The Arizona Coyotes are struggling through a three game losing streak that has been highlighted by inept special teams play and the team being shutout for 131:22 consecutive minutes of hockey. Who is to blame for the team’s recent woes?
The Arizona Coyotes find themselves on unfavorable ground less than a week after holding onto a firm four point lead above their division opponents.
The main culprit? Special teams, or the lack thereof.
A power play that is suddenly powerless in it’s last ten opportunities. A penalty kill that has been on a downhill trend since early in the season.
Prior to the two losses to the Devils and the Sabres, however, the Arizona Coyotes power play had been humming along at an excellent pace. It seems quite likely that the power play is just in one of the usual seasonal lulls.
Dave Tippett suggested as much last night after the game. “You’re going to go through cycles like that. It’s how quickly you can work through them and get yourself back where you can feel you can score.”
The bigger question resides with the penalty kill and what exactly might be the cause of it’s sudden implosion.
When you look at the stats of Louis Domingue, one thing becomes clear. The St-Hyacinthe born goaltender is lights out when the team is at even strength. He has a .950 even strength save percentage.
The Louis Domingue who backstops the penalty kill is much less reliable, however.
Domingue has faced 60 shots in his 13 games played while the Arizona Coyotes have been down a man. He’s allowed 12 goals on those 60 shots.
That’s an .800 save percentage. According to Left Wing Lock, “the post-lockout league average for PKSV% is .875 annually with little variance.”
Woof.
There’s no doubt that the bodies in front of Domingue are doing a poor job marking their guys and clearing pucks from the zone. At least once or twice a night one of the Coyotes’ penalty killing units gets hemmed in the zone for an extended shift.
He definitely needs to pick it up on that end as well, however.
Louis and company have given up a goal 6 times in the last 11 penalties they’ve faced. The Arizona Coyotes now rank 28th in the league now with a PK that is successful just 76.4% of the time.
Their recent run has been the definition of a team killing itself.
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