Sarah McLellan

azcentral sports

The Coyotes didn’t exactly erase any doubts about who would supply their offense leading up to the start of the season.

Actually, they stoked the uncertainty by scoring only four goals through their six-game preseason schedule.

But once the games began to matter, Arizona evolved into one of the more high-scoring teams in the league.

“No one was expecting that by any means,” captain Shane Doan said. “But you go through our lineup and you look at the guys that have scored 20 goals or you think have the capability of getting 20 goals, we got a whole bunch of us. Hopefully we can all get there.”

Coyotes' 1st-half success enjoyable for Dave Tippett

Entering Tuesday’s game against the Oilers, the Coyotes had racked up 116 goals – the fourth-most in the Western Conference and the highest total in the Pacific Division. The team had 94 through the first half of last season.

Their 2.83 goals-per-game ranked as the seventh-best clip in the NHL, and Arizona was one of just seven teams to be shut out one time or fewer after the club was blanked the second-most times in 2014-15 (11).

What’s more, six Coyotes had already reached the 10-goal plateau. Only the Capitals had more players (seven) score at least 10 goals.

“Our mind-set hasn’t changed,” coach Dave Tippett said. “We need everybody to help out in the offensive part of it. If you look at our young players, our defense, veteran players … it’s been a good balance.”

No. 500 in Arizona

Tuesday’s game was the 500th of Tippett’s coaching career with the Coyotes – the longest he’s been behind the bench in the regular season with any franchise.

Tippett joined the Coyotes in 2009 after 492 regular-season games at the helm of the Stars in Dallas.

“I can’t believe that,” Doan said. “It doesn’t seem that long ago he got here. It’s been obviously fun for the organization. Since he’s got here, we’ve had more success than before and that’s exciting.”

The 54-year-old is the franchise’s leader in games, wins and points based on the team’s successful showing through the first half, this season is drawing comparisons to Tippett’s inaugural in the Valley when he guided the team to its first playoff berth in eight years despite the hockey world expecting the Coyotes to stumble.

“Every season feels different,” Tippett said. “It’s different in the fact that we had such a tough year last year. We’re looking for our organization to grow and improve. It’s positive that we’ve got things moving in the right direction, but it’s a long way to go yet.

“We sit in a playoff position at the halfway point, which is great, but you gotta sit in a position in the playoffs at the end of the season. So we got lots of work to do yet. I like the improvement our group has had, but there’s still lots of growth to be had if we’re going to be a real contending team.”

Coyotes embracing playoff push at season's halfway point

Smith skates

Goalie Mike Smith skated Tuesday for about 15 minutes for the first time in pads since having surgery last month on a core muscle injury, Tippett said.

Smith is four weeks into his recovery, which was initially pegged at eight to 10 weeks.

Honoring Doan

The Coyotes will hold a pregame ceremony ahead of their Jan. 21 meeting with the Sharks to recognize Doan for becoming the franchise leader in goals – a feat he accomplished Dec. 31 when he tallied the 380th and 381st goals of his career to break Dale Hawerchuk’s record of 379.

All fans will receive a print commemorating Doan’s achievement, and the first 5,000 in attendance will get a bobblehead that depicts Doan in Western attire.

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