Perlini Says Consistency is Key to Next Season, Beyond

GLENDALE --Brendan Perlini is known for his powerful skating and accurate shot on the ice. Off the ice, he's known as a deep thinker. That was clear on "Exit Day" as Perlini discussed how the Coyotes would have to work hard to mimic what the Colorado Avalanche accomplished in 2017-18, and make the playoffs next season after not making it this season.
"You look at Colorado last year, they were last in the League," Perlini said. "I mean it's definitely a positive thing, but anything can happen. We can't just say 'Oh yeah, they were last and now they made playoffs.' We have to go do it. That's one of the main things I learned this year. Talk is cheap, and you have to go do it on the ice."

Perlini ranked second on the Coyotes with 17 goals this season trailing only Clayton Keller (23). He became the first Coyotes player to notch two four-game goal-scoring streaks since Travis Green accomplished that feat in 1999-2000. But Perlini, who will turn 22 later this month, also had a 16-game and a 12-game goal-scoring draught as an NHL sophomore.

"The main thing for me is trying to stay consistent," said Perlini, who played 74 games in his first full season in the NHL. "If you look at it, I had stretches where I played really well and stretches where I didn't play well … This year my body was getting tired towards the end of the year, and I just have to do different things to prepare for the games. It's going to come. It's a constant learning experience."
Head Coach Rick Tocchet liked how Perlini evolved as the season progressed. He wanted Perlini to become a bigger presence between the face-off dots in the offensive zone and Perlini did that.
"He learned where to go to get rewarded," Tocchet said.

Perlini, who ranked first on the team in shooting percentage (13.2) among the players who skated at least 40 games, scored his 28th NHL goal in his 100th NHL game on Jan. 25 to pass Peter Mueller (27 goals in 100 games) for the most goals scored in a player's first 100 career games in Arizona history.
"To me, it doesn't really matter about any of that stuff," Perlini said after that game. "I just play the game for fun and to win."
Perlini missed 16 days early in the season after suffering a concussion vs. Las Vegas on Oct. 10. But he scored two goals in his first three games back in the lineup to jump-start his season. Several of his 17 goals were memorable crowd-pleasers, including a terrific individual effort vs. Vegas on Nov. 25 (see below), and his two goals within 19 seconds vs. Montreal on Feb. 15.

"Brendan is a world-class skater and shooter who can definitely score highlight-reel goals against elite goalies," General Manager John Chayka said. "We've seen that regularly in his short career and we look forward to many more."
Asked to name his favorite moment of the season, Perlini opted for Arizona's 6-0 win over St. Louis on March 31 - the team's penultimate home game of the season in which he had zero goals and zero assists.
"The crowd was really good and cheering, and it was just a really fun game to play," said Perlini, who often speaks about trying to enjoy every moment he gets to play in the NHL, regardless of wins and losses and/or his stats. "Obviously it was a positive end of the season for us. It's going to be good going into the summer and going into next year knowing that we had a strong finish and competed and played well against good teams. That's definitely exciting for us moving forward."