Avoiding ’17 repeat tops Coyotes’ list
It would be a stretch to say that opening night could determine the trajectory of the Coyotes’ season, but given what happened to this team out of the gate last year, it wouldn’t be a misguided statement, either.
The Coyotes did not win a game in regulation last season until Nov. 16 in Montreal, which came 20 games (nearly a quarter of the entire season) into the schedule. Needless to say, the Coyotes can’t afford a similar start this season if they hope to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign.
Regardless, Thursday’s seasonopener against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center is where the blank slate of the Coyotes’ optimismfilled, 2018-19 season will finally start to be written.
Game No. 1 was where the season fell apart last season for the Coyotes, too. The club suffered a 5-4 defeat in Ana-
heim after leading 4-1 midway through the game. The Coyotes followed that with a 2-1 overtime loss at home to the Vegas Golden Knights and didn’t earn another point until an overtime win in Philadelphia on Oct. 30.
Of course, a big part of the club’s slow start was subpar goaltending from various backups who were filling in for an injured Antti Raanta. One in particular was Louis Domingue, who lost every game he played with the Coyotes last season and managed just an .856 save percentage. He was traded on Nov. 14, two days before the team’s aforementioned first regulation win.
If anything, this illustrates Raanta’s importance to the team, and the Coyotes appear to have a much more sturdy goaltending situation than they did at the outset of last season. Raanta has looked healthy and ready to go, and Darcy Kuemper has shown flashes of being a proficient backup.
Still, goaltending isn’t everything and the Coyotes will still have to offset the losses of Alex Galchenyuk (lower body), Jakob Chychrun (knee) and Christian Dvorak (lower body), among others, to start the season.
“There’s a lot of opportunity out there,” head coach Rick Tocchet said. “But at the same time, I don’t want guys out there like, ‘We’ve got to get off to a good start, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that.’ The opportunities are there, so go grab it. Just go out there and play.
“If you do the right things and you work hard long enough, you’ll get good results. That’s all we’re looking for.”
The Coyotes will bank on the skills of sophomore Clayton Keller, who is likely to line up as the team’s second-line center after spending the entirety of last season on the wing. Also likely to start on Thursday are forwards Dylan Strome and Laurent Dauphin, two players who were not guaranteed locks for the NHL roster before several injuries affected the forward core in training camp.
Given how big that snowball became as the autumn months turned to winter last year, the Coyotes are well aware of the importance of starting fast this season.
“History shows when you play well at the end of the year that you have a better chance at the playoffs,” center Derek Stepan said. “Our group has been focused on that since the start of camp. We realize (the start last year) was a reason a lot of the season was very hectic.
“We want to make sure we’re ready to go from Game 1 and that he have a great start in the first period.” Dallas. (620).
The Arizona Coyotes kick off their 2018-19 season with a road tilt against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center in Dallas. … This is the third time the two clubs have opened the season against one another, with the Coyotes outscoring the Stars 10-9 in the previous two such meetings. … The Coyotes are 12-8-1 in seasonopeners since 1996, the year the franchise moved to Arizona. … The Coyotes were 4-2-1 in preseason play with Clayton Keller leading them in scoring with seven points (1 goal, 6 assists) in four games. … The Stars were also 4-2-1 this preseason. … The Coyotes have three defensemen on their current roster (Alex Goligoski, Jason Demers and Kevin Connauton) who have previously played in Dallas. … The Stars were led in scoring last season by Tyler Seguin, who scored 40 goals, and in points by Jamie Benn, who finished with 79. … Goaltender Ben Bishop finished the season with 24 wins and a 2.49 goals-against average.
An ‘A’ for Stepan, Hjalmarsson
The Coyotes on Wednesday named Stepan and defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson as the club’s two alternate captains. Each will wear an “A” on their sweater for each game this season.
“To have the ‘A’ on my jersey is something that’s a big deal to me,” Stepan said. “I don’t take it lightly and I want to make sure that I hold myself accountable and be professional to lead these young guys.”
Both Stepan and Hjalmarsson wore an ‘A’ on a rotating basis last season, along with Brad Richardson, Alex Goligoski and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the latter of whom was named captain last month.
“We have a great leadership group,” Tocchet said. “I think ‘Step’ and ‘Nik’ are good choices. … It’s a committee, but instead of floating the (letters) I think it’s better to make it permanent.”