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Coyotes lose all five games of ‘embarrassing’ homestand

The Arizona Coyotes lost all five games of their homestand, and boy did they beat themselves up about it.

“Having a five-game homestand and not even getting a point is just embarrassing and not acceptable,” winger Anthony Duclair told reporters after last night’s 6-3 loss to the Rangers. “It’s got to stop.”

It was actually the Coyotes sixth straight loss overall. They’re now 11-20-5 on the season, with any hope of making the playoffs all but officially gone.

It has not helped that one of Arizona’s most dangerous players, Max Domi (hand), has not played since Dec. 8. And the loss of veteran forward Brad Richardson (broken leg) in mid-November also hurt.

But discipline is one thing that can be controlled, and the Coyotes put themselves shorthanded seven times against the Rangers, who scored four times on the power play.

“The leadership’s gotta be better,” veteran center Martin Hanzal said, per The Arizona Republic. “It starts with myself. For example, tonight I took two stupid penalties and it cost us the game. So the leadership’s gotta be better.”

Only the Winnipeg Jets (32) have surrendered more power-play goals than the Coyotes (31) have this season.

Granted, when a team has possession of the puck as little as the Coyotes do, it’s bound to run into penalty trouble. Arizona is dead last in score-adjusted Corsi. They managed just 21 shots last night, compared to the Rangers’ 32.

Now twelve points back of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, the Coyotes would need to go in the neighborhood of 28-12-6 to give themselves a shot at making the playoffs.

Given that’s extremely unlikely to happen, their last 46 games could be a serious slog.

Perhaps getting on the road will help. They open a three-game trip Saturday in Calgary, followed by visits to Vancouver and Anaheim.

Related: The Coyotes are worth watching… for potential trades