The Utah Hockey Club has a problem. It has been becoming more evident each game, and the number of penalties this team has been taking was going to catch up with them at some point.
That happened Monday afternoon in the Utah Hockey Club's matchup with the New Jersey Devils. The Devils shut Utah out, winning 3-0 and scoring two goals on the powerplay.
In the first three games of the season, Utah was still taking far too many penalties; they were just able to outscore these issues. Yesterday, against the Devils, Utah struggled offensively for the first time this season, only managing 20 shots on goal and 13 total scoring chances. This can be primarily attributed to Utah taking 14 minutes worth of minor penalties and having their penalty kill unit on the ice for almost a quarter of the hockey game (via NaturalStatTrick).
Andre Tourigny has brought a lot of improvement out of this talented young Utah team, but he has never had this team play disciplined hockey, and that needs to change if this team is going to compete for the NHL playoffs this season.
As Shannon Sharpe always said on "Undisputed" when talking about penalties in regards to football, "You either coach it, or you condone it". Andre Tourigny needs to start holding the Utah Hockey Club accountable and get them to play more disciplined hockey.
Andre Tourigny needs to fix the Utah Hockey Club's penalty problem
Before this year, the Arizona Coyotes, now Utah Hockey Club, were never worried about competing for a playoff spot. This team has been in full rebuild mode since Tourigny took over and has never really had to worry about team discipline, considering that, at this point, the team is competing for a lottery draft position. In years past, it was almost beneficial for the Coyotes to lose as many games as possible.
But now that the Utah Hockey Club is ready to compete for an NHL playoff spot, discipline needs to be this team's number one point of focus. They have shown tremendous improvement offensively and defensively, and consistently playing at a disadvantage could derail this team's season, no matter how much improvement they have shown.
Over the last three years under coach Tourigny, this team has spent the third most time per game on the penalty kill. Through their first four games this season, they are averaging more than eight minutes on the penalty kill per game, which is the fourth most in the NHL.
Eight minutes per game is far too many, especially considering Utah is not drawing any penalties to even out the penalties being called against them. This has resulted in them being among the bottom 10 teams in powerplay opportunities per game through the first week of the season.
Utah's powerplay unit has been elite to start the season and will likely continue to be one of the best in the NHL. Having a top powerplay unit in the NHL is one of the most significant advantages a team can have; however, if Utah continues to spend just short of 15% of each game in the box not even their elite offensive talent will be able to overcome the amount of time this team has been playing at a disadvantage.
With this team likely going to be on the playoff bubble coming down the stretch in April, all these points in October matter just as much as they will later in the season, and the Utah Hockey Club can not afford to give away points by taking stupid penalties and continue to play a significant portion of these games at a man disadvantage.