The Arizona Coyotes have not had a dream season. More like a nightmare, really.
Arizona is last in the NHL with 32 points and all but mathematically eliminated for the postseason for the second straight year.
Yet the Coyotes have played fairly well against the NHL’s best team, the Colorado Avalanche, who visit Thursday night for the finale of their four-game season series.
Despite the points disparity — Colorado has 52 more than Arizona — their games have been mostly competitive. Arizona is 1-1-1 in the three games, including a shootout win at Denver on Feb. 1 that ended the Avalanche’s 18-game home winning streak.
Colorado became the first team to reach 40 wins with a victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, its fourth win in a row. The Avalanche won in a familiar way — by rallying in the third period and stealing a victory.
Colorado has 18 comeback victories this season, including its last three wins. The Avs are 12-0-4 in one-goal games, including a shootout win over the Coyotes.
“It shows a lot of character on our team that we’re capable of coming back in games,” said Andre Burakovsky, who has scored a goal in each of the last three games.
The downside of the comeback habit is Colorado has gotten off to slow starts. The Avalanche trailed Winnipeg 3-0 on Friday and were down by a goal after two periods against Vegas on Saturday and New York on Tuesday.
“It’s nice when you can have a comeback. It’s good for morale,” Colorado’s Devon Toews said. “It’s good to see that you’re able to come back in games, but we’ve been doing it a few times here where we’re hurting ourselves.”
Arizona is coming off a 5-3 home loss to the Jets on Sunday and has had plenty of time to rest up for the final two games of its eight-game homestand. The Coyotes are 2-4 so far and could break even with wins over Colorado and Ottawa on Saturday.
Thursday is expected to be the NHL debut for one of Arizona’s top prospects, winger Matias Maccelli. The 21-year-old was called up from the AHL on Monday and practiced with the team. A roster spot opened up when Liam O’Brien came away with an upper-body injury last week.
Maccelli was slated to make his NHL debut Dec. 28 after being recalled from Tucson, but just before the game he was placed in the league’s COVID protocol. After he was cleared, he was sent back to the AHL.
“Getting called up and getting ready for your first ever game, and then a couple of hours before the game, you get called that you have COVID,” Maccelli said. “Obviously it’s frustrating but at the same time it is what it is, nothing you can do about it. Just try to make it back after that.”
Maccelli had 55 points (14 goals, 41 assists) in 42 games with Tucson to earn his opportunity at the next level.
–Field Level Media