^{Igor Shesterkin has as many goals this year as Mammoth opponents do.}

The New York Rangers, surprisingly strong so far, host a blisteringly hot Utah Mammoth club at Madison Square Garden. A back-to-back game with an early start gives Utah a strange situation to play with. Normally, a tri-state area game would have early start times. A 2 hour flight isn’t much, but it’s a hell of a lot more annoying than, say, a bus ride to and from an arena on opposite ends of a city.

Regardless, you play the game and the opponent you’re given, and today we’re given one of the best goalies in the league and his crowning achievement of scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Then then played their back to back against the rudderless Detroit Red Wings, shutting them out in Detroit before popping back home.

Sean Durzi, Vincent Trocheck, and their respective teams come face to face for the first time. Expect Trocheck to get a very warm welcome home.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Iggy Pop
Igor Shesterkin has given up a total of 3 goals, but also scored the first goalie goal this year. He’s got more goals than a majority of NHL players so far this year, which is really funny when you consider that list includes Alex Ovechkin, Sydney Crosby, and the Detroit Red Wings organization.

Shesterkin is a reason the Rangers will never really need to rebuild, as a goalie of his caliber won’t let a team fall to the deepest depths. As a result, the Rangers just retool after retool, and never really are dead in the water. So far, Shesterkin is proving that yet again, posting a .935 save percentage and just 1.51 goals against in 2 games. Yes, that’s a small sample size, but yes it’s not out of pocket to assume he can keep a similar pace for much of the year.

Utah needs to beat Shesterkin early to quiet the MSG crowd and force the Rangers on their heels early. In no world should Utah be in a position to allow him to outscore 40% of the NHL and 2 other organizations.

The Band
Iggy may Pop but the rest of the band’s playing well too. The Rangers are Well, the Rangers are 4th in the league in goals against average so far this year. Giving up just 4 goals in 3 games (including a shutout), the Rangers are keeping their enemies at arms length.

The flip side, however, is they are just about the bottom 10 in scoring. This means that while they’re great at holding opponents out of their net, they’re not the best at the other end just yet. This is definitely a Trocheck effect; the center was a massive piece of the Rangers offensive toolkit, and without him they are still trying to find their footing.

Their footing, though, appears to be attempting to run through Pavel Dorofeyev, the big splash trade they made in the offseason. Dorofeyev was a significant part of the Vegas Knights’ run, and he has a tremendous upside to his game in New York. Just 3 games in, though, he’s tied with Igor for 2nd on the team with 1 goal.

Surprisingly – at least to me – Eeli Tolvanen has 2 goals in 3 games, with goals in the past two. Tolvanen’s best year saw him pot 23 goals, so this start is extremely unusual. While he’s the current hot hand, I don’t expect him to be the driving force. Instead, look for Mika Zibanejad to be a factor this game, and one the Mammoth defense should look to try and contain.

Another Brick in the Wall
The Mammoth have been the league’s best shot suppressing team so far, keeping both opponents under 20 shots against. They’re averaging a 16.5 shots against per game this year, while shooting 31.5. This differential is the biggest so far this year, as Utah ranks #1 in shots against, and #7 in shots for.

In short, volume significantly favors the Mammoth, and quality volume doubly so.

The Rangers, on the other hand, give up about 23 shots a game, while shooting about 23 shots a game. They’re a better team on paper than the two we just faced, with far more offensive upside than the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets iterations so far in 2026, but their shot totals are still low. If Utan can keep their streak of shots against under 20, they’ll be in good shape to walk out of the MSG with a W. That’s a lot of random letters.

Projected Lineups:
Vejmelka gets the nod on the back to back:

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

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

Vejmelka
Cossa

Gametime 4PM puck drop, with the game available on Utah16 and SEG+

TUSKS UP!