Coyotes Maintain Focus Through Adversity, ‘Holding Ourselves Accountable’

Matt Dumba has been through this before.

The 29-year-old defenseman was part of a Minnesota Wild team that won 12 straight during the 2016-17 season, improving their record at the time from 11-8-4 to 23-8-4. Later that same season they lost nine of 10 games before winning five of their last six en route to their fifth consecutive playoff appearance.

The Arizona Coyotes have not been through those extremes 28 games into the season, but they have dropped four consecutive games immediately following a five-game winning streak, and Dumba drew some parallels between the 2016-17 Wild and 2023-24 Coyotes.

The lesson? Stay level-headed throughout the chaos of an 82-game regular season.

“This league is crazy,” Dumba said. “You never know what’s going to happen on a night-to-night basis, so you just need to be ready, stay focused, worry about your business, and be there for your teammates. 

“You have to understand that it feels hard when you’re in it, and it’s hard to tell yourself that, but you have to understand that you need to keep working hard. That’s how you create your bounces and create your own puck luck.”

The Coyotes are 13-13-2 through 28 games, marking the team’s highest win total over that span since posting a 15-9-4 record in 2019-20. They are 8-5-0 at home, 5-8-2 on the road, and just one point out of a Wild Card spot with a game-in-hand, though it’s still far too early to be looking that closely at the standings.

Arizona was flying high after beating the Washington Capitals 6-0 on Dec. 4, marking the team’s fifth straight win, all of which came over the previous six Stanley Cup champions (Vegas 2023, Colorado 2022, Tampa Bay 2021 & 2020, St. Louis 2019, and Washington 2018). They have since fallen in consecutive games against Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh.

The Desert Dogs aren’t the only ones navigating through the extreme highs and lows of an NHL season, though. The Edmonton Oilers, for example, started the season 2-9-1, but just recently won eight straight to claw back to 13-13-1, sitting just one point behind Arizona with a game in hand.

The San Jose Sharks – the Coyotes’ opponent on Friday night – began the season 0-10-1 but have gone 9-7-2 since.

A season takes multiple twists and turns, but head coach André Tourigny consistently preaches the importance of viewing a season collectively and remaining level-headed throughout.

“It's always hard,” he said. “It has to be hard, it’s the best league in the world. There’s no easy day in the league.
 
“You either get better, or get worse, so you need to make sure you’re on the right side of it.”

The Coyotes have faced a barrage of injuries during the stretch, as well. Three of their top four centers have all missed time, as Jack McBain, Barrett Hayton, and Travis Boyd have been out of the lineup for weeks. Though Tourigny said McBain is close to returning -- he's a gametime decision against the Sharks -- Boyd and Hayton are not slated to imminently return to the lineup.

In addition to those, defensemen Sean Durzi, Travis Dermott, Vladislav Kolyachonok, and even Dumba have missed time, and Durzi continues to be day-to-day.

That string of injuries has elevated the leadership of a number of players, including Dumba, a veteran of 625 NHL games.

“I think there’s times when you’re going through a period like this that you have to really reflect and look at your game, and see points where you need to be better, and hold yourself accountable,” he said. “You have to understand that every team in the NHL is going to have a lull, is going to have a skid like this, so how are we going to come out of it? I don’t think the answer by any means is sulking or getting down on yourself. 

“This league, 82 games, you have to embrace the monotony of it and understand that there’s a little thing here, a little thing there that I can improve on, and that will change the result of the game.”

It’s not just the veteran players who have led by example, though, especially considering how young the Coyotes’ roster is to begin with. Tourigny specifically cited 23-year-old Matias Maccelli’s elevated role this season, not to mention the leadership of 25-year-old Clayton Keller, who practiced on Thursday despite battling a sickness.

19-year-old Logan Cooley followed suit, and 27-year-old Nick Schmaltz battled through an injury on Tuesday in Pittsburgh when he could have left the game.
The team, collectively, is rallying together.

“In the long season everybody finds their way with the team,” Tourigny said. “It’s no longer a matter of age, or number of years, it’s your place in the team … At this point, I think everybody has found their place.”

As the Coyotes embark on their upcoming three-game homestand, they’ll aim to maintain their level-headed mentality: Never get too high after a win, never get too low after a loss, and remain focused on the finer details of each shift, and each game.

“That’s the way our guys want it,” Tourigny said. “When you win, you don’t play as good as you think, and when you lose, you’re not as far away as you think. You’re always 5-10 percent in or out. 

“Right now we have the 5-10 percent out, let’s balance that out [on Friday].”