Welcome to crunch time.

The Arizona Coyotes are gearing up for the second half of their season following the 2024 Honda NHL All-Star Game, poised for a run towards playoff contention after finishing the first half just five points out of the Western Conference’s Wild Card spot, with one game in hand.

Like anything good, it won’t come easy. Eight of Arizona’s next 10 games come against teams either in, or close to, a playoff spot, the first of which comes on Thursday against the Vegas Golden Knights, who just ended the Edmonton Oilers’ 16-game winning streak on Tuesday.

The Coyotes will also face the second-place Carolina Hurricanes (Metropolitan) and Colorado Avalanche (Central), as well as the third-place Winnipeg Jets (Central), Edmonton Oilers (Pacific), and Philadelphia Flyers (Metropolitan).

Arizona head coach André Tourigny doesn’t get caught up in those numbers, though. He’s simply focused on what his own team can improve upon from the season’s first half.

“What’s important is what’s ahead of us,” Tourigny said. “What can we do better? What are we already good at, how can we be even better at it, and what do we have to improve?”

Arizona’s improvement year-over-year is noticeable, as evidenced by its preparation for a stretch run following the All-Star break. The team’s 49 points through 48 games marks its highest point total since posting 55 after the same number of games in the 2019-20 season, which also happens to be the last time it made the playoffs.

The Coyotes had 35 points through as many games last season, and 28 in 2021-22.

“In the last couple of years it has been that rebuild situation, and I think now we have played really good hockey and we’ve beaten really good teams,” forward Liam O’Brien said. “I think we’re there, so why not? That has to be our mentality, and that is our mentality.”