We Have Fans

I have seen numerous hockey fans from around North America rooting for the Coyotes to go all the way now. I am choosing to ignore the people who call themselves fans who are rooting for us to lose so I just concentrate on the good fans.

I have gotten messages from fans on Twitter, Facebook, and other places genuinely hoping the Coyotes can ride this thing for as long as possible and going all the way. I have friends here in town that have never watched a hockey game before, starting to follow the games and even tuning in to watch. This is such a wonderful feeling to see these people root for us.

I hope that everyone will continue to welcome them and show them the ropes. These are the fans that are going to buy a 4 pack next season, love it so much they will upgrade to a 10 game pack. In a couple of years they will not be able to stay away and they will become full season ticket holders.

Welcome to Coyote Country everyone. Sit back, stay a long time and enjoy this wonderful ride we like to call hockey.

Jamison at Coyotes game

So Greg Jamison was at the game. He was just standing in the lower lever in the hall by that Belgium beer kiosk. During the OT intermission myself and a couple of friends went up to him and talked to him. He was amazing and very accessible. He said not to give up on the sale. He certainly did not give us any inside information BUT, he said he has followed this teams situation for a long time and he knows the real story on the past financial issues and he is sure we can be very successful here. He said he has been working on this deal for a long time. I told him that I am trying to not read the media and he replied with don't listen to the media at all!

 Dumb me should have asked about buying the arena and westgate.

 Anyway, it was a very, very cool experience and I can only hope he is the new owner.

My Letter from Gary Bettman

So I wrote a letter to the NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman regarding the Coyotes Situation and here is what I got back from him.

Dear Geoff,

Thank you very much for writing me with questions about the situation with the Coyotes in Phoenix. Here is the most up to date information.

We have decided to lower the sale price significantly to ensure a quick sale. We are doing everything we can to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix and with lowering the sale price to under $100 million, we expect the sale to be complete by the end of January. We are 100% confident that the sale will go through to Greg Jamison and the Coyotes will stay in Phoenix. Greg Jamison will be purchasing Jobing.com arena in conjunction with the team to ensure the team stays for decades to come.

We at the NHL appreciate your concern about the situation and I hope you have alleviated your fear.

Sincerely,
Gary "The Hammer" Bettman

If you have not figured out by now this is a 100% fake letter. I wrote it just to show how easy it is to fabricate a letter from anyone and post it on the internet.

My Experience with Roc and Manuch

People following the Coyotes ownership situation have certainly heard about Roc from Roc and Manuch. Roc has been tweeting that he knows someone in the Jamison ownership group and has been given the privilege of tweeting out insider information about the sale.

Roc has never given his source nor has the Jamison ownership group confirmed they have any relationship with Roc. The other day he tweeted that the Jamison group was out of the ownership picture. He said his source, who is part of the ownership group texted him and told him this news.

I tweeted to a few people, NOT ROC, and said why should people even believe this radio personality.

Roc replied to this tweet that was not even to him and called me out saying I was a bad fan. He DM'ed me saying that I should unfollow him if I don't like it and then he promptly unfollowed me so I could not respond to his DM. He tweeted that I was being a keyboard warrior and he wanted to meet in person. Mind you all these tweets have now been deleted.

I told him I would love to meet up with him and tweeted him 3 times asking him where and when we could meet and he never responded.

Several days ago Roc also tweeted that he was not going to tweet about Coyotes news again because of all the haters. So then he still tweets news and then gets upset when people question his sources.

For the record, I have never questioned Roc's commitment to the team nor his status as a fan. I am not mad because he seems to think he is just the messenger of bad news. I am pissed because he said I was a bad fan and called me out to meet and then deleted the tweets about it and unfollowed me so I could not respond to his DM's and still has not told me where and when we are going to meet up.

Ps. Hey Roc, Anytime and anyplace I will be there to meet up with you. I will say EVERYTHING I have tweeted to your face. Will you do the same??? I am waiting.

