Long home stretch could determine Coyotes’ playoff fate
Jan 14, 2016, 8:33 AM
Arizona Coyotes' Anthony Duclair, middle, smiles as he celebrates his goal against the Nashville Predators with Tobias Rieder (8), of Germany, Connor Murphy, right, Oliver Ekman-Larsson (23), of Sweden, and Martin Hanzal (11), of the Czech Republic, during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. The Coyotes defeated the Predators 4-0. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Coyotes coach Dave Tippett doesn’t necessarily like the fact that his team is in the midst of a seven-game homestand. He’s a coach after all and he knows that family, friends and other distractions can pull a team away from what he wants to be its singular focus.
“You just get too comfortable at home,” Tippett said. “You’d rather get on the road and get all the focus in the right place.”
Even so, Tippett recognizes the importance of this stretch of games and he drove home that message to his players in a recent meeting.
“It’s a major part of our season,” Tippett said. “You’ve got seven games at home and nine before the All-Star break. With the seven games at home you could look at it almost as a full playoff series.
“How we deal with it could really give us a good kick start to the back half of the schedule.”
Tippett’s desire for road bonding aside, teams almost always fare better at home than they do on the road. The Coyotes are 12-6-2 at home (10-2-2 in their last 14) while they are just 10-10-2 on the road.
Following Tuesday’s win 4-3, overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers, the Coyotes are 2-0 on this homestand and still will play 12 of their next 16 games at Gila River Arena. When they complete this run of games, they will only have 24 games (29 percent) remaining on the schedule. It’s not a stretch to say that this stretch could decide whether Arizona is a playoff team.
The Coyotes currently sit in second place in the Pacific Division, and Tuesday’s win opened a 10-point lead over the Oilers, who sit in the Pacific’s basement. There are plenty of other division teams within striking distance, but it’s not a bad policy to start picking them off one by one. That 10-point deficit puts Edmonton in a very difficult position, even if top pick Connor McDavid returns to the lineup soon.
While every game is important in its own right, this homestand also features games against Pacific Division rivals San Jose, Calgary, Vancouver and two against Los Angeles. Those are slightly bigger games because of the points the Coyotes can earn while denying other division teams and playoff hopefuls those points.
With Nashville, Winnipeg and Minnesota slumping, the wild card berths from the Western Conference are also in play, which made Saturday’s win over the Predators all the more important.
The first half of the schedule was a tough one for Arizona, featuring eight sets of back-to-back games and three nine-day road trips.
“We came out of it faring pretty well,” Tippett said.
The second half of the schedule is far more forgiving, but because of that early success, the Coyotes are facing another challenge. For the first half of the season, they played the role of hunter — a team nobody expected to be in the playoff chase. Now the roles have reversed.
“I think everyone was doubting this team starting this season and even a couple months ago,” goaltender Louis Domingue said. “Everybody around the league is starting to take us seriously and they’re going to have to start taking us seriously because we’re up in the standings. Teams are going to want to chase us out of the playoff run.”
ROSTER MOVE
The Coyotes claimed defenseman Kevin Connauton off waivers from Columbus and assigned forward John Scott, an All-Star captain, to Springfield of the American Hockey League to make room on the active roster.
The team gave Scott a couple extra days to report to the minors because his wife is pregnant with twins. Scott is expected to return to the Coyotes’ roster by this weekend with an additional roster move expected to accommodate his return since the team is currently at the 23-man roster limit.
Pacifying the Pacific
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Arizona’s current winning percentage against its Pacific Division rivals would represent the best intra-division performance in franchise history. Here are the franchise’s previous bests along with the NHL’s best.
Franchise Bests
| Season | Team | Division | Record | Points % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | Arizona | Pacific | 10-1-2 | .846 |
| 2011-12 | Phoenix | Pacific | 13-6-5 | .646 |
| 2007-08 | Phoenix | Pacific | 19-11-2 | .625 |
| 2009-10 | Phoenix | Pacific | 13-7-4 | .625 |
| 1981-82 | Winnipeg | Norris | 17-10-8 | .600 |
NHL Bests
| Season | Team | Division | Record | Points % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | Chicago | Central | 16-1-1 | .917 |
| 1976-77 | Montreal | Norris | 19-0-5 | .896 |
| 1975-76 | Montreal | Norris | 20-2-2 | .875 |
| 1983-84 | Edmonton | Smythe | 27-3-2 | .875 |
Red Wings at Coyotes
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: Gila River Arena, Glendale
TV: FOX Sports Arizona
Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM
Season series: Detroit leads, 1-0
Probable goalies: Coyotes — Louis Domingue. Red Wings — Petr Mrazek.
Injury report: Coyotes — G Mike Smith (abdominal surgery), Joe Vitale (concussion symptoms) are out. Red Wings — F Drew Miller (torn meniscus) is out at least a month. F Johan Franzen (concussion symptoms) is on long-term injured reserve. F Teemu Pulkkinen (shoulder) is on injured reserve.
Scouting the Wings: Detroit had a four-game winning streak snapped on Monday in Los Angeles. … Detroit is 4-1 on its six-game trip, and all four wins are by one goal. It has scored the go-ahead goal in the final seven minutes or later three times in that span. … F Henrik Zetterberg leads the team with 23 assists and 30 points. … Petr Mrazek (2.16 GAA, .930 SP) has supplanted Jimmy Howard as Detroit’s starting goalie.
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