Why are the Coyotes leaving Arizona? Because, ultimately, we're unworthy

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has always struck me as an ill-tempered S.O.B. whose face was pre-cast in a permanent scowl.

But, my Lord, was that man good to Phoenix.

He was long suffering as Arizona tried and tried again to get its act together and finally be worthy of an NHL franchise.

He was patient through all the knucklehead owners and financial crises and indifferent fans, not just over years, but decades.

He defended us even as a half-dozen North American cities licked their chops at the thought of biting down and running off with our unloved NHL team.

Bettman wanted the Coyotes to work here

Go ahead and blame whoever you want for the Coyotes exit, but don’t you ever blame Gary Bettman or the NHL.

They tried. They really tried.

Bettman’s dream was to make Phoenix one of the pearls in his sunbelt string of NHL franchises that would sparkle across the continental south.

His vision was to build ice hockey arenas in the biggest U.S. cities where the snow never falls.

And when hockey finally arrived in metro Phoenix, he protected his “sunbelt strategy” and our team.

You can go back 15 years and find Bettman fending off the wolves at The (Toronto) Globe and Mail as they slapped the scowl off his face with this:

“The 2009 NHL playoffs are being overwhelmed by the Phoenix Coyotes’ bankruptcy proceeding, a story of failure in a non-traditional market. Relocated from Winnipeg after the 1995-96 season, the Coyotes’ tenure in Phoenix, a secondary U.S. market, has been marked by tepid interest and loads of red ink.”

Unlike Phoenix, Salt Lake City wants a team

Back then, Bettman went to court to keep the team in metro Phoenix as others tried to move it to Hamilton, Ontario.

The commissioner’s stubborn refusal to give up on Arizona was already an old story. He had been our patient and undying champion up until today.

In the end, we proved unworthy.

And nothing expressed that so well as the Arizona Coyotes fans chanting at the team’s last game, “Salt Lake sucks! Salt Lake sucks!”

Salt Lake, my friends, just cleaned our clocks.

Because Salt Lake meets the fundamental prerequisite for having an NHL franchise.

It actually wants one.

The Utah fans had great fun with that “Salt Lake sucks” video, retorting on social media:

“Just wait ‘til we take the D-Backs, too!”

Don't hold your breath for the NHL to return

If it sounds like I’m not buying these vague plans of moving today’s Coyotes to Salt Lake to make room for a new franchise in Phoenix tomorrow, I’m not.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Metro Phoenix lost the Coyotes because we are an oversaturated professional and college sports market with an endless supply of sunshine and recreational choices.

Arizona may have dodged a slapshot: If Coyotes leave

We have the NFL Cardinals, the MLB Diamondbacks, the NBA Suns, MLB spring training, the WM Phoenix Open, the Phoenix Rising, the WNBA Mercury, the Indoor Football League Rattlers and the Arizona State Sun Devils.

There hasn’t been a household name on the Coyotes since Shane Doan, and half of Phoenix probably doesn’t know who he was.

I suspect the Coyotes in whatever guise they appear up north will be a huge hit in Salt Lake City.

Confidence is earned. So are hockey teams

Salt Lake is in the same stage Phoenix was when I was a kid.

They have an NBA team and a pretty good college football team, but not much else. Like us, they would have won an NBA championship had their best team not emerged in the age of Michael Jordan.

They’re hungry to make their mark on the national stage.

They’re not like us, jaded and indifferent and barely lifting an eyebrow at the thought of losing a professional sports team to a city one-fifth our size.

Dave Tippet, head coach of the Coyotes from 2009-17, used to have a saying, “Confidence is earned.”

So are NHL hockey teams.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Coyotes are leaving because, ultimately, we're unworthy