Don't expect the Winnipeg Tourism Board to contact Coyotes' Ilya Bryzgalov for a plug.
GLENDALE — Ilya Bryzgalov, his neck still red from goal-light burn after an awful series against the Detroit Red Wings, hung around after his post-game media scrum to speak a little longer with Winnipeg Sun columnist Paul Friesen after Wednesday’s Game 4 loss.
What he said was, sadly, an abridged version of what is being spoken privately across the hockey world these days, as Coyotes players face the stark reality of leaving the desert for the freezing Manitoba prairie. Meanwhile, other free agents watch a sought after destination in danger of becoming what would surely be the National Hockey League’s outpost.
Yes, even beyond Edmonton.
“You don't want to go to Winnipeg, right?” Bryzgalov said after the Coyotes were eliminated by Detroit, in what could well be the team’s last game in Phoenix. “Not many people live there, not many Russian people there. Plus it’s cold. There’s no excitement except the hockey. No park, no entertaining for the families, for the kids. It’s going to be tough life for your family.”
- Population of City of Winnipeg:
- 633,451 (Statistics Canada, 2006 Census)
- Average high for January:
- minus-11
- Average low for January:
- minus-19.6
- Less than 1 per cent of population speak Russian
Bryzgalov, who as an unrestricted free agent can choose to sign with any team in the league this summer, speaks for a goodly portion of National Hockey League players, not the most free-thinking bunch you’ve ever met.
He played a few games in Winnipeg during his time in the minors, and from that little time spent he felt free to tar the town in one of its two daily newspapers Wednesday night.
“I’ve been there for just once, maybe twice, when I play in minors. It was really cold,” Bryzgalov said. “I used the tunnels between the buildings to get to the arena. Because it was minus 40-something. Real cold.”
He made it clear that he wasn’t going to entertain any contract offers from the team this summer, as long as Winnipeg is still in the picture.
“Probably not. I (am) better go to somewhere in Russia, KHL, to be honest. Because KHL is Russian people, it’s family, friends. Even as a cold place, I can speak to people in Russian language.”
In truth, there are very few NHL players who would choose the KHL over the NHL. Only Russians interested in playing at home, and fringe players who can earn more money there would make that choice.
But the cold hard facts are, as of today, the Phoenix Coyotes might as well be the Winnipeg Jets, when it comes to signing players.
Until the ownership is settled, if a player signs a contract to play for Phoenix, it’s 50-50 he’s signing to play in Winnipeg. So for Coyotes general manager Don Maloney, his small-budget troubles are now compounded with geographic concerns.
Truly, it has been tough enough to build a playoff team while being owned by the league. Now this.
“You have to really have a lot of things going your way and to have success,” Maloney told the Arizona Republic, “and it’s been proven truthfully since the lockout there's only been three teams that have spent less than the average that have won a playoff round.”
Said coach Dave Tippett: “It’s a competitive disadvantage. There has to be some kind of solution. Everybody sees that. We need some kind of a direction here.”
Down in the Coyotes dressing room, they simply want a solution either way.
“Going into the playoffs, the way that (the story) comes up — again — right before the playoffs start,” captain Shane Doan said. “You wish that it hadn’t.”
Doan came down from Winnipeg in 1996 with the Jets, and has raised his children and built a home here. He is 34 now, and with a no movement clause in his contract, under normal circumstances Doan could choose to close out his career in Phoenix.
“Nobody likes to leave their home, ever,” Doan said post-game. “Fifteen years ago, it was an emotional time to leave (Winnipeg). When you’re told to leave your home, it’s always difficult.”
Staying, under these circumstances, has been perhaps even more stressful for the Coyotes players.
“You hear good news, you hear bad news, you hear good news,” Adrian Aucoin said. “The luxury of being a player is, if the team moves, you’re still going to play hockey. The family aspect, for a guy like me with five kids, isn’t easy.
“It’s mind-boggling how things have dragged on here.”
