The 2023-24 season was the best Matias Maccelli has ever had in terms of point production, and it was the second-best his linemates, Lawson Crouse and Nick Bjugstad, have ever seen.
The trio came into this season with plans to put in a similar performance, but things just haven’t shaken out the same way.
Until last weekend, all three players were on point droughts, ranging from eight to 12 games.
Then, an illness tore through the Utah Hockey Club locker room during the team’s New Year’s road trip, necessitating some changes to the lines. Maccelli took a turn on the top line in Clayton Keller’s absence, then missed a game himself before slotting in on the bottom line. Liam O’Brien took Maccelli’s normal spot with Crouse and Bjugstad for all three games.
The change seemed to be exactly what everyone needed.
Crouse had his first two-goal game of the year, Bjugstad turned a 12-game point drought into a two-game point streak and O’Brien found a number of scoring chances.
In Maccelli’s first game on the fourth line, he scored both of his team’s goals to send them to overtime against the Dallas Stars.
“Just keep chipping away and good things will happen,” Bjugstad said after practice on Monday, when asked about his mentality when going through rough patches. “We weathered some storms, me, Crouser and Maccelli. We knew we had better — all three of us.”
It’s a small sample size, so it would be premature to conclude that all those players’ woes are over — but if they can continue chipping in goals, grinding opponents down and keeping the puck out of their own net, they’ll provide a significant boost to a team that’s at a critical crossroads right now.
“If you’re doing all the right things and you’re playing well defensively, it’s going to happen,” Bjugstad said. “But when you haven’t been through it, it’s hard because you can’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel. For me, it’s just optimism and trying to bring what I can when I’m not bringing the offensive side.”
Liam O’Brien’s role
After being a healthy scratch for more than two months, Liam “Spicy Tuna” O’Brien found out he was playing after warmups in Edmonton on New Year’s Eve.
He didn’t have time to text any family members, but he said his parents turned on the game on a whim. When they saw their son’s name on the roster, they wondered if they’d stumbled upon an old game — he hadn’t told them he was playing.
It may seem difficult to be ready to play an NHL game at a moment’s notice, but it was no problem for O’Brien. He shouted out the skills coaches, the strength and conditioning staff and the nutritionists for helping him stay ready the whole time.
In O’Brien’s first shift of his first game back, he crashed the net and almost popped a rebound passed Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner.
He has been in the mix offensively ever since, and although he hasn’t yet scored a point, he’s getting chances. But he’s never satisfied.
“I still think I’ve got another level,” he said.