At this time of the season, points are everything. Winning every game should be the mindset. Sure, that’s not possible. You’ll come across some games where you lose in close fashion to some other good teams. However, staying close in every game and ensuring you have a chance to get two points is what gets teams to the playoffs.
Embarrassingly losing to bottom-feeder teams is the exact opposite of what should happen when you’re chasing a playoff spot. That’s exactly what the Utah Mammoth did on Sunday afternoon to the Chicago Blackhawks in a full display of what this team looks like at its lowest. A game to forget is the least offensive wording for Game 60. Here are some takeaways from the 4-0 loss.
Compare and Contrast
It’s hard not to think back at Friday’s big win over the Minnesota Wild when thinking about Sunday’s game. How could the Mammoth beat one of the best teams in the Central Division convincingly and then lose to one of the worst?
There’s a lot to compare and contrast between the two outings. The Mammoth had the upper hand in both contests. Both the Wild and the Blackhawks were coming off games against the Colorado Avalanche less than 24 hours before playing in Salt Lake City. There was no excuse, especially on Sunday, to lose.
The first thing that was different on Sunday was the connection and energy from the team. On Friday, the Mammoth were buzzing and making unreal passes to each other. You saw that especially on the top line with Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Lawson Crouse. Everyone knew where the other was, and the Mammoth thrived because of that, generating almost double the amount of shots the Wild did and constantly spending most of the game in the offensive zone.
There was little evidence of that happening during Sunday’s game. The team looked lost, and you didn’t see those quick and well-connected plays at all from the Mammoth. In fact, the Blackhawks did it way better. You saw it on Teuvo Teravainen’s first goal and again on Nick Foligno’s goal. Especially after the big win on Friday, it was disappointing not see the Mammoth do the same.
“We just felt connected against Minnesota,” Mikhail Sergachev said. “We were trying to get open for each other, we were working for each other in the D-zone, when our guy got beat, the second guy would always be there to help. Today just didn’t feel like that, and throughout the whole game.”
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Head coach André Tourigny said to watch out for the Blackhawks’ speed and presence around the front of the net. Clearly, the Mammoth did not heed that advice. Tourigny’s team’s lackluster play left him speechless when asked about it.
“I don’t know how you play like that,” Tourigny said. “I do not have much explanation for why our head was in that space. I don’t know.”
The team’s defense was another key difference from Friday’s game. Against the Wild, the entire team played a solid two-way game. Not a single player ended up on the minus side of the plus-minus statline. On Sunday, almost every player was a minus.
It helped that Karel Vejmelka played rock solid against the Wild. Against the Blackhawks, he was beaten by weird shots and shots that he’s saved easily in the past. It’s clear he’s tired. However, the Mammoth don’t have a viable backup goalie they trust. If they run Vejmelka into the ground by overplaying him, the playoffs will be rough if they even make it.
“I don’t think anyone was good,” Tourigny said. “JJ’s (Peterka) line was alright. I don’t think about the goaltender or power defense, power forward, forecheck, our back check, our d-zone, our power play, or our PK. I cannot find you a bright spot.”
Speaking of the penalty kill, special teams were night and day between the two games. Something that’s been a problem all season.
When Will the Power Play Get It Together?
The power play was awful on Sunday. Shocker. It’s something that’s been a problem for a while. However, during the game against the Blackhawks, it took a whole new level of bad.
On the man advantage, the Mammoth squandered their two opportunities. However, on their second power play, just seconds in, the Blackhawks started dominating play in the Mammoth’s zone, leading to Teravinen putting in a shot right above Vejmelka’s shoulder.
So, to recap, the Mammoth didn’t score any goals while on the power play. They also allowed a shorthanded goal. It is a true representation of how bad the power play has been.
As of now, the Mammoth are 30th in the league in power play success rate, which is at 15.9%, only .4% better than the Washington Capitals. A power play with the likes of Dylan Guenther, Logan Cooley, Keller, Schmaltz, and Peterka on it should not be anywhere as bad as it has been.
It didn’t help that, on top of that, the penalty kill was bad. The Mammoth now sit 21st in the league in PK success rate, a far fall from grace at the beginning of the season when they had one of the best units in the league. The very first goal scored in this game by the Blackhawks was on the power play, and it wasn’t a pretty goal either. It was a goal caused by a turnover right in front of the net.
The fact that the Mammoth were on the kill in the first place is another concerning issue. The team constantly took penalties throughout this game, ruining any momentum or chances they had. They are approaching the top 10 in the NHL in overall penalty minutes. The difference between them and a team like the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are first in that category, is that the Lightning know how to consistently kill penalties, and their power play makes up for it. None of that is true with the Mammoth.
“When you’re disconnected, you’re chasing the game, and when you’re chasing the game, you’re taking penalties,” Sergachev said. “Then just one goes over the other, and you’re losing the game that way. We’ll let it slip, obviously, and in the second period, we just can’t do that. Obviously, we didn’t play well throughout the whole game, but that moment in the second period, I think we could have helped a little better, maybe score a goal. But it doesn’t really matter. Give Chicago credit, they played a hell of a game. They’re a good, fast team.”
Disappointment at the Worst Time
It’s disappointing. This was a Blackhawks team coming off a tiring game against the Avalanche, one they lost 3-1. There was no momentum for the Blackhawks going into this one, riding a three-game losing streak. As mentioned, the Mammoth were coming off a big win over a top-three team in the division.
Yet, the Mammoth simply didn’t show up on Sunday. They played one of their worst games of the season in front of a fanbase that ended up booing the team after their second power play, which resulted in a goal against. Overall, it was the worst possible outcome that could’ve come out of Sunday’s game.
“I am obviously extremely disappointed about all of us: coaches and players,” Tourigny said. “I think we have to be much better. There is no reason that (game) should ever happen. That kind of effort in front of fans…I am really disappointed in us, and it is on all of us, starting with me. That cannot happen again.”
The 4-0 shutout was only the second shutout that has happened within the Delta Center. The one other shutout was on Oct. 22, 2024, when the Ottawa Senators shut out the then Utah Hockey Club by the same score.
It’s a bad loss for sure, especially when you consider what happened around the NHL this weekend. The San Jose Sharks beat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 in overtime, the Los Angeles Kings fired head coach Jim Hiller, which could lead to some momentum, and the Seattle Kraken beat up the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, helping them get to a point within the Mammoth for the first wild card spot in the Western Conference with a game in hand.
However, the Mammoth get a fresh slate as they hit the road for a five-game road trip, a trip that includes a game against the Blackhawks again. They can choose to continue the awful play they had on Sunday or rediscover the great game they played on Friday. The team is confident they can do the latter.
“It’s a tough, tough performance, and our fans deserve better, a lot better than that,” Sergachev said. “But, it happens to everyone. We’ve been playing really good hockey lately, and we got to get back to that. Through hard work, we’re gonna do it.”
It needs to happen, and it needs to happen by Tuesday. Otherwise, they’ll find themselves in a difficult position in the standings. Teams can always have late runs. The Mammoth found that out the hard way last season with the St. Louis Blues having a torrid final couple of weeks that led them to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They certainly don’t want that same thing to happen again.
“At the end of the day, we are serious about our business and who is on the other side,” Tourigny said. “We need two points every night, and we are in a hell of a race. We need to take that game and learn from it, and that has to hurt big time. We (need to) make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The Mammoth will travel to Washington, D.C., to play the Capitals on Tuesday. The Capitals are 31-24-7 this season and are coming off a 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. These two teams split the season series last season, with the Mammoth winning the most recent game 5-4 in a shootout.
