This whole thing is all rather fustrating

First of all thank you for posting this – Lost in this who back and forth bullshit is the most important thing, the one thing that unites the lowest winnipeg troll with the rest of us – WE LOVE HOCKEY, All of us. There wouldn’t be the venom if it wasn’t.

I think a lot of us do WANT to see a team back in Winnipeg – we just don’t want that at our expense. Imagine if the peg gets a team and your Western Conference Finals were Winnipeg vs Phoenix. That would be awesome.

Unfortunatly for the hockey fans of winnipeg, no matter WHAT happens with this ownershit situation, I don’t think the NHL will move a team there. There is too much to lose and not enough to gain. Winnipeg is a saturated hockey market already. The other Canadian owners don’t want it (its another peice of their pie). And I think the rest of the NHL owners don’t want it either.

I love the coyotes, I love HOCKEY. And we’ve been dealing with this shit now for 2 years. We’re sick of it. We’re burned out. And so someone comes on our site (not you) and starts saying we don’t deserve hockey, that its canada’s game. We’re going to hit back. We’re gonna be angry. You keep prodding a dog, your gonna get biten.

Thanks for posting and explaining your feelings. I know that the regular readers here will never equate you with some of the numerous banned posters that have polluted our site. Your postings are always thoughtful, respectful and well-intentioned and I appreciate that.

I also appreciate your deep love of hockey and understand that it is something that many Canadians feel strongly about. Personally, I grew up on Long Island and my father raised me as a New York Rangers fan despite our closer proximity to Nassau Colisseum and the deluge of Islanders fans that I went to school with – all of whom were more than happy to remind me that the Rangers hadn’t won anything since 1940. Thus, 1994 was a pretty special year, even if I had never gotten to go see a Rangers game in person. In fact, despite loving hockey growing up, our family’s financial situation and not exact proximity to MSG would keep me from attending a Rangers game at MSG until I bought tickets myself in 2004 while attending law school in Philadelphia. Ironically, by the end of that year, Glen Sather had destroyed my love of the Rangers and I was fully entrenched behind the Flyers (who I was able to attend plenty of games with a dear friend whose parents had season tickets).

When I moved to Phoenix in 2005, I brought with me a 20+ year love affair with hockey and quickly began attending Coyotes games as often as possible. My wife was not raised caring for hockey (being from Baltimore she was pretty much a baseball fan only at this point), but she started to learn the rules, learn the players and develop a true love of the game. Now, we’ve had season tickets for 4 years, and despite the arrival of our baby girl this past November, we still attend almost every game.

Having NHL hockey in Phoenix is one of the great draws for me of the city. I love Phoenix for many other reasons, but if the Coyotes were to leave, it would definitely be a major subtraction to the overall culture here. What’s remarkable is that I think Phoenix would also quickly lose a substantial portion of its Canadian snow-bird residents who enjoy the ability to escape the snows of Northern Alberta or Saskatchewan and still see their favorite teams live in Arizona.

I’ve been blessed to have the ability to enjoy the sport I love in this way, and I don’t take that for granted. And I hope that one day, you will get to do the same in your city. In the meantime, though, if the Coyotes do stay in Phoenix as I hope, please take advantage of the opportunity to dethaw for a few weeks some winter and catch a few games in Glendale. I’ll even be happy to host you at our house so you can save some money.

I am spending my time in the matchsticks and gas GDT against the Ducks…

No one has given me shit. In fact, one person said Phx is a nice city. I expected at least one person to be an ass. They are all cool. Makes me think…not all fans up there are evil…

I…thank you (Lauren) for your post and apologize for anything I have said derogatorily like the igloo comment.

• buries hatchet*