Coyotes playing like a team on a mission

The five-year plan doesn't exist for Dave Tippett. Neither does the five-month plan. Five days? Maybe. The man who replaced Wayne Gretzky as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes isn't worried about the future or the big picture. He's worried about one thing. Winning. And winning now.

"I don't play this game to win next year, the year after that. I play to win today," Tippett told Sporting News. "That's just the mentality you have to have."

Seems simple enough, but in Phoenix that hasn't always been the case. When asked about the difference he has seen in the Coyotes of this season and the team he faced last year, Columbus Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock noted that urgency.

"They have a real focus on winning now which is a change from last year," Hitchcock said. "They play a very mature game."

Columbus got a taste of that maturity when the Coyotes snapped their two-game losing streak with an impressive road victory over the Blue Jackets on Wednesday.

After Saturday's shootout win over Anaheim, the Coyotes are 9-4-0, giving them 18 points in 13 games. Good enough for a playoff spot.

Typically, a new coach allows a couple of months for his team to get a grasp of the new system, the new expectations. Tippett doesn't have that luxury.

The Phoenix roster isn't so loaded with talent and scoring that the Coyotes can out-skill their way to wins during the learning process. It has to be a team effort. And for a franchise on the brink of losing the support of those fans who remain loyal in Phoenix, a bad start would make an ugly situation even worse.

That's what made Tippett such a good fit in the desert. He knew the roster from facing Phoenix for years as Dallas Stars coach. And his coaching style is so direct and clear there just isn't a lot of room for misunderstanding.

"He's a really detailed guy. He wants everybody on the same page," said defenseman Zbynek Michalek, an alternate captain. "He makes sure everybody knows their role on the ice and plays the system. We have to play within his system to be successful."

A buy-in from the team helps, and so do big wins early in the season. The Coyotes beat San Jose 1-0. They beat Detroit 3-2. And their most impressive win was a 3-0 dismantling of the reigning champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Entering Thursday's game, the Coyotes were one of only two teams to beat the Pens.

Tippett's message is clear — and it's also working. It's the ideal combination for a new coach.

"He's always been 'the whole team does it together.' That's a mentality and everybody buys into it," veteran center Robert Lang said. "Especially in the beginning, we saw how it works. That solidifies your teachings and your mentalities."

Considering how well Tippett knew the Coyotes from his time in Dallas, there weren't many surprises when he took over. He expected strong leadership from Shane Doan and Ed Jovanovski — and got it.

He knew he had a talented, if mercurial, goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov. He's gotten that, too.

But the most important thing he found was a motivated team — a team ready to listen and learn. And a team desperate to win.