Coming into this season, there was very little reason to believe the Arizona Coyotes were going to make much noise.

They’re still not cutting through the league like a hot chainsaw through margarine given their 7-5-0 record, but they’ve looked more like a team to be reckoned with than the surefire basement dwellers they were projected to be.

That success, such that it is, centres around an impressive ability to keep pucks out of the net. The Coyotes have allowed a league-low 24 goals, and seven in their last five games — all wins.

Keeping pucks out of your own net, as it turns out, is an enormously effective way to win hockey games. Though the Coyotes’ ability to do that starts with Anti Raanta, who’s followed up his sterling .930 save percentage from last season with a .929 so far this year, he isn’t the only crucial factor.

The Finn has been top-notch, but what’s made the Coyotes such a special defensive outfit is their absolutely ridiculous penalty kill. Right now that group ranks first in the NHL at 92.1 percent.

More extraordinarily than that base percentage is that they’ve scored more than twice as many goals four-on-five (7) than they’ve allowed (3) — an absolutely absurd statistic, even this early in the year. After potting the fewest short-handed tallies in the league last year (2) they’ve got a total that would have ranked a respectable 16th for the full season of 2017-18.

So, how have the Coyotes — a team without much frontline talent to speak of — crafted a penalty kill that is both extremely efficient and weirdly dangerous?

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There are a few factors at play:

The Michael Grabner effect

Brad Richardson may lead the team in short-handed goals with three, but the new element here is Grabner.

Thanks to breakneck speed, and the kind of sometimes-dubious hands that don’t guarantee him a top-six role, Grabner perfectly fits the profile of a penalty killing workhorse. Since the Austrian debuted in 2009-10 his 17 shorties ranks fourth in the NHL.

He already has four short-handed points, including two very nice goals he put away against the Lightning.

View photos Via NHL Live More

View photos Via NHL Live More

Grabner isn’t just effective off the rush with his speed, he creates rushes with his ability to take away the puck. Both of the above goals were the product of plays the veteran wingers made in the defensive end.

On the first, he broke up a pass to spring a breakout with his linemate Richardson.

View photos Via NHL Live More

On the second, he applied the pressure on the point and reached Nikita Kucherov in time to pick his pocket.

View photos Via NHL Live More

Grabner isn’t particularly known for his playmaking, but he’s also shown an ability to set up Richardson — a particularly impressive feat considering the centre managed just three goals in 76 games last season. The best example is this play where he threaded a feed between the legs of Hampus Lindholm to give his centre an easy goal:

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