adding to an overtime winner<\/a> in the team\u2019s visit to UBS Arena last season.<\/p>\nHe stated in his preseason press conference that he wanted to diversify his scoring rather than relying upon the power play one-timer that seemed to create most of his goals last season. It hasn\u2019t all been sunshine and rainbows, but the stats speak for themselves. The adjustment is working.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want him to get ahead of himself so I won\u2019t get ahead of myself (either). I have such a high regard for Gunner, of what he can do,\u201d Tourigny said. \u201c… The big thing for him is to make sure he keeps the right mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guenther wouldn\u2019t take all the credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve probably had a lot of two-goalers, actually, so it\u2019s nice to get another one. But, I mean, (Lawson Crouse) and (Barrett Hayton) made really nice plays on all of my goals, so I wouldn\u2019t have scored three without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Utah fans can rest easy, knowing that they have Guenther\u2019s services secured until the end of the 2033 season at an extremely manageable $7.1 million per year.<\/p>\n
Is a sleeping giant waking up?<\/p>\n
Last season, Utah\u2019s power play was the 10th-best in the NHL. This year, it\u2019s receded to 25th.<\/p>\n
But the Mammoth struck twice with the man-advantage on Thursday. Both goals came from the first unit, which has struggled more than the second group in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Tourigny pointed out the momentum change that resulted from his team\u2019s power play in the first period.<\/p>\n
As mentioned, the Mammoth hadn\u2019t put a single shot on net at that point, and had instead fought off 10 from the Islanders. The power play allowed them to sustain the puck in the offensive zone for the first time all game, and although they didn\u2019t score on that go-round, their five shots were enough to flush out whatever fatigue came from celebrating New Year\u2019s in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat power play sparked us \u2014 we had several good looks \u2014 and built our confidence,\u201d Tourigny said. \u201cFrom there, we were a much better team, and the rest of the game, we were a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guenther equated that success to working harder and winning more puck battles and face-offs. Utah won all 14 draws on the power play, which is huge \u2014 especially considering that Bo Horvat, who has operated at a stellar 57.6% in the face-off circle this season, is among the Islanders\u2019 top penalty killers.<\/p>\n
Given the amount of one-goal games the Mammoth have lost, an extra power play goal every few games could be exactly what they need to start winning more consistently. The personnel hasn\u2019t changed much since last year, so these guys know their capabilities are high.<\/p>\n
Half-season standings<\/p>\n
With 41 games in the books, Utah\u2019s season is halfway over. That\u2019s usually not the case by this time of the calendar year, but taking a three-week break for the Olympics means the schedule has been more condensed than normal.<\/p>\n
At this point in the season, a tiebreaker has the Mammoth on the outside of the playoffs, looking in. By no means are they out of the race, and stringing together a few consecutive wins could put them where they need to be.<\/p>\n
The key for Utah will be to find consistency. Looking at the Central Division leaders, they\u2019ve all had many streaks of 3-5 wins this season, and their losing skids rarely go longer than two games.<\/p>\n
The Mammoth have had their moments, but it\u2019s always been more of a one-step-forward, two-steps-back situation.<\/p>\n
The thing working in Utah\u2019s favor from here on out is the schedule.<\/p>\n
The Mammoth have squeezed the first 41 games into an 85-day span, while the latter half will be played in 105 days due to the Olympic break. <\/p>\n
Utah has played 24 of its road games but only 17 at home, meaning the Mammoth will have home-ice advantage much more frequently the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
According to Tankathon<\/a>, they have the 16th-hardest schedule remaining in terms of the opponents they\u2019ll face. While that\u2019s much worse than the San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings \u2014 all of whom are competing for the same wild card spots \u2014 it\u2019s not as daunting as what the Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and Winnipeg Jets face going forward.<\/p>\nGoal of the gameCrouse\u2019s no-look pass to Guenther<\/p>\n
Tourigny referred to Crouse as an unsung hero in this game, so let\u2019s sing him some praise.<\/p>\n
This goal doesn\u2019t happen without Crouse\u2019s ability to go hard in the corner and have the presence of mind to make a good play. If you aren\u2019t confident that the pass can get to the right guy, you can\u2019t make it \u2014 that would put your team at a disadvantage going the other way. <\/p>\n
Perhaps he wouldn\u2019t have attempted it last season, but he had the right amount of confidence this time and it paid off greatly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Utah Mammoth\u2019s New Year\u2019s resolution was obvious: score more goals. With a 7-2 win over the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,3157,5190,5189,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-386017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115823743070850094","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}