Sometimes, you are your worst enemy. On Monday night, the Utah Hockey Club was exactly that in a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken. Faults from the blue line resulted in their losing streak extending to four. Here are some takeaways from Utah’s loss on Monday.
Alex Kerfoot’s Month-Long Scoring Drought Is Over
A common theme in the past month for Utah has been players ending their goal droughts. Nick Schmaltz did it at the beginning of the month. Barrett Hayton did it recently during Utah’s homestand. On Monday, it was Alex Kerfoot’s time to end his personal scoring drought.
Michael Carcone rushed into the Kraken zone and got a shot off. Philipp Grubauer made the initial save but couldn’t control the rebound and Kerfoot put the puck into the wide-open net. It was his first goal since Nov. 30 and his first point in the past five games.
Kerfoot has been an important part of the fourth line. Although he only has 12 points in 35 games, he’s been a great two-way player for the team. He, along with the rest of his line consisting of Kevin Stenlund and Carcone, has gotten some crucial goals in crucial moments but has also made a lot of great defensive plays which has persuaded head coach André Tourigny to put the line out during critical faceoffs and penalty kills throughout the season.
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“I think the more you play together and get to understand each other…I think that’s how you make that bond, that mold and have success together,” Carcone said. “I’m playing with some high-IQ guys.”
The mix of the three players, who have played a lot of hockey games in their respective careers, has really paid off for Utah. They’ve helped make the bottom six perform a lot better lately, with the continued disappointment of the third line.
Too Many Odd Man Rushes
There was a common theme between most of the Kraken goals. Utah allowed them to get ahead of their defense which resulted in odd man rushes. If the Kraken player didn’t score on the breakaway like Jaden Schwartz did with the overtime winner, they quickly capitalized on the rebound like Matty Beniers did with the fourth goal.
The number of breakaways was unacceptable and it was the reason why Utah couldn’t keep up with the Kraken. Tourigny knows this and acknowledges the team needs to improve on that specifically, especially in their upcoming game on Tuesday.
“You cannot win if you give the number of opportunities we gave tonight in terms of breakaways or two-on-ones,” Tourigny said. “Sometimes it will happen, there will be a broken play…but we need to just get a little bit more mature and patient in our game.”
Someone who noticeably was caught behind most of the breakaway goals was Juuso Välimäki who ended the game as a minus-2. Välimäki is still a younger defenseman so hopefully, Monday’s game was a learning experience for him. However, he cannot play like that moving forward otherwise he will find his way out of the lineup.
It was a whole team issue. The defense wasn’t good enough with the Kraken forwards outpacing and outmaneuvering Utah for most of the second half of the game. Arguably, it was Mikhail Sergachev’s worst game with Utah to date, ending the game as a minus-4. Everyone has an off night here and there but it needs to change, especially in the dog days of the season where a loss could come back to haunt you when you’re in the playoff hunt like Utah is.
Utah Extends Their New Losing Streak
After winning four in a row, Utah has now lost four games in a row as they drop their first game of the road trip. The team has become very streaky. At times, they look like they deserve to be in the playoffs. At times like these, they look like they are still working on their issues from last season. Overall, consistency is still haunting Utah: a problem that has been around for a couple of seasons now.
It’s clear the team wants to win. They’ve vocally admitted that. However, it’s games like these that make it clear this is still a young growing team even with the additions they made in the offseason and the talent shown throughout the season. The Kraken aren’t a great team yet they easily shut down Utah in the second half of the game.
“It’s a bunch of guys that really want to do the right thing, guys who really want to win,” Tourigny said. “They want to get results, but right now they’re forcing it. We’re our worst enemy at times.”
The loss also snaps Utah’s long road winning streak at seven. It was a good streak that helped propel them into the wild card hunt but now, they must find a way to start a new string of wins. The Calgary Flames have leapfrogged over them and now they find themselves four points back of the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Although Utah has 46 more games left in the season, every game will matter eventually. The team needs to gather as many points as they can right now so it doesn’t come back to bite them down the stretch. Losing games against the Kraken who are in sixth place in the Pacific Division could be something Utah looks back at and regrets if they find themselves barely missing the playoffs.
Utah won’t have a lot of time to reflect on the loss. They’ll face off against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. The Oilers are one of the better teams in the Western Conference currently with a 21-12-3 record. They’re coming off a 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks but they did beat Utah back in November in overtime 4-3.
