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Utah Hockey Club’s Front Office Addresses Losing Streak Following Loss To San Jose

Oct 30, 2024, 2:22 PM

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SALT LAKE CITY – It’s been a tough stretch for the NHL’s newest franchise. Since a blistering 3-0 start to the season, the Utah Hockey Club has dropped six of their last seven games and are currently on a four-game losing streak. Following Monday nights improbable late loss, the front office addressed the losing streak.

Utah Hockey Club suffers brutal fourth-straight loss to San Jose

There’s no sugarcoating what took place against the San Jose Sharks. It was a get right game that looked like a guaranteed victory from warmups. Not only were the Sharks winless, but without two of their young stars, Utah was vastly superior on paper and played that way until the final four minutes.

Full Story: The Hat Trick: Utah Hockey Club Flounders Late, Sharks Get First Win Of Season

Despite leading 4-1 late, Utah led their guard down and within the blink of an eye, the game was not only tied but the Sharks won in OT. Absolutely demoralizing.

Tough games are part of the process for the Utah Hockey Club

After hitting the reset button as a franchise four years ago, this team is beginning to emerge from the depths with hopes of a postseason berth in the near future. However, as the second youngest team in the league with several young stars under the age of 24, there’s bound to be growing pains like what happened against San Jose.

“When you go through some bad here, it actually strengthens you as a group. It’s just a painful process to do that. There has to be some reality too. We’re a young group. I believe as of today we’re the second youngest team in the National Hockey League. So, you’re going to have some mistakes, and those mistakes are painful, they’re painful to watch. But it’s a part of the growing process you have to go through to be great,” General Manager Bill Armstrong told KSL Sports.

The NHL is arguably the most unforgiving league in professional sports. Crazy outcomes happen on a nightly basis and good teams endure losing streaks all the time. That’s hockey. But what’s important is to internalize those mistakes, learn from them and grow.

“We got off to an incredible, amazing start. Maybe we’re not as good the first winning streak we had, but we’re not as bad as the losing streak that we’re on. There’s a happy medium in there and we have to get there and grow. And not get our expectations out of whack. We’re a five-hundred club right now, we’re right where we should be for our age and where we’re at in the rebuild…it’s probably giving us a rude awakening which is a good thing. We’re not as talented as our first few games led us to believe and let’s get back to work,” Armstrong told KSL Sports.

Moments like these are an opportunity for growth for Utah Hockey Club

Like Bill Armstrong pointed out, Utah is one of the youngest teams in the NHL. With players like Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Matias Maccelli, Barrett Hayton, Vladislav Kolyachonok and Maveric Lamoureux, there’s plenty of talent but very little experience.

Related: Utah Hockey Club’s Leadership Group Addresses Losing Streak Following Loss To Sharks

With that in consideration, this team is still years away from truly competing for a Stanley Cup as they continue to rebuild. However, if they can learn from moments like this and allow it to refine them, they’ll be better off for it.

“This is the growth we talk about with this team. We’re an extremely young team. We’re extremely talented and skilled group but we’re young. We’re several years away from being the team we want to be and contending year in and year out to go deep in the playoffs and compete for the Stanley Cup,” President of Hockey Operations Chris Armstrong said.

“These are the moments where you learn the most. Games like last night teach you a lot about yourself, right? Although those lessons can be tough, like they were for us last night, it also is how the identity and the DNA of the team is formed. How’re we going to respond against Calgary? What are we willing to do to develop a winning mindset that we want to have? These are important growth moments. As tough as those things are to go through an experience, it’s the best possible thing for this team. That’s where the experience is forged,” Armstrong added.

It’s all about perspective. This team is not going to compete for a Stanley Cup this season. They might not even make the playoffs after experiencing several key injuries on the blue line. But it’s all part of the process. This is how you eventually do win it all. You endure hard times, acquire assets, develop talent, experience ups and downs, grow and eventually put yourself in a position to compete for Lord Stanley.

So, it’s not going to be fun every single night. There will be more peaks and valleys. But the goal remains the same and the team is doing everything they can to win games and achieve what all 32 teams want the most.

The Utah Hockey Club is laser focused on bringing a championship to Salt Lake City. But it doesn’t happen overnight.

Utah Hockey Schedule

The Utah Hockey Club will continue their two-game homestand against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. The game can be viewed on SEG+. Fans can also tune in on air on the KSL Sports APP or on 97.5 and 1280 The Zone. Click here for the full schedule. 

Cole Bagley is the Utah Hockey Club insider for KSL Sports. Keep up with him on X here. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.

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Utah Hockey Club’s Front Office Addresses Losing Streak Following Loss To San Jose