Encouraging turnaround

Resurgent Coyotes have earned the right to be optimistic.

A lowly 1-4-0 start and a severe issue with finding the back of the net had Coyotes fans fearing that they were in store for yet another one-month season where the team is eliminated by Nov. 1.

But a consistently tough defense, a string of high-scoring games, and a group of underwhelming intra-division talent have those same fans now wondering if the Coyotes are destined for their first playoff berth since the 2011-12 season.

After Saturday’s 7-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Coyotes are 5-5-0 and have now won four of their past five games and have scored 22 goals over that span as opposed to just four goals in their first five games.

Entering play Monday, the Coyotes are just four points out of first place in a wide-open Pacific Division and don’t play another road game until Nov. 8. Other than the San Jose Sharks, there doesn’t seem to be a team in the division who has a lock on a playoff spot.

This is a season where the Coyotes could conceivably decide their own fate. They have three consecutive home games beginning Tuesday with a 7 p.m. tilt against the Ottawa Senators, and they will wrap up a five-game homestand with games against the Carolina Hurricanes (Friday) and Philadelphia Flyers (Nov. 5).

The Coyotes could put themselves in an enviable position with a successful finish to their current homestand, which is something Coyotes fans are not used to hearing after the first calendar month of the season.

If the Coyotes pick up a win on Tuesday, they will finish with their best October record since 2013. They will also be over .500 more than 10 games into a season since March of that season.

There’s a lot to be excited about with this Coyotes team, but head coach Rick Tocchet played the role of the great equalizer after Saturday’s rout of the Lightning.

“We’re not ordering any rings around here,” Tocchet said.

The comments by the Coyotes’ second-year coach are a sobering if not concise way to put the early season into perspective. The Coyotes like to evaluate themselves in five-game segments, and by that evaluation, it’s already been

a roller-coaster season.

But despite the disparity between the Coyotes’ records in their two separate five-game segments, their play has actually been remarkably consistent. They’ve generally controlled the majority of play in each of their 10 games this season, even if they came out on the wrong end of the score.

The Coyotes’ scoring struggles in the first few games of the season were well-documented, but it was only a matter of time before their obscene 1.6 percent shooting percentage would balance out. And in the past five games, it has.

“Well, we’re scoring goals,” said Coyotes winger Michael Grabner when asked to describe the difference between the team’s first five games and the past five. “I think in the beginning, we still had not too many bad efforts. A lot of the games we actually played really good, structured hockey and kept the other teams to low shots and low goals.

“We just weren’t scoring, but now the puck is going in for a lot of guys and it makes it a lot easier.’’