The losing streak has once again continued for the Utah Hockey Club as it extends to five games, this time at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. Losing to a division opponent when you want to be in the playoff race is bad enough but when it was the way Utah lost, there are issues. Here are some takeaways from the team’s 2-1 loss on Sunday.
Michael Kesselring Continues Point Streak Against Blues
Many know of Clayton Keller’s point streak against his hometown team. Unfortunately for Utah’s captain, he failed to continue that streak on Sunday ending it at eight games. Some even know about Nick Schmaltz’s point streak which also ended on Sunday at 11 games. However, one player who has a point streak against the Blues that many don’t know of is Michael Kesselring.
Kesselring now has three points in three games against the Blues this season. What’s more impressive is that all three points are goals. In total, the defenseman has four points in four games in his career against the Blues.
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Kesselring’s goal came similar to how most of his goals tend to come. Utah won a faceoff in the Blues’ zone, and the puck managed to get to the blue line. Kesselring used his powerful slapshot to put it into the back of the net, which, at the time, tied the game up for Utah. The 2018 sixth-round pick called it a nice one to get as it would be the only goal of the night for Utah.
“I’m a little lucky, I guess,” Kesselring said. “It was nice to get one there.”
Kesselring has now surpassed his goal total from last season. In 52 games, he now has six goals and 20 points. If you needed any proof of why he was named to Utah’s quarter-century team, Sunday’s game was a prime example.
Lineup Changes Need to Continue
It’s been clear for weeks now that something needs to change for Utah. Whatever the team has done and continues to do isn’t working. Switching up the lines works for a game or two but then fades away. Now, with a five-game losing streak in hand, something needs to give and potentially, it needs to come from a big move.
One of those moves could be scratching Lawson Crouse. It’s potentially a crazy thought if you haven’t been paying attention to him this season. However, he’s really struggled with only 11 points in 52 games. It seems like every line Utah has played him on has just not performed well. It’s time to make some big moves and scratching Crouse could shake this team in a controversial yet much-needed way.
There are other players waiting in the minors as well. Kailer Yamamoto, Egor Solokov, and Cameron Hebig all have had really good seasons with the Tucson Roadrunners. If you have a player who is playing way better than someone else, why wouldn’t you give him a shot? Why not do it by scratching Crouse? He is a locker room leader but as a leader, even he has to admit this has been one of the worst seasons of his whole career.
There are other options as well like Matias Maccelli or Juuso Välimäki (who has been passed on the depth chart by players like Nick DiSimone) but Crouse’s play has been a big issue this season. Going from back-to-back 40-plus point seasons to only 11 points has hurt Utah. Scratching Crouse could spark something in him. It could also spark something in the team as he’s a big part of the locker room and healthy scratching him could really make them aware that management and coaching aren’t afraid to remove you from the equation, no matter how popular you are or what letter you wear.
4-Nations Break Can’t Come Fast Enough
Once again, after the loss to the Blues, the Utah locker room was raw with emotions. If the anger and frustration from the team wasn’t obvious during their previous loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, it was made pretty clear on Sunday night.
There are big injuries to Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther that have hampered Utah but that isn’t an excuse. These types of disappointing losses have been happening all season and we’re now at the point where it’s taking the team out of the playoff race.
“You just got to grind through it,” Kesselring said. “These are playoff games for us. We need to win, we need to push. I know we have some injuries, but there’s no excuses. Like I said, it’s the NHL, so we have to find a way here.”
Shot attempts were the big issue during the game against the Blues. Utah opened up a lot of space for the Blues to get shots on Connor Ingram, who despite the loss, had one of his best games of the season. Meanwhile, Utah couldn’t get any shots through their opponent’s defense. While on paper they had 25 shots on goal, they weren’t quality shots and in the end that cost them.
On top of that, the effort just wasn’t there from Utah, which has been a recurring issue. There isn’t a real drive from the team to win or compete. The energy wasn’t there either. Meanwhile, it looked like the Blues left their hearts out on the ice because they know every game is a must-win for them otherwise, playoffs are out of the question.
“I didn’t like our energy,” head coach André Tourigny said. “I didn’t like our urgency in that game. Credit to St. Louis, they played much better than the last two times we played them – way more stingy. Took way too long for us to accept that and go to work.”
At the end of the day, teams that have heart and play hard make the playoffs. Utah’s fifth straight loss demonstrates that’s not the team’s identity right now. Interestingly enough, this is around the same time they went on a 14-game losing streak last season in Arizona. Is that purely coincidental? Maybe, but it could also say that Utah hasn’t learned from the mistakes they made last season. A nearly two-week break for the 4-Nations Face-Off tournament will help the team reset but they still have a couple of games to play before then.
As they sink further and further down the standings with teams like the Anaheim Ducks and Seattle Kraken only a couple of wins away from passing them, Utah needs to realize they’re doing this to themselves. They have great talent but they need to put it all together and find the chemistry of a winning team. They know they need to do better but it needs to be shown on the ice. Perhaps the 4-Nations break will provide that opportunity for them to reset and get it together.
“Listen, we’ve had a lot of meetings about this and had a lot of talk and I think that everyone has really said just about all that can be said,” Ian Cole said. “At some point, it needs to get put into practice on the ice.”
Playoffs have turned into a hope as the team now sits eight points back of the Calgary Flames for the second wild card spot with a 21-22-9 record. Now, at the very least, Utah needs to turn their season around to show they are growing, not regressing. It needs to happen soon as we inch closer to the trade deadline.
Utah will finish off their homestand on Tuesday with a matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers are 23-25-6 this season and are coming off a 2-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. The two teams have met once this season back in October when Utah won 4-2.
