Now that I've had the night to think it over, I've gotten a better handle on how I feel about all this. Warning, this could get long.
Why, I wondered, am I so aggravated about last night's results, when I had already mentally prepared myself for the worst? Because, I realized, this is the second time in less than a decade that I have watched voters abdicate all measure of basic common sense in favor of a flaming pile of toxic trash.
God bless my pals around here who were OG Jets fans, and I love your resilience for sticking with the franchise here in Arizona, and I wish you well when the team goes to Houston or wherever else. But I can't be as equitable as you. I think the big difference is your street cred. You are a demographic that is loved and sympathetic in the NHL hoi polloi because you cheered for a Canadian team. People wanted you to have a team again basically from the moment the OG Jets moved out here. You were a cause celebre (even though you had "transferred your loyalties") because Winnipeg was the darling underdog, the Wrexham of the NHL. And I say this with as much love and appreciation in my heart as I can muster, but I don't think the two flavors of bitterness held by Jets fans and Coyotes fans are the same. For what it's worth, I don't think Hartford or Quebec fans can quite commiserate either. Atlanta fans are probably the ones best suited to plumb the same depths of fan misery that I feel right now, because they know what it's like not only to lose their team, but to have what feels like the entire NHL fandom rejoice about it and dance on their metaphorical grave for years afterward. I mean no offense - just providing context as to why I can't be as flexible and open-minded as you were able to be.
The best metaphor for the bitterness I will feel when the team leaves is this. My youngest daughter had her final high school performing arts concert last night. At the end of the event, she was brought back on stage and given several awards by her teachers and peers, and she and the other seniors were given a standing ovation as the lights came back up. I couldn't have been prouder of her, and I felt so grateful to her teachers and peers for supporting her. But imagine if you will if, after every performance she gave, she was met with silence or boos or even thrown produce from the audience. Imagine if other school clubs - the football team, the volleyball team, the frickin' chess team - showed up to heckle her performance. What if they yelled, "You don't belong!" at her all night? Would she then want to come back for class reunions or homecoming or alumni events? Hell no. Her spirit would have been crushed. And that's how I feel.
There is no Welcome to Wrexham redemption arc left for this franchise. Mat Ishbia has no interest in buying this team. Hell, Alex Meruelo barely had an interest in buying this team - he was basically an emergency contact in Gary Bettman's Rolodex. We all harbored fever dreams of someday having all the elements that would create a successful Nashville Predators-style comeback story for the Coyotes, but last night we discovered that even with a competent GM, a young and promising team, an owner with deep enough pockets and the force of personality to be competitive with the other League bosses, and a location that could easily be labeled "prime" in the Valley, it's not going to be enough.
What's left? Hanging around F40 while our mods try to fend off the hordes of posters from the Main Board who are just dying to come shit out a diarrhea volcano of schadenfreude on our heads? I confess I love our hardened, cockroach-style knot of superfans who have stuck it out here for so long. I'd hate to lose touch with you all, because I don't have any other social media presence that I maintain. But when the team moves, this board either disappears or becomes the board for the next market, and neither option sounds very palatable. Even worse, knowing that there are a bunch of longtime BoH nemeses who are even now reading this thread in an absolutely onanistic paroxysm turns my stomach.
Bless you all, but when the team goes, I'll be out.