Halfway through the season and I started wondering if there has been any correlation between attendance and the Coyotes winning percentage on home ice. Well, here it is...

Click to enlarge

This is never a good analysis considering all of the variables, e.g. injuries, sellouts due to opponents' fans, back-to-back games, etc. In any case, though, it's always a little interesting to see how the team performs in front of a bigger audience. So far the larger crowds have been relatively disappointed; the Coyotes fans, that is.

Here's a breakdown of each game set. Sorry for the mystery red links. I am bad at coding.

Result	Visiting Team	Score	Home Team	Score	OT/SO	Attendance
L	BOSTON	2	PHOENIX	1	OT	17459
W	WINNIPEG	1	PHOENIX	4		17132
L	DETROIT	3	PHOENIX	2	SO	15067
L	PHILADELPHIA	4	PHOENIX	2		14913
L	VANCOUVER	5	PHOENIX	0		14569
L	MONTREAL	3	PHOENIX	2	OT	14138
W	EDMONTON	2	PHOENIX	4		13381
W	NY ISLANDERS	1	PHOENIX	5		13350
W	COLORADO	1	PHOENIX	6		12757
L	TAMPA BAY	4	PHOENIX	3		12714
L	ST LOUIS	3	PHOENIX	2		12650
L	NY RANGERS	3	PHOENIX	2		12172
L	CHICAGO	5	PHOENIX	2		11051
L	MINNESOTA	4	PHOENIX	1		10976
W	LOS ANGELES	2	PHOENIX	3	OT	10379
W	DALLAS	0	PHOENIX	3		10036
W	EDMONTON	2	PHOENIX	4		9397
W	ANAHEIM	2	PHOENIX	4		9124
W	OTTAWA	2	PHOENIX	3		8061
W	NEW JERSEY	3	PHOENIX	5		7434
L	LOS ANGELES	2	PHOENIX	0		7128
L	DALLAS	3	PHOENIX	2	SO	6948
L	NASHVILLE	3	PHOENIX	0		6738

Discuss!

You'll probably see more on this in the daily links tomorrow, but Gary Bettman let it slip today that there is a third group now looking into purchasing the Coyotes. More on this after the jump...

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The Coyotes mid-season slide in the standings has not helped, but the fact that we are now approaching the end of January and the All-Star break and still there has been no news of a possible offer on the purchase of the Coyotes, is extremely concerning.

This drama has gone on long enough. The fans are out there - some watching the games at jobing.com and many more watching the games on TV. Should there be more fans in the seats? Absolutely!! It's a solid team, with good coaching, in a great building, with tickets priced very competitively. Do I think the location of the new arena could have been better placed in a more appropriate location? Possibly. The Westgate Center is a fantastic development...and the location certainly hasn't had any adverse affect on the Arizona Cardinals. People will debate that....but it is what it is. Debating it is not going to help the future of the Coyotes in Arizona.

It's hard for many fans to "invest" their time, energy, money and passion in a product that may or may not be there next season. Since moving the team to Glendale the team's first problem was not getting to the playoffs, then their problem was ownership and bankruptcy issues. Hockey can be successful in Arizona, and its about time intelligent investors and fans realize that the numbers at jobing.com are an effect of a deeper cause, that can be remedied over time - starting with players, fans and supporters of the Coyotes knowing their team is here to stay!

Let's support our team as they fight towards a playoff spot during the remainder of the season. Let's get out to the games, fill up jobing.com and send a clear message that we, the fans, are here....but we need a little more "commitment" in return.

Poll

With the ownership issue resolved, and knowing the Coyotes were here to stay, would you be more likely to attend games at jobing.com?

84%

YES

42 votes

16%

NO

8 votes

50 votes | Poll has closed

Sounds like the Winter Classic will be headed to Motown next year, and rumor has it our friends from the North will be taking part as well. Details after the jump...

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Mike Smith is not the answer. He is far too inconsistant. Send out a search party ASAP before its too late. Smith has proven that he is a very capable backup goaltender but it ends there. Far too many "bad" goals at the most inopportune times. 6 goals allowed in the last 5 minutes of games this season. A good starter shuts the door down the stretch. Lets get talking to Vancouver about Corey Schneider.

At the start of the Coyotes’ season there was one story that wasn’t the main story but it always seemed to be on the back burner, the Kyle Turris hold out and whether the Coyotes would trade him away. Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney repeatedly said that he would not trade the 22 year old Center. As the deadline grew closer fans watched in anticipation wondering who was going to blink first. On November 22, 2011 GM Don Maloney announced that Turris had been resigned to a 2 year, $2.8 million contract. Fairly soon after the Coyotes announced the deal the discussion switched to the benefits of trading Kyle Turris, something that may have confused some fans, including me at first. Here are some of the pros and cons of trading Turris this season.

