Phoenix Coyotes Fans
Jobing.com Arena
Glendale, AZ
www.fiveforhowling.com

Edmonton Oilers Fans
Rexall Place
Edmonton,  AB
www.coppernblue.com

Dear Edmonton Oilers Fans:

It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter to you today. I know it hasn't been easy for you lot this season. What with players getting hurt all year and your team not performing as well as you had hoped. Even with some quality players it just didn't work out. Now you've been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs with a league low 49 points as of this writing, your season is pretty much over. In fact in speaking with some of your fans and reading your posts you gave up on this season some time ago. That's never a fun feeling. We Coyote fans have been there many times. It's not a fun feeling watching your season slip away from you. But that sadness isn't why i'm writing to you today. No, I want to invite you back to watching and enjoying hockey again. And to do so watching the Phoenix Coyotes both for the rest of the season and into the Playoffs. 

After the Jump I'll give you some reasons why this could be a good fit...

Let me outline just some of the reasons that you might want to make the Coyotes your team this postseason. These aren't meant to make fun but are real bonding reasons why we can make this work.

• We hate Chris Pronger. Yep. We really do. Not nearly as much as I get the feeling you do, but still it's some common ground. It may not have much to do with the rest of the season since he's been banished to Philadelphia, but its a starting place for us to get to know each other. We booed him every time he touched the ice here in Phoenix. 
• We understand the frustration with Nikolai Khabibulin. There he signed a silly contract and promptly got hurt. Here just wanted a big payday and when we said no he bolted. He's a decent guy, but just disappointing in a lot of ways. We understand. 
• We get how absolutely infuriating inept ownership and management is. I mean look at our team. Up until recently this place was a friggin gong show. When Mike Barnett ran things we just couldn't get anything right. Our contracts were all insanely dumb. We had terrible players locked into terrible deals and no one knew what the hell they were doing. But with that also comes hope. Someone had the good sense to bring in Don Maloney and slowly things began to change. Those bad players and contracts got sent off. We started drafting better and developing players. We stopped signing over the hill players that just weren't cutting it anymore. Things got better. So we're a picture of what your team could be when Tambellini gets canned. 
• We both hate the Flames. You hate them because they're your neighbors. We hate them because they're jerks. Well, to be fair you probably hate them because they're jerks too. We want them out of the playoffs, but we have extra motivation to do so. See we have the Flames first round pick so the harder they fall the more we benefit. There's a reason beyond hate to cheer for the demise of the Flames. 
• Shane Doan is a great Canadian. He was robbed not being on the Olympic team, but that's alright. He's a great leader and has led Team Canada in the past. He's really easy to like and you already know him!

Editors Note: The Adopt the Coyotes Letters will be a feature here through the end of the season. In each letter we'll reach out to the fans of those teams that have been mathematically eliminated from the playoff hunt and graciously, in the spirit of friendship, invite them to adopt the Coyotes as their playoff team this year. These are not meant to taunt teams or to be mean, but really are to invite those fans to join the cause, if only temporarily.