If the NHL playoffs were to start today, the Utah Hockey Club would have a spot.
Their 4-2 win over the St. Louis Blues, a divisional rival, helped them leapfrog over the Blues in the standings Thursday night. They now hold the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
That being said, the playoffs do not start today. There’s still a long ways to go.
“We had a few good games in the past few but we didn’t get the points, so it was important tonight to find a way to get the two points,” said Utah HC head coach André Tourigny after the game.
Michael Kesselring opened the scoring 18 seconds into the game — the fastest goal to start an NHL game this season, and, of course, the fastest goal to start a game in franchise history.
Colton Parayko tied the game late in the first period and it took Matias Maccelli until late in the second period to retake the lead for Utah HC, but the Blues would tie it up again with just six and a half minutes left in regulation.
It looked like Utah HC would be heading to overtime for the sixth time until Dylan Guenther capitalized on a two-on-one and put a shot in off a sprawling Parayko, and Jack McBain sealed the deal with an empty-netter from about 170 feet.
Utah Hockey for dummies
It doesn’t take a hockey connoisseur to notice that Kesselring was one of Utah HC’s best players on Thursday. The early goal seemed to give him the confidence to jump up in the play far more often than he normally does.
Jumping up in the play can be risky for defensemen — especially the less-experienced ones. It leaves an opening defensively, and if the play quickly shifts the other direction it can result in an odd-man rush, but if you pick your spots well you can be the difference-maker offensively.
Kesselring did both extremely effectively Thursday. He had loads of offensive chances and then always got back to defend.
As hockey players often do, Kesselring gave all the credit for his goal to his teammate, Clayton Keller.
“I just know Kells likes to make plays, that line likes to make plays,” Kesselring said after the game. “(I) kind of saw that he saw me, so I got on my horse a bit and he made a great pass — a little alley-oop — and then it went in.”
Kesselring was a relatively unthought-of piece in the trade that sent Nick Bjugstad to the Edmonton Oilers ahead of the 2023 trade deadline (Bjugstad rejoined the Coyotes in free agency that summer), but he’s now proving that he is not to be underestimated.
Utah Hockey for casual fans
Maveric Lamoureux received two five-minute majors and a game misconduct for his second-period hit on Alexey Toropchenko and subsequent fight with Pierre-Olivier Joseph.
Utah HC played the previous three games with an extra defenseman but opted to go back to six against the Blues. They would have liked to have the extra guy when Lamoureux got kicked out of the game.
Fans took to X to express their opinions on the hit. Some said it was just a circumstance of Lamoureux’s stance. Others maintained that he could have prevented the hit but chose not to.
Here’s how the NHL rulebook defines kneeing:
“Kneeing is the act of a player leading with his knee and in some cases extending his leg outwards to make contact with his opponent.”
Did Lamoureux intentionally stick out his knee? No, but that’s not the only determining factor. He led with his knee, which means he deserved a penalty.
In fact, the NHL video rulebook shows an example of kneeing that directly resembles Lamoureux’s penalty. However, the play in the video rulebook was only given a two-minute minor, as opposed to Lamoureux’s five and a game.
The rulebook leaves the type and duration of the penalty to the referees’ discretion. You could make a case that it should have been a two-minute minor, but a five-minute major was not out of the question.
Because the call could have gone either way, it’s probably not enough to warrant supplemental discipline. That being said, the NHL Department of Player Safety often has different insights than the general public, so it’s difficult to accurately predict their decisions.
It should also be mentioned that Lamoureux held his own in the fight against Joseph, who is five years older than him. Lamoureux is bigger and has a longer reach, which helped him in the scrap.
Utah Hockey for nerds
St. Louis native Clayton Keller loves playing against his hometown team. He now has 30 points in 29 career games against the Blues.
Keller has been sneaky good lately. He quietly has five points in his last six games (though there was nothing quiet about his backhand Hail Mary pass to spring Kesselring on that breakaway) and he leads the team with 13 points. He’s also second on the team in goals with six.
Under-sized players should strive to be like Keller. He’s small but quick and he’s as determined as anyone.
Per NHL Edge, Keller has had 29 speed bursts of 20 miles per hour or higher, which puts him in the 89th percentile. His top skating speed is 22.04 miles per hour, which puts him in the 70th percentile.
His shots aren’t particularly hard compared to those of his peers, but he takes more shots than most and his shooting percentage is through the roof.
He’s currently on pace for 76 points this year — the exact amount he had last year. Would he like to step it up even more? Of course, but his current pace is enough to make a huge difference for his team.
What’s next?
Utah HC goes from Blues in St. Louis to country music in Nashville. After that, they’ll return home, where people have a soft spot for the Jazz.
Most people judged the Nashville Predators to have won the offseason after they signed big-name free agents Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, but they’re somehow the worst team in the league right now.
Through 14 games last season, they had just 10 points and still managed to scrape their way into the playoffs. Through 14 games this year, they have nine points. Hope is not lost for Predators fans, but a few more weeks at this pace could be detrimental.
It goes without saying that the Predators will play with an added level of determination, especially after losing 6-2 to the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Utah HC has learned already that there’s no such thing as an easy win in the NHL — even when you’re playing the league’s worst teams.
The game starts at 6 p.m. MDT and can be seen on Utah HC+ and Utah 16.