^{The Mammoth host the Chicago Blackhawks in a season opener for the 2nd time in 3 years}

Tonight is a special night; not only do we celebrate the third season of NHL hockey in Utah, but I celebrate a special milestone with my lovely wife. 10 years ago, I welcomed her into my Islanders fandom – her first taste of professional hockey – and family. Today now marks 3 years of celebrating being a part of Utah’s hockey family as well.

The Chicago Blackhawks come to town looking to extend their unbeaten streak against the Mammoth. Inexplicably, the Mammoth dropped all 4 games against Chicago in a year where the latter barely missed the biggest lottery chance by a small margin.

Following a slew of festivities planned at the newly revamped Delta Center, the Mammoth look to show off their new look as well. With a revamped, meaner, larger, and more balanced roster, Utah looks to break their 4 game losing streak, and start the season off with a big 2 points.

Game Preview:
Chicago put up a decent enough fight in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Patrick Kane, in his triumphant return to the red and black, put up a goal that brought the Hawks to within 1. Vegas, however, stomped that rally out and won 5-2.

Without Connor Bedard, who remains sidelined after shoulder surgery, the Hawks have to heavily rely on Patrick Kane. Kane, who is rapidly closing on his social security benefits, turns 38 in about 2 months and was on the ice for more than 21 minutes on Tuesday.

Joining Kane is Frank Nazar at center. Nazar, just 22 years old, has been tasked with the first line center duties, between Kane and Tyler Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi had a really solid campaign last year, potting 32 goals, though that was with the benefit of Bedard.

Chicago’s defense was porous against Vegas, allowing nearly 40 shots in their first game. After finishing the season in 27th place – giving up 270 goals – they allowed 4 against Spencer Knight, with an empty netter to seal the game. Their defensive corps is young, with recently acquired Bowen Byram the top defenseman leading the way (at just 25 years old). His counterpart, Alex Vlasic, is the second oldest defenseman on the team at 25 … a whole 8 days older than Byram. Additional defenseman, like Artyom Levshunov (20) and Wyatt Kaiser (24) are too young to even get discounted auto insurance rates.

The Mammoth welcome back Ian Cole, however, as the veteran signed a 1 year deal to play with Chicago in the offseason. At 37, his high school diploma pre-dates nearly the entire defense corps.

Spencer Knight will most likely be in net for the Hawks tonight. Knight had an unusual season last year, with stretches of brilliance while also showing ECHL level play at times. However, Knight won both meetings against Utah last year, with 3 goals against and a save percentage of .945.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Knight and Day
Spencer Knight (and Arvid Soderblom) had the Mammoth pegged last year. Stopping 52 of 55 shots, Knight seemed unbeatable at times. However, this year’s Mammoth core comes in completely revamped. A much more focused and intense Logan Cooley is showing no signs of fear in driving play. Recent additions Anders Lee and Vincent Trocheck push play, with Lee a massive distraction in front of the net. Look for the big boys to get in the way of Knight early, often, and hopefully give him some rest on the bench by the 3rd period.

Maturity
The playoffs are a magical thing. The game changes, the players change, the flow changes. There’s a feeling that’s unlike anything else. The Utah Mammoth saw firsthand what the playoffs require. They require mean, heavy, focused play. And so far in the preseason, the team looks to have adopted part of that identity.

Cooley, as mentioned above, looks to have increased his levels of swagger in the preseason games we watched. He’s been great on the dot, throwing some additional weight around, and looks locked in. Daniil But, meanwhile, learned that having a big body means you’re able to use that. His playmaking and ability to crash towards the net, has really shifted his game in a positive way. However, early indications are he may not play today, so we shall see.

Look for Dylan Guenther, Cooley, and Lee make up a balanced, and lethal, second unit, and if But does make an appearance on the top line, look for him to make a big splash very quickly.

Delta Center Electric Bill
After the significant time, money, and effort to get the Delta Center ready, the big test is to make sure the power’s actually on. On Saturday, the Mammoth treated a hockey-starved Salt Lake City faithful to a buffet of failed power play attempts.

After an early power play goal by Cooley who made a strong move to the net, the Mammoth went 0 – 8 on the power play. They had more power plays than Colorado had shots in each period, yet scored just 1 goal that trickled in.

The power play was awful, and player personnel usage was suspect. Why have 4 shooters on a line without a big net-presence? Why have 2 big net-presence guys on a 2nd line with no one to shoot?

We hope that Blaine Forsythe took the NFL’s “basic playbook only” approach to a pre-season game, or Utah’s in for a long, long year.

Projected Lineups:
So, I’m out of the house early at the Plaza Party. Take the below with a grain of salt (or two) as this is the best info I had available (thank you Puckpedia!)

Clayton Keller — Nick Schmaltz — Vincent Trocheck
Anders Lee — Logan Cooley — Dylan Guenther
Jack McBain — Barrett Hayton — Lawson Crouse
Michael Carcone — Kevin Stenlund — Kailer Yamamoto/Daniil But

Mikhail Sergachev — MacKenzie Weegar
Nate Schmidt — John Marino
Dmitri Simashev — Andrew Peeke

Vejmelka
Cossa

Game time 7:30 PM local. Game available on ESPN+ so a recap of the game is likely to be a lot less involved than normal.

TUSKS UP!