There was a touchdown scored on Saturday afternoon but it wasn’t in a football game. The Utah Hockey Club gave up seven goals to the Carolina Hurricanes, eventually losing 7-3. Losing continues to plague Utah. Here are some takeaways from Sunday’s game.
Clayton Keller Hits the 20-Goal Mark
Perhaps the best thing that came out of Utah’s touchdown loss was Clayton Keller hitting the 20-goal mark, which is a benchmark many like to judge by in the hockey world. Most NHL teams have a couple of 20-goal scorers on the team. This hasn’t always been the case for Utah’s core. When the team was in Arizona, they struggled to score goals at points in time, especially when they were playing under their previous coach Rick Tocchet.
During the 2019-20 season, the Arizona Coyotes only had one 20-goal scorer in Conor Garland. The next season, Phil Kessel was the only player to reach that benchmark. When head coach André Tourigny took over the team from Tocchet, the offense started getting better. By the 2023-24 season, the Coyotes had six 20-goal scorers including Clayton Keller, Lawson Crouse, Michael Carcone, Nick Schmaltz, Logan Cooley, and Nick Bjugstad. Dylan Guenther arguably would’ve been a seventh name if he had played a full season in the NHL.
Fast forward to this season and a lot of those names look like a flash in the pan. Crouse and Carcone have struggled tremendously and have been healthy scratches at points in time. Schmaltz had a miserable start to the season, not scoring a goal until November. Bjugstad hasn’t been the highly effective depth player Utah can rely on.
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Why does this all matter? It’s a reason why Utah’s record hasn’t improved from last season in Arizona. Offense has been an issue as it’s been the same contributors over and over again; Keller, Guenther, Cooley, and Schmaltz. Winning can’t be sustainable if Utah doesn’t get any contributions from their bottom six. It’s the reason why you keep hearing around social media that Utah will be going big game hunting soon with their incredible amount of cap space thanks to the rising cap.
Tying this all back to Keller, consistency has been an issue for Utah but not for him. This is his fourth straight 20-goal season. He continues to be the franchise’s top scorer amidst a move to Salt Lake City. His two goals gave Utah a fighting chance against the Hurricanes. It’s not the first or last time you’ll hear something like that this season.
Keller is the first 20-goal scorer in Utah franchise history. However, he certainly won’t be the last this season. Guenther is one goal away from hitting the mark. Cooley is only five away, so he’ll most likely get there as well. After that, the closest player is Schmaltz who currently has 11 goals. However, with 27 games left in the season, that could be a challenge, especially considering the fact that no player has scored more than two goals in franchise history.
There are still 27 games. Hockey can be an unpredictable sport. However, as of right now, Keller continues to cement himself as the anchor for this Utah team. Yes, you can also point to his two-goal outing and continue wondering why he was snubbed from Team USA in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
Karel Vejmelka Can’t Always Be a Rock in Net
Karel Vejmelka has been the best goaltender on Utah this season. The last time he played the Hurricanes, he saved a career-high 49 shots. It was the best game he’s played in his career. However, Vejmelka can’t always make 49 saves. Saturday’s game was an example of that.
Vejmelka definitely played a part in the loss. There were some shots that could’ve been saved. The one that specifically comes to mind was the Hurricanes’ third goal. The puck lept ahead of a Utah defenseman and a Hurricanes forward. Vejmelka went out to play it and pass it forward. Instead, he turned it over to Sebastian Aho, who despite somewhat of an effort by Utah’s defense to get back the puck, put it past the goaltender who was way out of position to give his team a 3-1 lead.
Vejmelka didn’t have his best night. He did play a part in the loss. However, he was certainly not the whole problem. The main issue of the afternoon game was the defense. Sometimes goaltenders will have a rough night but it’s the defense’s job to help them out. During Saturday’s game, Utah’s defense didn’t help Vejmelka out at all as he was in net for six of the Hurricanes’ seven goals.
Michael Kesselring struggled to defend during the first goal. Ian Cole made a bad mistake to put Vejmelka in peril during the third goal. Utah can’t play well with an empty net as they have yet to score a goal with the goaltender pulled. While that’s not fully the defense’s fault, they do play a part in defending the net. Giving up a shorthanded goal doesn’t speak well for Utah’s defensive game either.
“Just a couple mistakes that cost us, but I think we were in that game and we did it to ourselves a little bit, giving up a shorty and just simple mistakes,” Keller said.
There’s no debate. The goaltending was questionable, but the defense was outright bad Saturday afternoon.
“I think we were too short on details defensively,” Tourigny said. “We gave up too much in terms of offense for them, but I like the way we played offensively.”
Good teams can win without all-star goaltending or when their goaltenders are having off nights or seasons. A good example of this was the 2022 Colorado Avalanche. All throughout the playoffs, Darcy Kuemper wasn’t playing up to his best, but the Avalanche overcame that and went on to win the Stanley Cup thanks to a potent offense and incredible defense. It’s something Utah needs to work up to.
Utah Can Learn How to Win From Loss
Give Utah some credit. The Hurricanes are a very good team. They are second in the Metropolitan Division with a 33-19-4 record. Utah went into their building and outshot them 39-38. Their offense put up a fight.
“If you told me we’re going to Carolina, we’ll have 40 shots, we’ll have more possession than them and we’ll score three goals, I would have thought we got two points,” Tourigny said.
However, Utah can learn from the Hurricanes and how they won. They protected their lead and played meaningful hockey. It’s the type of hockey Utah needs to play to win and make the playoffs.
We’re getting down to the point where Utah needs to start playing that way if they want to make the playoffs or stay in the race. They will play one more game before the two-week 4 Nations Face-Off break and then, it’s only a couple weeks until the trade deadline where the team will have some decisions to make. How the Hurricanes played to beat them on Saturday should be a learning point for them. Now, will Utah decide to take that lesson and learn from it or will this season be a wash?
Utah will travel up to Washington D.C. to play the Capitals on Sunday. The Capitals are 36-11-7 this season and are coming off a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. These two teams met back in November where Utah lost 6-2. Alex Ovechkin scored two goals in that game and now, he’s only 16 goals behind Wayne Gretzky for the all-time record for goals scored by a single player.
