So this will be a completely unbiased NHL hockey game experience being that I am a Washington Capital’s fan living in the desert.
So lets start off with parking. Well being that it is right across from the ASU football stadium there is a ton of parking whether be a parking garage or lot so plenty of room to park and it was $20 to park pretty normal for a pro sporting event. My only gripe here was that they had no ride-share drop off spot or location so those drivers kind of have to just drop off their riders anywhere or in the middle of traffic (not ideal or safe).
Getting into the arena was really quick and easy we arrived around 45 minutes prior to puck drop to walk around check the food choices and amenities the new rink offers.
The main food staples for the arena consist of Cold Beer & Cheeseburgers, Venezia’s New York Style Pizzeria, and Shaq’s Big Chicken, a national chain founded by former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. Which I didn’t even know Shaq moved into the food chain business, the big man does it all. They also have Mullett Marketplace, a grab-and-go fresh food option, which carries an orange chicken dish, chicken fajita wraps and cobb salads.
I had the pizza from Venezia’s which being from NY I was skeptical at first but the slice was a solid 6.8 on the pizza scale.
There was a plethora of goals last night and if you had the over it cashed pretty easy. During the game we got to see some pretty nice goals on both ends including the ones below.
I have been to plenty of NHL and college hockey games but I have never seen a game winning goal live be a hat trick let alone it be the first of Keller’s career, so that was a pretty cool experience. It was loud after every goal, but the during play noise was quiet, Yotes fans have yet to learn how to make a crowd loud during play. For example when they beat these drums it is a pretty lackadaisical cheering or clapping along with the drums. If Yotes fans had an ounce of energy as the guy below did all night AZ would be a rink opposing teams would hate.
I thought this guy was just a Yotes employee but turns out it was Cameron Hughes and his bio says “Igniting the cheer since I was born! Keynote energizing speaker, crowd ignitor at events, TV Host, author…Who’s ready to spread some cheer?” and boy did he. The game was exciting on it’s own but Cameron stole the show dude was an electric factory between every whistle and got anyone fired up from Yotes fans to even those scumbags from Philly had to smile because of how insane this dude was. Hey Howler maybe take a page out of Cameron’s playbook because he put you in a bodybag last night!
As for the viewing experience there isn’t a bad seat in the arena and you truly can get a real sense of speed and size seeing the players this close from the chirps to the pucks hitting the sticks you can hear it all. My only gripe is the video board is pretty small and could have easily been bigger I am not sure why they went with a smaller one when they had plenty of room to enlarge it. As for the sound system the music was bumping the whole night made it feel like a club on Mill or Old Town minus the tight dresses and drunk “bros” oh wait the drunk bros made an appearance in between their GTL session the boys made time to catch a hockey game. One of the clowns had his eyebrows drawn on his face and wore sunglasses the whole game, guess you need shades inside when your future is that bright.
Minus these clowns hitting on every female they saw it was a great NHL experience and it was a pretty full crowd for a Sunday 5pm game. If your team is playing in the desert this season and you want to escape the cold you won’t be disappointed and it is worth admission. Also I want to get back out to the Mullett for an ASU Sun Devil hockey game and see how that experience compares to the NHL one.
If I were to rate the whole experience out of 10 I would give the Coyotes Mullett Arena experience a 7.3/10.
The Morning Skate 
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