Arizona Coyotes: Top Three Home Games Before Christmas
Opening Night: The Philadelphia Flyers come for a visit on Saturday, October 15th.
The opening night for the Arizona Coyotes is an unbelievable experience, and once you’ve been to one opener, attendance at all future ones becomes mandatory.
Simply put, the level of excitement for Yotes fans inside Gila River Arena is electric, making opening day for other Valley sports teams seem tame.
Really tame.
Like “insurance seminar” tame.
It’s a great night for hockey. It’s a crowded, raucous house filled with optimism, spirit, and noise. Everyone’s excited, and with good reason.
Anything’s possible.
A win feels like a play-off victory.
The players that earned spots on the team get introduced, and this year there will be plenty of new faces. It will also likely be Shane Doan’s last home opener, and that’s something worth seeing live for any Coyotes fan.
And if that isn’t enough for you, there’s the revenge factor.
When these two teams last met back in March, there was a bad taste left in the mouths of Coyotes players and fans.
It was the night Michael Stone suffered his season-ending knee injury in the third period of a hard-fought game.
Doan also was hurt, driven into the boards from behind by Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas, also in the third period, ending the Captain’s night. Both players had scored in the contest, the only goals in what would be a 2-to-1 victory.
Adding to the melee was Martin Hanzal’s hit on Flyers Captain Claude Giroux, taking Giroux out of the remainder of the game late in the third. Hanzal received a five-minute major penalty for the hit.
So it’s fair to say that both teams will be looking for some payback.
Next: Sharks Come To Town November 1st