Canucks at Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes sit four points out of a Western Conference wild card spot and open a crucial five-game homestand Thursday against the owners of one of those spots entering Wednesday, the Vancouver Canucks. Arizona will play eight of its remaining 12 contests at home, where it has an 8-2-3 record since the beginning of January, and will have to make up for the 3-11-1 road mark its produced during the same period.
The Coyotes jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead Monday against another team they're chasing, the Winnipeg Jets, but couldn’t fend off the home team as they allowed four unanswered goals in a 4-2 setback. “It’s obviously a frustrating loss, those (were) big points,” Arizona center Nick Schmaltz told the media after netting both his team’s goals Monday. “We’ve got another big test on Thursday against Vancouver, another team that’s above us in the standings that we need to catch, so it starts there. We’ve got to put a streak of wins together if we want to have a chance here.” Vancouver earned a 5-4 shootout victory Tuesday over the New York Islanders - its second win in its last seven games (2-5-0) - and received a goal and an assist from forward Tyler Toffoli, who has 10 points in 10 games since being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings prior to the trade deadline. “It’s nice to score and all that, but getting a win at this time of the year is what we’ve been looking for as a team,” Toffoli told reporters Tuesday. “Winning is fun, winning is contagious, and we’ve got to do more of it.”
TIME: 10 p.m. ET. TV: FS Arizona, Sportsnet Pacific
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (36-27-6): Goaltender Thatcher Demko has done an admirable job filling in for starter Jacob Markstrom, who has missed the last eight games with a knee injury, as the 24-year-old is 3-4-0 with a .906 save percentage in seven starts. “Just want to give the team a chance to win every night,” Demko told reporters after making a career high 45 saves Tuesday. “I’m learning a lot through this process. Down the stretch here, we’re going to have to be really sharp as a group and individually.” Defenseman Alex Edler is in the midst of a monumental stretch as the 33-year-old picked up his 300th career assist Friday against Colorado, his 400th point against the Islanders Tuesday, and enters Thursday sitting one goal shy of 100 for his career.
ABOUT THE COYOTES (33-29-8): Darcy Kuemper has a .924 save percentage in four games since returning from a lower-body injury that cost the netminder 28 games, but has a 1-3-0 record to show for it after stopping 30-of-33 shots against the Jets on Monday. Kuemper’s only victory since his return was in Vancouver on March 4, as the 29-year-old made 36 saves while the Coyotes overcame a 2-1 deficit midway through the third period to earn a 4-2 triumph. Despite adding proven goal scorers Phil Kessel and Taylor Hall to their lineup since last season, the Coyotes are scoring just 0.16 more goals per game than the 2.55 they managed in 2018-19 - which was tied for the third-worst total league-wide.
OVERTIME
1. Arizona has lost seven times in regulation when leading after the first period - four more than the league average.
2. Canucks RW Brock Boeser returned to the lineup Tuesday after missing 12 games with a rib injury and finished with three shots and a minus-1 rating in 17:17 of ice time.
3. Coyotes D Oliver Ekman-Larsson averaged more than 20 power-play points per season over his previous six campaigns, but has managed just two goals and five assists on the man advantage in 2019-20.