Utah Hockey Club suffers ‘frustrating’ loss to Montreal Canadiens

When asked to assess his team’s 5-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night, Utah Hockey Club head coach André Tourigny started with a one-word sentence.

“Frustrating,” he said.

Tourigny’s team has struggled to string wins together in recent weeks. They get further and further from the playoffs every time they look at the standings. The deficit is now up to six points.

A lot of individuals have played good hockey, but putting all the pieces together and pulling out a win has been nearly impossible for the team in recent weeks. They’re trying everything to improve their situation, but it just isn’t producing the results they need.

Here are some key takeaways from Tuesday’s game, in addition to some potential solutions.

Utah Hockey for dummies

Despite their loss on Tuesday, Utah HC seemed to find a cure for the scoring bug that had plagued them thus far in their home stand. In three games, they had scored just four goals.

This time, they managed to score three goals.

Josh Doan, who played his third game since being recalled from the minors, scored 2:11 into the game with a two-man advantage (when the other team takes two penalties at once, so your team has two more players than the opponent).

Nick Bjugstad also scored his first goal since Nov. 23, though he has been productive recently in terms of assists.

“It was just a rebound and I slapped it at the net,” he said after the game. “It’s how you get out of slumps.”

It goes without saying, but keeping up offensively will be key for Utah going forward. It’s unfair to expect your goalie to stop every shot night in and night out, so scoring just one or two goals will rarely cut it.

Utah Hockey for casual fans

The first and second periods were almost the exact same story, but they favored opposite teams.

The Canadiens took four penalties in the first period and hit the net on just three shots, finishing the period with a one-goal deficit. In the second period, Utah took four minor penalties and took just six shots, finishing the period down by a goal.

I mentioned in last game’s article that Utah’s second periods had been getting better, but they seemed to revert back to the norm on Tuesday.

It caused nothing but frustration in Tourigny, who has been trying to remedy the issue for months.

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“I don’t know for which reason, but we thought (the) second period will not be a fight or whatever,” he said. “It builds up in the second period, and instead of recovering, it got worse.”

Tourigny said he talked to his players after New Year’s about management of the second period. The main issue, by his estimation, is that the shifts are too long in the second period.

After a 30-second shift, he said, the players have enough energy to make another offensive rush but they’re tired when the time comes to get back on defense.

He opined that this was the issue when Kirby Dach scored at 4 on 4 in the second period Tuesday.

Utah Hockey for nerds

As excited as fans were to see John Marino in a Utah HC jersey for the first time, it became clear on Tuesday that he’ll need some time to acclimate to the NHL again.

He seemed fine physically, but his decision-making wasn’t quick enough and his positioning was just a little off.

For example, at one point in the second period, Marino found himself behind his team’s net with the puck on his stick. The closest forecheckers were no lower than the face-off dots, so he had ample time to survey the situation and make a play to advance the puck forward.

The pressure got to him, though, and in a panic, he blasted the puck high off the glass, which a Canadiens player trapped and maintained control in Utah’s zone.

In another instance, this time during a penalty kill, Marino partially committed to Brendan Gallagher, the puck carrier, on the half-wall, leaving Christian Dvorak open for in the slot.

Gallagher recognized his opportunity and made the pass to Dvorak, who rung a shot off the underside of the crossbar.

These are just little things, and Marino was much better in the third period than he was in the first two. To be fair, if I were to go nine months without writing an article, it would probably take me a few reps before I produced something worth reading.

It’s probably the same with most jobs. As Marino eases back into the swing of things, he’ll get better and better.

“It took a couple of shifts to get (my) legs under (me) and just get the rhythm and the flow of the game,” Marino said.

Marino started the game on a pairing with Juuso Välimäki. In the third period, he played with Ian Cole. His ice time increased in each period: 4:35 in the first, 6:02 in the second and 7:27 in the third.

Tourigny’s assessment of Marino after the game was that he’s a “good NHL player,” but that it will take him a bit to get comfortable with the new structure and the new defensive system.

What’s next?

Utah HC is now past the halfway mark of its seven-game home stand. They prepare to face the New York Rangers on Thursday.

Despite winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the best regular season team last year and making it to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rangers are on the outside of the playoffs, looking in this season.

They’re one of the big head-scratchers this season, as their roster is almost identical to the one they had last year.

Utah HC played the Rangers in their second game of the season, a back-and-forth overtime thriller. If Thursday’s game is even half as entertaining as that one was, it will be the second-best game of the entire NHL season.

The game starts at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Utah HC+ and Utah 16. Tickets are now available for as low as $10 through SEG’s new ticket programs.