Arena: Delta Center (1991)

Location: Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah

Game Attended: December 19, 2025 vs New Jersey Devils

Game Result: New Jersey Devils 2, Utah Mammoth 1

Seat Location: Upstairs Shoot 2x Corner

Overall Impression: Tusky AND Santa? How Can You Lose??

In my seven-plus years of hockey journalism, I’ve written many a heartwarming story. I’ve written about exciting adventures to new cities. I’ve written about the wonderful friends and family who’ve joined me along the way. I’ve written about planes and trains, games and pains. Hell, I’ve even written in French!

But never in my moderately successful hockey journalism career have I ever written about a fictional character who taught me a lesson. 

That ends today. Enter, Mufasa. 

…yes, that Mufasa. 

It was Mufasa who introduced us all to the “Circle of Life”, that profound belief of how all living things are interconnected. Of how things grow, live, and die, only to grow again in another way. Episode 33 in Salt Lake City was a perfect example of the “Circle of Life”. An opportunity to remember good times of the past and their connections to equally good times today, and about how one hockey team grew, lived, died, and was born again in an exciting new way. 

Enter, the Arizona Coyotes. The franchise began in Winnipeg in the old World Hockey Association in 1972 and flourished for over two decades. But rising player salaries and a weaker Canadian dollar led to the franchise selling and moving south in 1996 as part of commissioner Gary Bettman’s “Sun Belt” expansion strategy. 

The Coyotes had some modest success in the desert, most notably their Pacific Division championship in 2012. But the negatives far outweighed the positives, and ultimately the franchise died a slow, painful death in Phoenix. 

To recap what happened:

• May 2009: The Coyotes file for bankruptcy, citing financial losses. 
• August 2013: The Coyotes sell to a new ownership group, staving off relocation rumors.
• August 2021: The City of Glendale, Arizona and Gila River Arena cancel their lease with the Coyotes, leaving the team “homeless” for the 2022-23 season. 
• February 2022: The Coyotes agree to lease Arizona State University’s 6,000-seat Mullett Arena beginning in October 2022. 
• May 2023: The Coyotes announce plans to build a new arena and entertainment district in Tempe, Arizona. Tempe voters reject the proposal. 
• January 2024: Scottsdale, Arizona mayor David Ortega opposes team plans to build a new arena in Scottsdale. An auction for a new arena site is delayed to June 2024, after the end of the 2023-24 season. 
• April 2024: The Coyotes play their final game in Arizona, defeating the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in overtime. 

Things were so bleak that one independent hockey journalist once wrote:

“Perhaps someday the NHL will cut its losses and allow the team to move for its own good. Perhaps someday the Yotes will rise like the Phoenix the city is named after to new heights in a gorgeous new building. Perhaps someday the team will hit on great young draft picks, build a strong core of players, and contend in the playoffs. But until then, I struggled to comprehend the viability of a hockey franchise in Arizona.”

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And in April 2024, the NHL granted an expansion franchise to Utah entrepreneur and Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, “deactivated” the Coyotes franchise, and moved the players, staff, and assets to Salt Lake City. Originally named the “Utah Hockey Club” for their inaugural season, the team was renamed the “Utah Mammoth” following a fan vote. 

And so, nearly 1,000 days following the final day of the Tour de NHL back in April 2023, I hopped on a plane. Fueled by excitement, anticipation, and happiness at the prospect of once again chasing the “natural high” that is exploring a new city, and attending a hockey game in a new arena. Another round on Mufasa’s famed “Circle of Life”. 

In a lot of ways, it felt like that “Circle of Life” was alive and well in Utah. The experiences I had on Episode 33 reminded me so much of my many years of travels on the Tour de NHL; proof of that “connectedness” Mufasa spoke to Simba of. 

Boston Drew joined me once again for another trip on Tour. Of course, you’ll remember him from countless Tour stops past, from all corners of the continent. Boston Drew joined me on eleven prior trips, including bonus trips back to Florida for the COVID game and to Raleigh for the Stadium Series, earning the coveted Keith Yandle “SONK” Trophy for his efforts. I can’t think of a better guest, one who shares my passions for exploring and for hockey. After nearly three years off, I was honored to travel with him again in Utah. 

