Preview: Coyotes vs. Devils

GAME 41:
Coyotes (17-21-2) vs. Devils (15-17-7)
Arizona will play game three of a four-game homestand when it skates vs. New Jersey on Friday night in Glendale.

WHERE: Gila River Arena | WHEN: 7 p.m. (AZ time) | TV:FOX Sports Arizona Plus | RADIO:ESPN 620 AM

ABOUT THE 'YOTES:
• The Coyotes are 10-5-0 vs. New Jersey on home ice since moving to Arizona in 1996.
• Darcy Kuemper, who last played on Sunday vs. Vegas, will start in goal and make his 150th appearance in the NHL. Kuemper is 5-11-2 this season despite a 2.90 goals-against average.
• Brad Richardson leads the Coyotes with 11 goals in 37 games. Should he continue scoring at that pace, Richardson would set a new career-high for goals scored in one NHL season. His most productive goal-scoring season to date came in 2006-07 when he tallied 14 goals for the Colorado Avalanche, the team that drafted him 163rd overall in 2003.
• Arizona will play minus center Nick Schmaltz, who has been placed on the injured-reserve list because of a lower-body injury. Schmaltz produced 14 points in his first 17 games with the Coyotes after they acquired him in a trade with Chicago on Nov. 25.
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• The Coyotes recalled forward Laurent Dauphin from the American Hockey League on Thursday to replace Schmaltz on the active roster. Dauphin has played 34 NHL games, all for Arizona, over three seasons; eight in 2015-16, 24 in 2016-17, and two in 2017-18.
• Oliver Ekman-Larsson will enter the game needing one goal to tie Teppo Numminen for most goals scored by a defenseman in franchise history. Numminen tallied 108; Ekman-Larsson has 107.

ABOUT THE DEVILS:
• New Jersey has posted a 5-4-1 record in its past 10 games, including a 5-4 loss at Dallas on Wednesday ... The Devils, who have won a League-low four road games, sit 13th in the Eastern Conference standings with 37 points ... New Jersey ranks third in the NHL in penalty-killing percentage at 84.4 ... Taylor Hall, who has missed the past four games because of injury, is New Jersey's top point producer with 37 (11 goals, 26 assists) ... Kyle Palmieri leads the team with 20 goals in 39 games ... Rookie Mackenzie Blackwood, the second goalie picked in the 2015 NHL Draft, is 3-2-0 with a 1.91 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage.

'YOTES QUOTES:
• "We're getting some good looks ... but the goalies are so good these days you're going to need somebody in front of the net and somebody that's picking up the rebounds to score goals. I feel like we haven't done that enough lately. We've been working on it every day, and trying to get better, but now it's a matter of doing it and just not talking about it." -- Oliver Ekman-Larsson
• "We're trying to keep it positive. I don't think anyone's down. We all know we're in this position where we need to start winning here. It gets tough when you start putting yourself into a deeper and deeper hole. We're not out of it by any means. If we put together three or four wins here, anything can happen. We all know where we are in the standings, but the Pacific (Division), it's been kind of a roller-coaster with teams winning and losing, so we just need to string together a couple of wins." -- Christian Fischer
• "If we don't win in this building, we don't have a hope to get into the playoffs. We've got to figure it out. Every good team that gets into the playoffs wins at home, so we need to figure it out. That's going to be a big key if we want to hang around this playoff race." -- Brad Richardson