The Utah Hockey Club’s tiring three-game road trip is over. Unfortunately for them, it concludes with a 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. There were some positives from the loss, including the fact that Utah will travel back home and have a break between games. Here are some takeaways from Sunday afternoon’s game.
Clayton Keller Is the Biggest Snub From Team USA
When Clayton Keller wasn’t selected to be on Team USA for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, it was a choice that was confusing for most. He has been one of the best American forwards in the NHL for the past couple of seasons. He’s scored at nearly a point per game in his past three seasons and is on pace to do so again this season.
Keller once again got on the board on Sunday against the Senators. He tried to pass the puck to Jack McBain but instead, it bounced off two defensemen and into the back of the net for Utah’s lone goal of the game.
The goal extends Keller’s point streak to seven games. In those seven games, he has 13 points. In 48 games, he now has 54 points. It’s been an impressive run for Keller, especially with Dylan Guenther out.
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It makes the decision to not select him for Team USA even more baffling. Let’s compare him to some of the other players that were selected. Vincent Trocheck has 32 points in 49 games. Chris Kreider has only 17 points in 41 games. Brock Nelson has 31 points in 48 games. Even players who were picked to be locks on USA’s roster haven’t played nearly as well as Keller. Dylan Larkin has 45 points in 49 games. The list goes on and on if we’re looking at points.
If we’re talking about having a veteran team, it’s a fair conversation to have. Every player that was listed above is a couple of years older than Keller. However, Keller has all the leadership assets in the world. He’s the captain of Utah and he’s been around the league for a while as well.
Keller extending his point streak against the Senators continues to push the narrative that he should’ve been included in the tournament, especially because some of those points have come against the Minnesota Wild – Team USA general manager Bill Guerin’s NHL team. Things can change. For example, Alex Pietrangelo withdrew from the tournament on Sunday due to an ailment. If someone leaves Team USA, Keller has to be the first player selected as a replacement.
The Defensive Defensemen Are on the Board Again
John Marino and Olli Määttä have been instrumental in helping Utah’s defense play some good hockey as of late. Now, with Mikhail Sergachev out of the lineup, they’ve both stepped up to help Utah stay competitive.
Both Marino and Määttä assisted on Keller’s goal. While it has been heavily implied that the two aren’t offensive defensemen, meaning they’re not going to generate a lot of points, both of them show up in key moments and will try their best to keep the puck out of their own net.
Marino played 22:05 in ice time during Sunday’s game and now has back-to-back games with points. While Määttä wasn’t on the ice as much, he now has three points in four games. Again, the pair aren’t the defensemen who will generate offense like Sean Durzi, but they do come up clutch. For the past couple of games, Utah has really leaned into them being their anchors on the blue line. Both Marino and Määttä have lived up to that expectation.
A Tiring Stretch of Games Is Over
With the loss to the Senators, Utah’s road trip is over. It was an exhausting one, to say the least. They first played the Wild who are one of the top teams in the Western Conference. They then flew to Winnipeg to play the Jets the very next day. While they got a day’s break between their games against the Jets and the Senators, they still played three hockey games in four days and traveled a good amount, which isn’t easy at all.
The loss against the Senators was a disappointing and frustrating one. Utah played decently but the Senators read their plays well and they used that to their advantage.
“We played in front of them instead of putting the puck behind and go to work,” head coach André Tourigny said. “Even the way we tried to change the point of attack in the offensive zone, we were predictable for them and they cut too many plays.”
The third period was especially rough as Claude Giroux and Brady Tkachuk teamed up to score two goals and put the game out of reach for Utah. Utah didn’t respond well after both of those goals, which led to mistakes and the Senators increasing their lead.
“Unfortunately we made a mistake, they scored a second goal and I didn’t like how we responded to that,” Tourigny said. “We knew what we had to do, but it’s human nature when you push, you try to do a little bit too much.”
Playing a complete game has been a struggle for Utah. At a certain point this season, it was the second period that plagued them. Meanwhile, the third period had been pretty decent with Utah at one point being near the top of the league in comeback wins. However, in the past two games, it has been the third period killing their hopes and chances of winning games.
“It’s tough when you don’t play a full 60 minutes. It’s tough to win in this league,” Määttä said. “When you have tight games like that, I think we gave them two easy ones and you just can’t win games when you do that.”
The good news for Utah is that the road trip is over. While it was a disappointing one, the team will get to go back home and enjoy two days off. The bad news is that the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks have won in the past couple of games, which has given them a little bit of room ahead of Utah in the standings. However, there are still a little over 30 games left in the season to catch up. A six-point difference isn’t too bad yet, but they’ll need to start stringing some wins together consistently to make up ground.
Utah will look to do just that on Wednesday as they welcome Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins to Salt Lake City for the first time in history. The Penguins are 20-23-8 and are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken. They will play the San Jose Sharks on Monday before traveling to Utah. These two teams met back in November where Utah won 6-1.
