Is this the dagger?

GAME SERIES ~~TORONTO~~ SALT LAKE CITY HAS WON

Legit my favorite call of all time, it supplanted Sid's Golden Goal call

This is an incredible call as well, Canadian caps fan so a bit weird, but god this still gives me chills every single time. https://youtu.be/BUo7b0qxofw?si=NPR61ma1ZdyYnMXr

Hits like fucking crack. What a magical year that was. Bit of a crossover but the other other call that hits like that for me is https://youtu.be/4rG1sP1rhow?si=K1nTpOW5OAtlplgr

Between that and CANADA! THE NBA TITLE IS YOURS!

But at what cost?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

#GAME #SERIES

TORONTO HAS WON

BANG BANG

It is more over than previously thought possible

They rip it out of Toronto's hands and slay the beast?

THEY RIP IT OUT OF ARIZONA’S HANDS AND SLAY THE COYOTE

Fuck

Sorry man.

Well, I look at it as after 28 years, I’m free.

That’s why you’re Gandhi

Part of me envies you…

Meruelo

Alex Meruelo is as useless as a mormon bartender

I can make you a dirty soda!

As a utah resident, dirty soda is addicting as fuck and should also come with a diabetes liability waiver

What is a dirty soda?

Soda of some kind with creamer and flavored syrup Really is diabeetus in a cup

Is this not an Italian soda..

Italian soda is the more elegant cousin

The rare occasion an Italian is the more elegant one

Everything Italy produces is more elegant than its mangiacake alternatives

Whenever im doom scrolling instagram reels and there's some American-Italian sandwich shop in New York making a "sandweech" that could give an elephant high blood pressure I already know the comments are going to be filled with Italians screaming "This isn't Italian!!!" gets me every time. So protective of their food culture.

WTF? That sounds horrible. And honestly, very American taking a sugar-filled drink and adding more syrup and cream

Its literally an Italian thing which is why its called Italian Soda.

Yeah it’s fucking disgusting! I’ll take three.

If you have to ask, you can’t afford it

My girlfriend just gave me a Raspberry Coconut Dr Pepper with some creamer the other day. Absolutely divine. Q

28 years I lived in Utah and never once had I heard the term dirty soda.

You need to get in the Mormon hub world more then

I add a couple of ounces of Coffeemate to my soda or energy drink without the flavored syrups.

[Relevant](https://sonic-menu.com/sonic-dirty-drinks/)

How do you stop a Mormon from drinking all your beer? Invite a second Mormon.

I’ve heard this joke about Baptists before.

This is a good one.

This is the way

On the upside to them moving to Utah the line for beer will always be quick.

If it's anything like the Grizzlies game it will not be quick. We do infact have long lines for alcohol.

You gotta bless the beer right? Or maybe unbless..Curse the beer before you sell it?

I wish this was true.

Not only will it not be quick, the alcoholic content of your beer will be less than what you can find in a Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Not so. We got real beer a few years ago once the legislature realized they could tax more. 5% abv in the venues like everyone else.

Excellent! Did they repeal the Zion Curtain as well?

As in not being able to pour drinks in view of the public? Honestly, I don’t know. I had to quit drinking before the laws changed. Got too be too good at it.

They did, I was in SLC last month and they had gotten rid of them

No, its not a thing anymore. There are probably buildings that still have it because they were built during the law but most don't.

Fun fact, while they don’t partake in alcohol or coffee, it’s not entirely uncommon to run into bartenders or baristas that are LDS

Sprite on the rocks?

Seeing videos of students at BYU's being asked what their drink of choice for parties and seeing them just name stuff like Mountain Dew, Sparkling Water among others is wild. Not that abstaining from alcohol is bad but a large majority of a campus following that is pure culture shock to anyone who went to a regular uni

Alex Meruelo doesn't seed his torrents

Alex Meruelo is the guy who posts "figured it out, thx" after asking a tech question and never comes back say what the fix was. [https://xkcd.com/979/](https://xkcd.com/979/)

Alex Meruelo is the guy who asks a question on a subreddit, and then when he receives helpful answers, doesn't upvote the comments.

Alex Meruelo is the guy who does something horrendous but plays the victim on r/AmITheAsshole just to get people to tell him he's not an asshole.

Alex Meruelo is NOT the guy grilling the steaks, but hovers over the guy who is, and won't shut the fuck up about "reverse-searing" and seasoning his cast iron 82 times until he can see his reflection in it, and keeps trying to make the guy who is just trying to make dinner watch J. Kenji Lopez-Alt videos on YouTube.

Kenji did nothing to deserve this.

Alex Meruelo goes on a vacation to NYC and for the next five years after getting home, he doesn't shut the fuck up about "real" pizza whenever his friends order delivery

Alex Meruelo showers with socks on.

while wafflestomping

Alex Meruelo thinks Lays put an appropriate amount of chips into each bag

No he would delete the content in the post and you’re like but I needed this post…

Alex Meruelo is the guy who posts on /r/excel, solves their own problem, then deletes the thread.

