One Fan's Perspective

Since moving out here, and adopting the local hockey team, we have been fortunate enough to see our share of hockey games.  I still remember our first game (or one of them) where the promotion was something like a hockey beach towel/blanket that the first 10K or so received (we somehow go to this game every year…we have a collection of these things now.  They changed the design to a fleece blanket, which is a vast improvement).  The blanket/towel thing was good enough then, but viewing the packed house was cooler still.

Fans would display this item before and during the game, and the view from the lower bowl was pretty amazing.

The game on Saturday night was something special.  Honoring Shane Doan, one of the most loyal and hardest working hockey players out there, was definitely a big deal.

Besides honoring Doan, there was a scene that I witnessed Saturday night that brought me back our first visit to the arena.  The packed house where the Coyotes fans outnumbered the visitors.

It was by far, one of the best game the Coyotes have played since the lockout.  Besides the penalty calls (and lack of them for obvious infractions), having the team kill off a 6-0n-3 with 45 seconds remaining was short of spectacular.  Seeing the crowd display their fleece blankets during those waning minutes brought us back to our first game.

So, Coyotes’ head coach Dave Tippett has this team playing extremely well.  Many people are seeing that Tippett’s coaching prowess and comparing this experience to Wayne Gretzky’s tenure here.   I saw a fan almost having his head ripped off for stating his thoughts about Gretzky’s coaching to a very drunk L.A. Kings fan wearing the jersey from circa 1992. Luckily, the drunk fan had a friend (who was also drunk) push him away from certain jail time.

Usually, about this time in the season, when the Coyotes are showing that they are a good hockey team, something from the press comes in to derail the party, hoping to distract this team.  What we’ve seen though, is this team cannot be distracted, or Tippett tries his best to keep the distractions outside the locker room.

One can say that tonight’s game is a huge game for the Coyotes.  What does Tippett say?

“Every game for me is the biggest game of the year; (today) is the next one”

quoted in Arizona Republic

He has done a masterful job keep the team focused on the job at hand.  Besides many of the criticisms leveled at Gretzky (some fair, some not), the problem with having such a high profile coach is that when something goes awry, (Rick Tocchet gambling, Jeremy Roenick leaving the team for a beer, the ownership issues) the media is all over it.  I can only think that some of those distractions found their way into the locker room.

I always wondered if the media stuff was exposed when the Coyotes were doing well.  Then, the team lost its focus because no longer were we talking hockey, but the distractions instead.  When John Tortorella was with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he had a skill to take the heat for his team.  Gretzky didn’t have this skill.  Tortorella thrived on the conflict whereas Gretzky sometimes avoided it.

I liked Gretzky while he was here, but it is clear now he didn’t have his coaching chops.  He couldn’t keep the distractions away and that’s the main difference.

So today, they face the number one team in the West the San Jose Sharks.  This will be a good test as they face adversity on the road.  I don’t buy the idea that this team will implode by the all-star/olympic break.  However, they do have to prove that they won’t.

It’s up to the team and Tippett’s staff to not allow that to happen.

Tags: Dave Tippett, Hockey, Jeremy Roenick, John Tortorella, Los Angeles Kings, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes, Rick Tocchet, Shane Doan, Wayne Gretzky by pbcoyotes
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At the close of the season, Jeremy Roenick said plenty of things.

First, Gretzky scratched him from the lineup due to his ineffectiveness and his injury. He leaves the team to go drinking.

The team was interviewed by Todd Walsh the next night and Shane Doan and Ed Jovanovski defends him stating that we would not have known about his departure if it wasn’t for the Canadian press.

Next, he states near the trade deadline last season that he’s been through hell and would love to be traded to a Stanley Cup contending team. That didn’t happen.

And now that he’s a San Jose Shark, Roenick offers this parting shot by stating that he couldn’t say anything nice about Phoenix so he’ll keep his mouth shut.

Of course after the trade deadline, Gretzky responded that the team and the city has treated him well but his stuff keeps getting in the way and that he was tired of talking about it.

I’m tired of it too. I wonder how the reception will be when he returns if Phoenix treated him so poorly? After all, we see the San Jose Sharks eight times.

Therefore, by signing with the San Jose Sharks, he is reborn, rejuvenated, and refreshed.

I guess just like the Phoenix…

Tags: Hockey, Jeremy Roenick, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks by pbcoyotes
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To me, Brett Favre is one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL. When he arrived via a trade with the Atlanta Falcons in 1992, he, along with Reggie White, resurrected an ailing Green Bay Packers franchise and pushed them back to being relevant once again.

The way Favre plays the game is the way all NFL players should – honest, tough, and aggressive. Even though I never had the opportunity to see him play live, the NFL has received tons of money from me because for the majority of the seasons that Brett Favre has played for the Green Bay Packers, I have donated cash to NFL Sunday Ticket, just to see him play on television.

Arguably, he is my favorite quarterback, and he should retire.

What I don’t want to see is a shell of his former self, where all we would talk about is his last dying season of deteriorating skills and incompetence due to age. I would much rather have him hold on to all of his records and have him play golf or hunt the rest of his life.

There is another athlete that is on the verge of meeting milestones that elude him and everyone thought that he would retire, especially after another season of disappointment in both team accolades and personal performance.

Jeremy Roenick has chosen to come back for one more chance and this time, he is with the San Jose Sharks.

He should have stayed away.

I know that he is a favorite player to some, and I truly understand the feeling with his return. But Roenick should have chosen to be on television, to be with his family, or to be with his friends on the golf course. He could have even chosen to run his new business venture, the Muze lounge, located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Instead, like an athlete who holds on for dear life reliving the glory days or chasing dream, he comes back for one more year. He could have added to his legacy (in a positive way) last season, or even the one before it. However, he allowed his ego to get in the way and it cost him his NHL job here with the Phoenix Coyotes.

Upon signing his contract with the San Jose Sharks, he said all of the right things – appreciating the opportunity, I’m happy I signed, I’ll do what I can, and so on – the same types of things he said last season when he signed with Phoenix. I even got a recorded phone call from J.R. to buy tickets to see him play.

I should be cheering him on to score 500 goals and win a Stanley Cup, and in spite of my earlier criticisms, I probably will. He’s a future hall of famer, and there is no doubt about that.

However, there is a side of me that wonders just when he will self-destruct reinforcing the notion that he should have stayed away.

It’s difficult when a player’s antics off the ice overshadow the total package of what he has done on the ice. However, there is no changing J.R. – he is what he is.

Hopefully, this time he’ll go out on a high note.

Tags: Hockey, Jeremy Roenick, NHL, San Jose Sharks by pbcoyotes
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