The Arizona Coyotes defeated the Ottawa Senators last night.
The Final Score was 5-1 and even that was probably complimentary to the Senators, who are absolutely terrible.
With the win, their fourth in a row, the Coyotes are officially the hottest team in the NHL.
The two points gives them 12 in eleven games and moves them into 20th overall, 11th in the West, three points out of the Wildcard.
While that doesn't sound especially good, remember that the Coyotes were shut out for three of their first four games, that they have stats that put them near the top of the league in every major predictive category, and that they only recently got Alex Galchenyuk back (Jacob Chychrun still awaits return from injury).
The Coyotes are fifth in possession.
They are ninth in scoring chances for.
They are 11th in shots against.
Their shooting percentage remains low.
On the negative side, their save percentage is probably higher than can be sustained, while Alex Galchenyuk and Clayton Keller are great, don't get me wrong, but if you took the two best offensive players on every team and ranked them as a combo, they wouldn't do well at all.
So, this isn't a perfect team. They will still need luck to help them out if they want to make the playoffs.
But that is fine, it's what you expect. Other than five or six teams league-wide, everyone else is in the same situation (except in the bad way for LA, Vancouver, Detroit, Florida, both New York Teams and Ottawa. (And probably Chicago).
A competitive team that isn't eliminated by the end of October?
I think I can safely say I speak for the entire Coyotes collective by saying that we'll take it.
stats from naturalstattrick.com