The Coyotes beat the New Jersey Devils on Saturday 5-4. This improved their record to 24-35-8, good for last in the Pacific and 29th in the NHL.
The only team worse is tonight's opponent, the Colorado Avalanche. The Coyotes are a pretty surprising 15 points ahead of them.
Of the Coyotes 24 wins, only 15 of them have come in regulation. Their record is 9-8 in combined OT/Shootouts.
The Avalanche are only two wins behind the Coyotes - they have 13 regulation wins. The difference in the standings comes down to the fact that the Coyotes have been able to force more games to overtime and build up a sizable loser-point count.
When it comes to PDO ( a measure combining Save % and Shooting % ) the Avalanche sit at an NHL worst 97.04% meaning they've been the most unlucky team in the NHL.
The Coyotes are almost exactly where they should be, just below 100.
What it comes down to is that if not for some bad luck that saw them score 30 goals less than the Coyotes, combined with the Coyotes good post-regulation luck, the Coyotes would easily be the NHL's worst team.
Records aside, they are.
And tonight they look to beat the Avalance for their second consecutive regulation win. This is significant because they are the only team in the NHL without at least two straight games won in regulation time.
18 of the NHL's teams completed the feat in October.
Another six did it in November.
The Flyers didn't do it until December.
In January New Jersey, Florida and the Canucks did it.
Finally, in February, the Avs pulled it off.
They won on Saturday and they have their chance tonight.
Ironically they get a chance to do it against the team that is going to steal their first-overall selection just because of dumb luck. Toronto already took Matthews. They passed on Marner.
These guys just can't catch a break.