Brigham Young Was Right — This Is The Place (For Hockey)

The 4,600 fans at Mullett Arena made their voices heard loud and clear in the waning moments of the Coyotes' final game:

"Salt Lake sucks! Salt Lake sucks!"

Salt Lake then answered with giving Arizona's old team a heroes' welcome at the airport, greeting them with 12,000-plus raucous fans at Delta Center, and raking in more than 20,000 season ticket deposits, all in less than a week.

I suppose, then, in sports terms, this is what Brigham Young meant when he rapped his stick in the ground to mark the spot for the Salt Lake Temple for the westward-moving Latter-day Saints in the 1840s.

As a New York Rangers fan since he was 12 years old, and having a father who has been a follower of the Blueshirts since long before then, this has been a long time coming.

(And yes, I am changing my allegiance to Utah after this season — so long as the Blueshirts don't send me off with blowing a 3-0 lead to the Carolina Hurricanes.)

When I heard Utah was landing the Coyotes, it was a bittersweet moment. I had grown up with Arizona and the Atlanta Thrashers in the league, and a part of my NHL childhood, as it were, was coming to an end.

Some of my friends were even skeptical about the team lasting in Utah. The Beehive State never had a Big Four professional team before, and wondered if hockey would ever become big in the state, like it did in Seattle and Vegas.

All you had to do was see the scenes at Delta Center and SLC Airport, along with the high number of season ticket deposits, to know this state has been ready for its moment in the sun.

Whatever the team name is, and whatever the Delta Center looks like in the future, the fans will be there.

Whatever players come in, and whatever coaches get hired, the fans will be there.

This is the place, and this is our time — and I'm ready for it.

Welcome to Utah hockey.