Questions, but no answers

Aside from the questions that many Phoenix Coyotes fans have been asking (those of us that dare to ask, that is) since the season began -- questions like who will be the team's goal scorers after the departure of team leaders Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk, or what the new team will look like under direction of new owner Wayne Gretzky, or whether the proposed arena in the far west suburbs of Phoenix will ever really be built -- even more questions are swirling around our "new" Phoenix Coyotes (and don't you really hate that term?).

One of the most pressing questions I have is -- when this team will really begin to "jell."

With all the young and hungry talent on this team, fans have expected and deserved a more exciting brand of hockey than the penalty-filled unorganized play we have seen to date.

For example, just this past week, the team won convincingly at home, and had the local reporters babbling about how wonderful this team is compared to last year.

Yet, only days later, they suffered two embarrassing back-to-back losses against Minnesota and St. Louis. Afterwards, the coach was reported as raising hell and benching players who he perceives as just being "along for the ride."

The reporters are quiet now, which is probably a blessing, since they can't say anything nice about this year's team without making disparaging comments about departed players for no apparent reason other than to make already antagonistic fans even more defensive.

Shane Doan, who was supposed to be having his break out year, has had an extremely slow start. Is he missing his two departed linemates more than anyone will admit? (You know, those two guys that are playing in St. Louis and Philadelphia now that we aren't supposed to admit to still supporting.)

We are now approaching December, with the Coyotes playing .500 hockey. For a team that year after year came out of the box burning up the rink, the fans are hoping that this slow start means a big finish in April. But, this fan is very much afraid that a slow start for this team in October will end with only a slower than ever finish in the Spring.

When Wayne Gretzky traded Captain Tkachuk and then mislead and outright lied Jeremy Roenick out the door, he gave up almost 1,500 scoring points and received less than 400 in return. And now, two of the names involved in both the trade of Keith Tkachuk and the departure of JR, Daymond Langkow and Michael Handzus, are reportedly on the trading block, and tension in the locker room is mounting between the young "guns" and the veterans dismayed at the direction this team appears to be taking.

I have, of course, been accused of being "bitter" over the treatment of my all-time favorite NHL player, Jeremy Roenick, and, therefore, not a true "fan" of the Phoenix Coyotes any longer, which is miles from the truth.

Apparently, to the rabid fan base left to the Coyotes, one is no longer a true "fan" if one doesn't attend every game, regardless of financial situation or school age children who need to sleep once in a while.

While I am still a diehard Coyotes fan, and do whatever I can to support a team, with talent like Sean Burke and Robert Esche and Brad May and Landon Wilson, I must admit to not attending as many games this year as I have in the past two or three. And, while this decision has been colored by the departure of Jeremy Roenick, it also is heavily influenced by the absence of child support and a six-year old who has a bedtime of 9:00.

Maybe it is not the sporadic play of the Coyotes that keeps some of us away from the games, but the hostility of some of their "true" fans?

While I cannot condone the treatment that JR was given by the Coyotes and by Mr. Gretzky and Mr. Fletcher, I do not truly believe that my honest opinion about the lack of scoring ability and the questionable discipline on the "new" Phoenix Coyotes, as they are continually being advertised, has anything to do with the screw job given Roenick as he was forced to leave the Valley of the Sun.

My opinion of Wayne Gretzky as the greatest hockey player of all time was somewhat tempered when it was clear that his televised promises of sitting down to offer JR a contract, while JR sat at home and waited to be contacted (and never was contacted), were only a smokescreen made to force JR to be the "bad guy" and let Phoenix off the hook. But, that is another story, another column, and probably best left in the past where it belongs.

Other more troubling questions about what is going on with this team were raised recently when fans were told that a "new" NHL policy prevented them from getting autographs from players as they left the Coyotes practice facility.

A long standing practice has existed whereby fans waited in an orderly fashion outside security gates, and departing players stopped and signed autographs for fans and their families, young and old. This practice, Coyotes officials said, was brought to an end by a "new" NHL policy, which they would back up by signs posted proclaiming the area off limits and private property, with warnings from said officials about what would happen to any fans that remained.

Thinking this slightly odd, and having just spoken to fans in other cities getting autographs just that week from teams such as the Philadelphia Flyers and others, I sent an email to each NHL team, and to the NHL as well.

The answers I got were varied, but had one thing in common -- there wasn't another team in the NHL that knew of any NHL policy forbidding fans getting autographs from players in this manner, nor of any statement by the NHL that this practice was put into effect due to heightened security measures after the events of September 11th.

Things became even more muddled when various sources within the Coyotes organization stated that the measure was only temporary and was a move to get rid of autograph dealers, or yet another statement that players had complained about having to stop for fans (which never numbered more than 10-15 at any given time). Even stranger, a player at one of the few autograph signing made a vague reference to an "incident" at the practice facility, but nothing further was said.

It would seem logical to fans to have restricted access to the players if an incident occurred that compromised the safety or well-being of any of the players. But, there was no verification of this, and other players indicated no knowledge of either an incident or a policy that prevented fans from obtaining autographs after practices.

So far, there have been no answers to any of these questions, only additional questions, and little children can no longer get an autograph from their favorite player without waiting for sporadic formal "events" that may or may not include their player of choice, nor can they be given a satisfactory reason why.

I've often said, there is never a dull moment when it comes to the front office of the Phoenix Coyotes. People in Philly may have Bobby Clarke and all his bluster and drama, but we have a never-ending soap opera in the desert, one that all of us thought was over for good with the purchase of the team by Ellman and Gretzky.

But, the soap suds didn't end, they just changed. We had the budget cuts and the gutting of our team like a dead fish, we had the arena move from Scottsdale to Glendale, and then the promises made by Gretzky to sign Roenick broken, as JR headed out of town without even having talked to the Great One about staying in Phoenix, even while then-GM Cliff Fletcher denied that the team was even rebuilding in the first place.

Now, on top of the continuing arena saga, with some of us questioning whether we will ever seen an arena at all, and the struggles of our "YES we are rebuilding" Phoenix Coyotes, we have front office versus fan drama, with outright duplicity to a fan base that pays front office salaries, misinformation that would make the US Government proud, and a lack of respect for the fan on an individual basis that would never be acceptable if the positions were reversed and the same disrespect was shown toward the Coyotes, from Mr. Gretzky on down to the office receptionist.

I think it might be time for me to move to a place like Philadelphia, just for some sports peace of mind. After all, listening to Bobby Clarke snipe at Eric Lindros is nothing compared to this!