The Coyotes have been a mostly an afterthought in hockey circles since the franchise was transplanted from Winnipeg to Arizona in 1996.
The rest of the time, they mattered even less.
The team has had few accomplishments and, at times, fewer fans.
For most NHL clubs, a mid-winter road game against the Coyotes was a great chance to soak up a little warmth and add a couple of points in the standings.
Not anymore.
The Coyotes will enter their game against the Penguins tonight at 7:08 at PPG Paints Arena not only as a team with great promise because of the young talent it has collected, but as the first-place team in the Pacific Division.
Arizona claimed that spot, at least temporarily, with a 3-1 victory in Philadelphia Thursday night, thanks in part to two goals by ex-Penguins forward Phil Kessel.
Rick Tocchet, the former Penguins winger and assistant coach who's in his third season as coach of the Coyotes, believes their success in 2019-20 is simply the next step in their progression toward becoming a legitimate contender.
"Last year, we had a lot of injuries, but we stuck together," he said. "We almost made the playoffs. I thought that going into this year, with a healthy team and guys being used to my system and used to me, that if we stuck with the program, we could compete within the division.
"You always think you can compete and win. That's why we're in this game. But I did have a belief in this team, for sure."
With good reason, for the Coyotes have consistently added good young players for the past several years, and are starting to get regular contributions from them.
"(Christian) Dvorak has had a nice year, in terms of being consistent," Tocchet said. "He was hurt all of last year. Conor Garland has added some goal-scoring. He's a guy who wasn't even on the radar a year ago. Nick Schmaltz has done a nice job of dishing the puck and making the right play at the right time."
Schmaltz is Arizona's leading scorer, with five goals and 15 assists in 30 games. Clayton Keller (19 points) and Dvorak (18) are directly behind him, with two Penguins alums -- Kessel and defenseman Alex Goligoski -- tied for fourth place with 17.
"Goligoski has really had a good year for us," Tocchet said. "He had a tough year last year, but this year, he's really played well. He and (Jakob) Chychrun have really played well."
Solid team defense -- the Coyotes are allowing an average of 2.27 goals per game, second-lowest figure in the league -- is the cornerstone of Arizona's success. That reflects not only the excellent work of goalies Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta -- Tocchet said they are having "fabulous years" -- but their coach's insistence on a team-wide commitment to playing well in their own end.
That makes it possible for the Coyotes to win games even though their average goal output of 2.7 per game ranks 23rd in the NHL.
"From January of last year on, we've been defending the puck fairly well," Tocchet said. "We stay in the games, and we're getting great goaltending mostly every night. But as five, we're defending the puck well and, in turn, that's buying us time. If we have a tough time scoring goals, we can stay in those games."
And by winning their share -- or more -- of those, the Coyotes gain confidence in their ability to take points out of close games that used to end in defeat most of the time.
"We've raised the bar a little bit, where a 2-1 (deficit), coming from behind, it's not insurmountable," Tocchet said. "Guys have a belief. A lot of the rookies when I started as coach are now third-year players. They're starting to understand the process of it."
And people around the NHL are beginning to notice.
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