{"id":556575,"date":"2026-04-20T08:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556575\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T08:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:07:24","slug":"logan-cooley-emerges-as-villain-in-mammoths-stanley-cup-playoff-debut-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556575\/","title":{"rendered":"Logan Cooley emerges as villain in Mammoth\u2019s Stanley Cup playoff debut \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 At the media meal ahead of the Utah Mammoth\u2019s inaugural playoff game against the Vegas Golden Knights, one writer who has attended many a playoff game at T-Mobile Arena gave us Utah reporters some advice: Don\u2019t bring a full cup into the press box.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the building gets so loud it virtually registers on the Richter scale \u2014 and you don\u2019t want your beverage to end up all over your laptop.<\/p>\n

While the pregame festivities were very Vegas, Utah\u2019s play in the first period and a half was enough to keep the crowd quiet.<\/p>\n

Logan Cooley scored in the dying seconds of the first and Kevin Stenlund beat Carter Hart with a quick, heads-up play in the second, with a Colton Sissons rebound goal in between.<\/p>\n

But despite being tied or leading until nearly halfway through the third period, the Mammoth dropped their first playoff game by a 4-2 score.<\/p>\n

By the time the Golden Knights took the lead, everyone\u2019s beverages were already gone \u2014 which was advantageous because it was at that point that the volcano erupted.<\/p>\n

What do the Mammoth need to change going into Tuesday\u2019s rematch?<\/p>\n

It starts with the top line of Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse. That group typically leads the charge offensively for the team, but on top of not scoring, they were on the ice for four, three and two of the Golden Knights\u2019 four goals, respectively.<\/p>\n

Crouse, the team\u2019s associate captain, took responsibility and committed to improving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we can be better,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re competitive guys. We want to do whatever we can to help this team win, just like everyone in our locker room. We\u2019re going to try and step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c… It\u2019s a game about learning. It\u2019s a game of inches out there. (In the) regular season, it seems like it\u2019s a game about feet. (In the) playoffs, it seems like it\u2019s a game of inches. So, everything happens way quicker. Mentally, you\u2019ve got to be on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logan Cooley, the supervillain<\/p>\n

Everyone knew Cooley would be a good offensive player \u2014 third-overall picks tend to be that way. But what wasn\u2019t as obvious is how much of a pest he could become.<\/p>\n

In the hockey world, and especially when it comes to the playoffs, \u201cpest\u201d is a positive term used to describe players who get under opponents\u2019 skin. The regular season is a battle, but the playoffs are a war \u2014 and guys like Matthew Tkachuk and Brad Marchand, for example, have made their living by playing that style of hockey in April, May and June.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Utah Mammoth\u2019s first-ever playoff game Sunday against the Vegas Golden Knights, Cooley played with an edge that has only surfaced a few times in his Mammoth career thus far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the playoffs. You\u2019re playing for the Cup. You\u2019re doing whatever you can to help your team win, if that is (playing) physical or scoring, playing good defensively, whatever the team needs,\u201d he said after the game. \u201cI think that\u2019s our mindset in this locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooley averaged precisely one hit per game throughout the regular season, but he had four in his playoff debut. He also scored the franchise\u2019s first-ever playoff goal and had several other jaw-dropping plays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was on a mission,\u201d said head coach Andr\u00e9 Tourigny after the game. \u201cHe was really good. I think him and his line played a solid game. You guys know how Cools is, how competitive he is, and I think he just put it on display.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever since returning from the injury that sidelined him for 28 games this season, Cooley has been more than a good player. He\u2019s been a game breaker: The guy who steps up when the team needs a hero.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a player that\u2019s ready to take that step on this center stage here in the playoffs,\u201d said veteran defenseman Nate Schmidt. \u201cHe really makes a lot of plays for guys and creates space for people. I love his game. I love his tenacity around the puck. He\u2019s not someone that\u2019s going to shy away from it, and that\u2019s what I love about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooley was so successful in his debut as a villain that he even appeared to get a death threat<\/a> from Golden Knights forward Nic Dowd \u2014 something that the NHL Department of Player Safety could potentially review for supplementary discipline.<\/p>\n

When asked about it after the game, Dowd didn\u2019t address it directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s an emotional game,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a grind of a series. Again, it\u2019s an emotional game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprises<\/p>\n

The Mammoth have made a point of concealing as much injury information as possible, as opponents can and do target those injuries \u2014 especially in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

But on Sunday, it seemed the \u201cgame-time decisions\u201d came down to the literal final seconds.<\/p>\n

In particular, Jack McBain, who hadn\u2019t played or participated in a full practice since April 2, did not skate with the team in the morning, leading most to the conclusion that he wouldn\u2019t play. The fans were elated<\/a> to find out that he was taking warmups.<\/p>\n

When the public relations folks handed out the lineup sheets in the press box, he was not listed. He did end up playing, though, at which point they reprinted the lineup sheets and handed out new ones.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t happen often.<\/p>\n

Sean Durzi also returned from an injury, which had kept him out of a game and a half.<\/p>\n

Neither guy played much, though: Durzi logged the fewest minutes of Utah\u2019s defensemen and McBain outplayed only Brandon Tanev.<\/p>\n

But the guys were glad to have them back.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcBain\u2019s such a team-first guy,\u201d Crouse said. \u201cPlayoff player. The way he plays, he\u2019s hard, he\u2019s heavy on pucks, he\u2019s unselfish and just a great teammate. He\u2019s always there to pick people up when they\u2019re down and just really gives everything he can each and every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Jeremy Lauzon (5) and Utah Mammoth left wing Brandon Tanev (13) fight during the first period in Game 1 of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo\/John Locher) | AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 At the media meal ahead of the Utah Mammoth\u2019s inaugural playoff game against the Vegas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,43,3154,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-556575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-utah-mammoth","14":"tag-vegas","15":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","16":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116436013060416076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556575","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=556575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}