They pulled out Arizona state statute 38-511 and fired their first shot at getting rid of those pesky varmints. Rick Westhead wrote about it in his piece for TSN.

Vice-Mayor Ian Hugh said in that council meeting, "This is not about hockey. It's about integrity of the process."

He in a way is right. Statute 38-511 is about conflict of interest, and the city has to appear that it is doing the right thing. That is has not been compromised, and that everything is above board.

From Chapter 8, Conflict of Interest document, in section 8.16.3 "Once the impermissible interest of a public officer or employee is shown, the contract will not be sustained even if the contract is fair, just, and beneficial to the public agency. Stigall v. City of Taft, 375 P.2d 289, 292 (Cal. 1962)" and "("It is clear in Arizona that '… the letting of contracts for public business should be above suspicion or favoritism.'")(quoting Brown v. City of Phoenix, 77 Ariz. 368, 377, 272 P.2d 358, 367 (1954))".

Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers said, "I don't care how good a deal is. If you're breaking a law you're breaking a law." In her blog, former council member Joyce Clark quoted the mayor as saying, "If you're breaking the law, there is no exception".

They are both referring to the employment of former city attorney Craig Tindall and his involvement on the lease agreement.

However, it is not clear that a law was broken. This clause simply allows a government agency to correct a situation where the optics could be putting their reputation at risk. It is their escape clause.

While everyone was wondering if the new owners were going to take the team and leave making them the opportunistic, greedy bad guys, it turns out that the city had their own way to get out built into the agreement too.

How strong a case does Glendale have? Why did they do this now? How come they signed the agreement in the first place? It doesn't matter. They just want to get rid of those 'Yotes.

Outside counsel for the Coyotes, Nick Wood, remarked "At this point the damage has been done. How do we negotiate our way out of being shot in the head by the city?" as reported by John Marshall of the National Post.

Back to a follow up article from Rick Westhead. "Heck no, we couldn't afford to pay $200 million", said Hugh when asked if the city would lose their argument. Westhead goes on to describe the financial state the city is in.

Again, you can ask why, why, why, but that doesn't get you anywhere better than where we are right now. Some people immediately talked about having the team move to a traditional hockey market, but that would take away from potential expansion fees.

But there is a glimmer of light provided by the Mayor of Phoenix Greg Stanton. The National Post reported that Stanton has talked with Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns, and inquired about the possibility of having the Coyotes share the US Airways Center with them. He said, "The message was, we don't know how this legal situation is going to come out, we just want to make sure that we're a part of the solution. If the team is in a position where they don't have a home, we want to make sure they don't leave this region."

The "meep, meep" sound isn't the roadrunner screeching by. It is the moving trucks backing up to the loading dock in order to take all the equipment across town. The packing will be quick because they already keep all their feathers numbered for just such an emergency.

Fantasy owners, what are you to do?

It is going to be hard for the Coyotes to attract free agents and even keep their current players. They'll most likely be one or two-year deals and will possibly have to pay more to get them to come, but how does the club pay someone more when fans and advertisers are going to stay away? Call this a "lose-lose" situation.

Trading Coyotes off your roster will be like Wile E. Coyote holding onto a 2000-pound anvil while plummeting to a desert canyon floor. Yikes!

If the team is smart, they will play young, cheap, and hungry players: guys who will be very happy to be in the league and to be called professional hockey players.

Rookies like Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, Brendan Perlini, Henrik Samuelsson, Lucas Lissio, and Christian Dvorak might not win many games, but they will get a chance to play. You should check out what Dobber has to say about each of them in this year's Prospects Guide.

The question will be if Dave Tippett can be happy coaching them.

Shane Doan is probably the only one on that roster old enough to get these daffy comments, and he's probably going to be making a left turn at Albuquerque. The others are so young that all they know are Pokemon and Power Rangers.

Can you blame them? The whole situation is Looney Tunes.

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