Found footage from tonight’s game.
I don’t have it in me to do a recap of that game tonight. I was able to catch the first period and a half, then had an appointment to go to. Before my appointment, we were down 5-0. I’ve never looked forward to having a personal trainer put me through a painful workout in my life.
I love writing about hockey, and watching it, and hopefully providing you with some content. Maybe a stupid pun to make you chuckle, or some insight into the game I love. Maybe you learn something new, or maybe I make a stupid comment you can stow away at a later time. I take a lot of pride in trying to break down plays and how they develop. I take a lot of pride in trying to provide you great insights, stats, figures, and trends.
What I’m saying is: this is a labor of love, and one I try and do in an entertaining and maybe even informative way. Add a “u” to labor if you’re outside of the US, the feeling is still the same.
Tonight, I can’t subject myself to watching that game again. I bet you can’t either. I do not envy the video coach that has to rewatch that game to provide highlights for the guys in the locker room.
So, instead of a period by period breakdown, let me just get into the thoughts for tonights game:
Utah started the game out fine enough. They seemed a little disjointed, but held play for the majority of the first half of the period. They had a power play which was uncharacteristically bad, but those happen. Then a terrible giveaway by Vincent Trocheck was the first domino to fall in what would be a catastrophically bad night.
After the turnover and goal, Utah made me feel like they played in the NY Rangers game. They rushed chances, pushed for opportunities that weren’t there. They made little mistakes that turned into bigger ones.
Sebastian Cossa was left out to dry on that first turnover. Then he let in a bad goal on the first Mammoth PK. The perfect PK to date, would be torched repeatedly this game. Cossa went down way too late to take away the ice, and Pastrnak – who had no offensive stats to speak of through 4 games – got his first. Don’t worry, he got another one later too.
Cossa’s third goal was, originally, what I expected to be bad defense. It looked like a tip in front. I watched it on replay though, because of course I did, and it just looks like the positioning was bad. Defense wasn’t doing him any favors, though. Out went Cossa, in went Karel Vejmelka.
Veggie, our legit starter, didn’t fare any better. The team in front of him went from chasing plays and forcing things too hard to straight out panicking, until a point they just seemed to give up. Boston had just a handful of shots, mind you. Our goalies weren’t tested. They weren’t shelled like Swayman was. They did not have a good game. Neither did the offense. Or the defense. In an 84 game season, it’s inevitable. Those games you feel really bad about your team, and feel they’re just terrible and you’re disappointed? That was tonight.
Instead of lowlights and breakdowns, enjoy my thoughts below.
3 GOALS (THE GOOD):
McBain Train
Jack McBain was the last player on the team to get a point. Shame, cause he’s been so good everywhere. Hits, blocks, playing with energy. Glad he got rewarded, but shame that it was in that nightmare mess.
Jack McBain was a +1 in a game the team lost 6-1 by the way. Sergachev
He didn’t miss any time with the hit to his head the other day. That was really great to see. It didn’t even seem to slow him down, since he was one of the only puck movers trying to make the power play work. But, ultimately it didn’t matter. No one got hurt
Well, fans did. Emotionally. But no one on the team got injured. And in a game this bad, that is legitimately the only other positive I’m really feeling to take away from it.
3 CHIRPS (THE BAD):
Lost their keys
Legitimately, there was no aspect of tonight’s game that was good. I wrote three things that the Mammoth needed to do as keys of the game. Every single one of them they did the opposite of.
Contain the Pastrnak line, and Pasta himself? They gave up 2 goals, 2 assists, and singlehandedly gave him 2x the points in this game than he had all season to date. Geekie? First goal of the year, 2 assists and 3 points. He had 1 coming into the game.
Get to Swayman early? I mean, they tried. There was a great play on the power play which couldn’t get going where the puck was shot deliberately off the boards for Daniil But to crash for a quick rebound-shot, but that was saved. Otherwise, Swayman wasn’t the victim of tips, or in tight shots. He made great saves, but didn’t have an ungodly game, only getting beat in the 3rd period by a McBain tip. Oh hey, a tip close in worked on Swayman, who would have known?
Special teams? That picture I picked for the header was our special teams. This was November 2025 bad. Uninspired, unable to connect on passes, unable to make zone entries, losing faceoffs. The PP was as bad as it’s been in a long time, and legitimately played worse than some ECHL hockey I’ve been to. The PK? Between poor goaltending, bad positioning, and just letting Boston get away with anything they wanted, there was nothing positive on that side of the game either. The only saving grace is that the truncated power play at the end of the game didn’t convert, so they went 1 for 4 instead of 0 for 3.
They did go 0 for 3 on listening to me, so there’s that… Introspection
This is the type of game that makes you wonder: What is this team?
This is a serious question. What is this team? Is this team the kind of team that can beat Chicago at home 6-0, dominating every facet of the game? Is this the kind of team that can get blown out by nearly the same score, having happen to them what they did to Chicago?
The answer is obviously somewhere in the middle, but where is going to be a mystery for a while. Is early success a mirage for us? Special teams the way they’ve been are untenable, so we knew there would be a regression to the mean. They were due for a game like today to rebalance the equation. But so quickly after so much success was startling.
What identity are they trying to pursue? They have been great shot blockers and chance generators against teams that don’t have heavy defenses or forechecks. They get caved in when there is pushback on both sides of the ice there. They perform astronomically well when there are passing lanes, and force play and make major mistakes when those lanes don’t exist.
Lee has provided the net-front presence we’ve wanted for 2 years, with the physicality along the boards and forecheck we need. McBain has thrown down multiple times, standing up for teammates and himself. Hits skyrocketed. Against Boston, though? No real physicality. 6 blocked shots. The previous worst was 11, but that’s because they broke Chicago’s soul. 19 hits, season low.
Trocheck was brought in for faceoffs. He’s fallen off since the first game a little, but is the only regular above 50%. Even Hayton, who I rag on a lot, normally is a bit better than 50. He’s below. Stenlund? Same. The team that was supposed to be a lot better on faceoffs has regressed for no reason in a span of 5 games.
Cossa has a bright future, but had a bad night. There were goals that were his fault, and a few massive defensive breakdowns as well. Vejmelka fared little better, and he’s the in-house starter. Can either of them steal games this year? Can we count on either of them to be a rock in net night in and night out?
We had really good vibes early on, and rightfully so. A game like today, however, put a huge reality smackdown on what was a magical 4 game run – if such thing exists. Now, the team has faced a real challenge, and we need to find out who they are coming out of it.
Next up:
Do you really want to think about a next game?
Saturday, up in Buffalo. It’s gotta be better than this one.
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