REALITY CHECK: Utah Mammoth FALL HARD, Minnesota Wild SHOW Stanley Cup Contender Difference

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Boy, the Minnesota Wild were on a mission and they took down the Utah mammoth 5, nothing

we're going to take a look back at this game and this road trip and what it means for

the mammoths remaining playoff push.

You are a Lockdown mammoth, your daily podcast on the Utah mammoth, part of the Lockdown

Podcast Network, 14 every day.

Hello everyone and welcome in once again to Lockdown mammoth I'm better in NHL voice,

Tom Callahan, Robin Leonio still on, well, I guess I could call it big Q.

But Robin's out there playing hockey in the Great White North out in Vancouver, having

a hockey tournament and a bit of a sightseeing trip all in one.

So Robin can't wait for you to come back but hope you are relaxing and having a good

time while you're up there.

The Utah mammoth did not have a good time against the Minnesota Wild.

Five, nothing.

The Wild shut out the mammoth.

I have a lot to say about this game.

I'm sure you probably do too and you can go ahead and start throwing your thoughts in

the comments here bright and early because we're going to talk about the gap if you're

watching on YouTube.

You see the bullet points as the gap between WC and SC.

You could take a guess as to what that means, but I'm going to explain it later.

But a five, nothing shut out loss on the second half of a back to back.

Let's get all the reasons, the excuses, the validation, whatever you want to call it

out of the way now.

So yeah, back to back with travel, they came off a particularly disappointing loss to

Chicago.

They got a single point good ahead too in my opinion and I think a lot of other people

feel that way.

It was interesting to me reading Andre Torney's pregame quotes coming into this game against

the wild talking about how he wanted to see their speed.

He wanted to see them get going, get on the attack and on the front foot, right?

And that's what we asked, hey, get in there and forecheck.

Use your speed because it's part of your element.

That's what you bring and then be physical, be feisty, be hard to play against.

Go get pucks, toss it into the corner, go get it, skate it into the zone, try to generate

off the rush, find rebounds, get to the net, all of those things and the wild were the

far better team tonight.

And I think the gap wasn't super close.

I think the Minnesota wild did a fantastic job being physical.

I think the wild did a fantastic job of getting to pucks, recovering pucks, forcing Utah

to play their game all night long.

The other thing I thought was interesting was the narrative coming into this one we talked

about on yesterday's show how you taught played well against Minnesota.

They seem to be able to contain them.

They had outscored them quite a bit this season.

They just did a better job in the season series to this point.

They really seem to have Minnesota's number.

Minnesota was not having that.

Minnesota was not interested in that narrative.

And in fact, I believe the wild really needed to come out and establish themselves and

talk about the reasons why the Minnesota wild are forced to be reckoned with because they're

at a spot right now where if they let things get away from them, Dallas is going to have

the upper hand by far.

Minnesota still has a chance to have home ice over Dallas in what is I think the stats

on money pucks.

It's something like 97% certainty that these two will face each other in the first round.

So you know, it's going to be Dallas, Minnesota, old stars against new stars.

If you follow that far back, if you're an old school every day or you understand that

one, that is what's coming in Minnesota has to prepare to play against the Dallas team

that is deep, that is difficult.

That's hard to play against.

There's a month left in this NHL regular season and Minnesota coming into this game.

Look to Utah, much the same way I said Utah should be looking at Chicago.

This is a team you need to be need to be able to put them away.

They are behind you and the standings keep them there.

Do not let them think they're better.

Do not let them think they're equal.

Don't let them think they can get into this game.

The wild did exactly that.

Now, one of the things that I was frustrated by, and I'm sure you were frustrated by in

this game, the first period penalties, and I know that's going to get circled, highlighted,

underscored, bold-based type might even get its own paragraph because when you take

four first period penalties, that's frustrating.

Well, actually, it's so three first period penalties.

The one was a fight.

I didn't mind the fight, and I thought both Hartman and Weger at different times in the

fight controlled the fight.

Weger looked good early.

Hartman rallied, finished strong.

I understand what Weger is trying to do there.

That was pre-ordained off the face-off.

They were just going to go menace though, and here's the thing, when you're on the road,

you better be awful certain you're not going to lose that fight, or even give the appearance

that you lost that fight.

I can argue to score it a draw, but I can also argue to score it that Ryan Hartman won that fight,

and that got the crowd into it, got the team going.

They got a goal later in the period, and I mean, it was Weger was back on the ice by then,

so it's not like that had a ton to do with it.

But I felt like it really looked ahead, it forecasted it,

or tended the storm, if you will, that was coming for the Utah Mammoth.

