The Arizona Coyotes suffer a brutal 5-1 defeat on Thursday night at the hands of the New York Islanders, marking their second consecutive loss. Going into this game, the Coyotes were coming off of a 4-1 loss where they collapsed in the third period. 20240104_Tourigny_PostGame_FTP Little did they know that Thursday night would be more of the same. The Islanders dominated the first period, taking a commanding 2-0 lead. Arizona continues to struggle in the opening 20 minutes and seem to be always putting themselves in holes that are difficult to get out of. There are the rare exceptions like the Coyotes comeback victories against the Colorado Avalanche and Ottawa Senators, but most of the time they won’t be able to dig themselves out of these insurmountable deficits. In the second period, the Coyotes cut the Islanders lead to just one goal off of a Nick Schmaltz power play goal and arguably out played their opponent. Arizona ended the period up 22-17 in shots and were on fire going into the final 20 minutes. However, that’s where everything fell apart for the Coyotes. Through the third period, Arizona just played a sloppy brand of hockey. They committed multiple foolish turnovers that led to three unanswered goals from New York. The Coyotes were in the game and all of the sudden they were out of it and down by four goals due to their inability to hold onto the puck and lock down defensively in their own zone. Against these talented teams, the Coyotes struggle putting together a consistent 60 minutes of hockey and that will have to change if they want to make the playoffs. This five-game home stretch is not getting any easier as Arizona is set to play the Winnipeg Jets and Boston Bruins in the coming week. It’s important that the team regroups and ‘look themselves in the mirror’ which Juuso Välimäki perfectly said postgame. The Coyotes will have two days off before facing the Jets on Sunday night at Mullett Arena.
