On the 25th of September, I went to Desert Schools Coyotes Center to watch the Coyotes skate. Just the day before, Wayne Gretzky, The Great One, resigned as the Head Coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. Later that day, the Coyotes held a press conference to announce the new coach. General Manager Don Maloney announced that the new coach was Dave Tippett, the former Dallas Stars coach. He had an excellent record with the Stars. I think he will be a good coach. Tippett won his first game as coach against the San Jose Sharks on September 26th.
Earlier this week, the Coyotes also signed Dave King as Assistant Coach. It seems that he has millions of years of experience. He will probably work with the younger guys.
During practice on the 25th, Tippett had the guys doing lots of drills including face-offs, quick passes out of their own zone, and quick passes through the neutral zone. He worked the guys very hard. They were also having fun.
I have a good story about the practice on the 25th. Just before the players went on the ice, David Schlemko came out of the locker room wearing everything but his jersey. He asked the equipment manager if they had any extra jerseys. The equipment manager told Schlem that they did not have any extra jerseys, and that he would have to go skate with just his pads, unless the man standing in the bleachers would give Schlem the jersey he was wearing. The man in the bleachers the equipment manager was talking about is my dad. Dad let Schlem borrow his jersey. Schlemko said he really appreciated that Dad let him borrow the jersey. After Schlem skated 7 or 8 laps around the ice, Shane Doan came out of the locker room with Schlemko's jersey. Doan had been hiding the jersey from Schlem. Schlemko got his jersey back, and the equipment manager gave Dad his jersey.
When we went to the morning skate the next day, Schlem gave Dad his stick as a "Thank You" for using his jersey.
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