from Richard Morin of azcentral,

Prior to the Coyotes’ bout with the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, it was clear that the favorite “scratchin’ and clawin’” moniker of head coach Rick Tocchet had caught fire.

The Coyotes were selling T-shirts with the catchphrase printed on the front at Saturday’s game. And it made sense that, after a 4-2 win over the Kings, several players sported the shirts during their postgame interviews with reporters....

“It was no Picasso tonight,” Tocchet said after Saturday’s game. “I don’t think we were that great but we grinded it out.”

The Coyotes didn’t post their best performance but it was enough to beat the Kings, who occupy last place in the Pacific Division. With the win, the Coyotes capped a seven-game homestand with wins in six of those seven games. They have won eight of nine overall and eight of their past 10 at home.

“We want people to come out and support us and we accomplished a two-week run of (getting) fans to start believing in us,” Tocchet said of this club, which drew 14,976 fans to Glendale on Saturday. “Guys are sticking to it. … Last year, we might have lost this game. But these are games you have to have, and we grinded it out.”

The Coyotes (73 points) will travel to Chicago on Sunday just one point out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. They have a game in hand on the Minnesota Wild (74 points), who currently occupy that spot.

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