Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet met with the media two hours prior to Friday’s game to deliver news that the organization had been waiting almost three weeks to share — that goaltender Antti Raanta would return to action for Friday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.

But, as he discussed the advantages of Raanta’s return, Tocchet issued an ominous warning that would ring eerily true in the Coyotes’ lopsided 5-1 loss to the Avalanche.

“‘Raants’ (Raanta) can’t do it alone,” Tocchet said before the game. “We have to play well. We have to play smart hockey. … As much as you want your goaltending (to be set), it’s about the five-man units.”

The Coyotes have scored just seven goals in their last five games after being held to one goal by Avalanche backup goaltender Phillip Grubauer on Friday. It’s difficult for any goaltender to get a win playing behind an offense like that.

Returning to action after missing eight consecutive games with a lower-body injury, Raanta was ambushed by the Avalanche and victimized by poor defensive play by his teammates in the first period.

“Right now we can’t chase any game because we’re not really getting any production,” Tocchet said after Friday’s loss. “We’ve got to be very clean on certain things, and obviously there were blatant giveaways.”

Avalanche forward J.T. Compher scored two short-handed goals in the span of 85 seconds and Mikko Rantanen provided the third score after a costly turnover by Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun. The three Avalanche goals were scored in a span of 2:11

CLOSE

Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet breaks down his team’s loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
Richard Morin, azcentral sports

The first goal was likely one Raanta (34 saves) would like to have back, but the second and third tallies came on breakaways due to irresponsible play by the Coyotes. Tyson Barrie scored the fourth Avalanche goal on a slick pass by Nathan MacKinnon.

“That’s not the most important thing right now,” Raanta said of how he felt coming back from injury. “It’s about how we play and how I’m playing and it’s pretty awful right now. There’s a lot of things to do right now to regroup again.”

Dylan Strome scored the Coyotes’ lone goal late in a third-period power play on a second effort to beat Grubauer. Gabriel Landeskog made it 5-1 with a power-play goal of his own.

Before Raanta suffered his latest injury, which presumably took place at a team practice on Nov. 4, Raanta had crafted a three-game win streak and pulled his season statistics to a 2.10 goals allowed average and a .929 save percentage.

Backup Darcy Kuemper was forced into an unfamiliar situation, starting more than six consecutive games (he started all eight in Raanta’s absence) for the first time since 2013. Kuemper posted an .898 save percentage as the Coyotes went 2-4-2 over that span.

“We’re excited,” Tocchet said prior to Raanta’s return on Friday. “‘Raants’ (Raanta) has done a nice job for us. His body of work, when he’s been in the lineup, has been at a high level for us. Not to have him for 7-8 games, it was tough but we withstood it a little bit.

CLOSE

Antti Raanta returned from an eight-game absence because of a lower-body injury only to get lit up by the Avalanche.
Richard Morin, azcentral sports

“I thought ‘Kuemps’ (Kuemper) did a nice job, but obviously we’re ecstatic that ‘Raants’ is back in.”

The return seemingly couldn’t have come at a better time for the Coyotes, who end their five-game homestand with the two top-scoring teams in the Western Conference.

The Avalanche, who scored five goals in a 5-1 win over the Coyotes on Friday, entered the day pacing the Western Conference with 3.71 goals per game. The next team on that list is the Calgary Flames (3.41), who will travel to Glendale on Sunday.

The Avalanche’s top line of MacKinnon, Rantanen and Landeskog entered play Friday with 88 combined points, making them the top-scoring trio in the NHL having accounted for 67.9 percent of the team’s scoring.

They were back at it again on Friday, as Rantanen found the back of the net for the Avalanche’s third goal of the first period, assisted by Landeskog, who also scored the fifth goal. MacKinnon also picked up the primary assist on Barrie’s goal and Rantanen got the secondary. The trio picked up six points on Friday.

The Flames also boast their fair share of offensive talent with star forwards Johnny Gaudreau (26 points) and Matthew Tkachuk (27 points), meaning Raanta is essentially being thrown into the fire upon his return.

“It’s obviously (good) to have a high-level goalie in the net against them,” Tocchet said of facing Colorado and Calgary. “But You’re talking about high-level players and that Colorado line is probably the best in hockey, and then you’ve got Calgary coming in with Gaudreau and Tkachuk; those are high-level guys. You give them time and space, you’re in trouble.”

The Coyotes, who are now 1-2-1 on their homestand, gave the Avalanche time, space and ample opportunity to score the puck on Friday. Safe to say they can’t afford to do the same against the Flames on Sunday.

Den’s digest

CLOSE

Richard Morin breaks down the Coyotes’ 5-1 loss to the Avalanche.
Richard Morin, azcentral sports

The score: Avalanche 5, Coyotes 1.

The streak: L3.

The record: 9-10-2, 7th in Pacific.

The 82-game pace: 35-39-8, 78 points.

The player(s): Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

The moment: Rantanen’s goal to make it 3-0 at 9:39 of the first period, the third of three goals scored in a span of 2:11.

The number: 7 — The number of goals they Coyotes have scored in their last five games.

The quote: “I have my opinions and I’m going to keep them to myself today. It just wasn’t even close enough to being ready enough to play in an NHL game. We payed the price pretty hard today. … I don’t have the answer. I’m a guy that’s an older guy on the team whose trying to figure out what’s going on. There’s some simple ones I can voice that are very easy to fix. I have a tough time having to explain what it means to do these simple things to start a game. I don’t want to get too far into it. I’ll go to the other side of this thing, which is that we’ve got a couple games in hand. The Pacific (Division) is wide open and we’ve got to win those hockey games.” — Coyotes alternate captain Derek Stepan.

View from the press box: It’s hard to evaluate Antti Raanta in a game like this, but it’s also hard to imagine what this game could have looked like if Darcy Kuemper was in net. The Coyotes were just plain bad tonight. Another loss on Sunday and this team could be headed for disaster before they know it.

Song of the night: “Hopeless Again” by Defeater.

MORE SPORTS