Pros:

• Turris holding out showed that he doesn’t want to be in Phoenix, his agent even told ESPN that they were looking for “the opportunity to move forward in his career by having a fresh start." A trade may get someone who wants to be in Phoenix
• To be honest, the Coyotes played their first 23 games without Turris and their record was impressive, proving that they may not need Turris
• A trade could hopefully get the team a player with a good Power Play record this season, Turris has skated on the Power Play line but Phoenix continues to come up short on the Power Plays
• Turris has had some unimpressive games, including his stats from the Nashville game where he had 0 shots and went 1-5 on faceoffs
• In his four games where he averaged around 11:30 on ice he has yet to get a goal, or assist
• With the recent coach firings it’s obvious that some teams are looking to shake up their teams, they may consider Turris to be a piece of their team and they may be willing to make a trade that will favor the Coyotes

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Cons

• Other teams may be wary to pick up a player who held out the way that Turris did, as such it may make trading Turris this season difficult
• Other teams may value Turris less because he missed part of the season, which may mean the trade will be less beneficial then a trade later in the season
• Turris has had some impressive games, especially in his first game against Winnipeg where he had 4 shots on goal, the most on the team, and went 6-0 on faceoffs
• Turris has a history on the team and has chemistry with the players that a trade may not have.

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Overall the decision whether or not to trade Kyle Turris will be left to people who work for the teams who know a lot more than I do, and are paid a lot more than me. Those people are also probably not going to read this, although it’s not like I’m saying anything that they probably do not already know. Overall I would say that Turris is a talented young player who has the potential to be a great player one day, either with the Coyotes or with another team¸ but I honestly doubt he will be with Phoenix long term.

I wrote a little pregame for this game and I honestly thought that the Coyotes were going to win this game, and if they didn’t win the score was going to be close. After the first two quick goals I my expectations went to a close loss. By the end of the first period where Detroit was up 5-0 and Smith was pulled I gave up on the close part and starting hoping that it wasn’t going to be a shut out. Thankfully my standards of scoring at least one goal turned out to not be too high with the final score 5 – 2 Detroit. I will say that there were a few positive things to come from this game. Don’t worry I’m not going to say “This was a learning experience,” it shouldn’t need to be said that you don’t let a team get up by five in the first period of the game and I would hope that every member of the team knew that. But anyways on with the positives:

1. Coyotes scored their first Power Play goal since the November 23 game against Anaheim, which is hopefully is going to be the start of something good in that department which the Coyotes have definitely been lacking in this season
2. Ray Whitney got his 600 Assist, Congratulations to him although he would probably trade that milestone for a win tonight
3. Jason LaBarbera was impressive after taking over for Smith in the first allowing only one goal and making a few impressive saves, Labarbera seems to be on a bit of a hot streak with a win in Nashville and not allowing Flyers to score after he took over for Smith for the Second and Third

The two biggest negative takeaways of the game I noticed were:

1. This isn’t the first time it seems like a Phoenix allowed a team to gain the moment and completely control a period, and during these occasions Phoenix either lost or the game went to overtime:

• In the last Chicago all 3 of their goals came in the second, although in this instance Phoenix did score a goal in the second as well, Phoenix won this game in a shoot out
• 12-3-11 All 4 Flyers goals were in the first, Phoenix lost this game
• 12-1-11 Winnipeg’s lone goal in the first was the game decider, Phoenix lost this game
• 11-15-11 Toronto scored both their 2 goals in the Third, Phoenix won this game in a shoot out
• 11-10-11 Canadiens scored both their regulation goals in the Second, Phoenix lost this game
• 10-20-11 Kings scored both their goals in the Second, Phoenix lost this game

Looking back at these games I remember feeling that they weren’t as strong during these periods and if they had played the same way they did during the other periods of these games then the other teams may not have had scored as much as they did. Although to be fair there are a lot of other factors going into this like momentum which definitely contributes to this, and I’m sure that Tippett yelling at the boys after a period definitely helps the team rally back.

2. The Coyotes have really improved their penalty kill for this season, and one factor was that they weren’t taking as many penalties, in this game they were short handed 5 times, which is not a season high, that would be 7 during the game against Dallas on October 10th, but it is higher than their average of 3.25 times per game. It is also worth noting that every time they are short handed 5 or more times in the game they lose the game, although correlation does not equal causation.

The local hockey club is reaching out to fans across Phoenix tonight by doing their part to build the Coyotes community. Partnering with 18 Degrees Neighborhood Grill, located within the team's Ice Den training center, the Coyotes will host a viewing party for tonight's tilt with the rival Red Wings. Fans interested in attending this extremely entertaining, unique Coyotes experience will be greeted by the beautiful Paw Patrol and the team's mascot Howler, who will be handing out door prizes such as autographed team gear and tickets to future games. More details after the jump...

