Plenty of positives in Coyotes' impressive start

Back-to-back wins on consecutive nights would be a boost of confidence at any point in time for a team.

But when the two-game sweep is at the outset of the season, starts on the road before finishing at home and comes against two of the league’s premier teams, the feat is even more impressive.

After going into Los Angeles and leaving with a feel-good 4-1 win against the Kings on Friday, the Coyotes were even better Saturday in slugging out a 2-1 win over the Penguins in their home opener.

“It’s the start of the year. This is a new team. Everybody wants to prove what they have,” coach Dave Tippett said. “We’ve talked about it as a group, we never want to come out of a game and feel like we didn’t give our full effort. We want to be a hard, hard-working team, and we’ll see where that takes us.”

What should encourage the Coyotes even more is their success hasn’t been limited to one source.

Goalie Mike Smith was almost unbeatable in both games, using a number of acrobatic saves to buoy the Coyotes. He’s stopped 67 of 69 shots so far – a .971 save percentage.

“He’s just in a groove,” Tippett said. “He’s stopping everything.”

What’s more, Smith’s workload hasn’t exactly been light.

He faced 41 shots against the Kings and another 28 from the Penguins. After Saturday’s slate of games, only one goalie – the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist – had seen more rubber but Lundqvist had also played one more game.

“If we don’t have him back there, I don’t know if we win both those games,” winger Tobias Rieder said.

The case could also be made that Rieder has been invaluable to the Coyotes’ early surge.

He’s currently tied with linemate Martin Hanzal for the team lead in points (three) but paces the pack with two goals.

Against the Kings, he used a quick release to surprise goalie Jonathan Quick with a shot from inside the faceoff circle. On Saturday, Rieder was in the right position – in the heart of the slot – to bury a behind-the-net pass from winger Anthony Duclair.

After tallying 13 goals and 21 points as a rookie, Rieder has certainly suggested he can be even more of an impact player for the Coyotes during his sophomore season.

“The second-year players, they come in, they understand what’s going on,” Tippett said. “They understand how hard it is, what they have to do to be successful in the NHL. He’s put a lot of work in the summer, so he’s just a good player and he feels good about his game.”

Another positive has been how gritty the defense in front of Smith has looked.

A sometimes flimsy setup last season, the Coyotes have been much harder to play against in their own zone. They’ve established their physicality, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve been able to defend better as a result.

Nicklas Grossmann has been the poster boy for this new hard-nosed approach, and the Coyotes brought back Zbynek Michalek to also be a model. Michalek wasn’t able to play Saturday, getting scratched after the pregame warm-up with an upper-body injury that Michalek had been dealing with, but the Coyotes were still steady – a sign that the unit as a whole has tried to adopt a more punishing style.

“We work hard,” Tippett said. “Each individual, you have a different way of working hard. You watch Tobias Rieder work, and it’s quickness and skill. And you watch Nicklas Grossmann work, and it’s heavy and hard.

“So we have a good combination of people doing what they’re supposed to do and doing it to the maximum of their capabilities.”

Reach the reporter at sarah.mclellan@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8276. Follow her at twitter.com/azc_mclellan.