^ Posted by Patrick Williams
Palm Desert, California. … Bob Hope And Bing Crosby. Frank Sinatra And Dean Martin. George Burns And Gracie Allen. Dinah Shore And Marlin Monroe.
The Coachella Valley has long been a haven for celebrities who are drawn to its natural beauty, warm climate, and year-round recreation.
Now the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the area’s first high-profile professional sports team, have a celebrity of their own: Hockey Hall of Famer Grant Fore.
The 60-year-old Führer settled in the area 15 years ago with his wife, Lisa; When the Firebirds brought professional hockey to the California desert this season, Fuhr found a quick way to teach the game to new hockey fans in the area via TV and radio broadcasts.
Fuhr will be on the call again tonight as the Firebirds fight to survive Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals (10 ET, NHL Network, AHLTV, NHL Network Radio). Coachella Valley trails best-of-seven series three games to two.
“It’s very interesting,” said the Fuhrer. “I think any time you’re around a good game of hockey it’s fun. There’s a little bit less pressure when you’re sitting here doing this than there is when you’re on the ice.”
Fans in the Valley receive an education from one of hockey’s all-time greats, a goaltender who won five Stanley Cups with the 1980s-era Edmonton Oilers. Fure, who also had short stints in the AHL with the Moncton Alpines, Cape Breton Oilers, Rochester Americans and Saint John Flames, was a first-ball selection to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.
A golf fan since his playing days, Fuhr said the area’s many courses are a natural attraction. But he wasn’t able to reconnect with hockey as a regular until this season when the Firebirds came to Coachella Valley, a multi-city district that grows more than half a million people each winter with the arrival of the Snowbirds from northern skies. For its beautiful weather, landscapes and recreation. Outgoing and slick, Fuhr provides analysis of all home broadcasts on the Firebirds.
Ground broke at Acrisure Arena in June 2021 and the Firebirds made their home debut on December 18, 2022. The arena project included a practice facility that also serves as a community rink, something that allowed people in the area to experience skating and playing hockey for the first time.
This wasn’t the Los Angeles team or the San Diego team. It was the valley’s home team. Prior to the Firebirds’ arrival, the area had not had an affiliated supporter team since the California Angels’ Single-A baseball team left Palm Springs in 1993. Furthermore, the team does not rely exclusively on the Snowbirds to populate the premises; Most of the cold-weather visitors have left the area, so the locals support the pursuit of the Calder Cup. Finally, they have a cheerleading team because it represents their home country.
“You see this building and the hockey that’s been brought in,” Fuhr said, “and that’s something I had hoped for at some point [for]but I’m not sure it’s something we really imagined.
The organization has done a really good job of selling it to the locals. And they did a great job of purchasing and sticking to it. I think if you can get people in the building, it sells itself.”
Once these fans are drawn to the game’s speed, skill, and physical play, they naturally want to delve deeper into the details and strategy of the sport. And while fans learn the intricacies of hockey through Fuhr, he learns about the broadcast business.
“I’m learning,” Fuhr said with a smile. “I know and understand the game, and now he’s trying to say the right words to describe the game. I’ll talk to people when I’m running. I’ll do the TV set, and then I’ll run to the radio. If people have questions, I try to answer them and help them understand the game.”
“They rejoiced at everything [at first]. Good, bad, or else, they would have cheered him on. They just got more familiar as the year went on. They bring that raw enthusiasm, and I think it’s fun to play in front of the guys.”
Fuhr also offers tips for this Firebirds team as their season-long journey culminates this week. They can take it from someone who got five Stanley Cup rings as a 27-year-old and then had to spend the rest of his career chasing another opportunity.
“I think you should enjoy it,” Fuhr said. “I mean, a lot of times you get caught up in how intense it is, and you can’t really enjoy it. You never know when you’re going to be in the finals again.”
Thanks to the Firebirds, it’s June 19th, and Fuhr still has a hockey game to call tonight in Palm Desert.
“I have the best of all worlds right now,” Fuhr said. “I have hockey. I have golf. I have sunshine.”
Patrick Williams has been in the American Hockey League for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio, and SLAM! Sports, and she is currently the co-host of Hockey news on the “A” podcast. He was awarded the James H. Ellery Memorial Award from the AHL for his excellent coverage of the league in 2016.