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Last night I had the opportunity to see the Coyotes take on the Predators, and I want to thank Jim Pouba of Post Magazine for the tickets. I had unreal seats 6 rows off the ice right on the Coyotes goal line. I only have a few minutes as I want to join some of the Arizona sunshine while I have the chance, and there is a flock of blue-hairs that are waiting to get on the Google computing machine, but let me give you guys a quick breakdown. To begin, I hope the Coyotes are setting their t-times now, because they looked terrible last night. The desert dogs dropped last night’s game 1-0 (2-0 with an empty net goal, but as Al Iafrate says, “empty net goals are for *******). Have you ever sat through a 1-0 shutout? They are normally ridiculous games with a lot of goaltending and solid defensive zone play. Last night was like watching a high school JV state championship game. When the Coyotes were in Boston last week, they were all over the Bruins, what happened? I have to give Phoenix credit though, after coming off tough 5 game road trip against some of the better teams in the league (minus the Isles). However, Nashville had no excuse, based on the way these two Western Conference playoff hopefuls looked, it will be San Jose and Detroit in the Western Conference Finals. Since there was no scoring and only a few large hits, I’ll break the game down like this:

(On a side note, take this with a grain of salt. I was lucky enough to be raised on Chicago Blackhawk hockey and now I’m a Boston Bruins season ticket  holder, so I have been spoiled with Original 6 hockey.)

The Good

-Jobing.com Arena- Probably one of the best in the league. The arena is clean and was built for hockey, every seat in the house has a great view of the ice. Not to mention the sound system in the place is ridiculous. It has to be the coldest rink in the league, ironically, but you better layer up if you’re going to check out a game.

- Fan interaction- Pretty awesome, outside the arena there is a lot going on, regardless if you’re going to the game or not.

- The Team- A lot of young talent and the Coyotes have done well gathering up some young guns. Picking up Upshall and Dawes at the trade deadline is huge. Not to mention one of the best captains in the league, Shane Doan. Kyle Turris, the Coyotes first round draft pick this year, looks like he has a lot of talent and should mature nicely.

- The Ice Girls- Nice, I would have to give the ‘Yotes an edge of the Bruins Ice Girls. However, Chicago still has the best.

The Bad

- The Fans- You may be the worst in the league, and this goes beyond my rant regarding fans from New York, Philli, and Montreal. Atleast they know their hockey, you guys are clueless. Typically you can let this slide in warm-weather climates, but this team has been around for 13 years, get with it. Furthermore, sunglasses, flip-flops, and shorts are not acceptable hockey game apparel. I saw so many lip rings and died black hair, I was wondering if Tony Hawk was going to be shredding on the half-pipe between periods. That or there was a Dashboard Confessional concert I was missing.

- The Advertising in the arena. This borders on the line of ugly. Advertising is being shoved down everyone’s throats from the moment you get in the arena. The commercialization of these games is terrible. There are point of sale stands everywhere in the corridor, from cars to motorcycles, to god knows what. Every team uses this to cover some of the cost, but I feel this is pretty extreme.

-No goalies for the little ‘Yotes- Like all teams in the league, the mites have a chance to play between periods on NHL ice. No doubt a big thrill for the kids, but what’s up with not having any goalies? They had Howler and the Geico Gecko as goalies. Both of who could not stop a shot to save their life. The gecko should stick to commericals and peddling inexpensive insurance, not saving pucks. If the kids had any smarts they should have fired at the gecko’s padless knees to send a message. If you’re going to play  net, be prepared to step in front a few pucks, not jump out of the way.

- Shooting black t-shirts- I love the t-shirt toss, but let me inform you that the ceiling of the arena is black. When you fire a black t-shirt out of the cannon it gets lost as soon as it leaves the barrel, and I was pretty sure I would be getting a t-shirt in the mouth.

The Ugly 

Concession Prices- $8.50 for a Bud Light draft and $8.50 for chicken fingers. Are you nuts? Maaaaaaaaybe if this was Madison Square Garden you can charge those prices, but really? That has to be about a 900% profit margin, probably more. Granted I didn’t do my due diligence and found out later Coors Light bottles were $6.50, but come on. The Boston Garden charges $7.00 for a big Bud Light, and I know that Annie will have it ready for me by the time warm-ups are over.

The Fan Base- You could have fired cannons off in the arena last night without the fear of injuring someone. Listen, I know that we’re in the Valley of the Sun, but these games are at 7:00pm, you  have been in Phoenix for over a decade, and there is nothing better to do at that hour. From a marketing perspective, in the month of March you have literally hundreds of thousands of people flying to spring training. How do you not capitalize on that? I’ve never met so many people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, and Canada in my life. These people grew up on hockey, give it to them! At this point, go around to all the resorts and give the tickets away or something, create a buzz.

The Organization- I’m sure this has a lot to do with the fan base, but again, after all these years the Coyotes are a mediocre team, again. With all the talent you would think it’s impossible, but I guess the “Great One” was better in front of the bench than behind it. I’ve seen about 10 Coyotes games in my life, so I consider myself a casual fan, it’s tough to watch these guys flounder year after year, especially with the talent they have. Please do something to make hockey legitimate or give Winnipeg back its team.

OK, that’s all for now, off to some Spring Training baseball. I’m probably heading to another ‘Yotes game this week and I’ll get something up about that, hopefully the game is a little more high scoring. FYI, thekiiid was smokehousing the ball off the T yesterday.