Coyotes at a glance
	Camp schedule: Sept. 10: Alltel Ice Den (Scottsdale, Ariz.) Coach: Bob Francis (3rd season, 74-62-25-7) General manager: Mike Barnett (1st season)

Despite the methodical deconstruction of the Coyotes by Wayne Gretzky and his management team, Phoenix will not be as bad as everyone predicts. Sure, you lose a lot when you let go of Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk, Nikolai Khabibulin, Jyrki Lumme and Dallas Drake, but Cliff Fletcher was right in saying the team never won anything with those players, anyway. Gretzky is assembling an interesting group -- think Nashville with a little more money -- in which fans should get an honest effort just about every night.

Don't I know you?: Maybe the biggest challenge for the Coyotes will be finding some kind of team chemistry out of a group that has pretty much been cobbled together in six months time. But there is talent in this mess of players, so there is the chance for some amount of success. Among the forward pieces are: Claude Lemieux, Shane Doan, Michal Handzus, Daymond Langkow, Mike Johnson, Sergei Berezin, Ladislav Nagy and Landon Wilson. Finding a sniper might be tough, but the group could score goals as a team.

No breakdowns: The Coyotes still have a solid goalie in Sean Burke and a growing defense in which Teppo Numminen plays school marm to Paul Mara, Danny Markov, Ossi Vaananen, Radoslav Suchy and newcomers Goren Bezina and Kirill Safronov. There's a real chance this group actually improves on last season's disappointing 30 shots allowed per game.

No pressure, though: Gretzky already has shifted his own hand-picked GM Cliff Fletcher in favor of good friend and former agent Mike Barnett. So what chances are there that coach Bobby Francis, who was left from the previous administration, will survive the entire season? How Francis handles the pressure and how he communicates with his young team will have a lot to do with how the Coyotes start the season.

Coyotes 2001-02 preseason schedule
Date	Opponent	Time
Sat., Sept. 15	Vancouver	Canceled
Mon., Sept. 17	Anaheim	10 p.m.
Wed., Sept. 19	at Vancouver	10:30 p.m.
Fri., Sept. 21	at Anaheim	10:30 p.m.
Sun., Sept. 23	at Colorado	9 p.m.
Wed., Sept. 26	Colorado	2 p.m.
Fri., Sept. 28	San Jose	10 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 29	at Dallas	8 p.m.