I wrote a similiar (long) post on J. Tanners blog, which I will hit the high points of here.
Contrary to popular belief, Phoenix is an untapped hockey market, that has really yet to be tapped. The philosophy up to this point has been 'Nickel and dime it, accountability & defense, scrape out boring wins half the time, go low on penalties', in a nutshell.
I wonder what would happen if they really threw caution to the wind: focused on aggressive high flying offense; big, crashing hits, scrappers on the 4th line, so on and so forth- market it as such. Philadelphia comes to mind as a model.
Point being, good hockey- or at least, exciting hockey, sells itself. You can't not like it, IMO. Phoenix is the 4th largest metropolitan area in the United States, made up largely of transplants. If you want to fill up that barn, do it for entertainments sake, not scraping out a win in watch-the-paint dry fashion. I've lived here long enough, I think, to be a good judge of that. Tippet always worked well with what he was given, but what he was given was a fickle market that won't buy into boring, defensive hockey. Real change, I think, starts there.
I wrote a similiar (long) post on J. Tanners blog, which I will hit the high points of here.
Contrary to popular belief, Phoenix is an untapped hockey market, that has really yet to be tapped. The philosophy up to this point has been 'Nickel and dime it, accountability & defense, scrape out boring wins half the time, go low on penalties', in a nutshell.
I wonder what would happen if they really threw caution to the wind: focused on aggressive high flying offense; big, crashing hits, scrappers on the 4th line, so on and so forth- market it as such. Philadelphia comes to mind as a model.
Point being, good hockey- or at least, exciting hockey, sells itself. You can't not like it, IMO. Phoenix is the 4th largest metropolitan area in the United States, made up largely of transplants. If you want to fill up that barn, do it for entertainments sake, not scraping out a win in watch-the-paint dry fashion. I've lived here long enough, I think, to be a good judge of that. Tippet always worked well with what he was given, but what he was given was a fickle market that won't buy into boring, defensive hockey. Real change, I think, starts there. - jeffgouldonfire
Arizona and its fan will care about Hockey when Bettman cares about the lack of scoring in the NHL.
I wrote a similiar (long) post on J. Tanners blog, which I will hit the high points of here.
Contrary to popular belief, Phoenix is an untapped hockey market, that has really yet to be tapped. The philosophy up to this point has been 'Nickel and dime it, accountability & defense, scrape out boring wins half the time, go low on penalties', in a nutshell.
I wonder what would happen if they really threw caution to the wind: focused on aggressive high flying offense; big, crashing hits, scrappers on the 4th line, so on and so forth- market it as such. Philadelphia comes to mind as a model.
Point being, good hockey- or at least, exciting hockey, sells itself. You can't not like it, IMO. Phoenix is the 4th largest metropolitan area in the United States, made up largely of transplants. If you want to fill up that barn, do it for entertainments sake, not scraping out a win in watch-the-paint dry fashion. I've lived here long enough, I think, to be a good judge of that. Tippet always worked well with what he was given, but what he was given was a fickle market that won't buy into boring, defensive hockey. Real change, I think, starts there. - jeffgouldonfire
I'm hoping the yotes win the lottery. Mcdavid would be huge there.
