall pick from 2018 who has yet to really break out at the NHL level. And yet, if things work out right for the Hurricanes, snagging Kotkaniemi could be quite the steal for just a handful of draft picks.

Now that this offer sheet saga has come to an end, let’s take a look at the winners and losers of this whole affair because… this is quite a complicated one!

The Arizona Coyotes are suddenly facing even more arena drama after Glendale’s decision

The Coyotes are running out of chances to get this right.

The 2021-22 season will be the last for the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale.

On Thursday, the city of Glendale told the Coyotes that they are pulling out of their joint lease agreement with the franchise, meaning Gila River Arena — the team’s home since 2003 — will no longer be usable to the team after June 30, 2022. The team’s administrative space, which also resides in Gila River Arena, will have to be vacated as well come next June as the team scrambles to find a new home.

The writing has been on the wall for the Coyotes and the city of Glendale for some time, considering in 2016 the Glendale City Council opted out of a long-term agreement with the club, instead renewing the lease on a year-to-year basis. Still, the news is nonetheless a painful blow to the Coyotes franchise and their fans, as this feels like yet another step back for a team that has never really gotten off the ground.

The Coyotes woes as a franchise stretch back to its days as the original Winnipeg Jets, which moved to Arizona in 1996 after financial troubles couldn’t keep the team in Canada. The financial issues would continue to plague the Coyotes over the years, as in 2009 then-owner Jerry Moyes turned the franchise over to the league after declaring bankruptcy.

Though the Coyotes eventually stopped the bleeding and maintained their status as a NHL franchise, Arizona has never ceased being a handful of steps behind other teams in the league. From ownership issues to former general manager John Chayka’s abrupt resignation and then suspension from the league due to pursuing opportunities with other clubs while still under contract with the Coyotes to their arena situation, nothing has gone right for this franchise from an off-ice perspective.

And those issues have bleed into the team’s on-ice performance as well. As of 2021, the Coyotes are the oldest franchise to never play in a Stanley Cup Final. Arizona has made the playoffs just once in the last nine seasons, and have seen nine playoff runs total since moving to the desert in 1996. In the past, the Coyotes have garnered a reputation of taking on other team’s bad or unplayable contracts in an effort to get to the salary cap floor, not to build a competitive hockey team.

Their roster for the 2021-22 season, while a step in the right direction, is focused more on rebuilding for the future rather than winning now, a painful process as any fanbase in sports knows.

I know it’s a bit of a meme to dunk on Coyotes fans’ misfortune or speculate which city could be in the running for a relocation franchise should things not work out in Arizona’s favor, but this entire situation is so unfortunate. Hockey clearly works in the desert, if the Vegas Golden Knights are any indication since their inception in 2017. The state of Arizona too is no stranger to building and cultivating new hockey markets, considering the success of the Arizona State Sun Devils after their recent move to NCAA Division I hockey.

There is obviously still time for the Coyotes to find a solution, whether that be moving to Phoenix, Tucson, or Tempe, where the franchise has been looking to build a new arena for some time. Other options are to relocate to Footprint Center, where the Phoenix Suns play in a building not suited for hockey, or try their hand at wild cards such as Chase Field or Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

This next year for the Coyotes is a make-or-break one. If the Coyotes can’t find a solution that sticks, they’ll continue to toil in the basement of the NHL on and off the ice with a passionate but small fanbase that can’t make inroads. And, if the worst does come to pass, relocation out of Arizona to Houston, Quebec, or elsewhere is likely in the cards for the Coyotes.

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