Heading into the new year, the Arizona Coyotes still sit in a playoff position. Some teams have these hot starts to begin the season but slowly flame out as time goes on and are ultimately close to the bottom of the standings when it’s all set and done. When the Coyotes found themselves competing for a playoff spot towards the beginning part of the year, it was hard to take them fully seriously due to their lack of regular season success for basically the past decade. 231229 Tourigny Post Now however, the midseason point is vastly approaching and Arizona currently holds the first wild card spot in the Western Conference with a 19-14-2 record and 40 points. It’s hard not to notice their increasing success at this point. According to Moneypuck.com [https://moneypuck.com/predictions.htm], the Coyotes have a 56.2% chance to make the playoffs, something nobody would have expected just a few short months ago. The Coyotes have continuously shown that their physical, fast and steady brand of hockey can compete and match the best teams in the NHL. They have a deep forward unit that includes explosive players like Clayton Keller, Matias Maccelli and Nick Schmaltz while also consisting of physically minded guys including Liam O’Brien and Jack McBain. Defensively, the Coyotes have started to find their way with Sean Durzi embracing the number one defenseman role. Matt Dumba has looked better as the season has progressed and the emergence of Michael Kesselring has certainly helped matters. Both Connor Ingram and Karel Vejmelka are playing excellent in net as of late which really takes pressure off the rest of the team and these two goaltenders since they can both rely on each other. There is still a lot of time left before the regular season ends. Things can change, but it seems the Coyotes are here to stay and it may finally be time to start taking them seriously.
