Five For Howling · Aug 28, 2018
2017-18: A tale of two Coyotes
The 2017-18 season for the Arizona Coyotes will go down in the history books as having one of the worst starts ever with a record of 9-27-5, and one of the best endings to not make the playoffs at 20-14-7. That is what makes it so strange and so interesting to analyze.
The “whys” of it all are already known and have been discussed: A completely new coaching staff and new system; injuries to key players like Antti Raanta, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Jakob Chychrun; a 40 percent turnover in roster players; and of the 23 players on the opening night roster 14 hadn’t yet reached 200 NHL games played. The “what” that went wrong hasn’t really been looked at closely, until now.