Jovenitti: Appreciating coyotes, snakes and Phoenix

The NHL playoffs are off to an intense start. The parity in this year’s postseason is… The NHL playoffs are off to an intense start. The parity in this year’s postseason is making the opening round one of the most exciting in recent memory.

There will be no sweeps in any of the eight series, as every single series started out with each team winning one game. And there have been seven overtime games (you learned in my column last week how awesome those are).

Through all of this craziness I have realized one thing: Phoenix is awesome.

I’ll admit, I haven’t really paid much attention to the Coyotes, as the only time I ever watch them play is in their annual game against the Penguins. The Coyotes rarely play on Versus’ nationally televised games, and they are not one of the six teams that NBC acknowledges for existing.

But there is something special brewing down there in the desert. The first noticeably unique thing about Phoenix is the aesthetic awesomeness of a Coyote as a hockey team’s mascot. Much like the team, a coyote can be heard off in the distance, but it is rarely seen until it pounces.

However, the real appeal to having a coyote as a mascot is the fact that every time Phoenix scores a goal, a loud howl is blasted through the arena’s speakers.

The fans have also started a new playoff tradition (I know, the words “playoff” and “tradition” when in reference to Phoenix sounds so weird). The team is facing the Detroit Red Wings in the first round, and any team that has played the Red Wings in the playoffs knows about Detroit’s fans throwing a dead octopus on the ice, a tradition that stems way back to when it only took eight wins to claim the Stanley Cup.

So Phoenix decided to taunt Detroit by copying that tradition, but adding a local twist. Since it would be pretty dangerous to throw a cactus on the ice, a few fans started a campaign to throw snakes on the ice.

Someone did so in game one of the series. The Coyotes won, and a tradition was born.

Once we get past the aesthetics and delve into its history, the team becomes even more likeable. The Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996. Many Canadians were outraged that the NHL would move a team from the hockey hotbed of Canada to a place where ice is rarely seen in its natural form.

Many people said a team would never succeed in the desert.

And for a decade it looked like they were right. Even with “The Great One,” Wayne Gretzky, coaching the team, fans were hard to find. The team was never terribly competitive. It made the playoffs in five of its first six years in Phoenix, but never won a single series.

In a place where hockey was never really a part of life, it is understandable that Phoenix didn’t immediately turn into a hockey town, especially since the team never found postseason success. The team never had more than 40 wins in a season, and sellouts were equally rare.

Last year, the team filed for bankruptcy and was almost sold to billionaire Jim Balsillie. Yes, the same Balsillie who tried to buy the Penguins and the Nashville Predators — this guy really wants to own a team. If the sale had gone through, Balsillie would have moved the team to Southern Ontario to give Canadians a seventh NHL team.

Thankfully, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the board of governors rejected the sale to Balsillie. Instead, Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes agreed to sell the team to the NHL.

The NHL will own the team until it is stable and will sell the team when a suitable buyer is found (Jim, put your hand down).

Many fans thought this would be the team’s last season in the desert and more fans started showing up to the games. What they realized when they got there was, “Hey, this team’s actually good.”

Phoenix stormed its way to 50 wins this year and secured a home-ice advantage in the playoffs.

If that story isn’t enough to warm your heart and make you root for the Coyotes, then their playoff opponent should affect your decision.

What is Phoenix’s reward for its best season in franchise history? Why, a first round match-up with perennial Cup favorites the Detroit Red Wings, of course.

All the experts were saying this was a horrible draw for the Coyotes and that the Red Wings would win in five or six games. But the Coyotes have taken a 2-1 lead in the series.

And if all that howling, snake-throwing and beating-the-odds crap still isn’t enough to earn your support, then take into consideration what the fans chant at games.

“Let’s go ’Yotes” is perhaps one of the coolest chants, ever.