In Morris’ five seasons in the desert as a member of the Coyotes, not once did he experience the Stanley Cup playoffs. Morris was part of what seemed like an endless streak of mediocrity. When Wayne Gretzky took over as head coach in 2005, there was a buzz around the normally dormant organization, and with some solid veterans like Morris and Shane Doan, as well as an injection of youthful talent, hopes were high.
But in Gretzky’s four seasons — and through the just-under four seasons Morris played for him — the team failed to make the playoffs on the ice and failed financially, eventually ending up in bankruptcy court this past summer in a highly-publicized case.
“You tell yourself it’s like playing another team and I’ll do my best to approach it that way on the ice, but I’m sure being around there with family and friends, being back there, it will be special seeing the people I know — but not because of what happened on the ice,” Morris said. "It’s going to be hard going back and re-living those memories and seeing how bad it got for the team and people you know there. It’s a really tough situation.”
There has been constant talk of relocating the Phoenix franchise, and Morris understands the economics of the situation, reluctantly admitting it may never work there. But he doesn’t want people to be misled and not realize that there are hockey fans there and more importantly, youth hockey programs. Such programs have a built foundations for the kids to work with, but as Morris points out, if and when the Coyotes relocate, a lot of young hockey players will probably stop playing.
“I think a team should be there — selfishly, I’m thinking — but yeah, they should have a team there,” Morris said. “Youth hockey has gone a long way there in the 12 years they’ve been there. Maybe not the last six years, but overall it’s grown.
"My kids started playing there, Shane Doan’s kids started there, there are good youth programs," he added. "If that team leaves, you’re not going to have those programs, and the kids have nowhere to play. Now financially, I don’t know if they can ever succeed. That’s a different story. But it’s hard when you see that there is that base of hockey there and now it won’t go on.”
Morris alluded to the location of Jobing.com Arena as the first sign of the team’s demise.
“The location is just horrible, and that’s nothing to say bad about Glendale, but Phoenix is a retirement spot,” he explained. “You have people from Michigan and Canada, but they all live out in Mesa or Scottsdale. It’s all so spread out there and to go to a game during the week is at least an hour and a half. I’m not driving my kids through that for a game and I’m sure a lot of people say the same thing.”
As Morris admitted, if the Coyotes continue their early-season success and make the playoffs, fans will come and support them. But to ask them to drive in traffic like that two to three times a week is unrealistic.
“I do think that if they make the playoffs, the real fans will go and support them because there is a fan base there, but they’re not going to 41 games a year,” he said.
As far as this early-season success in Phoenix goes, Morris saw it coming when they hired Dave Tippett to replace Gretzky.
“Not at all surprised that they have a really good team,” Morris said. “Some of the kids that were in the minors last year are up now and playing, they have a real good defensive core, and when [Ilya Bryzgalov] is on, their goalie is one of the best in the league. They also have structure now with their new coach, Dave Tippett, and his assistant, Dave King. I think they’re the right coaches for that situation. They have guys that have won championships and these guys are good for that young team. They utilize that speed up front, and eventually, they’re going to be successful. Well, they already are, I guess, right?”
