With their 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday, the Arizona Coyotes became the first team in the Post-Original Six era to lose their first 10 games of a season.

The Coyotes entered Thursday's game tied with the 2002-03 Atlanta Thrashers and the 2005-06 Pittsburgh Penguins for the worst start to a season since 1943. Now, the Coyotes will tie the 1943-44 Rangers' record of 11 consecutive losses to open a year if they fall to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.

"Nobody here wants to lose. Everybody wants to win," rookie Clayton Keller said of his team's latest defeat. "We have to continue to stay positive. Hopefully things will turn around here. Every young team goes through this. We just have to stay positive."

Turnovers and defensive miscues cost the Coyotes once again on Thursday night. Veteran defenceman Jason Demers left forward Michael Grabner alone in front of the Coyotes net before Grabner put the Rangers up 3-1 in the second period.

"You can’t give freebies,” Coyotes first-year head coach Tocchet said of the Grabner goal, per Arizona Sports 98.7. “One of the veteran guys on defence, I don’t know where he was going. You guys saw it. It’s a sloppy goal all around.”

Tocchet said he'll consider shuffling the team's lines to provide a spark for Saturday's game, but his focus is on continuing to coach the players to get better.

“There’s always a time and a place for that,” he said. “Sometimes guys need a pat. My thing is just make sure that certain guys recognize that they’re making a mistake. That’s the big thing for me. If they’re recognizing it, we’ll help it. If they don’t think it’s their fault then we’ve got troubles.

“But like I said, I’m proud of the way the guys have been battling with the situation we’ve been put in so far.”

Derek Stepan, returning to Madison Square Garden for the first time since being traded by the Rangers in the off-season, gave the puck away in the neutral zone, leading to New York's first goal of the game.

“We have to learn,” Stepan said. “Every time you step on the ice, you have to learn from it. When we watch our film and when we go into our practice, we have to learn from it.

"It’s really all we can do right now is continue to get better and continue to learn.”