'Yotes Notes: Poor Start Leads to Another Loss

The Coyotes showed up late to the party at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Saturday night, and lost to the Flames on New Year's Eve.
The hosts scored four goals within the game's first 16 minutes and coasted to a 4-2 victory.

Backup goalie Louis Domingue did not fare well in his first start since Dec. 5.
"The start was awful, way below average," said Domingue, who finished with 20 saves. "I was ready but I didn't bring it. There's no words. It was just bad ... If we come out of that first period with better goaltending, then we're looking at a different game."

Head Coach Dave Tippett kept Domingue in net despite his "poor" play in the first period because starter Mike Smith needed a rest.

• Arizona, which has lost seven games in a row, was called for six penalties and gave up two power-play goals.
"We said we were going to be disciplined," center Martin Hanzal said. "We weren't. That's what cost us the game again ... It's just getting to the point it's embarrassing. It's on us. It's on the players. We've got to stick together and start playing desperate because this is not desperate enough."

• Hanzal scored Arizona's second goal on a deflection at 11:53 of the third period. Rookie Brendan Perlini got the Coyotes on the board with a goal at 15:40 of the first period. Both proved to be cosmetic goals in a game essentially decided in the first period.
"We're not very good, and we have to find a way to win a game," captain Shane Doan said. "I don't know how else to say it. When you lose as badly as we've lost the last few games and as many in a row as we've lost, what else (is there) to say? We're bad."
• Trailing 1-0 in the first period, Hanzal redirected a shot past Flames goalie Brian Elliott at 10:36, but the goal was immediately waved off because Hanzal's stick was too high when it touched the puck. A video replay confirmed the ruling.
• Defenseman Anthony DeAngelo received a game misconduct penalty at the end of the second period for "abuse of officials." Replays showed DeAngelo pushing off from a linesman after a corner scrum between some of the Coyotes and Flames.
Per NHL rule, a player who "deliberately applies physical force to an official solely for the purpose of getting free of such an official during or immediately following an altercation" shall receive a game misconduct penalty.
• Forward Ryan White missed his fourth straight game because of a lower-body injury.
• Prospect Clayton Keller played 17:15 and notched two assists in the USA's 3-1 win over Canada on Saturday at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship. Prospect Dylan Strome played 19:46 and assisted on Canada's lone goal. Meanwhile, prospect Jens Looke scored a goal for Sweden in its 5-2 win over the Czech Republic.