{coyotes} Balance in the desert

Stanley Cup Classics / NHL Greatest Rivalries, Vol. 5

The Phoenix Coyotes' leading scorer, defenseman Keith Yandle, is 69th in the NHL with 51 points on eight goals and 43 assists. But you'll find six more Coyotes with 40-plus points among the League's top-125 scorers, and Martin Hanzal is at No. 138 with his 40.

Phoenix may not have an elite scorer, but it leads the NHL in 40-point players with eight, including Radim Vrbata (49 points), Mikkel Boedker (48), Mike Ribeiro (45), Antoine Vermette (45), Shane Doan (44), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (41) and Martin Hanzal (40).

"We don't have any 60s, so we better have some 40s," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said.

The Coyotes' eight 40-plus players have accounted for 363 points. Granted, Phoenix is 18th in the NHL in scoring at 2.64 goals per game, but for a team that prides itself on winning low-scoring, tight games, having the kind of balance that the Coyotes have is an essential ingredient for success.

Phoenix and the Dallas Stars are even at 85 points, but the Stars hold the final wild-card spot by virtue of having played one fewer game entering Wednesday.

"That's just kind of who we are," Tippett said. "We've always been a team that relies on score-by-committee. Our power-play stats are pretty spread out on two groups. We really don't have one A group and one B group; we have two groups that have done pretty well, and that's kind of spread things out. But it's all about our team concept and what we have to do to be successful. We rely on everybody to chip in.

"A couple of those 70s wouldn't hurt, but everybody else can still chip in when you've got 70s too."

The same eight 40-plus players have at least 13 points on the power play, with Yandle leading the way with 30. The Coyotes are the only team in the NHL to have as many as eight players with 13 or more points on the power play this season.

With that balance it's not surprising that the Coyotes' power play is on pace to finish above 20 percent for the first time since the team moved to the desert from Winnipeg in 1996. It is fifth in the NHL at 20.5 percent.

"Bringing in a guy like [assistant coach] Newell Brown, he's helped change that," Yandle said of Brown, a longtime NHL assistant coach who is in his first season with the Coyotes. "We also have a lot of lines that can do everything. That's one thing we take pride in is having everybody be able to contribute."

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