But there were two more special guests in Utah that reminded me of happy days on the Tour. My face practically lit up as I saw the first, clad in his jolly old red suit and his bushy, white beard. Just as he did back in December 2019 in Florida, he brought Drew and I a wonderful dose of Christmas cheer. 

The other was a stroke of pure luck: the first “official” guest in Tour de NHL history, my good friend Jeff, was skiing (or at least attempting to) at Snowbird Resort in Utah, and came down to Salt Lake City to share a meal with us. Jeff’s guest appearance was certainly not expected, but made me sincerely happy. He’s become a wonderful friend in life and in golf, a game we both love so passionately. And after all, it was Jeff who took the first plunge with me, attending that Blue Jackets game more than five years ago at the inception of the Tour. His guest appearance was a much welcome surprise to help rekindle those happy Tour memories. 

In fact, the entire game day in Utah was full of happy memories. Drew and I hit all the routine elements of a Tour stop: we wandered around the city, explored a new town, and took plenty of pictures outside the arena. 

We went on an adventure to a unique place in the city, just like my previous trips to the Gateway Arch in St Louis, or the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in Vancouver. This time, we ventured out to Park City to tour the Utah Olympic Park, home of 17 winter sports in the 2002 Winter Olympics, and soon to be for the 2034 Games as well. We marveled at the lightning-fast bobsled track and the frighteningly steep Nordic ski jump. It was a perfect way to see something so uniquely Utah, and to get back in the Olympic spirit just two months ahead of the 2026 Games!

We enjoyed pre- and post-game food and drink at local sports bars like Gracie’s and Red Rock. But I think our first meal in town at Red Iguana took the cake; it was certainly the tastiest Mexican food on Tour and rivaled the best overall meals from Pittsburgh and Washington. (Many thanks to co-worker Jeff for the recommendation!)

We got our pregame merchandise shopping and pregame lap around the concourse and our “chasing down mascots for pictures as a grown man”. Judge all you want, people, Tusky is a gem!

Of course, we also had our “healthy critiquing” of the arena. I won’t bore you with the details; Delta Center is just fine. Not great, not terrible, just fine. A bit small for an NHL building, but it was constructed for the NBA’s Utah Jazz and not for a hockey team, so that tracks. There was nothing “bad” about the arena, per se, but it also lacked any kind of character or color or charm. Concourses were bland with white walls and black floors, and the interior lacked pizzazz. The holiday lights in the trees outside the arena were a nice, festive touch though!

But let’s be honest, who cares? After all, the Tour de NHL was rarely about the hockey or the building. But spending a night at Delta Center still reminded me of all those many trips I took over the years, and it was wonderful to just be happy going to a hockey game again.

I think the Utah Mammoth will succeed in Salt Lake City. It seemed like a quintessentially winter city, and the fans came out in droves to support their team. Is the team the best? No, not yet. Is the arena the best? No, not yet. But both are headed in the right direction. Rebuilding and growing again after fading away in Arizona. Just like the “Circle of Life” talked about. 

At the game, I ended up sitting next to a young man attending his first hockey game in person. And it was a great experience that allowed me to think and reflect. Everybody has a “first game” of sorts, literally or figuratively. But you remember those “firsts”, just as I remember my first Tour stop in Columbus with Jeff, and my first Tour trip with Drew in Calgary. And all those “firsts” are so special in their own way. 

Episode 33 in Utah was not a “first” for me, more like a second “last”. But there will be more games, more adventures to take, more teams that move to new cities. There will be more time to create stories with Drew and Jeff and other esteemed Tour guests, perhaps sooner than we may think. And fun new opportunities will arise to make more happy memories. 

For now, though, the sun once again sets on the Tour de NHL, just as it set on the Arizona Coyotes. I’m not sad about it at all; in fact, I can’t wait for the next exciting chapter to be written. Utah reminded me of why I did this in the first place: to make Grandma proud doing something I love. And I loved every minute of Episode 33!

Just as in The Lion King, the sun will rise again over the mountains of Utah, and will give way to the dawn of a new chapter in this hockey journalist’s career. And perhaps, in their new home, to a Stanley Cup for the Utah Mammoth.

The “Circle of Life”, friends. It moves us all. 

Arena: 3 / 5

Atmosphere: 3.5 / 5

Neighborhood: 2.5 / 5

Overall: 3 / 5

Overall Rank: 23rd, between Vancouver at 22 and New Jersey at 24