The Arizona Coyotes face the Ottawa Senators with both teams looking to improve from rocky starts to the season. The Coyotes have a 1-3 record while the Senators started the year 0-2 but have won back-to-back games to improve to 2-2 on the season. Both teams are looking to improve from rough starts and makeup ground in their respective divisions and the upcoming game should be a good one as a result.
The Coyotes are having a rough start to their season and hope the offense improves, scoring only 11 goals in their first four games. While Nick Ritchie, Travis Boyd, and Lawson Crouse have combined for five goals and five assists to lead the forward unit and defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and J.J. Moser have added three goals and six assists from the blue line, the rest of the offense has struggled. Only 11 skaters have registered a point through the first four games and opposing defenses can easily limit the struggling offense.
While the offense has played poorly, the defense has let the Coyotes down, allowing 20 goals on the season thus far. Shayne Gostisbehere and J.J. Moser have led the top two pairings but the rest of the defense has struggled, allowing opponents to find open shots on the net at will. Moreover, starting goaltender Karel Vejmelka has been awful to start the season with a .894 sa ve percentage and a 4.35 goals-against average on 123 shots.