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NHL Smarch 2015 |OT| Toronto is tanking on purpose this time.

As somebody not familiar with the history of the Coyotes and Arizona, is there a reason they don't just use the arena the Suns use in Phoenix?

The arena was not built with hockey in mind. The maximum attendance for a hockey game would be on par with MTS and Rexall place. That and I think ice quality was an issue but don't quote me in that last one.
 

megachao24

Unconfirmed Member
As somebody not familiar with the history of the Coyotes and Arizona, is there a reason they don't just use the arena the Suns use in Phoenix?

As stated above, the arena was built for basketball and not hockey, causing attendence to be the smallest in the league at the time. They're also getting borked over the lease, which caused them to build a new arena in Glendale after a failed attempt in Scottsdale.
 

Syrinx

Member
As stated above, the arena was built for basketball and not hockey, causing attendence to be the smallest in the league at the time. They're also getting borked over the lease, which caused them to build a new arena in Glendale after a failed attempt in Scottsdale.

I mean, the attendance would still be better than what they're getting in Glendale, right?

But I guess lease issues could fuck up everything.
 
I mean, the attendance would still be better than what they're getting in Glendale, right?

But I guess lease issues could fuck up everything.

In terms of actually selling out every night, probably not. It would likely have more seats filled up just because there are less seats to fill in Phoenix then in Glendale.
 

Xeteh

Member
I wonder how they call this goal. Looks like he kicks but you can't tell if it is intentional or not.

Edit: Damn, can't smirk while they review your goal!
 

Marvie_3

Banned
The arena was not built with hockey in mind. The maximum attendance for a hockey game would be on par with MTS and Rexall place. That and I think ice quality was an issue but don't quote me in that last one.
A large portion of the ice was also blocked from view in a lot of seats
 

Quick

Banned
A large portion of the ice was also blocked from view in a lot of seats

You'd only be seeing 3/4 of the ice if you were seated above this end of the arena:

SB_Nation_-_AWA_Seats.jpg


Edit: And the Barclay's Center actually has the same issue:

23-islanders-hockey-barclays-center-2.w529.h352.2x.jpg


 

Foggy

Member
Wow, this Hartnell-Wennberg-Dano line.

If anything, this line is fanning the flames that Anisimov and/or Letestu are getting moved in the offseason. Smart money is on Anisimov being moved, though.
 

Xeteh

Member
Random horn. We think we scored, BLOW THE HORN!

Edit: Crossed the line, good goal.

Editedit: Avs saying it was a high stick? Ehhhh... too close to call, tie goes to the runner.
 

eyeless

Member
when you see the jackets down 2-0 and think ah well they're still up 6 points on us i'm gonna play volgarr the viking only to check nhl.com later and see it's 6-2 jackets
naNWX3R.gif

what a treat, that 8 point buffer
 

zroid

Banned
lol wtf Vancouver

also:
Fear The Fin ‏@fearthefin 8m8 minutes ago
After tonight's games, the top three teams in the Pacific Division's combined goal differential will be worse than Tampa Bay's.
 

zroid

Banned
Mirtle wrote a blog post about Matt Wuest. It is pretty heartfelt.

I never met Matt Wuest in person, but we had intended to at some point. We had talked on email starting back in 2009 and, later, on Twitter DMs all the time. Probably at least once every week or two.

After a while of doing that, you feel like you know someone.

Getting the news of his death on Thursday was tough, as he was a young, talented and decent man.

We also had a lot in common.

Matt was also, like me, a young sportswriter, one who loved junior hockey and who did some scouting in the QMJHL for McKeen's Hockey (one of my first jobs was doing the same in the WHL). He was also a freelancer with The Hockey News, something I also did early in my career.

Often my emails to him over the years were simply requests for obscure information. One year I did a story on Jamie McGinn getting sent down and recalled over and over and over again, and Matt provided a list of the players recalled the most that season (McGinn was first, with 14 recalls by mid-March).

No one else had that kind of data, that fast. No one else was as prompt or willing to help, either.

And if Matt ever needed to clarify something, especially with the Leafs, he would often touch base, and I was happy to help.

On an under-reported story like this, on how much the Blackhawks exceeded the cap due to bonuses, we worked together to try and nail down as many details as possible. I got a decent story out of it, and Matt got accurate info for his site, which was what he always wanted.

In August last year, he talked about wanting to build an analytics-based replacement for extraskater.com when it went dark, and I provided him with what I knew about scraping data from NHL.com and how things like quality of competition were calculated.

I know he put some serious groundwork into that potential new wing of the site, and had it launched, it would have been another terrific resource.

"It won't be anywhere close to as good as ES, but it will help fill the void for a while," he said at one point. "And maybe can grow into more over time."

"I believe in you!" I joked.

I always felt bad Matt was never rewarded more for what CapGeek became, especially after learning of his illness. He may have made a little money off of it from the ads on the site, but given the time he invested, it wasn't nearly enough.

And there were big companies interested in buying it. He always resisted, even when he couldn't run it anymore.

I think that he took pride that it was something he had built from scratch, including all of the sources he had for the data, and didn't want to just hand it over to a major media company to meddle with and ruin.

The last time I talked to Matt was in January, after news of his illness came out publicly. I gave him my cell number and told him to touch base anytime. I wanted to help him out, perhaps even to pass the site on to a buyer, so that he and his family could benefit. I also thought (foolishly) about maybe trying to maintain it myself, somehow, until he was well.

But this was how he wanted it, and I respect that. We all should.

As an aside, there's no making sense of someone dying like this. People will try, but at his age, it's simply a tragedy that couldn't be avoided. He didn't miss a test. He didn't deserve this. My family lived through something similar when my mother got cancer when she was only 39, and I was still in grade school. Thankfully, she beat it (twice) and was here to meet her grandson last week.

Matt deserved an ending like that. His family did, too.

Here's hoping that, at some point, when a new site launches with similar info, it'll be dedicated in his honour. Maybe even the league will start it?

I hope so.

RIP my friend. Thanks for your help. We didn't meet, but I know you were a gem.
 
Realistically, I can see any of these bubble teams making it in. I do feel pretty positive about our chances, its really rare we go down by more than a single goal margin. Every game is still nerve wracking.

I guess my point is, in this playoff race discussion, Vancouver is rarely brought up, but they're in this race as much as anyone else, especially after that loss tonight.
 

Indrid Cold

Unconfirmed Member
If we choke I want markus to fly back from modo and tell us straight to our face like back in the day. Not to the queens though plz.
 
I hate this stupid team right now. Maybe if the Pens keep sucking they'll be the ones that get bumped out of the playoffs by Washington and then Ottawa and Boston instead of us.
 
I hate this stupid team right now. Maybe if the Pens keep sucking they'll be the ones that get bumped out of the playoffs by Washington and then Ottawa and Boston instead of us.

I hope so. The Pens aren't going to win shit this year and missing the playoffs might actually wake those clowns up.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Remember how Henrik Lundqvist was making his long-awaited return to practice today and how there's probably an armada of press in Westchester right now waiting for him to come out onto the ice?

Well, nope! His wife is in labor, so the return of the King gets to wait until next Wednesday's full practice.

The Post-Lundqvist Era rolls on!
 
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