After two difficult nights in Nevada, the Arizona Coyotes are probably happy to be back home.
Rick Tocchet’s team is fresh off two consecutive losses to the Vegas Golden Knights, rivals of theirs from both the Pacific and Honda West Divisions, with the two teams most recently facing off on Wednesday evening.
The Knights scored early and often in that game en route to a relatively straightforward 5-2 victory. Arizona controlled play reasonably effectively at even strength, outperforming Vegas in the 5v5 expected goals department in all three periods.
Unfortunately, the Coyotes sabotaged any chance they might have had to gain momentum by taking seven penalties.