^{A listless, lifeless, and uninspired effort in a 3-2 overtime loss against Columbus}

The Utah Mammoth played the Columbus Blue Jackets at home at the Delta Center tonight, the initial meeting between these two clubs. As mentioned in the preview, the Jackets played last night against Colorado, are at the end of their road trip, and are the worst team in the Eastern division. All the elements of a trap game, it felt like, especially with Toronto coming into the Delta Center on Tuesday.

For the uninitiated, a “trap game” is a game where a team is staring down an opponent that they should handily beat. It’s a game where the team with the advantage, Utah, underestimates or overlooks the opponent. It’s either because they’re overconfident, they’re looking ahead to another opponent, or they’re just dismissive of where their abilities are versus the competition.

So, now that you know what a trap game is, let’s dive into one:

FIRST PERIOD:
The first minute of the game didn’t feel like a trap game. I turned to my wife and said during the first shift “Yeah, Utah’s got the jump and you can tell Columbus played last night”. This was because the third line came out swinging; Jack McBain with a tip 15 seconds into the game, followed by a Daniil But deflection wide 30 seconds later.

The trap showed itself when the clock hit 19:00 to go. The third line got off the ice, and with them the energy and push that started the game. The Blue Jackets got a shot off, and kept play out of their end over the next 2 minutes.

With just over 2 and a half minutes gone by, the Jackets broke out with a pass from Ivan Provorov in their end to Danton Heinen at the red line. Heinen found Mikael Pyyhtia streaking up the center of the ice, and laid a pass out. Pyyhtia (Poo-tee-yah) lazered a shot beyond the outstretched stick of McBain, up and over the shoulder of Vitek Vanecek, and immediately in and out of the net. Took a minute for anyone to realize it was in, but it was, and 2 shots into the game Columbus had the lead. 1-0 Columbus

No energy on the follow up from Utah, as Columbus ended up getting another slot shot off on Vanecek shortly after the goal. The Mammoth got no offensive zone pressure at all, while the Blue Jackets tested Vanecek from range several times. The most dangerous of these was a shot by Cole Sillinger from the slot, which was followed up by a tight-in centering feed to him as well, both turned aside by Vanecek, and play continued.

With 12 minutes to go, Dylan Guenther made a slick spin move to get past the Columbus defense. Skating in deep, he threw the puck towards the crease, hoping for a Utah shot, but the puck went all the way through the slot and out of danger as Utah continued to look for their first shot.

At the 10 minute mark, Dmitri Voronkov held Nick Schmaltz from getting into the rush, and gave Utah the first power play of the game. Utah, however, promptly gave up a shot against and the Blue Jackets – the 29th worst PK unit in the league – forced the top PP unit of Utah out of the zone much of the first minute.

The top line kept passing, looking for lanes and shooting opportunities, but they didn’t come. Keller was gifted a low-to-high cross-ice pass from Guenther, but he bobbled the puck. Guenther had a one-time feed from a defenseman, but shot over the net. Despite several great keeps by Sean Durzi, and despite lengthy zone-time, the Mammoth had no momentum or push on the power play at all.

With 2 seconds left in the power play, Guenther registered Utah’s first shot of the game. 12 minutes into the contest. One shot for the game, one shot on the power play.

Daniil But took a shot high in the slot in a 1 on 4 situation. Jet Greaves made the stop but misplayed the puck – probably from shock anyone in Utah was going to actually shoot this game – and the play continued with Michael Carcone and But trying to get the rebound to no avail. The teams traded chances and zone time back and forth for several minutes, with Brandon Tanev trying to tip a Kevin Stenlund shot from tight in the slot, and Zach Werenski on the other end trying to beat Vanecek through traffic.

Utah finally got some pressure with 4 minutes left to go in the period, with a broken – or blendered – line making the difference. McBain to But saw a shot go wide, but Clayton Keller was somehow on the ice with the third line in place of Carcone. In a heads up play, pun intended, Keller took a shot from the blue line. The puck was deflected off McBain’s head, bouncing up and over Greaves, and in behind his back before anyone knew it. They say when you get to the dirty areas good things happen, but a puck to the face isn’t usually good – until it gets you on the scoreboard. 1-1 Tied

First goal in 10 games for McBain, in a mainly comical way, but it seemed to energize Utah and deflate Columbus. The Mammoth came out after the goal with some good pressure and opportunities, especially when JJ Peterka took the puck behind the Blue Jackets net. He tried to feed Barrett Hayton but, as earlier with the Guenther pass earlier in the period, Hayton was unable to get stick on puck and the chance failed. Another shot from the point was tipped in tight by Hayton, but Greaves was able to track it for the cover.