And then kind of an ugly play on the wall.

Kraus ends up getting called oddly for high sticking.

It was one of those where Koolie got tangled up with a player.

The wild player went in awkwardly to the boards, kind of so did Koolie.

And then I feel like they felt like they had to call something out of all that.

So suddenly Kraus is in the box for high sticking.

I didn't necessarily like that one.

But then right after that, her foot takes a bad tripping call.

Now it's five on three.

And even though they got by that portion of the game, now you're chasing the game.

Now you're tired.

Now you had to kill those two consecutive penalties.

Then you're shorthanded again at the end of the period.

If you're already trailing one nothing, the urgency had to be there.

Minnesota did not score a power click on this game.

So the penalty killed did its job.

But I feel like having to kill those penalties really took the momentum away from the mammoth

when they needed to build it most.

One of the hard parts about coming in as a road team is being able to establish your game.

And a lot of time, look, we talk about this, right?

A lot of times in another team's barn, you're holding on for the first five, maybe 10 minutes.

They're coming out strong.

They're coming out fired up.

They want to impress the home team.

That's what we talk about a boring road game, right?

That's what you want to do.

Just be boring.

Pucks in deep like every cliche that I can throw at you right now.

Pucks in deep, make the other team go 200 feet.

You know, if you want to throw a clog up the neutral zone, but you got a forecheck,

you got to make life miserable.

We talked about this on yesterday's preview for this wild team.

You had to get in there, get in on them.

Minnesota absolutely did that to Utah.

I felt like they took away Utah's time in space.

They were physical.

They pushed Utah around.

Utah tried to respond.

But this really shows me how much better the wild are, how much better prepared

they are and they just, even though shots on goal were close, 30 to 25, nobody had a power

of play goal.

Although it would have been nice if the mammoth could have found a power of play goal,

but I mean, for the most part, their power play looked like it was not very cohesive,

which is also a frustrating point for us, mammoth fans, right?

We talk about that all the time.

And it's tough.

You look at this game five, nothing.

I'm trying to take something positive out of it.

And at the end of the game,

Brawlvich Melka just, you know,

blows a stick up on the goal post because he's frustrated.

He's angry.

And even the national commentators in Kevin Weeks is saying,

well, he didn't have a whole lot of support back there tonight.

With only 30 shots against.

Not that that's few, but it's not 40.

It's not 50, but the degree of difficulty, the grade A chances,

you know, shots off the rush that turned into rebounds.

The ability to recover Pucks funnel him to the front of the net.

There were times I actually had to check

that Utah had five skaters because of the way Minnesota was moving the puck around

in the offensive zone five on five.

I wondered if Utah was shorthanded and they just seemed to be chasing tonight.

They were never settled.

They never really got into the game.

It just, it really never worked out for them.

And the travel wasn't that big a deal.

They flew from Chicago

to Minneapolis.

That's not far.

It's a quick flight.

You're still in your hotel by midnight.

Get a good night's rest.

Then you wake up, you skate the next morning,

or maybe you don't know if it's optional.

And then you get ready and you come to the ring if you play another game.

So I'm not putting much credence in that one either.

But Minnesota was ready.

They circled this.

They wanted this game.

This to them was a playoff game.

And they proved to Utah what they wanted to prove to Utah.

They proved to them that the wilder better

and that the wild prove to themselves that they can hang with Dallas,

that they can hang with Minnesota.

Every game is a statement came now for the wild,

just like it is for the mammoth.

We're not the only team out there trying to put these big old points up on the board.

So that's something we have to keep in mind.

All right, we're going to talk about the gap.

This mysterious gap.

What is this mysterious gap?

I will explain.

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Tom Callahan here with you.

Thank you so much for joining me here on Locked On Mammoth

and making our first list in each and every single day.

When it comes to this Utah Mammoth hockey team,

we are wrapping up the five-nothing loss

to the Minnesota wild.

We're going to talk about the road trip as a whole.

And what it means looking forward.

We're going to go through March.

We're going to take a peep into April

and try to stare into our crystal hockey puck

and figure out what does this all mean.

What are we looking at here?

I thought Mackenzie Weger, again, talked about that fight tonight.

I think he looks good showing up again.

Mackelle circuit chef out with this lower body injury.

They're calling him day-to-day, but this is now four in a row.

So we're kind of left wondering, is it really day-to-day?

It's moving in the week to week, which is not great.

But also, it is early March.

So if you don't want to push it, you don't have to.

And you really don't have to at this point.

I mean, the standing say you're still in the first wild card spot.

It's not there's no panic button around

circuit chef as far as I'm concerned.

Unless he's going to miss extended time.

