Arizona Coyotes center Martin Hanzal left to attend to a family matter and won't play. Hanzal has nine goals and 15 points in 37 games. "Well, you look at it and you have a 20-year-old and a couple guys who we picked up on waivers," coach Dave Tippett said about his options at center, rookie Laurent Dauphin or veteran Josh Jooris. "We'll be fine. We'll play well as a group. We got to play tight." Forward Alexander Burmistrov will play against the Winnipeg Jets for the first time since he was placed on waivers Jan. 1. The Coyotes claimed him the next day. "It's going to be weird to walk into that tunnel," Burmistrov said. "It's probably going to be awkward in the warmup, skating on the other side in the warmup. We'll see how it goes." The Coyotes are 2-10-1 in their past 13 games and 0-4-1 in their past five road games including a 3-1 loss at the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, when Tippett and goalie Mike Smith criticized their performance. "The emotions of the game get [to you]." Tippett said. "The reality, if you look back, it was our first tough game in a long time. We've played really well. We haven't got the results we want, but we've played very hard as a team over the last month or so. Everybody was frustrated over that game because of the lack of emotion in it."