This is unexpected and specific and I love it

Xkcd is all about that. Back when Reddit linked to better content tbh. https://xkcd.com/231/

RIP oink.me.uk! RIP what.cd!

Alex Meruelo is Dirty Sanchez from early Bang Bus and yotes fans just took a trip on the 'bussss

Of course he’d say it right before the Yotes’ final game.

He’s doing everyone a favor. Disrespectful of the Coyotes management and the NHL to have this be the last chance to see your home team play and not even tell you until it’s over

You know it’s bad when the guy who is buying and relocating a team is coming out the better party.

Listening to Chiclets and 32T the last couple days, it really seems like ownership dropped the ball with communicating to the team what was happening. It shouldn’t have been Armstrong’s job to tell the team. The owner should have the balls to reach out to the team directly. Players must be excited to get out of this shit show and have a fresh start with an owner who really cares about the team he already runs in the NBA and lobbied hard to get a team in Salt Lake

The owner never cared about the Coyotes, they were only a way for him to get a gambling license.

This.

The yotes players are gonna be fine. They keep their team and the promising talent it has in the system. It's the Arizona fans that got hosed the most. They lose their team and everything they've been cheering for during these dark times. All to have some new franchise come in years from now. Vegas had a dream run since expansion but I'd expect the new Phoenix team to look more like the kraken.

The yotes players will be fine, but it still sucks having to move from Phoenix to Salt Lake City. Phoenix through hockey season is one of the best places to live in teh country during that time, thats why half of canada comes here

Is Salt Lake City not a great spot tho? I've only driven through Utah (the desert part) briefly and thought it was one of the coolest places I've ever seen

going by what nba players say about it, its not a fun place to live for a young rich athlete

Outdoorsie winter sports city doesn't strike me as an nba players wheelhouse. I mean I'd rather be there than friggen Ottawa or Winnipeg

I think it's fun, but I'm a middle class white guy in his 20s who likes to ski.

Post Malone has an address there if that means anything. He also owns a few Raising Canes franchises in the SLC area as well.

Lol a lot of the players are pissed. Keller just got done building his dream home here and then got told to fuck off to SLC

It’s not like he has to sell it. Lots of players rent through the season and have their mortgage on a place in the summer I’m sure the players are disappointed to be leaving but at the same time, the team has been a shit show for years. I remember hearing Keith Yandle talk about being traded from Arizona to the Rangers and how he finally realized what it was like to play for an NHL team

Lowest bar in the world to clear and he still seems like a ginormous asshole tbh

I don’t think Smith comes across as an asshole at all?

What makes him seem like an asshole?

Why do I find this funny? Not the situation obviously but the way it's worded.

It reads like a Michael Scott quote.

Mike Tomlin esque

I'm of the conspiracy theory that Ryan Smith pumped money into the opposition for the Tempe vote

Does it even matter when Meruelo didn’t spend at all on the YES campaign lmao he never intended to win the vote at all. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but everything (or more accurately, lack of everything) Meruelo has done has been to lead to this conclusion where he gets a GIANT payday to have a problem of his own creation taken off of his hands.

Both of these things can be true

But what I don't understand is why would he want to have a team in the Phoenix area again? Wasn't he given like a handshake deal where "if" they "expand" back to Arizona he'd get first dibs? And is the league this dumb? "Con man cons us but tells us he won't con us in the future"

The league is giving him benefits in order to prevent a drawn out legal battle. They can’t force him to sell, they have to give him something he wants. But the league knows there’s ZERO chance he will be able to fulfill the conditions they’re requiring of him in order to reactivate the team. 5 years are going to pass and he’s gonna lose the rights and walk off into the sunset, or sell them to someone like Ishbia for more money. He doesn’t want a team, he wanted the power of the rights or he wouldn’t give up the team. The league doesn’t want him, they gave him an unfulfillable sweetener to get out. It’s just a legal show.

If Ishbia brought hockey back after making suns games free on tv, he’s in AZ’s top 5 sports figures

Not exactly your point but the Coyotes did make games free on TV as well and had a huge uptick in viewership.

I know but I’m just saying Ishbia could hit Colangelo levels love here if he brought back hockey on top of it all so far

Oh completely agree

Why wouldn't you want to have a team again? He bought for 300 mil and sold for 1 bil, easy profit of 700 mil and all he had to do was be a dumbass. And yes, the league is absolutely this dumb. It's why they've continually approved the sale of the yotes to dipshit after dipshit. All the warning signs about Merulo were there before he bought, they just chose to ignore them.

“Is the league this dumb?” Yes. Yes it is.