As far as we know, okay, that's not the case.

So we'll just take a deep breath right now and hope that he is back.

But I mean, I like Weger's game.

He's a different player, right, that circuit chef.

He does bring an edge that they needed.

He brings a physical element.

They just simply didn't have.

And he's confident back there.

He looks like he's in control.

I like that.

What I have liked the defense is a hole to be a little more stout tonight.

Well, yeah, absolutely.

At the end of the day, everybody's got to dash next to their name.

Sean Dersey, unfortunately, one minus four.

Coolie minus three, Paturka minus three.

Decemo minus two, Yamamoto minus two.

Yeah, Weger was minus two.

So had three hits.

Four hits are Jack McBain.

So I like that they were at least trying to hit.

But only 14 total hits in the gamer Minnesota had 23.

Yakov Trenton had nine.

Nobody ever talks about Yakov Trenton.

But I love that guy.

He doesn't put.

He had nine hits in 12 minutes and 17 seconds of ice.

They basically say, hey man, go out there, run around.

Okay, hit something.

Okay, hit something else.

Okay.

That's that's the straw that stirs the drink, right?

Utah needs at least some of that.

They don't need all of that, but they need some of that.

And again, I mean, McBain, okay, four hits, Weger hit three hits.

Other than that, the only guy with more than one was Kirkfoot.

And then he had single digit hits for a couple other smattering you guys.

That's not good enough.

It's just not it's not good enough.

You should be putting up a hit on the four check.

They've really got to find a way to get to playing a more physical game.

And if the if it's whether it's the ingress to the offensive zone that's not providing it,

maybe that's got to change or maybe the fires just not there.

I don't know what it is, but this is not a league, especially come this time of year.

And into the playoffs where you can dipsy-doodle your way into the zone and be just fine.

That's not how it's going to work.

Going forward.

So let's talk about the gap.

What is WC?

What is SC?

Most of you have probably figured out by now.

WC is wild card.

SC is Stanley Cup.

What you saw tonight is the gap.

The mammoth RA team that is a wild card team.

They're good.

They're a good team.

But the Minnesota wild.

When they play their game, that is what a Stanley Cup contending team does.

They dominate the game.

They come up with great aid chances.

They don't let you get too many chances.

They capitalize on your mistakes, which the wild did tonight.

And they really just got to it.

I felt like at one point it was every single loose spot.

And I know statistically that's not possible.

But pointed it, feel that way.

It really felt that way.

Also, by the way, the mammoth were not good in the circle.

So they weren't even starting with possession most of the time.

That's also that hurts.

I mean, schmalz was four and eight.

Coolie was two and seven.

That's not good.

Those lines, especially those lines,

need to start with the puck.

And they weren't.

Minnesota was starting with every advantage.

And it's all, you can say, well, I had some little thing.

You can always fight and get the puck back.

It is so much easier to start with possession.

And they need to do more of that.

They just weren't getting it done.

That is my concern coming off this road trip.

But now you are coming back home.

And it's a bit of a gauntlet.

Guess who you're seeing again.

First thing on Delta Center Thursday.

Yep, Chicago.

Welcome back, Black Hawks.

Team that has beaten them twice in eight days.

Now it's going to be a third match up in 11 days.

At least it's at home.

Although last time they faced the Black Hawks at home on March 1st,

Chicago shut them out for nothing.

And thought it saw an interesting stat today.

Uh, the wild.

In shutting out the mammoth tonight.

The mammoth are now tied for third among teams that have been shut out most often.

That's not something you want to be known for.

They've been shut out twice this month.

So I do worry about the offensive inconsistency.

Now you look back though.

Every other game of the road trip, they scored at least three goals.

And I always tell you guys it's the race to three.

And I do mean that it is generally the race to three or pardon me against Chicago.

The overtime loft they lost three to so they didn't get to three.

But it is the race to three.

So as long as they're still getting there, I'm okay.

But when you get shut out, you have to find a different gear

in a different way to manufacture those goals.

They're not finding that right now.

They're trying to do the same thing.

And when teams defend what your same thing is,

you need to have a different game plan a different way to go about it.

I did not get that feeling for Utah tonight.

There was no change.

There was no adapt.

There was no, let's figure out a different way to go at it.

They just kept going into the teeth of the buzzsaw

and Minnesota ate them up.

So that's a tough one.

All right, I want to look a little more at that schedule.

What's coming up here?

A preview a little bit of that many homestand.

We'll talk about that here in just a moment.

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Tom Callahan back here with you to wrap it up.

Thanks for joining us everybody.

Appreciate everybody in the everyday or discord.

