Coyotes make hockey hot in desert again

The Westgate entertainment district is nearly empty, a few people watching their kids play in the fountains, a handful of others scattered among the tables and bar stools inside the restaurants and bars.

It’s like this most of the time, particularly during the day, when the only visitors are typically workers taking a break from nearby jobs or the occasional tourist looking for Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. It changes at night, when there’s an event at the nearby sports venues, when the businesses fill up and fans mill across the complex before and after games. During the Phoenix Coyotes’ current playoff run, the juice turns up even more at Westgate — diehard fans mixing with new ones who have jumped on the desert dogs’ bandwagon. Hockey has become hot in the desert again and, for once, there’s reason to believe support for the Coyotes will be sustained.

“It’s definitely getting crazy out here, especially after the games. Everyone’s rooting for them,” said Aaron Hernandez, manager of McFadden’s, a restaurant and bar across a walkway from Jobing.com Arena. “It’s kind of like a Cinderella story. You don’t hear as much about them as some of the other teams, but they’re making up ground.”

Without an owner the past three years, fans have been hesitant to become invested in a team they’re not sure will stick around.

“It’s frustrating, but I don’t blame them,” Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said of fickle fans. “Three years ago, we made the playoffs for the first time in a long time and it was vibrant and exciting, but we didn’t capitalize on that because we weren’t sure if we were going to be here. Last year, it was the same thing. . . .”

But Monday, commissioner Gary Bettman announced the NHL had a tentative deal in place to sell the club to former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison.