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Lack of goals ‘a concern’ for Coyotes

Jordan Martinook, Henrik Sedin, Jake Virtanen

Jordan Martinook, Henrik Sedin, Jake Virtanen

AP

The Arizona Coyotes have played five preseason games.

They’ve only scored four goals.

And they’ve only scored once at even strength, by rookie Anthony Duclair.

“It’s a concern, but we knew that coming in,” coach Dave Tippett told the Arizona Republic. “We’ve got young players in key roles that are supposed to help provide that offense. That doesn’t exclude any veterans but really the way our schedule has set up, we’ve had one game with our whole lineup in and I like how many chances we created in that game. So that gives me some hope but all that being said, when you get opportunities, you have to capitalize on them and we certainly haven’t done enough of that.”

That “game with our whole lineup” was Monday in Vancouver, where the Canucks beat the Coyotes, 1-0, on the strength of a 32-save shutout by Jacob Markstrom.

The Coyotes -- a popular pick to finish dead last in 2015-16 -- only have one preseason game left, tomorrow at home versus San Jose.

After that, they’ll face a tough start to the regular season, with seven of their first 10 games on the road:

Coyotes

While Tippett believes the Coyotes will be “fine,” it seems like it could be another long season in the desert.

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