Even after a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday at Gila River Arena, the Coyotes still finished their five-game homestand with a 4-1 record and sit at 7-6 through the first 13 games of the season, an enviable position the club has not enjoyed in recent years.
So why do things feel so gloomy after an inauspicious loss to the Flyers on Monday?
On a night where the Coyotes started backup goaltender Darcy Kuemper, the Flyers managed two fluky goals and two others that Kuemper had no realistic shot at saving. The fifth came on an empty net (technically, so did the fourth, but we’ll get to that later).