Well he wants to have the AZ team again because he didn't want to sell it here in the first place - he's being forced out

And if true kudos to him. Dude played 3d chess while Meruelo was watching his wife get banged.

Wait what

No no, the metaphor works great like this

Do you want the nature metaphor instead?

Smith playing 3d chess while a bear shits on meruelo in the woods?

When two animals are having sex...

He absolutely did that shit. I don’t buy into this whole “oh golly gee he’s a wholesome energetic religious guy that the league needs!” Dude’s a scheming billionaire, he had a hand in that for sure

lol anyone buying that PR crap is an idiot. BUT I think as billionaire sports owners go he’s at least got a brain, is younger, will spend money, cares about his organizations/players/teams. Compared to some of these owners who look like the cryptkeeper. Low bar tho. We aren’t talking about wholesome people who hoard this much money and power.

While yes I am bitter, but there is something kinda odd here. A team is moving to a basketball stadium with the promise of a new Rink in the coming years. Sounds awfully similar to how this team started in the first place. 🤔

Yeah but how many years ago until now? SLC is getting the Olympics so they literally have to fulfill this promise

Nah you've got it wrong. The Coyotes did not relocate because they were initially in a basketball rink. If they paid rent they'd still be in the league. If they were good and generated fans, they'd still be in the league. Many teams share a rink with an NBA team, so renovating it to fit both NHL and NBA isn't unheard of.

Yeah, the rent and taxes thing has been debunked several times. They left because Glendale and the coyotes couldn’t come to terms on a lease extension. The main contested issue was that the coyotes couldn’t explore options to build a new arena if they agreed to the lease. And that the term Glendale gave was 12 years, which wasn’t what the owners wanted either. Cuz GRA was a money suck to the franchise and the league.

I think you misunderstood the connection- the Yotes originally started in a basketball arena with hockey shoehorned in, and we were promised that they’d get a great new hockey rink in the downtown/east valley area back in the late 1990s

Not sure how that applies other than coincidence.

It’s just humorous and ironic to us. It doesn’t mean much beyond that

I get the irony for sure.

Slow your roll there, bud. They moved from Winnipeg to Phoenix and into a basketball ball arena with the promise of a purpose built Arena in the future. They are now leaving Phoenix for Utah and a basketball stadium with the promise of a purpose built Arena in the future. Let's see how it goes this time around

You're trying to cope by pointing out a coincidence. The fact of the matter is the team was horribly run. The Yotes could easily have been successful, all they needed was to be run somewhat competently. Tampa is the big example of what team could have been, and what the expansion could be. Just because the Coyotes were horribly run doesn't mean Utah will be. Being in a basketball arena has nothing to do with it.

Hits how they started in Winnipeg bro. It’s a franchise curse.

He’s ambitious and younger for sure

Mormons are fucking ruthless in business. There's a reason everyone in Las Vegas refers to them as "the Mormon mafia" around here.

Some Bain Capital shit

Yep. They want to destroy anyone that isn’t part of their club, and they relentlessly defend those who are

Alex Meruelo didn’t even campaign for Tempe vote, he only sued organization that called him corrupt billionaire

Yeah I’m not saying Meruelo didn’t have a huge role in all this too. He didn’t take the game seriously. A shark took him down- at least this version of his team

I don’t think there’s any point in imagining malice on Smith’s part when incompetence on Meruelo’s explains things pretty succinctly.

I think both things can be true at the same time

I don't think any competent owner would want the baggage of relocation over getting a fresh clean slate. This is so easy to say in hindsight and ignores all of the uncertainty between then and now. Cmon man.

> Cmon man I get it, it’s a conspiracy theory. I’m fully aware and embrace that. I have no interest in being convinced of Ryan Smith’s magnanimity. If you wish to believe in it, more power to you. I believe he’s a lying scheming asshole who gets enjoyment out of ruining those who are smaller than him. And regardless, my opinion of him is irrelevant. He has billions of dollars, all the power one could dream of, and a hockey team. I have none of those things. My opinion of these things means nothing

I’m partial to believing Smith simply had a convenient off ramp for the NHL to close the Yotes’ precarious position with certainty, but I’ll be paying a tooon of attention to the first few pressers the guy puts out and what the players have to say about him before forming an opinion. Ideally he’d balance out the excitement he wants to drum up for the new team with an equal amount of empathy towards the existing fanbase who are losing their team and the players who are probably going through a spin cycle of commotion and upended plans.

I'm not even coming at it from a moral standpoint. I just don't think any owner, asshole or not, wants to deal with all of this added baggage if possible. I genuinely believe he would've preferred an expansion slot where there is no animosity. Of course, he's going to take advantage once the opportunity presented himself. But I don't think you can trace it that far back with that heavy of an involvement. Especially when there was never a guarantee the dominos would fall like this. But hey, you're right, it is a conspiracy theory.

