Rough Night For Coyotes, On and Off Ice

It's tough enough to have to look back on a game when more went wrong than right, but to then read that you are returning home to an "uncertain welcome" for your home opener before a sellout crowd, you've got to start thinking, "Who writes this stuff and who's peddling this BS to reporters?"

The Coyotes lost for the first time this year on Thursday, dropping a 2-1 affair in Buffalo to the Sabres. They were outplayed, out-hustled, and showed a lack of discipline for the first time this year, yet they still managed to hang around for 60 minutes and nearly stole a point. It certainly had to be a disappointing performance for everyone involved but, as Coach Dave Tippett noted 24 hours earlier after beating the Pens in Pittsburgh, it's one game so learn from it and focus on the next one. If only it was that easy.

As I wrote last night I was perplexed by the media recaps of the Pens game that explained the loss as a horrible Pittsburgh performance that had nothing whatsoever to do with what their opponents were doing on the ice. But tonight, AP hit a new height, or more appropriately a new low. Three paragraphs on the game's three goal scorers, save numbers for both goaltenders, then this:

"Phoenix (2-1), embroiled in off-ice controversy since filing for bankruptcy in May and nearly winding up in nearby Hamilton, Ontario, then enduring a coaching change just before the season, lost for the first time and was denied its best start since 2003. The Coyotes return home on Saturday to an uncertain welcome to play their first regular season game in Glendale since entering bankruptcy protection."

I haven't yet decided what the reporter was thinking when he filed his report. Maybe he buried the paragraph deep in his story and an editor somewhere felt the unattributed claim deserved higher prominence in the game report. All I know is I have followed the Coyotes saga closely -- even attending court sessions and reading virtually every page of the 1,000+ documents filed in the case -- and never did I get a sense they were even remotely close to, "winding up in nearby (to Buffalo) Hamilton." More shocking is the idea that some significant portion of the 18,000 who will be at Jobing.Com Arena for the opener in Glendale Saturday may be planning some type of unwelcome welcome for the team.

Is it an effort to keep the Hamilton dream alive? Or to keep harping on the fact the team is still in bankruptcy? Maybe it's just another effort to demean the local fans and blame solely them for the Coyotes plight. You know, kind of like the Pens were to blame for their loss to the Coyotes Wednesday night.

It's been a summer of agony for hockey fans in the desert, and Oct. 1st could not have come soon enough. But it did, and we're more than a week into the season. I get why we're still talking about this crap, but in a game recap? Before talking about the brilliant play of Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller and the Coyotes Jason LaBarbera, who were the reasons the game was as close as it was? Or the undisciplined penalties that eventually caught up with the Coyotes late in the 3rd when the Sabres scored the winning goal? Or that the Sabres were masterful in their preparation to turn this game into a track meet?

I know that information was out there, because I heard it. But damn if I can find a source for the "uncertain welcome" claim, or why it was judged more important than the performance everyone witnessed, or the comments of everyone involved in the game -- players, coaches, commentators -- both on and off the ice.

Maybe I've become a bit too sensitive on this whole bankruptcy subject. Maybe it is what matters most to the millions of hockey fans in North America and around the world. Maybe the on-ice game is secondary to the juicy controversy and continual conspiracy theories that flow from the Coyotes BK case.

As to my above thoughts, I suppose it's yes, no, and are you freaking kidding me?

The Coyotes will play the 2009-10 season in Glendale. The home opener is sold out. Fans in Phoenix are excited about this team. And they are working very hard to tell their friends and neighbors we have some great entertainment available here, and if we don't support it we may lose it.

There is a lot of competition for entertainment dollars in every market. But in one of the largest US metropolitan areas most-affected by the recession, it goes much deeper than that. We know it, and we get it. We read and hear it every day on the news and in the business section. But on the sports page? The sports page? Every single day?

Can we just play the damn game, please?