Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan: Little things are costing the team

There’s really no other way to say it — the Phoenix Coyotes are struggling.

Dave Tippett’s team has lost two straight games and six of their last eight. Since Dec. 14, the Coyotes are just 5-10-4. Currently they’re four points behind the Minnesota Wild for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.

One of the big recent issues has been lack of consistent scoring. In fact, the Coyotes have lit the lamp just 14 times in their last eight games while being outscored by 11 goals in that span.

Team captain Shane Doan believes the offensive struggles aren’t being caused by major malfunctions, rather small details.

“We’ve got to do the little things right,” Doan told Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Thursday. “We walked through the (Calgary) game and (Coach Tippett) was pointing out that we’re doing so many things right but it’s little things — we didn’t stop in the right position, we stopped five feet to the left of the goalie instead of right in front of the goalie. Or driving the net and you allow that defenseman to push you out of the sight line instead of fighting for the extra foot-and-a-half or two feet to be right in the sight line.

“Those are the things that when it’s going, work. When it’s not going, it doesn’t.”

Doan had his first goal in his last eight games in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Calgary — a team that had lost seven straight home games heading into the contest. But he nearly had another on an early power play opportunity that he believes could have changed the complexion of the game.

“Calgary, they were a fragile group. We get that first goal, and they’re thinking ‘no, no, we can’t lose at home again,'” Doan said. “And all of a sudden, we start playing a little better and you turn the whole tide and you get going.”

The Coyotes will have another opportunity to “get going” Friday night when they visit the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place.

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