The Times podcast: Coyotes go urban; humans freak out
The Coyotes won’t be a sports franchise for several years but, in time, the hockey club will take advantage of its new era of success.
The first thing you hear upon entering the clubhouse in Glendale, Ariz. is the whirr of a camera and the click of the shutter.
The doors open on the Phoenix Desert Edge, a brand new arena that opened in February as the home for the Arizona Coyotes.
Now the first thing you hear is, “Did you miss me?”
But that’s the first thing you’re not expecting to hear when your cell phone rings and, for the first time, you’re being called to pick up the paper.
You’ve got the paper. The paper’s calling you.
It’s Thursday morning. The papers will be delivered on the way to work, they’ll be there on the way back from the mailbox. They’re going by every few minutes. You’ve got coffee on the stove. You’ve got a cat you’ve adopted. You’ve got a family.
On the way to the door on the road, your cell phone rings in your hand, and you pick it up to look for a missed call or a text that may contain the latest scoop from The Times.
But all you see on the screen are more Coyotes games and a photo of the front page with the headline “Arizona Coyotes in first-ever NHL playoff game.”
The only other news is that, for the second time in five years, the Coyotes are on the verge of becoming the first major-league franchise to debut in a multi-purpose, all-sports arena. And now, for the first time in a little more than an hour, the Coyotes are in a crucial playoff game against the Detroit Red Wings.
But the Coyotes know they’re on the brink of greatness and they’re having fun while the rest of the world is having a bad day.
“It’s almost like they’re playing games with the other teams,” said Coyotes winger Dominic Moore, who starred for the Colorado Avalanche as a rookie in 1998 before making his name with the Coyotes two seasons later. “We’ll see what happens. We’ve got a lot of good players. We’ll just have to get into that playoffs