By George Fallar 
August 28, 2013
The Tricky Clams patches have arrived and they look pretty good.
There’s a party in Glendale on Saturday, September 21 between 7 pm and 10 pm. There will be some free beer and some inline skating and hockey at the rink. There’s nothing that will cost you a dime unless you feel like bring a grill and some food to share. It promises to be a lot of fun and it’s part of a new Desert Hockey Development venture we’re thinking will build youth hockey in Arizona.
If you have any extra hockey gear in the attic or garage that’s in decent shape, we’d love to take it off your hands so we can add it to our arsenal of gear we can offer to kids or adults who are interested in trying the game. If YOU are one of those people interested in trying, come on by the party and we can probably hook you up.
Click here if you’re interested in coming, please fill out the EASY form so we have some idea what to expect on the 21st.
August 27, 2013
Five For Howling’s preseason countdown reached 19 days, so of course it’s Doan Day. I’m glad to see that the favorite Doaner moment was “the hat trick”, because it’s the most incredible time I’ve had in the stands of an NHL game.
The whole barn knew what was on the line for our Captain and every single person wanted him to get his first hat trick. The clock ticked down to almost nothing, so everybody holding their breath was halfway primed for another disappointment for Doaner.
And then it happened. What a night!
http://youtu.be/uwmJCQY9q4s
August 23, 2013
The last Coyotes open house before the start of the new season was last night, and a good time was had by all. Coyotes honcho Daryl Jones was in attendance hanging with the fans, the new ownership people are being VERY accessible.
The parking fees were announced last evening, too, and there’s been some social media kickback. That’s understandable when we’ve enjoyed mostly free parking all along, but we wanted to keep our team. To keep our team, it needs to be profitable and one component of that profit will be parking fees. So now we join all the other major sports and concert venues and pay for parking.
Fun with domains. Somebody snagged an Ice Arizona domain and fired up a lame Flash countdown clock that’s not even visible on a lot of devices used for Interwebs browsing. Sloppy work, although the dork that registered the domain did manage to figure out how to click the “yes” box to pay for private registration with GoDaddy. So, presented without further comment:
https://twitter.com/FredPoulin98/statuses/370538876315504640
and
http://douche.fredpoulin.com (link no longer valid)
August 21, 2013
Coyotes ownership celebration party? Sure, why not? It looks like there won’t be a giant blowout type party until the season starts, and that’s just not soon enough for some of us. So maybe we should do something to tide us over parTAY-wise until something happens over at Westgate?
How about we get together over in Glendale and have some inline hockey skatearound and game smackdown at the same time? Let’s do it on September 14th, a Saturday.
This is the day before preseason start for the coyotes and we already have extra equipment to loan. The rink is lit and ready to go.
We can get a beer permit, but need to know about how many people will show up and how many of those people have the guts to join in on the rink. We’ll hire a referee and do it right, ALL skill levels please apply.
Catch me or Bea or Jo Jo Fraser on Twitter or somewhere else to talk about it.
And if you happen to have old hockey equipment laying around the house, we could use it for our nefarious plans to jack up the popularity of hockey in Arizona, details coming soon.
August 19, 2013
LESS THAN A MONTH until the first preseason game, one of those split squad deals with the hated Kings. We’ll all be there to get our “BEAT LA” on won’t we?
Nope, Boedker didn’t sign a contract yet. Tick tock here comes training camp on the clock.
Here’s a link to a Twibbon thing to get the Coyotes logo on your Facebook or Twitter avatar. http://twibbon.com/support/here-to-stay/twitter
August 13, 2013
Jim Gintonio Service: St. Barnabas On The Desert Episcopal Church (click here) 10am Friday 6715 N Mockingbird Ln Paradise Valley, AZ 85253
If you don’t have a GPS, click here for directions.
The service will be in the chapel and will be a full Eucharist service.
Coyotes owner George Gosbee was on the @phoenixcoyotes Twitter account today answering a bunch of questions. How cool is that? Very cool. There were surprisingly few troll tweets, so progress is being made toward their extinction, apparently. Anyway, Glendale First! superstar @Jess_525 put all the tweets in one place, click here for her Facebook post.
My favorite answer is below.
August 12, 2013
We lost Jim Gintonio yesterday to cancer.
Bea and I were lucky enough to see Jim just a while ago, his very cool dog Sonny is a guest in our house for the time being. I’m not going to say much, lots of people who knew Jim already have and lots more know him as an asset to our lives and our community. That needn’t change now, but we’ll miss you, Jim.
Wishing comfort to Joanie and to Jim’s family in these tough times. If it helps, we all think the world of the guy.
Godspeed, Jim. Pici and chianti on me next time we meet.
August 11, 2013
Another shout out to, among others, the fans of the Phoenix Coyotes. I robbed the below from the Coyotes site here http://coyotes.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=680004
It’s nice to have ANY owners, it’s ridiculously cool to have owners that “get it”. This is going to be fun, if you’re not on board with tickets you will miss what’s shaping up to be a great ride.
