After a long stretch of games on the road, the Coyotes did not enjoy their welcome-home present to open a five-game stretch at Gila River Arena on Thursday.
That present was the Tampa Bay Lightning, who scored three unanswered goals to open the game en route to a 4-1 victory that handed the Coyotes their fifth straight loss.
The Lightning, who lead the NHL in wins (23), points (48), goals (tied-116) and many other statistics around the league, were simply too much to handle for the Coyotes.
“We knew we were going to be up against a good team with a lot of offense and we didn’t stick to the game plan,” Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said.