The arena location is an excuse.
2. Anybody who believes that the Calgary Flames are moving anywhere in our lifetime is dreaming in technicolor! There's all kinds of posturing going on from all parties but the chances of a move are zero.
3. Perhaps as exasperating as the Coyotes season to date has been the performance of Vegas. Somebody tell me how an expansion team that's less than 3 months old has been flirting with the conference lead all season and has already beaten the Coyotes, a team that has been established in its current location for more than 20 years, 3 times!!! I'm not sure if that means there should be mass firings in the Coyotes organization or among the geniuses who formulated this expansion draft!? I don't mind an expansion team being somewhat competitive but this is ridiculous.
4. Where are all the geniuses who wanted Mike Smith sent packing?? While Smith makes a case for All-star selection the Coyotes goaltending situation has been a tire fire all season. Turns out Smith wasn't that bad after all!
5. Can we please stop the talk of all the "great young prospects" we have? Outside of Jacob Chychrun, Clayton Keller, Christian Fischer, and maybe Christian Dvorak none of them have proven themselves as legitimate NHL players. Let's face facts...Dylan Strome is a bust and Anthony Duclair isn't far from that status. Perlini takes every other shift off. Lawson Crouse got a great chance to establish himself as an NHL player and has now disappeared.
6. As much talk as there has been about this being a young team, there is a very significant veteran presence and they are the reason for the team's current record. We now know why Florida wanted to get rid of Jason Demers. OEL hasn't been much better. Norris Trophy candidate?? Puh-leeze!
Derek Stepan hasn't done much and has anybody seen Toby Reider or Jordan Martinook lately. To give credit where it is due, Goligoski and Schenn have been pretty decent all year. Schenn has no foot speed but that's not his game. He does what he's good at, being a physical presence night after night.
7. Any other hockey market in the world and Chayka and Tocchet would be called to account by now....both would be long gone if they were in a Canadian market. Heck, we've seen that you can start from zero before the season started and still have more than twice the number of wins the Coyotes have.
Welcome to the board.
1) Partially true, but we've been through this subject at length. Perhaps you are not aware of the Valley's demographics. The location is not only on the edge of town, but it's also the wrong edge. Central Phoenix and suburbs to the east are generally more affluent, and dare I say, more cosmopolitan. While a more eastlern location would not fix all attendance issues, its current location certainly harms them.
3) Are you complaining about the structure of the expansion draft, or lumping this into a complaint about the Coyotes' performance?
4) A hot Mike Smith can be great goaltending, but he is prone to meltdowns more than most. Six years was enough, particularly at that ridiculous price.
5) You've named four pretty good prospects right off. Agree about Duclair, but Perlini is fine; I don't know where you get the notion that he's taking shifts off. The jury is still out on Strome; I'm not a fan, but he's very young.
6) Goligoski and Schenn have been pretty decent?!? At least Schenn is buried on the third pairing, but I can't name a worse defenseman since the David Hale days. Goligoski is far under-performing for that contract.
7) What moves in particular has Chayka made that were mistakes, and would have him long gone in a Canadian market? He might have been held in too high regard last Summer, but I can't name one trade in which I long for the players we lost. Anthony DeAngelo, Conor Murphy, Laurent Dauphin, Jamie McGinn? You can't "start from zero" with a team that has players under contract, so it actually can be a disadvantage over the Knights' sparkling new team.
It appears that you're broad-brushing everybody that's associated with the organization for this miserable season. The reasons are multi-faceted; most outside observers expected a bubble team this season.
