3 Takeaways From Mammoth’s 6-4 Loss to Capitals

A couple of minutes later, Keller threw Guenther a pass again, this one getting him to the front of the net where he went forehand-backhand to put the puck in for his second of the game. It was Guenther’s 36th of the season.

It seemed like, after Logan Cooley’s goal at the end of the first period, that the Mammoth had control of the game. However, that was all taken away by Ovechkin. In the second period, he tipped a shot past Vítek Vaněček to score his first of the game.

Interestingly enough, before that goal, Vaněček had never let Ovechkin score on him, owning the title for the most saves on the legendary forward without giving up the goal. It seems like Ovechkin knew about that in the back of his mind because it wasn’t the last goal he scored against his former teammate.

A snapshot from the blueline six minutes later gave Ovechkin his second of the game, tying the game at three. With two goals apiece, it felt like one of the two players was going to complete the hat trick. Who was it going to be?

It ended up being Ovechkin who put it into the empty net to finish off the 34th hat trick of his career, passing Brett Hull for fourth most in NHL history. Ovechkin’s three goals also marked the 21st NHL franchise he’s scored a hat trick against, the most in NHL history.

Five goals in two games at the Delta Center for Ovechkin. Accounting for the fact that he also got injured midway through the first of those two games, I would say that’s pretty impressive. One could say he loves playing in Utah.

“I guess so,” Ovechkin said. “Good thing I didn’t get hurt.”

Guenther and Ovechkin weren’t the only ones scoring goals on Thursday. Ivan Miroshnichenko potted his first two goals of the season, including the game-winning goal. However, it was MacKenzie Weegar scoring his first goal as a member of the Mammoth that really got the crowd going.

Weegar continues to improve every day since he came over from the Calgary Flames. Now with a goal in his pocket, the monkey is off his back. It wouldn’t be surprising if more offense is on the way for him.

“He’s gotten better every single game,” Keller said. “It’s tough when you get traded to a whole new system, a lot of different moving parts. He’s such a great player. He’s calm back there, he’s poised, and he’s got that calming feeling when you’re out there with him. It’s great to see him get his first, and there’ll be many more to come.”

Three players with multi-goal games and a player scoring his first with his new team. If you like goals, Thursday’s game was definitely one for you.

Welcome to Fight Club

First rule of Fight Club: You don’t talk about Fight Club. We’re going to break that iconic rule because the Delta Center turned into Fight Club on Thursday.

In the first period alone, nine penalties were handed out. It started when Mikhail Sergachev went after Ryan Leonard and later shoved another Capitals player. From that moment on, everyone knew things were going to get physical.

After the first three goals, Brandon Tanev delivered a hard hit to Matt Roy, which prompted Trevor Van Reimsdyk and Tom Wilson to grab him. All the way to the penalty box and even in the box, Tanev and Wilson were yelling at each other.

Right there, it felt like that’s where the Mammoth lost their momentum. With Tanev getting a misconduct and out for the next 10 minutes, the Mammoth had to jumble their lines to make up for his absence, while the Capitals easily adjusted and capitalized on their opening.

As soon as Tanev got out of the box, he went straight for Brandon Duhaime, and the two fought. In the third period, Lawson Crouse fought Wilson. It was just fight after fight, and the Mammoth got swept up in it.

“It’s positive as long as it doesn’t take you out of your game,” head coach André Tourigny said. “That is just the way it is. You think that was emotional? If you play in the playoffs, it will be like that in the warm-up. So you cannot get carried away with that emotion. It is great to have emotion, but you need to stay in control. So I love the mindset of showing up for each other and everything. I am a huge believer in team toughness. I talk about that all the time. I love that. But that cannot take you away from what you have to do.”

Tourigny has two great points in that quote. The first one is that if you thought that Thursday night was emotional, just wait until you get into the playoffs. That is quite literally a rollercoaster of emotions.

The second point is that there’s no need to start fights and give in to the Capitals’ game when you’re up 3-1. The Mammoth had all the momentum and the lead, and it all came crashing down as soon as they started retaliating.

Fight Club is a cool club to be a part of. It’s a great David Fincher movie. However, if you give in like Edward Norton did in the film, the whole city is going to come crashing down. The Mammoth did just that on Thursday, and they found their lead crashing down.

An Emotional Loss

When Tourigny came into his press conference, he was visibly emotional. Disappointment and anger could be read on his face. He admitted that the loss against the Capitals was a tough and disappointing one.

“It is tougher to talk with emotion and everything, but I will try to keep it brief,” Tourigny said. “I am disappointed in the way we controlled our emotions. I am a big believer in team toughness, showing up for your teammates, and stuff like that. But there is a way to do it. The more important thing is that we got carried away emotionally. It’s part of the game, but you need to stay composed, and you need to keep playing. We got carried away from there, and that cost us.”

As mentioned, it all started with the Tanev misconduct. However, it wasn’t just physicality that cost the Mammoth the win. The defense was part of the problem as well. Every defenseman finished the game as a minus in the plus-minus category. Just as concerning, Sean Durzi finished the game with only 14:37 in ice time, the lowest for him this season. Durzi’s play hasn’t been great as of late, and it seems like it’s started to catch up to him.

It didn’t help that the goals kept coming. The Capitals scored four unanswered goals, and it seemed like no one on the Mammoth could stop them.

“We need to find a balance of pushing for offense, but we have to defend,” Cooley said. “We want to play with the puck and score, but we start to let up chances in our own end, and that’s costing us, and it happened against the (Edmonton) Oilers, too. We’ve got to find a way when we’re trailing to apply pace in our D zone.”

With the number of goals getting past Vaněček, Tourigny decided to make a change in net, swapping in Karel Vejmelka. This is the second straight game in a row the coach has decided to switch goaltenders in the middle of a game.

When asked about whether it was a goaltender issue, Tourigny quickly shut that down, blaming not one individual but the whole team.

“It’s all the team,” Tourigny said. “Offense is not the forward, defense is not the D. Same thing for the goalie. It’s a unit of six on the ice. Your breakout, you need your goalie…You need to play as a unit.”

Whoever and whatever you want to blame it on, these are the facts. The Mammoth have now lost seven of their past 10 games in the most important stretch of the season. They got lucky the Nashville Predators lost their game on Thursday, too, so they retain their three-point cushion. The goaltending has been questionable, parts of the defense and offense haven’t been living up to standards, and the homestands have been mediocre at best.

Now the Mammoth head onto their final road trip through LA, Seattle, and Vancouver. It could determine if the Mammoth will stay in the first wild card spot in the Western Conference or give it up to the Predators. Their first game against the Kings is a big one too, as they’re only four points behind for the first wild card. Regrouping is needed, and a win is necessary in Southern California.

“Everyone’s gotta look in the mirror,” Keller said. “We all have to be better, and we all know that. Still super confident with our group. This is the most exciting part of the year and the most exciting hockey. We’re all positive, and we’ll learn from it and go to LA.”

The Mammoth will play the Kings on Saturday. The Kings are 29-25-18 and are coming off a 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks. These two teams last played earlier this week when the Mammoth won dramatically thanks to Nick Schmaltz’s overtime goal, ending it with a score of 4-3.