"Ray Whitney was not looking for silver linings as he gave an assessment of the importance of the Coyotes' immediate future.

The Coyotes, who have lost three in a row and are 2-4-4 in their past 10 games, host Ottawa Tuesday night, a surging club that has won seven of its past 10. After the All-Star break, the Coyotes play five of six at Jobing.com Arena.

"Right now, they all mean a lot," Whitney said. "We're going the wrong direction. While everybody's going north, we're going south.

"So every game right now is that stupid cliche, it's the biggest of the year. It's just at that point now that there's so many teams going the right way, and we're stumbling and not, so it's big for us.""