Daniil But had another one-on-multiple chance with 2 minutes to go, taking a McBain pass and nearly threading two defenders, but ultimately was unable to catch back up to the puck before it was covered.

Mikhail Sergachev had a wide open Lawson Crouse cross-ice, but the pass was unable to connect, which was the last scoring chance or opportunity until the end of the period.

Utah trailing 11-7 in shots after the first.

SECOND PERIOD:
The second period started out exactly as the first ended, and Utah continued their pressure and positive play leading to an early goal.

Michael Carcone had a rush chance, ending with a spin-o-rama attempt, but he lost the puck mid-spin, but Utah came back with another immediate zone entry. Keller’s zone entry saw him cut back and pass to Sergachev at the near side boards. Sergachev threw the puck on net, and while it may have been deflected slightly, Greaves didn’t react in time and Utah took their first lead of the game. 2-1 Utah.

Carcone and Kailer Yamamoto had a great setup about 4 minutes into the period. Yamamoto got the pass a little hot, though, and couldn’t get an immediate shot off, allowing Greaves to set his position, ending the scoring opportunity and getting a whistle. Peterka, at the 5 minute mark, had a turnaround wrister from a loose puck in the slot, but this was turned aside by Greaves.

Utah pressured the Blue Jackets the way they were pressured in the first period. The Mammoth blocked and interrupted plays from Columbus through 5 full minutes of play; the Jackets did not register their first shot until 5 minutes and 30 seconds went by in the period. However, when the offense came, it came roaring. Sillinger had a shot go wide, Adam Fantilli had a shot blocked, and Kirill Marchenko got a shot on net. The rebound, sitting in the slot, was swatted aside by Sean Durzi, just edging out Ivan Provorov to the puck and preventing a shot on an open cage with Vanecek down.

As time went on in the period, though, Utah looked like the more fatigued team again. Carcone picked up a loose puck with a chance for a breakaway, but got caught up to by two Blue Jacket defenders. A pass back to But missed, but McBain ripped a shot on net that went wide. This was at the 8:30 mark; Utah would have a total of three shots in the remaining 11 minutes and change in the period.

The second half of the period was all Columbus. Not to gloss over anything here, but Columbus ended up with 9 shots on net during the last 11 minutes, and for the most part, their chances and shots were about as vanilla and bland as living in Columbus is.

So, we’ll skip ahead a bit, and by a bit I mean 9 minutes.

Jack McBain got called for holding during position play, which was a bit weak but the NHL has an “even it up” policy on their penalties, so it is what it is. An unfortunate “Killer Mentality” banner flashed on the screen, talking about the effectiveness of the penalty kill in an unfortunate foreshadowing moment. Regardless, the first minute of the penalty kill went fairly well, limiting shots and opportunities to the Jackets power play. However, a Charlie Coyle shot hit the post, and knocking the bouncing puck out of the air to Fantilli in the slot, he banged a rebound off Vanecek. The puck slid out under Vanecek’s pad, and Coyle beat the Mammoth defenders to stuffing the rebound in. What was that about great penalty killer mentality? 2-2 Tied

Neither team got a shot off after that goal, and they went to the dressing room content with where they sat.

Shots in the period – 14-8 for the Blue Jackets, who lead 25-15 in shots after two. Wait, which team is on the back to back?

THIRD PERIOD:
The rhird period saw a lot more shots coming from Utah – in fact, they actually outshot the Blue Jackets in the third period, but ultimately no goals at all for either team. But I get ahead of myself. Jack McBain saw his second sin-bin trip off a slash; an unfortunate call that wouldn’t have occurred at all, had Voronkov’s stick not disintegrated like paper tissue in water.

