The Coyotes play the Oilers tonight, and they're not just in a playoff spot, they're now trying to get the first wild card spot, or maybe even a division seed.
I declared the Coyotes season to be dead after they lost their fifth game in a row early last month. Since then, they've gone on a 14-4 streak that has catapaulted them into first place.
During this time, they've got back Michael Grabner, Jason Demers and Christian Dvorak from the IR list. This has been a big boost, of course, but it's still incredible that they are doing it without Antti Raanta and Nick Schmaltz.
As it stands, despite their success, I think it's really crappy that Coach Rick Tocchet wouldn't move Strome up the lineup or give him access to other good players, and I think the fact that Strome put up really good numbers anyways really makes the trade stupid.
That said, I like what Chayka has done overall and he gets the benefit of the doubt from me. The play by Schmaltz was very good before he got hurt.
The Coyotes are two points back of the Stars and only four points back of the Blues in the race for the first wildcard spot.
They have an outside chance of catching the Knights for a divisional spot, who are five points up.
Darcy Kuemper gets the start in goal tonight.