Arizona Coyotes look to clean up special-teams play for Sharks

Stuck on two wins, the Coyotes have the fewest points in the NHL through the first month of the season with only four.

But that isn’t the only category in which the team is ranked among the worst as its power play and penalty killing are struggling to produce.

“Special teams decide the game a lot of the time,” defenseman Alex Goligoski said. “It has a few games for us. I think we're penalty killing too much, and that’s usually a problem. It's tough to kill off (chances) when you've killed five, six or more. But power play, we're executing pretty good a lot of the time. We can still get a lot more stuff to the net and create some chaos down there.”

The power play is tied for the secondlowest efficiency in the league at 10.7 percent, and only one team has fewer power-play goals than the Coyotes’ three.

As for the penalty kill, it ranks 27th at 72.4 percent with the eight power-play goals surrendered by Arizona tied for the fourth-most.

“On the PK, I don’t mind the structure of what we’re doing,” coach Dave Tippett said. “There's a few corrections that we can continue to make but in the end, you need some saves there, too. And the power play, our breakout and some of those things have been pretty good. It's just a matter of finding the opportunities in the offensive zone. We haven't generated enough there, so we'll continue to work away on that.”

Almost 25 percent of the goals given up by the Coyotes have come while the team is short-handed (eight out of 33). Better discipline would help; the Coyotes have put the opponent on the power play at least three times in all but two games. But the slow start by the unit may also be indicative of the instability between the pipes as the Coyotes have relied on three different goalies with No. 1 Mike Smith sidelined with a lower-body injury that looks like a left knee issue.

Although Smith did get on the ice for the first time Monday since suffering the injury Oct. 18 against the Senators, it remains unclear when he may be able to return.

Smith skated without pads, and the Coyotes hope he’s able to keep progressing on the ice.

“He looked fine out there,” Tippett said.

Smith’s absence combined with other injuries have prevented the team from having everyone at full strength, a trend that could be affecting the power play.

Defenseman Michael Stone is dealing with an upper-body injury and is questionable for Tuesday’s game against the Sharks after sitting out Saturday’s loss to the Avalanche. Stone, who mans the point on the power play, was on the ice for the start of practice Monday but left early.

“(He’s) a little better today,” Tippett said, “but we'll see. It's nothing serious, I don't think.”

This injury comes after Stone’s season debut was delayed as he worked his way back from knee surgery, and winger Jamie McGinn was another late arrival due to an upper-body injury that cost him the first five games.

The Coyotes have signed defenseman Kyle Capobianco to a three-year, entry-level contract. Capobianco, who was drafted in the third round 63rd overall in 2015, is currently with Sudbury in the Ontario Hockey League.