Arizona Coyotes fans trying to keep connection with franchise after its move to Utah

PHOENIX — The Mammoth have generated a buzz in Utah, igniting a new fan base with a trip to the playoffs in their second season. The previous fan base back in the desert still feels a connection with the franchise once known as the Arizona Coyotes and the players who set the foundation for its current success. But there’s also a strange detachment from seeing the team they once rooted for playing in a city more than 600 miles away under a different name. “I’m a hockey fan and I’ve been cheering for them; most of those guys, that team, that organization were here,” Maricopa County Supervisor Tom Galvin said on Friday. “But in many ways, I feel disconnected from them. They’re playing in Utah, they have Utah fans, they play in a Utah arena.” Galvin is trying to bring NHL hockey back to the Phoenix area. Not long after the Coyotes left for Utah in 2024, he helped create an advisory committee that includes former Olympian Lyndsey Fry and Andrea Doan. Fry, who grew up in the Phoenix area, has been a stalwart in Arizona youth hockey through various programs and spearheads community relations for the committee. Doan has