The Arizona Coyotes have finally done it. Arizona defeated the Ottawa Senators on Friday night for their first win in over a month. They had dropped their previous 14 games and fallen well outside of playoff contention. After the game, head coach Andre Tourigny revealed his true feelings about the massive victory.

“I feel loose in my suit suddenly. I lost weight in the last 30 minutes,” Tourigny joked, via NHL.com. The Coyotes coach went on to make a more serious admission. “I feel relief, I will say. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, to be honest with you. We felt we deserved better [in] a lot of those games.”

Young forward Matias Maccelli scored a goal and added two assists in the win. Michael Carcone scored as well, his first goal in 11 games. Goalie Karel Vejmelka made 34 saves against the Senators to do his part in goal. This win marked Arizona's first since January 22nd against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Coyotes' Andre Tourigny issues bold statement after Senators win

To reiterate, the Coyotes have won their first game since late January. We're now in early March, with the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline around a week away. And yet, Tourigny has an incredibly high opinion of his team. In fact, he is willing to put his team against any team in the league.

“We feel, as well, we’re guilty of, after the All-Star break, we had a slow start, but we didn’t feel we were as bad as we have been. We know we’re a better team, we’re a good team, and if we play well, we can beat anybody in the League,” the Coyotes coach said of the losing streak, via NHL.com.

Of course, Tourigny is going to hold his own team in high regard. That said, it isn't exactly blind faith in the players he coaches. In fact, his team was in the middle of a playoff chase before the losing streak began. Arizona was just two points back of the Nashville Predators for the final wild card in the West after the win against Pittsburgh.

The Coyotes aren't making the playoffs in 2023-24. Their losing streak certainly crushed those hopes. However, Arizona can at least salvage this season and finish in a respectable manner. Let's see if Friday's win over the Senators sparks a bit of a turnaround for the Yotes.