Morning Skate: The Arizona Coyotes cannot even buy their 1st win of the season

The Coyotes had nothing better to show for Tuesday’s better effort as they remain the NHL’s lone winless team.

Oct 25, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

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Lace ’em up. Time for the Morning Skate.

We are three weeks into the newest NHL season, and only one team remains winless on the year. Despite all the talk of the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers having slow starts, it is in fact the Arizona Coyotes that have yet to win a game this season.

After a 5-3 loss to the Islanders on Tuesday, the Coyotes are sitting at an 0-8-1 record as the league’s worst team. The honor is well deserved, too, as the Coyotes were ranked No. 4 in goals allowed while being the No. 27th team in the NHL in goals for coming into Tuesday.

There have been improvements as the team has stumbled through the first few weeks of the season. The young Arizona squad already seems more coherent as a team after just a few weeks. Also, the Coyotes played an incredibly solid possession game against the Islanders on Tuesday, but unfortunately allowed a John Tavares hat trick to the tune of a five-goal loss.

Where help can come is if the Coyotes can get starting goaltender Antti Raanta back some time during their road trip. Raanta has been out of the Coyotes net since Oct. 12 after sustaining a lower-body injury. Louis Domingue has been doing the most heavy lifting for the Coyotes since Raanta went down, but the 25-year-old is 0-5-0 with an .858 save percentage. Tuesday’s game didn’t help Domingue’s status either, as he allowed five goals on 25 Islanders shots.

A loss like Tuesday’s is quite demoralizing for a team without a win, especially since the Coyotes played a better game than they deserved. The wins will come if they continue to control possession and get better netminding, hopefully.

One sentence recaps

Islanders 5, Coyotes 3: John Tavares got hot with a hat trick, but the Coyotes may have deserved a better fate.
Ducks 6, Flyers 2: Splash some cold water on Philadelphia’s hot start, as Nolan Patrick wasn’t the only loss the Flyers sustained.
Penguins 2, Oilers 1 (OT): Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby were mostly silent as goaltending and Phil Kessel stole the show.
Lightning 5, Hurricanes 1: Tampa Bay is off to a franchise-best 8-1-1 start thanks to Steven Stamkos’ two-point night.
Sabres 1, Red Wings 0: The offense eluded this NBCSN snoozefest matchup.
Canadiens 5, Panthers 1: Goals were finally scored by Montreal as their offense showed signs of much-needed life.
Kings 3, Senators 2 (SO): Los Angeles remains the best in the west thanks to Adrian Kempe’s game-tying and game-winning goals.
Canucks 1, Wild 0: Vancouver wins out the rest of their road trip after shutting down Minnesota’s 29 shots.
Flames 3, Predators 2 (SO): Calgary stormed back from a two-goal deficit to win thanks to Matthew Tkachuk’s shootout winner.
Avalanche 5, Stars 3: After Ben Bishop exited, Matt Nieto completed his hat trick into an empty net to seal the win.
Golden Knights 4, Blackhawks 2: Oscar Dansk shut the door with 29 saves and Jonathan Marchessault helped put the game away for Vegas.