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Thursday’s game is the start of something that most Coyotes fans I know dread, our series of games against the Detroit Red Wings. Coyotes fans seem to dislike games against the Red Wings for a couple of reasons, they tend to be tougher games and of course everyone hates Red Wings fans. It seems to be an almost universe sentiment that Red Wings fans are the most annoying fans in the NHL, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

The game against the Red Wings is important on two basic levels, a psychological level and a point level. In the Pacific Division every game counts because the teams are so close, except the Ducks of course, and every point that we can get is precious, especially with the win on Tuesday moving the Coyotes to the top spot in the Pacific Division. The team is really looking for this victory to secure their position, especially with only a two point lead over Dallas. Psychologically we need to beat the Red Wings just to prove that we can, especially after last year’s playoffs which we don’t need to talk about . . . ever again. But after that thing that we aren’t going to talk about we really need to a win. Detroit seems to get under a team’s skin, if they beat you once they seem to beat you again and again.

Coyotes will be going into this game with a road record of 9-4-1 after a shoot out win in Chicago and a 3-2 victory in Nashville. Hopefully back to back wins will give the Coyotes momentum going in to Detroit.

The Red Wings will be going into this game with an impressive home record of 10-2-1, however they will be going into the game having lost the last two against Colorado and St. Louis, however both of these games were away.

This is a similar situation to last weeks game against Chicago who had just come back from a road trip.

Phoenix will most likely play Mike Smith in goal for this game, although he had a somewhat shaky game against Philadelphia he still has a great record of 7-3-1 away and he was rested during the game against Nashville.

Phoenix Left Wing Ray Whitney is currently 1 assist away from a career 600, and the way he has been playing lately with 3 assists and 3 goals in the past 5 games you can bet that he is going to be reaching that mark soon.

With the Coyotes record this season there is no reason we should not be able to beat the Red Wings. With 2 wins against the Blackhawks recently, the Coyotes have proven that they can not only compete with some of the top teams in the NHL but we can also beat them too. It should also be noted that the Blackhawks are currently ahead of the Red Wings in the division although the two teams have yet to play each other this season. However if they are going to win they are going to have to play 60 minutes of hard hockey, they can’t slow down for a period like they sometimes do.

The Phoenix Coyotes and Winnipeg Jets played each other twice in this season, once in Phoenix, once in Winnipeg. There was a fair amount of outside attention on these games, the Old Jets versus the New Jets as it was billed. The first game was our home opener at Jobing.com Arena, while the second game was at the MTS Centre last Thursday. The Phoenix Coyotes won the first game 4-1 while the Winnipeg Jets won the second game 0-1, so currently this rivalry is tied 1-1 with both teams winning at home.

It’s easy to see why there would be a rivalry between these two teams with the history between them, but when he fans and players talk about the rivalry it is primarily Winnipeg fans and players. After this last Thursday’s game player Bryan Little even said that they “hopefully create a bit of a rivalry with them,” something that Jets fans would obviously agree with considering every second of Coyotes puck possession seemed to be accompanied by boos from the arena. Honestly the last time I heard a team be booed so much when was I watched Slap Shot last month and saw the Charleston Chiefs being booed every arena they went to after the Hanson Brothers switched the team to Goon style hockey.

Watching the Jets/Coyotes game I was surprised by the Winnipeg fan’s reaction to the Coyotes, especially since I know first-hand the reaction the Jets had when they were at Jobing.com. At that game Coyotes fans chanted “Let’s Go Thrashers” a couple times, and towards the end the crowd was involved in a “U.S.A.” chant. To be honest at the time I thought the USA chant was a little tasteless at the time, especially considering how many Coyotes players are Canadian.

Before the game I would have thought the Jets fans would respond at that same level, and I was unpleasantly surprised to see them boo the Coyotes for what seemed like all of the game. At the end of the first I had reasoned that the Jets were determined to make us their bitter rivals, and that we were no more appreciated in their arena than the Devils are in Madison Square Garden. Is this going to be a level on the same level as Rangers and Devils? I certainly hope not, I see a lot of Jets fans at Coyotes game and I always enjoy talking to them, I don’t want the animosity that would come from an intense rivalry. Honestly though if the Coyotes are received the same way in Winnipeg next year I think the Coyotes fans will probably respond in kind. If I had known how the Coyotes were going to be received this year I would have booed them during the season opener, and I’m sure that I would not be the only one. Honestly though, I hope that next time we are received better next time, I really don’t want a bitter rivalry with the Jets, I see their fans too many times throughout the year.

This is of course only my opinion man, I'm interested to hear what other people think. Most of the people I talked to were surprised by how serious the Jets fans seemed to take this "rivalry" but if you expected this let me know.