The Utah Hockey Club played a perfect game on Saturday night. After losing Sean Durzi to injury in a game against the New Jersey Devils, it was easy to expect Utah to struggle defensively. Still, Saturday night, after beating the Boston Bruins in overtime, the Utah Hockey Club has shown the recipe for success defensively for surviving without Sean Durzi on their blueline.
In Utah's first game without Durzi, it looked pretty evident that it would take Utah some time to adjust to life without Durzi, as they allowed 3.67 expected goals against the Ducks, the second-most Utah through these first six games. Still, they followed that up by only allowing a season-best 2.73 expected goals(via NaturalStatTrick).
The Utah Hockey Club played its best all-around defensive game of the season, and multiple defenders elevated their game. If Utah can replicate this performance night in and night out, it may be in a better defensive spot than we initially thought after its first game without Durzi.
Here's a breakdown of how Utah effectively neutralized the potent Bruins offence, averaging over three goals per game.
Utah Hockey Club shows blueprint for success without Sean Durzi
In the Utah Hockey Club's first five games, they played a high-risk, high-reward style, trying to take advantage of every turnover and beat teams with speed and skill. This strategy is high-risk because if players puck-watch and look to create turnovers or jump passing lanes too often, it leads to high-danger chances in all kinds of ways, from players finding space away from the puck.
It was evident this was happening too often, as even with games including Sean Durzi, the Utah Hockey Club is allowing the sixth most high-danger shots on goal per game. But last night, against the Boston Bruins, the Utah Hockey Club had the perfect balance of finding the time to push the puck up the ice and take advantage of odd-man rushes in transition and when to stay back in and be a passing option to help exit the defensive zone with puck possession.
This five-person effort in the defensive zone paid off. Utah only allowed 43 shot attempts to the Bruins on Saturday night, 19 less than they have allowed to any other team this season. This was the first time Utah had won the shot attempt battle this season.
They stayed in good defensive positions, allowing their defensive structure to create takeaways and turnovers and keep the puck out of high-danger areas. Plenty more close support ensured the puck got out of Utah's end while maintaining possession and not just firing long stretch passes down the ice that was getting picked off all too often. This defensive structure also led to fewer penalties (still too many), but they also showed improvement in that regard.
While Utah is a team that can run up the score and beat just about anybody with speed and skill, having to rely on offence is an incredibly inconsistent way of winning. It was nice to see Utah finally show that they can bear down defensively and win a game where Jeremy Swayman did everything he could to try and steal the game.
Hopefully, we can see this defensive structure more consistently from the Utah Hockey Club. This style of hockey will lead to far more wins than having to outscore everybody on any given night. It will take a ton of pressure off Connor Ingram, who has played well despite his stats looking somewhat ugly from Utah giving up far too many chances in their first five games.