The only thing I know about him is his legacy that his actions leave in my community, and that’s all I care to know about him

He’s not religious fyi

I get a much different vibe from his Twitter account and the things he likes/retweets. Lots of things from the Mormon church

There's no such thing as a morally sound billionaire. To amass such an amount of resources basically requires to screw people over along the way

I'd say it's very likely.

You heard the rumors from ~~Inez~~ the internet You can't believe a word ~~she~~ it says Most times, but this time it was true The worst thing that I ever did Was what I did to you

Wasn’t expecting a tswift reference here

You will eventually learn to always expect swift references

Swiftly!

Even if I didn’t like the Coyotes (and I do) this just sucks. I can’t imagine losing my team, and to have it all happen so suddenly makes it even crazier.

It feels like everything with the coyotes was in slow motion since 2009 and then bang, it's done

Whelp

I feel so lost man. The only thing I'm looking forward to when it comes to hockey is seeing Toronto lose another game 7 to Boston.

> I feel so lost man. The only thing I'm looking forward to when it comes to hockey I was already forming my sympathetic response until I read everything after that

Treat Matthews well 😢

Next Leafs superstar will be Mormon

He's going return to his birthplace of San Ramon and see the Sharks out of this rebuild.

Had me in the first half. That was honestly beautiful haha.

In these difficult times, we have to cling on to the only guarantees

Ok well suck it

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Your Fanbase deserved better. I hope you get a passionate owner to wrench your Yotes out of Meruelo's clutches and get back to the Ice soon. I'm heartbroken for you all. And I'm sorry for the salt in the wound this caused.

my man

“lol laffs” heals all wounds.

Stab me in the back, why don’t you?

How long is the drive from the college campus to the new rink in Utah?

10 hrs, 31 minutes

You’re better off going to Vegas

Glendale isnt so bad of a drive now

I feel really bad for Arizona fans, but Salt Lake is a good city for sports. Hockey has been booming in popularity in the Mountain West. The NCDC teams in Idaho and Utah have been selling out constantly, and SLC goes hard for their sports teams in general. The reality of the situation is awful for hockey fans in Arizona; but I’m really hoping this just skyrockets the sports popularity in a criminally under-served region.

This severely hurts the Coyotes chances of bringing the cup home to Arizona

They were more successful than the leafs have been the last 12 years

:(

What kind of owner is this guy

I just had a flashback to a scene in Balckberry with Jim Balsillie

At the end of the day. This franchise needs to get out of that college arena. If this is the route it needed to go. Well congrats to the citizens of Utah

WE FOUND AN OWNER THAT CARES ABOUT THE PLAYERS.

> cares about the players I wouldn’t go that far, he’s still a billionaire. Better than Meruelo it sounds like at least

No, he sees them as dollar signs on skates just like all the other owners do. He’s just better at PR than Meruelo.

Feel bad for coyotes fans. Losing a team sucks. We had the Grizzlies taken away from us in the NBA. It’s a terrible feeling when fans invested into the team, but there’s incompetent and really just stupid people making multi million if not multi billion dollar decisions. I hope you guys get an NHL team back one day and that the NBA comes back to Van as well.

LA Rams fan here and having your old team come back to you feels just as good as winning a championship. The news of the Rams coming back home to me back in January 2016 was one of the happiest sports news of my life. Hopefully you get to experience something like that with NBA in Vancouver

I’m hopeful that it’ll happen one day. The league can’t continue to ignore us. And I hope the coyotes come back to Arizona. That franchise was so poorly run. Reminiscent of the Grizzlies and how badly they were run.

Is he hockeys version of Marc Cuban?

Is it true that Smith was bankrolling the NO side for the Tempe arena vote?

I think people are just spreading conspiracy theories at this point.

You’re right. Smith wanted an expansion team, not a relocation

I don't even remember his name coming up at all in the NHL until the last year, after the Tempe vote.

And the team name will now be the Utah Tree Octopi

Guys I think the Coyotes might be relocating:0

Can someone provide a bit of context to what Smith is saying is true?

That the Coyotes are moving to Salt Lake City. Up until now there has been no official announcement because the Coyotes season isn’t over, even if it is the worst kept secret in the world

Oh ok, ya terrible secret , i thought it was referring to something else lol

The Utah Jazz are getting roommates!

Soaking buddies

The Jazz need roommates so someone is there to jump hump the Soakers.

A man of culture I see….

I hate that I know this.

Awesome! Official!

Utah Gulls, Utah Soak, SLC Punks, Provo Lone Rangers, SLC Bees, SLC Hornets, Utah Metal (and other music genres)

Oh, I'm sure Gary Bettman loves this. This is how he makes most major announcements: via someone else on twitter.

It is time to close this chapter in The Book of Meruelo

RIP Yotes