Fun Fact: The Coyotes first and last games at Glendale Arena/Jobing/Gila River

[Knights2017]

Were/Are both against the Nashville Predators.

Carry on. lol

My personal last game at the arena was in 2019, Shane Doan's retirement night - I could probably make another game this year but i'm content with that being my last game out.

Click to read more...

 

[ck26]

First game: 25 March 2013, Phoenix 2-3 Detroit
Last game: 19 March 2022, Arizona 1-4 Pittsburgh ... I might make it down again end of April but I doubt it.

Best moments: seeing Mike Smith score, also against Detroit if I'm not mistaken ... skating on the ice and watching Coyotes @ Sens on the jumbotron Christmas 2014. Antoine Vermette got a hatty that game ... every December hockey game that I attended wearing swim trunks and flip flops, Arizona hockey is the best.

Worst moments: leaving the last game of 2013 thinking THAT might be the end of the road ... every Chicago visit ... post-deadline 2015 while we were tanking for Strome, really bleak hockey and truly a waste of Shane's and Oliver's time.

 

[BAdvocate]

I was there for the groundbreaking, first game, and will be there on the 29th. I look forward to one last game of random shouts of Red Wings Suck!

 

[Bonsai Tree]

I was there for the groundbreaking, first game, and will be there on the 29th. I look forward to one last game of random shouts of Red Wings Suck!

I'll be there too. Red Wings Suck doesn't do much for me when we're playing Nashville. We'll just have to chant that in the new barn.

 

[BAdvocate]

Doesn't matter who they are playing......RED WINGS SUCK!

 

[AZviaNJ]

I don't remember the first, the last will be 4/29 against Nashville.

3 best/most memorable games (2012 was a very good year!) in chronological order:

1. Doan 1st hattie Jan 2012. We've seen the replays a million times, but what I remember most was the horrific accident on i10 at Warner Rd that closed the highway for hours and every alternative road was backed-up as well. Took nearly 3 hours to get to GRA from Gilbert on a Saturday afternoon. Arrived at the end of the 2nd period and saw the hattie at the buzzer in the 3rd.

2. Game 1 of 2012 WC Playoffs against defending cup champs Chicago. Hanzal deflection goal in OT. Loudest I can ever remember GRA (or whatever it was at the time) and the "OMG we can beat these guys" feeling. Was awesome. I would personally rank this as #1.

2. Game 5 of 2012 WC Semi's vs Nashville. Coyote 2-1 win aided by the Russian visit to Old Scottsdale. Final 30 seconds seemed to take 30 minutes. Mike Smith was the best goalie in the world at that moment.

 

[MIGs Dog]

I don't remember my first or last. But they were all fun.

 

[GhostofTommyBolin]

I was at the last one at America West Arena and at the first one at Gila River Arena. I remember they had some sort of Cirque de Soleil-type acrobats doing tricks while suspended from the ceiling, which I thought was kind of weird. The Stanley Cup was in the building on the lower level and I have a great picture of my son and I next to it. He's only six months old and he's staring at it like it's the greatest thing he's ever seen. (If you've seen it in person, you know it is exactly that.)

We've been to too many games to count over the years. Every Wings game for the past 18 years and countless games in between. When my son was 5, he wrote a sign saying "May I please have your stick?" in Swedish because the Wings had like 7 Swedes at the time. None of them gave up their stick, but Brett Lebda--the only American kid on the team--stopped at the tunnel after warm-ups, looked at the sign, looked at me and said, "What does he want, a stick?" I shrugged and said, "Yeah." Lebda handed his over. It's a core memory for my kiddo.

The last game we went to was the other night against the Kraken. We're going tonight and to six more of the last 8. The final game against Nashville will be our last game there. I don't think I'll go so far as to get emotional, but yesterday my boy said to me, "Can we just sit in the arena after the last game until they kick us out? Let's just sit there as long as we can." He's grown up in that arena. The new place in Tempe is a really short walk from his Barrett dorm, so he's excited about that, but I know he's going to miss the barn in Glendale.

 

[RABBIT]

First game I remember vividly was back '05. We beat the Carolina Hurricanes 8-4. Was an amazing moment for me as a young hockey fan. Nagy had a hatty that game.

Loved seeing Smith score a goal live.

Got to skate on the ice a few times, and I remember how it cool it was to stay after and go to the area where they load the busses for autographs. I got a Michalek broken twig outside of there once.

I could go on and on. Wayyyyy too many memories in that arena, all great ones. I grew up in that arena so I'm bummed it's over in a sense. Nostalgia is a helluva drug.

 

[RemoAZ]

I was there for the groundbreaking, first game, and will be there on the 29th. I look forward to one last game of random shouts of Red Wings Suck!

That was my goto for YEARS!

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

My first game was at the end of the 2007-08 season. I don't remember the particulars. I had gotten tickets from work and took the wife. We enjoyed it and got a Howliday Pack for our anniversary (it's in December) the next season. 4 games for the price of 3! A visor and an autographed puck included.

We'll be going to 3 games in April. Friday night against the Ducks, 22nd vs the Caps and the final game vs the Preds. Not sure if I'll make it to Tempe. Depends on the price and availability.

