"There's been a lot of good things," says Laviolette. "If I'm going to look at it and answer it with a positive statement, I think that we could have won every game. I think that we played well enough inside those games to walk away with wins, understanding that it's close - you only have to be a little bit better and do the right things.
"If I want to look at the glass as half empty, I know that there's things that we could have done better. There's been a couple of defensive blunders that have cost us a goal, and a goal might be the difference in the game when you're not in overtime.
"We're working at 5-on-5 play from an offensive standpoint. We're working at specialty teams to be a little bit better. I know that there's things that we could have done better too, where we're not there yet, we've still got to keep working on it.
"There's been a lot of good things, and I think we've had a chance to win every game and we've taken a lot of points. So all of that is a positive, but there are still things that we go in we show [video] or we talk about, or we work with the players or we work with the line to try to be better."
Arizona would also like to be better. The Coyotes are in the middle of a grueling six-game road trip, a journey that started on Monday with a 5-3 loss to the Panthers in Florida and won't end until next Friday when the Desert Dogs visit the Ducks in Anaheim.
Most recently, the Coyotes absorbed a 5-1 loss to the Lightning in Tampa on Thursday night, and they now must face the Caps in Washington on the tail end of back-to-backs. Even worse for Arizona, the team is still seeking its first victory of the season. The Coyotes are 0-6-1 to date and have been outscored by a combined 34-12 in their first seven games.
The Coyotes allowed three goals in a span of 5:02 in the first period in Tampa, and the deficit proved to be too much to overcome against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs.
After they take on the Coyotes on Friday, the Caps will head south for a two-game trip to face Tampa and Florida, respectively, in the first two of those 10 road contests in November.