The Arizona Coyotes lost 3-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night as they were unable to overcome a sloppy first period. 20240208_PostGame_Tourigny_FTP This was the Coyotes’ first game since coming back from the All-Star break in which they had over a week off. While the break helped Arizona get more healthy, they still had quite a bit of rust to shake off. Vegas scored two goals through the first two minutes of the game and it didn’t take much longer before they had three goals. The Coyotes were a trainwreck in the first period. By the end of the opening 20 minutes, they trailed 3-1 and Connor Ingram was already pulled in favor of Karel Vejmelka. Through the remaining 40 minutes of play, the Coyotes put up more of a fight even looking like the more dominant team at some points, but their start put them in a hole that was simply too hard to get out of. Despite picking up the loss, coach André Tourigny still felt that his team had an overall strong performance. “We played a good game,” Tourigny said. “It was the first two minutes obviously. They played two days ago and you can see they had an edge in that and when we got our legs under ourselves, we were a good team.” Vejmelka was clearly the bright spot for the Coyotes. He came in without weeks of game play yet he was still able to record 28 saves while not giving up a single goal, helping Arizona stay in the contest. Barrett Hayton also made his return from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for over two months. He played on a line alongside Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther. “It’s been a while,” Hayton said. “It was great to be out there and compete. Obviously not the way you want to come back. Like you said, it’s been a long time, the longest time I’ve been out of my career, so it’s something where I’ve been chomping at the bit for a while to get back and compete…” The Coyotes had a solid second half to this game, but still came away with zero points on the night. They seem to have a problem starting in the first period which oftentimes does lead to their downfall which is a concerning problem that must be fixed. The Coyotes are losing ground in the Western Conference wild card race and will need to string some wins together before it’s too late. On Saturday the Coyotes will be back in action as they face the Nashville Predators in an important division matchup.
