Coyotes excited for Mullett opener, expect advantage at intimate new home

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Christian Fischer can recall only a handful of times in his six years with the Arizona Coyotes having the kind of unique, electric, real home-ice advantage that he sees other teams around the NHL have on a regular basis.

"We had games in Glendale that have been sold out and it's been fun, but to have that home atmosphere, haven't had that here in a couple years," the Coyotes forward said. "To have it after a fight, after a goal, after a big shift, a blocked shot, you play in other buildings and you hear it. It's tough to play against teams that have that type of crowd."
The Coyotes think they'll have it in Mullett Arena, albeit with only 5,000 fans filling their new temporary home barn on the campus of Arizona State University, complete with a drum line and a student section in a bleacher area behind the net.
They debut here against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (10:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, Hulu, TVAS, TSN3, SN NOW).
"I think we can have a special flavor here," Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong said. "We're a physical team. We're a grinding team. I would like to think we're one of the hardest working teams in the National Hockey League. If you come to see us play you're going to get your money's worth. And when you come to see us in this building you've got one of the best seats in the NHL."
Coyotes forward Clayton Keller said he thinks it'll remind him of playing in college at Boston University.
"It's definitely that college feel with the rink size and the bleachers behind us," Keller said. "It's a different feeling coming into this rink. Hopefully it's an advantage for us."
Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said it could be similar to the atmospheres he coached in in junior hockey, in the QMJHL, where the arenas are small but the crowds are loud.
"I've coached for a long time and if you ask me the crowd, the most intimidating places I've coached, people will be shocked," Tourigny said. "They will think Madison Square Garden or something like that. It's not. I can talk to you about the arena in Shawinigan, where it's crazy. In Rouyn-Noranda it's the same. They're small barns, but when the people are on top of you, it's small and they are into it, there's a lot of emotion, that's intimidating. Having said that, I'm not saying it's better to play in front of a small crowd. But it's great to play in a full building when the people are into it and when there is emotion in the game. So that will be pretty cool."
No one associated with the Coyotes believes this is a perfect situation, though.
"It's temporary and when you have temporary, you're always missing something so it's not completely perfect," Armstrong said.
That will happen for the Coyotes if they get approval from the Tempe City Council to get started on building a new entertainment complex featuring a new state-of-the-art arena a mile down the road from Arizona State.
A vote on that is expected to be held Nov. 29, Coyotes president Xavier Gutierrez said.
If approved, and barring litigation or referendums, the Coyotes will need six to eight months to clean the site and close to two years to build the arena, Gutierrez said. Their agreement with ASU to play at Mullett Arena is for three years with the option for a fourth.
"We are excited to be in Tempe," Gutierrez said. "We see this as the main and main of the valley, the main and main of the state, and we are here. It is brand new and we have made the investment to make it to NHL standards. It is intimate and you will have an unprecedented experience. It is going to be loud. It is going to be electric."
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The Coyotes have invested approximately $25 million in upgrades and additions to Mullett Arena, including building a two-story, 15,000-square foot annex building attached to the arena that will be home to NHL dressing rooms, office space for coaches, medical facilities and more.
The Annex will not be completed until the Coyotes return from a 14-game road trip to play the Boston Bruins on Dec. 9.
For their first four home games the Coyotes home dressing room is actually the normal visitor's dressing room for teams that come in to play ASU. The NHL visitor's room was created from scratch and built on top of the community rink attached to the arena.
The NHL, NHL Players' Association and the first four teams the Coyotes will play here -- the Jets, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars -- were all consulted on the temporary dressing rooms throughout the process, Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said the Coyotes could have waited until the Annex was completed to play their first home game. As it is, 20 of their first 24 games are on the road.
"We didn't want these players on the road for two months straight to start the season; this is the accommodation for that," Gutierrez said. "But that Annex, when it comes online, everyone has already acknowledged, the medical staff, the NHL as well as our facilities folks, that's going to be a fantastic locker room."
They had to upgrade some of the infrastructure to allow for NHL quality video replay. They are adding ribbon boards for advertising. They had to build broadcast bays for cameras. And they had to upgrade the ice plant and tubing to make sure the playing surface was to NHL standards.
"The ice is great," Fischer said. "That ice is better than almost any ice we've played on these last six games."
Fischer said he also noticed the boards being livelier when the puck hits off than at other rinks around the NHL. Tourigny said he expects the puck to rim around the boards quicker and with the hard ice it should create a fast-paced game.
"We're excited, we're curious," Tourigny said. "We had a lot of energy this morning. You could tell the players were excited. It's brand new. The building looks great. If the fans are into it that will be a unique experience and it will be a lot of emotion out there. That will be pretty cool."
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Gutierrez said the expectation is every game will be sold out, including with approximately 2,500 season ticket holders that came from Gila River Arena, their previous home.
The Coyotes wanted to keep some tickets available for walkup customers each game and they also created a program called Coyotes U for ASU students, giving them the option to buy discounted tickets at $25 each for select home games.
He said between 200-400 tickets will be held for students.
"We wanted to expose hockey and our organization to the great students here and the great alumni of ASU," Gutierrez said. "We're here on their campus. This is the largest public university in the country and we thought it was an incredible opportunity for us to bring them here, have them be exposed and to make lifelong fans."
Lucas Metzner, a junior studying journalism at ASU, said students are talking about it and there is a buzz about it on campus.
"I'd go down to Glendale, to Gila River Arena, with the guys and it would be a fun trip but it's a whole experience that you have to plan out and leave maybe an hour and a half before puck drop just to get there and get to the seats on time, and then you had to take a while to drive back," Metzner said. "It was a whole trip, but now they're a couple blocks away from the main campus, everyone is here and it's a really exciting thing for stuff to do during the week or on weekends. I'm sure a lot of students have been to ASU games and I've been to an ASU game, but the NHL, that's the highest level of hockey and it's right here. It's super exciting."
Said Fischer, "I can tell you all 23 guys are excited to play and it's going to be a heck of an atmosphere."