Quite a bit of chatter around this game.

I was having to dip in and out of the discord here this evening,

but it was a hard one.

It was a difficult one, especially watching the way Minnesota.

I thought played the game.

I had hoped the mammoth would play.

But just kind of the way things went tonight.

I wonder a little bit.

I thought about this before the show.

Is this one of those games where you just put it in the dustbin?

Do you just say, you know what?

We were bad.

Bad game.

Let's move on.

In the old days, I've told this one.

They used to give you a VHS copy of the game after the game.

And you would be able to pop it into the VCR on the bus.

Not dating myself at all, am I?

And I remember one time our coach in the minor leagues

after a particularly bad thumping.

Got everybody off the bus.

But the cassette of that's that night's game

under the bus tire with everybody off the bus.

Tell the whole of the bus driver roll over the tape.

Roll the bus forward three feet.

Crushes the tape.

The coach says, all right, get back on the bus.

Let's go.

And we left the tape in the parking lot smashed.

Because sometimes you just have a game

where you just don't want to look back.

I don't know if that was this game or not.

I thought about that though.

I thought about if that was that game for me or the mammoth.

I think when it comes to the hustle and the effort and the heart and the grit

and the determination factors between the mammoth and the wild,

this is a game I would point to.

I would probably go over it and say, look, this is the gap.

Look at how Minnesota wanted this game.

Look at how Minnesota all week talked about the narrative leading up to this game.

And yeah, they didn't plan a back-to-back.

I understand like there's mitigating circumstances, but there's no excuse.

I thought the mammoth would have had a response somewhere in there.

And I thought the wild actually did a really good job to never let them have that response.

So keep that in mind too.

And now again, going home to Chicago Thursday at Delta Center seven o'clock.

Penguins on Saturday again seven o'clock.

And the month doesn't get any easier.

Then you go on the road to Dallas and Vegas back-to-back from that Thursday and Vegas,

you come home to play Anaheim on Friday.

Who by the way, battling for the Pacific Division lead with Vegas.

Oh, and the Dallas stars battling with Minnesota.

Those two are going to be a playoff series.

And if you happen to get lucky and upset whoever your first round opponent is,

if you're the Utah mammoth, you're probably going to run into one of those two.

So there's a lot riding on these games.

And then it's the Kings, the Oilers, the Capitals, and the Kings again for the rest of March.

This is no easy schedule.

This truly is a gauntlet for this team.

But I think for me, it's got to start with Chicago.

Now, I don't know if Sergei Chebs is going to be back or not.

If he truly is day to day, they thought maybe he'd be able to go for this one.

He clearly could not.

Yes, he will add something different for them.

Yes, he will make them better.

But I don't think he's the reason they're losing.

I really feel like that effort's got to be there.

Again, Chicago, they've got to show it.

And Pittsburgh is a team that if you sleep against them, they will bite you.

So to me, I'm putting that focus on this Chicago Thursday game.

They need to come out, come out like they're on fire.

Come out like the game really matters in a way that feels desperate.

I want to see some desperation.

I absolutely want to see some desperation right now.

I want to see them absolutely playing like their playoff lives,

depend on it because they do.

And again, that's why I was so upset about losing that point

over time the other night, every point matters.

And now you got nothing against the wild.

And yeah, I mean, the record's still great.

And somebody pointed this out in the every day or discord.

They said, well, you know, they're still the really the best record since January.

I'm like, that's great.

But they also played games in October, November and December.

And the fact that they're playing well now is fantastic.

And I love it.

And it's much needed.

And I'm so glad to see it.

Don't get me wrong.

I want to see them win games.

But they have to dig their way out of this hole and then continue

to get better and better and better.

And they've dug their way into the playoffs.

But now they've got to continue to stay ahead of those other teams.

And I think they'll get into the playoffs.

I will reiterate that on every show to the end of the year.

I think they're getting it.

But I don't want them to just show up and get swept.

Neither do you.

If you're watching this show,

you don't want them to show up and get swept.

So that's what we're looking ahead to.

And next time we talk,

we're going to be looking ahead to Chicago with the preview.

Hopefully we've got better injury news on McCale's figure show.

And we might even have Robin back in the picture.

We'll see. We'll see how that one's going to go.

Hopefully she has a safe trip on the way back a little bit later on in the week.

We'll be catching up with you guys.

So appreciate you as always for being here.

You want to find us on social media.

The podcast itself is at lockdown mammoth pretty much everywhere on social media.

You can find me on Blue Sky at Tom Talks and on Twitter at Callahan on air.

All right, everybody.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll talk to you next time and appreciate you being a part of locked on mammoth.