Coyotes seek positive finish to disappointing homestand

By foxsports
Published

The Arizona Coyotes' season-long seven-game homestand has taken a bad detour since the team has suddenly lost its scoring touch, missing out on a golden opportunity to pull out of a jumble of Pacific Division teams trying to keep up with first-place Los Angeles.

The Coyotes (22-19-5) conclude the seven-game stretch by hosting the Kings (29-14-3) on Saturday night at Gila River Arena. The game can be seen on FOX Sports Arizona, starting at 6:30 p.m.

The Coyotes began the homestand by scoring four goals each time in victories over Nashville and Edmonton to extend their winning streak to four games, but they've been outscored 10-4 in the ensuing four games, going 0-3-1 stretch. They trailed by two within the first 10 minutes of Thursday's 3-1 loss to San Jose.

Arizona went 10-2-2 in a 14-game stretch at Gila River Arena prior to the skid, averaging 3.50 goals.

A win Saturday can help the Coyotes keep pace in the tightly bunched Pacific Division, with eight points separating second place from last entering Friday. The Coyotes fell from second to fourth -- behind San Jose and Vancouver -- with Thursday night's loss to the Sharks.

"(Thursday) was a measuring-stick game," coach Dave Tippett said. "We didn't have enough players measure up. It's a good learning experience for our group.

"The pace you need to play in a game like that has to be top-notch from the start. We didn't have a good enough pace and we didn't execute well enough to get ourselves off to a good start."

Los Angeles (29-14-3) has opened up a 10-point lead on the Sharks and Vancouver and had scored at least three goals in each of its previous four. Playing their fourth game in six nights, though, the Kings couldn't keep up with Minnesota on Thursday and fell 3-0.

It was the first time the Kings had been blanked since a 5-0 loss at Toronto on Dec. 19 and first being shut out at home since a 3-0 defeat to the Canucks on Oct. 13.

"That was just a very poor effort," forward Tyler Toffoli said. "I think we really weren't prepared to play and it showed. We had our chances to score and we didn't bear down."

Toffoli assisted on Anze Kopitar's overtime goal that gave the Kings a 4-3 road win over the Coyotes on Dec. 26. Arizona won the first two meetings in Los Angeles, 4-1 on Oct. 9 and 3-2 on Nov. 10.

Jonathan Quick has posted a 3.34 goals-against average in starting each of those matchups.