A diverse collection of groups are playing (or have already played) at Coachella this week, from Bad Bunny to BLACKPINK to Frank Ocean to Blink-182 to the Tucson Roadrunners.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds, an AHL expansion team this season, are hosting their playoff opening act during the same event Coachella Valley is most famous for.
“I know, I know, I know. I’m aware of it,” Tucson center Jean-Sebastien Dea said last weekend with a smile when asked if he realized the Roadrunners were playing at Coachella Valley in the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs this week during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, better known simply as “Coachella.”
The festival is held over back-to-back weekends — Friday to Sunday, April 14-16, and this weekend, Friday to Sunday. The music festival is at Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, which is 11.4 miles away from the Firebirds’ home of Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert.
Dea donned a white bucket hat with the Trefoil Adidas retro logo with his blue suit after Tucson’s game last Saturday; he looked like he would fit right in at ’Chella. Last week Adidas drove a Bad Bunny-themed flower truck around Indio to promote a new shoe ahead of the rapper/singer’s Coachella performance.
“JS, he’s pretty excited. He’s pretty vocal about it,” Tucson forward Michael Carcone said. “He’s gonna have to watch from afar, but it’s obviously pretty cool. Who knows who you’ll run into in those events and stuff. Those hotels are all booked, so I’m sure we’ll see somebody that’s recognizable.”
More than 125,000 people descended each day for last year’s multi-weekend festival.
Dea said he’s an EDM — that’s electronic dance music — fan and gets to go to some concerts during the offseason at home in Montreal.
“I do summer back home, but all those big ones are during the season so it’s kinda hard to go,” Dea said.
After the Tucson Roadrunners took an early too-many-men on the ice penalty just 36 seconds into their 2023 Calder Cup Playoff opener, Coachella Valley's Max McCormick put the Firebirds up 1-0 at exactly one minute into the game on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. CV would go on to win, 5-1. Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners
Back to hockey: The Roadrunners will look to even the first-round playoff series with the lively Firebirds Friday at 7. Tucson hopes to avoid a quick, awkward exit like singer/songwriter Frank Ocean did this week.
Ocean pulled out of the festival’s second weekend after he headlined last weekend in a performance that’s been highly criticized (although it’s since been reported Ocean performed with two fractures and a sprain in his left leg and is sitting out the second weekend on doctor’s orders).
The Roadrunners lost game one of the best-of-three series 5-1 despite outshooting Coachella Valley 46-27.
The attendance for Wednesday’s Game 1 was 5,486 after 10,087 went to the first game at Acrisure Arena in December, when Coachella Valley beat Tucson 4-3. The Firebirds averaged 7,478 fans in the regular season.
Considering upwards of 125,000 people are expected for each day of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, perhaps locals didn’t want to fight traffic or were cash-strapped after getting their hands on $549 Coachella festival tickets?
Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone (shown driving in for a shot on Ontario Reign goalie Cal Petersen during back on Dec. 9 at Tucson Arena) might be announced as the AHL's MVP Friday, the same day the Roadrunners play a playoff elimination game at the Coachella Valley Firebirds at 7 p.m.
Award season
The AHL will announce Friday morning the winner of the 2022-23 Les Cunningham Award, given annually to the league’s Most Valuable Player. Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone is considered a front-runner, and a Carcone win would make the league’s top six performance-based awards a clean sweep for teams from the Pacific Division.
The AHL’s Red Garrett award, given to the league’s top rookie, went to Tye Kartye of Coachella Valley Thursday.
A day earlier, Calgary Wrangler Dustin Wolf won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award for outstanding goalie. Wolf led all AHL netminders in wins, goals-against average, save percentage, minutes and saves, and he faced the most shots.
Christian Wolanin of the Abbotsford Canucks won the Eddie Shore Award for outstanding defenseman, while Calgary’s Mitch Love, who lives in Marana in the offseason, won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as Coach of the Year.
Carcone won the John B. Sollenberger Trophy for leading the AHL in points.
With the Coachella Valley Firebirds leading 5-0 in their 2023 Calder Cup Playoff opener, Tucson Roadrunners defensemen Vlad Kolyachonok broke the shutout by scoring with barely a minute to play in a 5-1 Firebirds' victory on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners
Slap shots
Back in Tucson, the Roadrunners will host a free watch party for Game 2 — and, if necessary, game three — at Main Event at 4700 South Landing Way.
Tucson defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok scored his first playoff goal in Game 1. Kolyachonok played last season for Tucson and 10 games for the Syracuse Crush in 2021.
“We have to clean up some stuff on offense and be more dangerous on defense,” Kolyachonok said postgame to Adrian Denny, the Roadrunners’ director of communications and broadcasting. “Discipline is the most important thing in the playoffs, (Tucson goalie) Ivan (Prosvetov) did everything he could to keep us in it, and we will all be better on Friday.”
Tucson Roadrunners forward Michael Carcone scores his third goal of the game in a 7-2 Tucson victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Tucson Arena on Dec. 13, 2022. Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners
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YouTube has announced that all six stages at this year’s Coachella will be livestreamed on the platform for the first time ever.
The singer closed the first weekend of the California festival on Sunday despite suffering an injury during rehearsals. In a statement on Thursday, his representatives revealed he has two fractures and a sprain in his left leg and is unable to perform this coming Sunday. "Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity... On doctor's advice, (Ocean) is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg."
Justin Bieber praised Frank Ocean’s performance at Coachella in a recent Instagram post.
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