Coyotes learning how to win high-stakes games in bid to reach playoffs

NEW YORK -- The Arizona Coyotes are running out of room for error.

To reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they first have to prove they can win high-stakes hockey games in late March. They failed last week. They can make up for it this week.
"This is our season coming up," defenseman Jason Demers said.
The Coyotes (36-33-7), who trail the Colorado Avalanche by two points for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference, have three games this week, all against teams they're battling with for a spot in the postseason.
It starts Tuesday at Gila River Arena, where the Coyotes host the Chicago Blackhawks (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-A, WGN, NHL.TV), who are three points behind Arizona.

The Coyotes then travel to play the Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Friday before returning home to play the Minnesota Wild on Sunday. The Wild are tied with the Coyotes.
Win them all and Arizona should go into the last week of the regular season in control of its playoff destiny. Lose all three and the Coyotes could fall too far behind. Anything in between likely leaves them in a dicey spot with a small margin for error going into their final three games.
"We're looking for some guys to have some big games for us," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "This is the time of year you're looking for big-time plays. We still have time to get those plays. As long as we keep getting opportunities we've got to keep knocking on that door."
The Coyotes of late have looked like a team that doesn't know how to knock the door down.
They're 0-3-2 with six goals in their past five games, including a four-game road trip last week that yielded one point, a shootout loss at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. The slump comes on the heels of the Coyotes scoring 2.88 goals per game and going 13-4-0 from Feb. 9-March 14.

Tocchet said he thinks some of the Coyotes players are playing tight, afraid to make a mistake instead of relying on their instincts.
"To me, antsy is, I don't like using the word freeze, but you just kind of stop, you just kind of see what's going on instead of doing whatever your initial reaction is," Tocchet said. "What is our system? Go embrace it. Be that guy. If I'm the third man back even though my center is not there, I've got to go back instead of saying I'll just stay on the wing and let my centerman go. We're freezing in those moments because guys don't want to make a mistake, and actually by standing around you are making the mistake. I want them to be more aggressive."
It's not surprising considering the Coyotes have 10 skaters on the roster who have never played a meaningful game in the last two weeks of an NHL regular season, let alone a game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Arizona hasn't made the playoffs since 2012. It missed by 25 points last season and 24 the season prior.
"This is the time of year you want to be playing meaningful games," Coyotes center Brad Richardson said. "We haven't done it in a while so we should be excited and having fun with it. … It's a learning process too, so hopefully we can figure it out here quick."

They need to find the offense that helped them climb back into the playoff race or the nerves Tocchet has noticed won't go away.
"I don't think it's as simple as saying, 'Oh, we're snakebitten,' " Coyotes center Derek Stepan said. "There are some details that we could do to help us have a better chance to score more and get us better opportunities. It's as simple as that."
For example, Tocchet cited the Coyotes one power play opportunity in a 2-0 loss against the New York Islanders on Saturday. The Coyotes never got set up and nearly gave up a shorthanded goal.
"There were two plays where a player if he took it to the middle instead of rushing it then we have two breakouts," Tocchet said. "If we make the play to the middle then we set up and it looks good. We just need a couple of guys to calm down and stay with the concept we're trying to do, but we've got to get that puck to the middle and then somebody has to have the courage to blast that puck with somebody in front."
There was another instance at even strength in the second period when forward Clayton Keller looked like he had an opportunity to take the puck to the net, but he curled toward the wall instead and nothing developed out of the play.
Coyotes assistant John MacLean said the examples are indications of the Coyotes learning on the fly how to play important games in the spring and how they are different from games in November and December, when the stakes don't seem as high. He said he went through the same thing as a player in 1988, when he was a forward with the New Jersey Devils and they made the playoffs for the first time.
Stepan, who has played in 97 career playoff games all with the New York Rangers, said learning about the importance of the small plays is a key reason why the Coyotes might appear to look tight even if they're not necessarily playing tight.
"Every team this time of year tightens up defensively, it's more difficult to score goals, so when you do get opportunities it's not as cute as games one through 20," Stepan said. "It's bring it to the net and get one to bounce off someone. That's how simple it is.
"I don't believe this group is tightening up because it's playoff time. I just flat-out believe that we're not scoring goals and we have to find a way to do that."