Geoff

Updated odds to win 2012 Stanley Cup

Pittsburgh Penguins - 7/1

Boston Bruins - 15/2

Chicago Blackhawks - 9/1

Philadelphia Flyers - 9/1

Vancouver Canucks - 9/1

San Jose Sharks - 11/1

Detroit Red Wings - 12/1

Washington Capitals - 15/1

New York Rangers - 16/1

Los Angeles Kings - 20/1

Minnesota Wild - 20/1

St. Louis Blues - 22/1

Dallas Stars - 28/1

Buffalo Sabres - 30/1

Florida Panthers - 30/1

Nashville Predators - 30/1

Toronto Maple Leafs - 35/1

Montreal Canadiens - 40/1

New Jersey Devils - 40/1

Phoenix Coyotes - 40/1

Tampa Bay Lightning - 40/1

Edmonton Oilers - 50/1

Calgary Flames - 75/1

Colorado Avalanche - 75/1

Winnipeg Jets - 75/1

Ottawa Senators - 90/1

Anaheim Ducks - 100/1

Carolina Hurricanes - 200/1

New York Islanders - 300/1

Columbus Blue Jackets - 500/1

Equality by Eric

This is a message from my friend Eric.

David and I will celebrate 28 years together in January. We have bought houses, enjoyed family, buried loved ones, had good times, endured bad times, gone on vacation, have great friends, support the arts, pay our taxes, volunteer...but haven't been on a reality show that results in the "winner" marrying someone, we don't go to Vegas and marry someone for 55 hours, we don't get corporate sponsors for a wedding /media stunt. We aren't the ones who are ending the sanctity of marriage. That's not what we want. We just want what is fair and equal. No political message. Just what's fair. It's time.

My Wayne Gretzky Experience

Seeing a tweet today from Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski)about wanting to smoke a cigar with Wayne Gretzky before he dies reminded me about an experience I had with Wayne back in 2006.

I received an email from the Phoenix Coyotes back during the 2006-2007 season about an upcoming charity lunch with the team. All proceeds from the event were to go to charity so I looked at the options that were available.

You could buy an entire table for 10 at $1000 and a player or coach from the team would be at the table. You could pay $100 for just a seat at a random table or you could pay $1000 for the ability to sit with then head coach, Wayne Gretzky.

I was earning quite a bit of money back then so I decided to go for it and sit at Wayne's table. It seemed like a once in a lifetime experience and I did not want to pass it up.

Since he was the coach of the Coyotes at the time, I did not realize what a privilege it is to have this opportunity. Someone told me once that there is a prize in the Canadian Lottery that is a meal with the Great One. I was really young when he was playing so I was not educated on how amazing a player he was.

So I get there as soon as the doors open to the arena and head down to the covered ice. The Gretzky table stood out among the others as it was beautifully decorated and all but one chair has a Gretzky Coyotes jersey on it. I hurried over to the table and grabbed one of the seats next to the one without a jersey hoping he was going to sit there. The other people that paid to sit with Wayne started to sit down and I was surprised to hear a few of them actually flew in just for this opportunity. They were floored that they could pay $1000 to charity and were able to have a lunch with Wayne.


The entire team was introduced and then came to sit down. When Wayne sat he introduced himself and asked us all of our names. We all had a jersey, puck, hockey card, and hat at our places and he broke the ice and asked if he could sign our stuff. He was very good at talking to each of us on a personal level and it was great to see how down to earth he is.

Darren Pang was talking at the podium about the team and as soon as he was finished at least half of everyone else that was there got up from their table and came over to our table so Wayne could sign items for them. This is the part that made the experience amazing. Wayne obviously knew what we all paid to be at his table so when the other 200 people were coming up to him, he was polite and said hi, but he continued to focus all of his attention on us at his table. It really is cool to see how fast he can sign his name without looking. He was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in every single one of us.

One sad part is when every single person sitting at Georges Laraque's table got up at the same time to go wait in line and he was stuck there sitting by himself.

Looking back I think I took for granted that the greatest hockey player of all time was the coach and the fans had access to him. Even though I thought he was a terrible coach, he was a great player.

I had the jersey framed and it is still hanging in my living room.