Lawson Crouse led a 2 on 1 shorthanded chance against Columbus right off the draw, but his shot was stopped by Greaves. The rebound, in the slot, was unable to be caught up to by Kevin Stenlund, and the power play continued. The penalty kill went exactly as designed the second time around, until Boone Jenner got called for tripping Sergachev late in the kill, as Utah cleared the puck.

The resulting 4 on 4 was uneventful, as Utah waited for the man advantage. Once up, the Mammoth had several good looks. Peterka had a pass come through the slot for him, but he missed the net wide. Keller had a rip from the near side dot that was saved by Greaves. Hayton had a rip from the slot as time expired, but the puck was saved. Getting his own rebound, Hayton threw the puck back to the blue line, but the teams were at even strength and Columbus retrieved the puck. This led to a 2 on 1 turned 3 on 2; Sean Monahan got the puck and was all alone versus Vanecek on the near side slot. Monahan decided to pass back to the slot to hit Pyyhtia, but Carcone defended the shot. Finally, the blocked shot was walked into by Provorov, who hit the crossbar and out of play.

Schmaltz tried a wraparound, which was blocked, and the loose puck in front was eventually cleared. Teams skated back and forth on open ice, but no shots for several minutes. The top line had a great chance again, when Crouse got the puck low in the zone, but his shot wasn’t elevated enough to get over Greaves pad.

Utah gave up another 2 on 1 that Columbus failed to convert on with a good save by Vanecek, and at the 10 minute mark, Utah had a pair of shots on net, and Columbus started a parade of shots that they continued for several minutes. Brendan Gaunce missed the net, but not by much. Heinen’s shot was saved in tight. Damon Severson got a quality shot off on a 4 on 3, and Voronkov tried to poke the rebound over, and over, while Vanecek was on top of the puck.

Then, with 8 minutes to go, both teams seemed to pull up and just play for the tie. Utah would put up 3 shots on net, Columbus 1. None of those shots were from any dangerous areas. However, the Mammoth at the 5 minute mark had a ton of zone time. Good cycling and pressure kept the Blue Jackets on the ice for more than 2 minutes each. The Mammoth got one of those shots on net during this time, but what ultimately ended the threat was a trip/interference by Coyle on Durzi right inside the blue line. How the hell that trip was not called is crazy, but at least they’re letting that play go, right?

Daniil But skated by Adam Fantilli, who fell, and got called for the trip. SOMEHOW that was a trip, when both skated by each other and the smaller guy fell, but sticking your foot out when tired in a 2 minute offensive zone pin is just… hockey play?

Utah killed the 30 seconds of power play before the horn, so point secured… but still on the penalty kill.

Utah outshot Columbus 12 – 9 on the period, but trailed 34-27 in regulation

OVERTIME:

Power play in overtime is inevitable, no matter who has it. I don’t have the stats, but it seems like the 4 v 3 in OT ends up with more goals than not. So, no surprise that the game ended in a minute. This overtime score is getting ridiculous, guys. More or less than 5 goals a game can happen, you know this right? 3-2 Columbus

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3 GOALS (THE GOOD):

Czecking Myself I’ve been lukewarm on Vitek Vanecek for most of the year, while I know there’s a lot of calls for a better backup. His stats don’t scream “quality” with just a 2-9-1 record. And, after that first goal that looked like a cupcake from my seats, I immediately got on-board the “this guy sucks” train. Well, honestly, after watching the game again, that first goal against was a really good shot. The Utah defense did nothing to give him protection from that goal, as McBain sort of made a play on Mikael Pyyhtia and Nick DeSimone and Ian Cole completely misread the way the play was developing.

Other than that, Vitek stopped everything short of a goal-mount crash from a power play that shouldn’t have even been one, and then again in a 4-3 OT power play situation.

3 goals against vs. 36 shots with more than +1 goal saved above expected. Couple that with a pair of 1 goals against games (Calgary, Colorado) that were losses, his only 2 wins came early in the year. Stat wise, since November 1st, Vitek’s had 10 games, losing all 10 (0-8-2) giving up 3.21 GAA and .874 save percentage. These aren’t great numbers, but every single backup in the league over that span has at least 1 win with more than 3 starts. 17 goalies have worse GAAs (min 3 games), 10 have worse save percentages. The only other goalie with as bad luck as Vanecek is Matt Murray of the Penguins, who started 3 games – gave up 2 goals to Dallas in a loss, gave up 1 goal to Columbus in a loss, and got hurt on his third game with a goal against.

