Coyotes wear Australia-themed costumes for team-building event 

MELBOURNE, Australia -- The games began not long after the Arizona Coyotes touched down in Australia.

Partially as part of a team-building exercise, partially as part of a scheme to keep the players up after the 15-hour flight from Los Angeles, the Coyotes players had a draft to divide into teams Monday and sent out into the streets of Melbourne to find Australia-themed costumes. They had 90 minutes.

Find them, they did.

“We got to explore the city a little bit,” forward Nick Bjugstad said. “I think they wanted to keep us away from our beds because going to bed was tempting early in the morning yesterday. It was a good plan. We kept busy, we had to walk, we walked a couple miles just trying to find costumes.”

On Tuesday, the Coyotes players piled into Ballers Clubhouse clutching plastic bags, their costumes hidden within. The venue is a social club filled with games, shuffleboard, ping pong, darts, cornhole and many more.

“We’re going to play a bunch of competitions, probably yell at each other,” Bjugstad said. “Have a little fun.”

It was a chance to relax, to bond, to become the team the Coyotes are hoping to be when the puck drops on the 2023-24 season. That’s part of what they’re doing in Melbourne, as they also get ready to face the Los Angeles Kings in the 2023 NHL Global Series, with games Saturday and Sunday at Rod Laver Arena. The games start at 12 a.m. ET and will be available on NHL Network and ESPN+ in the United States, Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ in Canada and 9Go, 9Now, ESPN and the ESPN App in Australia.

Lawson Crouse’s team went with a Steve Irwin theme, a nod to the Australian wildlife educator.

“We took a picture of Steve Irwin, what he would wear,” Crouse said. “Growing up, I was a big fan of him and obviously a lot of respect to him as he’s passed, but we’re looking forward to it. It’s just a safari outfit, but we have a little something extra planned.”

Mathew Dumba’s team cycled through a couple of options, including koalas and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, but settled on Australian Football League players, in full uniforms.

Bjugstad’s team had initially also been focused on Steven Irwin.

“Kind of obvious,” he said.

But then they took a costume detour, courtesy of a suggestion from goalie Connor Ingram.

“We went to a Halloween costume store and saw prisoner costumes,” he said. “Historical. I didn’t know this. Connor Ingram was like, well, we could do prisoners because they used to bring the British prisoners over here.”

The one fly in the ointment for his team, though, was that he thought they might need to provide a primer on Australian history for some to understand their costumes. According to the National Museum of Australia, between 1788 and 1868, more than 162,000 convicts were sent to Australia from Britain and Ireland.

“If you have to explain your costume, I don’t know,” Bjugstad said. “Our coaches are smart. The players probably won’t know what’s going on.”