From Phoenix Coyotes site, 08/11/2013:
Thank You Fans and the City of Glendale
This week has been a monumental one in the history of the Phoenix Coyotes. For the first time in more than four years, the future of the Coyotes is certain. This week of celebration was due to the determination, resilience and passion of several groups and individuals.
We would like to thank the National Hockey League for their strong commitment to the franchise and to the State of Arizona. The efforts of Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly to ensure this franchise remained in Arizona were above and beyond anything in recent memory in professional sports.
To the City of Glendale, we thank you for the faith you have entrusted in us to manage Jobing.com Arena, one of the greatest hockey arenas in North America. In particular, we would like to thank Deputy Mayor Yvonne Knaack, Councilmember Manny Martinez, Councilmember Gary Sherwood and Councilmember Sammy Chavira for their support of our Arena Management contract. Without their commitment and belief in our efforts, this transaction would not have been finalized.
To the staff of the Phoenix Coyotes, your hard work and dedication to this franchise has built the solid foundation now in place to allow all of us to do what is important, and that is focus on the future. In particular we would like to thank Mike Nealy, Don Maloney, Dave Tippett and Captain Shane Doan. A team cannot operate effectively without leaders. These four individuals are true leaders.
Most importantly, we would like to thank the fans of the Phoenix Coyotes. To be a sports fan requires an emotional attachment, riding the highs and lows with your heroes on the ice. No fan should ever endure the situation Coyotes fans have been forced to deal with over the past four years. And most fans would not have done so. They would have abandoned the team. You didn’t. You stuck with this franchise and overall fan involvement actually increased during this timeframe. It is a testament to the incredible level of support hockey receives in this community. We thank you for sticking with this team, and we promise you we will do our utmost best to reward your commitment with a competitive team you can be proud to call your own. You have bestowed an honor on us that we do not take lightly.
This week begins not only a new chapter in the history of the Coyotes, it starts a new book. It is time for all of us to write this book together and focus on the only thing that matters, and that is cheering on our Coyotes.
We are truly Here To Stay.
George Gosbee, Executive Chairman and Governor, Phoenix Coyotes
Anthony LeBlanc, Alternate Governor, Phoenix Coyotes
On behalf of IceArizona
August 8, 2013
There was an open house at Jobing.com arena last night that was attended pretty well. People walking in the doors were greeted by none other than an ownership triumvirate of George Gosbee, Daryl Jones and Anthony LeBlanc. How cool is that? Very cool. A lot of the people there already have their tickets in hand and only showed up to take Coyotes family pictures, laugh, shake hands and hug people. Smiles and anticipation were everywhere.
This is going to be a blast, buckle up and “enjoy the ride”.
I’ve been accused of being a GMDM toadie once in awhile and I admit to being a big fan. “In GMDM we trust” is often heard around this house when talking about hockey matters. Other than Ray Whitney escaping, GMDM has made a few errors in judgment in the past, witness the below video.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XyAqMfJHMEo
99 has left the building. With new ownership, The Great One sold his house, packed up his stuff and left Scottsdale. There’s no doubt Wayne Gretzky deserves a better fate than to have his last gasp in the NHL be a ludicrous and hilariously overpaid coaching attempt. Let’s hope he re-enters hockey in a different capacity sooner rather than later, the guy is a tremendous asset. Just not behind the bench. Click here for the moving van story.
August 7, 2013
It’s done, it’s signed and sealed and delivered. Over the past four years, lots of people became so disgusted with the entire “Coyotes saga” have said, in frustration, “I’ll get excited when the press conference happens.”.
Time to get excited, people.
Kim Radke put some of it into words for us all in a Facebook post, click here to read it (assuming you have a Facebook account). I might be accused of self promoting, but it’s about what it means to be part of an oddball family of fans, players, staff and everybody else associated with the Coyotes. There’s a bond that goes way beyond being a fan or being an employee or even an owner of a professional team. Family is the best way to describe it.
Now all we need to do is grow the family to fill the barn more regularly. It’s coming, you can feel it.
August 2, 2013
The referendum is dead, papers are being signed, NHL BOG votes are somehow being FAXED?!? around the world, the claims of illegal meetings have deen dismissed out of hand by the AG and life is good. Finally, the drama is near to a close and the good guys won.
One guy who didn’t win, again, is Ken Jones. I wrote this (Technical Knockout In The Final Round) a couple weeks ago detailing some (not all) of the errors Ken and his band of merry pranksters made in this round of referendumosity. I didn’t release it before we left for vacation so as not to clue the other side in so they could fix their mistakes.
Here is a Glendale First! press release about how to put the dumb in referendum, penned on the banks of the mighty Granite Creek miles away from the pavement near Bondurant, Wyoming.