Coyotes trying to drown out relocation noise

One of the questions to Arizona Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny on Friday morning about the impending relocation of the

NHL franchise to Salt Lake City was whether any wellness check was needed in the team dressing room.

Everybody's head is spinning because the moving vans are likely on the way after the Coyotes play their final four games, the last one against the Edmonton Oilers in the desert Wednesday at the bandbox 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the Arizona State campus.

Moving the franchise from Arizona to Salt Lake City could be a turnkey operation because there is no AHL team staff to incorporate into the picture after Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo sells the team to the NHL for a reported US$1 billion, making a tidy profit on his purchase of $300 million in 2019, and the league turns around and sells it to NBA Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smyth for $1.2 billion-$1.3 billion.

“All is good with the boys right now,” said Tourigny, who will have general manager Bill Armstrong address the team before the Oiler game, flying in from Minnesota where he's been attending the NCAA Frozen

Four and watching his son Jamie playing for tournament finalist Boston U against Denver.

“We played hard in Vancouver last game when the news came out. Really proud of our players, how they responded. We closed the loop as much as possible and we're all in this together.”

Tourigny's team first heard about Salt Lake City two and a half months ago and lost 14 straight games.

Tourigny has no comparables in terms of closing the loop, about focusing a team with all this moving buzz, with anywhere else he's been.

“My wife texted me and said, `Hey, you've coached for 30 years and I thought we saw everything.' We were both wrong. This is something new,” said Tourigny.

“At the end of the day, my job is to coach the team, not to do politics, not to look at what happens next year.”

Coyotes forward Clayton

Keller knows the players' heads are in a tough space right now. They're getting calls or texts from their significant others and friends while on the road, wondering what's going on.

“I thought we did a great job of keeping the noise out of the room ( Vancouver) and we're going day by day the last four games,” said Keller, acknowledging the first time the Salt Lake City news came about, they didn't handle it well, sliding completely out of playoff contention.

“It was definitely in our head,” he said.

They want to do a much better job on the ice this time.

But the relocation noise has gone from sidewalk drilling to rock concert decibels.

“Obviously you're aware of the situation playing in the Mullett and losing out in Tempe (plebiscite) last year. There's some things that arise in the public, in the media and amongst us in the dressing room. But what they're going through right now, I never experienced that,” said former Coyotes defenceman Troy Stecher, who played against his former team Friday night.