Coyotes are establishing reputation on home ice

Brick by brick, the Coyotes are beginning to forge an identity and a reputation as a tough team to play on home ice.

The Coyotes have been a team that has suffered from poor attendance and subpar on-ice talent since their relocation to Glendale from downtown Phoenix in 2003, but they could be on the verge of changing the narrative in the 2018-19 season.

After years of mediocrity on home ice, the Coyotes have a chance to complete a 5-0 homestand with a win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday. Only one Coyotes team has ever accomplished such a feat (200102), but it has never been done in the Glendale era.

The Coyotes have done this with consecutive wins against the Canucks, Lightning, Senators and Hurricanes thus far. Arizona has outscored its opponents by a 20-6 margin in those games and has tallied three firstperiod goals in each of its past three contests.

“I think it’s always important to win your home games,” Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “We want the other team to come in here and have respect for us and to know that we’re going to come out hard. I think we’ve been doing that so far. We didn’t get the wins early on, but we’ve been playing really good in the first period.”

After losing their first two home games of the season before their current homestand, the Coyotes now stand 5-2 at home this season and could surpass the club record of 29 home wins set during the 2009-10 season.

When Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet took over prior to last season, he was on a mission to find out what the team’s identity could be. This homestand has helped him figure it out.

“For me, the identity part of it, when I got here I was always like, ‘What’s our identity?’ and we didn’t know yet,” Tocchet said. “But we’re getting to a level where, when you play us, you hear people say we don’t give up a lot (of chances). Other than the last game, we’ve been pretty stingy when it comes to chance against.

“I think, for the most part, we’ve been a team that defends well and buys into it. I like the fact that our team takes it personally if a team scores or we allow a barrage of chances. There’s no complacency with them.”

The Coyotes have allowed just 10 goals in seven home games this season, good for an average of 1.4 goals allowed per game at home. They’ve allowed the fewest total goals home and away (24) among NHL teams this season, yielding an average of just two per contest.

When Ekman-Larsson was asked what has prevented the Coyotes from establishing a strong identity and reputation on home ice since his arrival to the club during the 2010-11 season, he responded, “Can I think about that one for two days and get back to you?”

But from where Ekman-Larsson stands this season, his first as captain, a combination of stingy defense, elite goaltending and timely offense have resulted in the team’s current stretch of success at home.

“I just think it was a big help that we have this thought that we can play against anyone in this league and have a chance to beat anyone,” Ekman-Larsson said. “We’ve been building on that and we’ve got that feeling now.’’