As a Mets fan, Vitek is in a similar situation to Jacob deGrom – while DeGrom was an all-star and Cy Young caliber pitcher, his win/loss record was terrible. He’d lose games 1-0 or 2-1 because the offense didn’t show up.

That, more than anything, seems to be Vanecek’s curse this year, something that we need to remind ourselves of before we come after him for being a bad backup.

Durzgachev part 2 The top defensive pairing was stellar tonight, with Sergachev accounting for a goal, Durzi with stellar play on the PP1 unit to make several difficult keeps in the zone, the sliding disruption on the Provorov attempt, and the line was magnificent today.

Do they have problems? Sure do. It seems that Sergachev causes more icings against Utah than any other player by a large margin, and Durzi sometimes gets caught out of position because he’s trying too hard to make a pinch. However, overall, this pairing is rounding out nicely for Utah, and isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned them in the past few weeks.

Olympian In 2 games where 6 goals were scored, Clayton Keller has 5 assists. Now, tonight’s McBain goal was a massive fluke. The Sergachev goal was a low-danger shot. But, it doesn’t matter – not only has Keller been at least partially responsible for 83% of the goals scored in 2 games, he was primary assist in 4 of those assists.

I mentioned on my TikTok that I was concerned because I said Keller needs to have another good game and he didn’t. Well, he did and my video was wrong.

Even on a third line, Captain Olympian is doing it all, and Keller’s a massive reason this team was still in this game up through overtime.

3 CHIRPS (THE BAD):

Powerful BJs The Columbus power play sucks, which is why it’s so devastating that the Utah penalty kill was just so bad against them. The Mammoth just sat back and took all that the Blue Jackets gave with little pushback. The only successful kill was the one that was ended because of a tripping penalty, which is not a way to expect to win a game.

From a team that had 0 power play goals in 17 tries, and hadn’t scored a PPG in January to date, the Mammoth gave up the game tying, and game winning goals to the BJ’s special teams.

The Mammoth penalty kill, so devastatingly effective in November and December, has fallen apart. Special teams for the Mammoth have failed this team spectacularly all year – first on the power play, now on the penalty kill too.

Powerless PPs The Columbus Blue Jackets penalty kill in 2026 has been pretty solid, but for the year the Jackets are killing just 76% of all penalties. This is good for 29th in the league through the Utah game – where they went 2 for 2 on the kill.

Utah, coming into the game with the 29th worst power play in the league, got worse somehow. Only the Flyers, Islanders, and Flames are worse, and 21 power play goals is tied for 28th worst in the league. Only the Calgary Flames have fewer goals and more opportunities than the Mammoth; the Flyers have a dozen fewer power play attempts than the Mammoth do at this point in the year.

Overall, with a team that has 6 goal scorers with double digit goals the fact that there have been only 21 power play goals over the first half of the season is just pathetic. No Utah player has more than 4 PPGs. Even Calgary has a power play finisher – Matt Coronato has 5PPGs.

Systems problem or player problem? Well, with 6 scorers in double digits, it’s making me think we have good scorers here…

Lucky JJs It’s ALMOST time to call him out. JJ Peterka is getting on my nerves this calendar year. Perhaps the expectations are a bit high. Perhaps it’s just bad luck. Perhaps the German team nod is giving him some big concerns to deal with. However, Peterka is very close to being my chirp. The only reason that Peterka isn’t here is because Nick DeSimone is.

DeSimone has had some good stretches of play this year. A healthy scratch for early in the season, he had a few really good games coming back. Then he’s had mediocre games. Today, was another mediocre to bad performance.

With Maveric Lamoureux available, and with Dmitry Simashev already with NHL time under his belt, there are two young, solid options that can be in this lineup immediately. Olli Maatta is a scratch, but even he probably could be outplaying DeSimone.

NDS is playing himself into a trade. Even if Utah is in a playoff position, DeSimone should be expendable for assets. There are higher level replacement players available, and it’s time that Bill Armstrong looks at entertaining a trade at this position.

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Next up:

Game 4 of 7 at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.