Best memories,
Viktor Tikhonov causing the Canucks to score an own goal



Doan's Hattrick vs Islanders. Did he beat the clock? Yes!

March 5th 2011 vs Detroit. Those games always sold out wit a bunch of drunk Detroit fans, and that was just the females. Anyway, the Coyotes score 3 unanswered in the 3rd period to tie it up. Goes to a shootout and Vrby is the only one to score. The posts were Bryz's friends that night. But the best part was when it was over, there was a couple in front of us, he was wearing a Red Wings jersey, she had on a Coyotes jersey. They both stood up, took off their jerseys. She handed the Coyotes Jersey to him and he put it on. He then pointed to the scoreboard while she took a picture of him. Thought that was so cool.

Lots of good times there.

Oh yeah, Red Wings SUCK!!

 

[The Feckless Puck]

I was in attendance for the first game.

I probably won't even watch the last game since I don't have a Bally Sports subscription.

The acrimonious divorce between the Coyotes franchise and my bank account makes it so I won't feel too badly about it.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

Doesn't matter who they are playing......RED WINGS SUCK!

It's the 5th or 6th song (Go Team Go)
At the clapping part people will yell Let's Go Yotes.
For me it's always Red Wings Suck! regardless of who the opponent is.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

It's finally worn off I think, after a period measured in years, but I too would yell RED WINGS SUCK there no matter who we were playing.

 

[TheLegend]

Best memories,
Viktor Tikhonov causing the Canucks to score an own goal

I was sitting behind the north goal for that one.

Tikhonov was called for the penalty on that, too.

 

[LittlePipes]

My best game was an OT win over Nashville in the playoff year when the Yotes advanced to the western finals. Whitney scored off a pushed forward draw and the place went bezerk!! It was a great moment.
My oddest memory is watching, with binoculars, Gretzky’s face get beet red while he yelled at Jovo for some poor play. I mean dark beet red !

 

[cobra427]

Time marches on. As a kid I went to the Chicago stadium many times starting around 1970 or so, got to see Mikita and Hull. Moved to Az in 1981 and was out of touch with watching hockey until the Coyotes moved into AWA. I remember many games there, and some early games in Glendale. Only saw one game this year, looks like my last in Glendale. I'm looking forward to the small arena next year, much closer and better seats.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

I was sitting behind the north goal for that one.

Tikhonov was called for the penalty on that, too.

I was at the south end so I was confused as to how the play wasn't stopped. Couldn't tell who it went off of.

 

[TheLegend]

I was at the south end so I was confused as to how the play wasn't stopped. Couldn't tell who it went off of.

It went off Tikhonov's stick right to the goal.

But the refs didn't blow the play dead because it wasn't a controlled contact with the puck.

 

[Murf]

Don’t really remember my first or last, but two games stick out:

The one where Ovechkin scored on Brian Boucher from an impossible, falling, twisting, on his back position. That was a day game, MLK day, and I picked up seats that were right in the ledge of the tunnel the refs use. It was the perfect spot to watch it - fortunately happened on that side of the ice.

Second was a game against the Blues in 2009, right after the bankruptcy filing. A coworker was a big Blues fan so we had already bought tickets. They posted attendance at 6,000 and we just laughed - there might have been 600. Was surreal to watch a coyotes game in an empty building (emptier than usual) and in near silence.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Time marches on. As a kid I went to the Chicago stadium many times starting around 1970 or so, got to see Mikita and Hull. Moved to Az in 1981 and was out of touch with watching hockey until the Coyotes moved into AWA. I remember many games there, and some early games in Glendale. Only saw one game this year, looks like my last in Glendale. I'm looking forward to the small arena next year, much closer and better seats.

Hinkke? Is that you?

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Don’t really remember my first or last, but two games stick out:

The one where Ovechkin scored on Brian Boucher from an impossible, falling, twisting, on his back position. That was a day game, MLK day, and I picked up seats that were right in the ledge of the tunnel the refs use. It was the perfect spot to watch it - fortunately happened on that side of the ice.

Second was a game against the Blues in 2009, right after the bankruptcy filing. A coworker was a big Blues fan so we had already bought tickets. They posted attendance at 6,000 and we just laughed - there might have been 600. Was surreal to watch a coyotes game in an empty building (emptier than usual) and in near silence.

I was at both of those games too.

The latter game I will never forget. It was cold in there. I think I even wrote about it in a guest blog for Five for Howling but I can't recall. All I do know is that it was the absolute nadir for franchise attendance.

 

[SniperHF]

I can't remember my first game there, I know it was the first season after the lockout though, I was busy with school when the arena opened and then the lockout.


My last game will certainly be the Stars game from February, a good last one to attend. I'd consider going to a few more but tbh the ticket sales folks have done basically everything possible to tick me off.

The latter game I will never forget. It was cold in there. I think I even wrote about it in a guest blog for Five for Howling but I can't recall. All I do know is that it was the absolute nadir for franchise attendance.

I don't remember exactly which year it was, but I went to one of the Halloween games over that time period and it had maybe 4k in person tops.

 

[TheLegend]

My first game at GRA was they day they announced Glendale was getting the 2004 all star game.

So you see….. I’m the original jinx.