SI:AM | Utah’s Successful NHL Debut

Fans are excited about the team, even if it doesn’t have a name yet.

Utah gave fans much to cheer about in its NHL debut. / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I hope you enjoy the last day with four playoff baseball games.

In today’s SI:AM:

🍎 Mets push Phillies to the brink
✈️ Where do the Jets go from here?
🏀 Big East preview

No name, no problem

Salt Lake City’s NHL franchise doesn’t have a name but it does have a 1–0 record.

The team temporarily known as the Utah Hockey Club opened its inaugural season at home on Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks and came away with a 5–2 victory.

It took just five minutes for the team to score its first goal—a one-timer from the high slot by Dylan Guenther. Utah added goals by Clayton Keller and Barrett Hayton to stretch the lead to 3–0 before the Blackhawks managed to narrow the deficit to 3–2. An empty-net goal followed by another goal in the final seconds put the finishing touches on the win.

The fans were engaged and vocal throughout the game, chanting in unison and waving rally towels. It was more reminiscent of a playoff atmosphere than a season opener.

“We could feel the energy, and we’re just happy we were able to put a game like that in front of them,” Guenther said.

That environment was a far cry from what the team experienced in its final season as the Arizona Coyotes, when it played at a 4,600-seat arena on the campus of Arizona State University. Utah’s arena situation isn’t perfect, but it at least allows for bigger crowds than in Tempe. The Delta Center was built primarily for the Utah Jazz, and so fitting an ice rink inside requires playing a bit of Tetris.

The official attendance for Tuesday night’s game was 11,131. But that only includes seats with an unobstructed view of the ice. If you include fans sitting in seats where only one goal was visible, the attendance figure was 16,020. The fact that almost 5,000 people were willing to buy tickets to sit where they couldn’t see half of the game should tell you a lot about how excited Utahns are to have a second big-league franchise. (The team plans to renovate the arena to increase the number of full-view seats.)

“This is history,” Keller said after the game. “It’s only going to happen once, so you just try to soak it all in. I think we all had nerves, and that’s a good thing. You want nerves before the first game of a season, especially in this scenario. So, it was super cool and something I’ll remember forever.”

Face-off. pic.twitter.com/TeN7jPiVpq

— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) October 9, 2024

The Coyotes were among the saddest franchises in American sports during their final years in Arizona, reaching the playoffs just once since 2012 while the shadow of the arena uncertainty hung over them. On paper, Utah isn’t much better this year than the Coyotes team that finished seventh out of eight teams in the Central Division last season. But the vibes are at least better than they were in Arizona. The support of an enthusiastic fan base and the certainty of knowing the team has a home city for the foreseeable future could be more impactful than any free-agent acquisition the team could have made.

Manaea only gave up one run over seven innings in New York’s Game 3 win vs. Philly. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

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The top five …

… things I saw last night:

5. The Lynx’ celebration after punching their ticket to the WNBA Finals.
4. Two goals in one minute for the Panthers.
3. Three goals in two minutes for the Blues.
2. The San Diego crowd’s reaction to Fernando Tatis Jr.’s second-inning home run.
1. Jesse Winker’s home run to a part of Citi Field I didn’t know was possible to reach.