Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on the Utah Mammoth, Their loss to the Wild, Too many penalties + more

Transcript

Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on the Utah Mammoth, Their loss to the Wild, Too many penalties + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM. Welcome back
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to the Sean O'Connell Show. Welcome into Between the Pipes.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Adrian Denny, our Utah Mammoth Insider. joins us to talk
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: all things mammoth hockey. This conversation brought to you by
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Valley plumbing, heating and cooling and our friends over at
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Aladdin industries. Adrian, good to see you here in studio again.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: How are you doing?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Good, Sean.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me in guys headed out for six
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: straight next home game, by the way, two weeks from tomorrow.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: So some road games coming up tough one last night
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: with Minnesota.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Heard you talking about penalties. There were a few. Yeah.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Uh, I was like, Adrian probably spent a couple of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: minutes in the penalty box last night.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Everyone else was having a party in there.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: That's what I said to Mike Fulta. It's like, we'll
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: be along for the postgame edition of hockey night in Utah.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: If we don't get thrown into the penalty box, which
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: fortunately ref refs didn't see what we did. So we're
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: able to get away with it.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: A late goal for Cooley ends up preventing this from
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: being a shutout, but it just, You had too many penalties.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: They had a lot of trouble in the first two periods,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: especially generating real scoring opportunities. At one point, I think
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the shots on goal differential was almost 20. It was
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a weird game. We'll start with the penalties.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: What was going on? I don't mind a little bit
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: of physical play.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I love when there's multiple fights, but the Mammoth were
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: on the wrong end of that when it comes to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a differential standpoint.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: I think you can look at the Boston game and
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: draw some similarities here to the matchup. And the Mammoths
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: just kind of lost things emotionally, lost their composure, just
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: kind of lost the plot. And head coach Andre Turney
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: said yesterday after morning skate, you know, looking back at
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: that Boston game, that's a game that we would have.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Done it again. We probably would have put Liam O'Brien there.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: into the lineup.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: So they did for, for Minnesota, what they saw as
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: a similar matchup, but you know, OC the, the wild
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: were coming in. It was going to be a game
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: where the winner left in first place. They were wrapping
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: up a five game trip and listening to them before
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: the game. They really wanted to be three, one and
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: one on the trip. And they came out good first
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: five minutes, but Malcolm makes seven big early saves.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So he gets engaged into it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: And then you got to the second and 10 seconds
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: in just started a, great to the penalty box six
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: minor penalties in that period for Utah they didn't like
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: a lot of the calls and we heard that from
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: bear after the game talking about Clayton Keller getting a
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: additional two minutes tacked on for abusive officials they thought
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Minnesota was going down pretty easy but we always talk
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: about controlling the controllables and adjusting to the standard of
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: officiating I'm not sure they're was a standard but they
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: didn't like how the game was officiated and they just
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: weren't able to get on track and you're going to
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: the third period it's one nothing because they finally scored
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: on their fifth power play like you can kill penalties
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: but the second the second you start getting into the
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: range of fourth fifth sixth seventh shorthanded situation the probability
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: just is not on your side of Being able to
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: continue to get through those, especially against Minnesota, a team
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: that had the seventh best power play going into the game.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: But yet, still, you weathered the storm in the first,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: got some big saves from Fumalka, which the team's been
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: looking for. Penalties in the second, it's 1-0 going to
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: the third, and then they do score early in the third,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: of course, on the two-minute penalty that Keller got for
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: abusive officials. Tough turnover in front of the net, made
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: it 3-0. Cooley on the extra attacker, which... really OC
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: was just some intensified six on five practice, which nobody's
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: going to decline for, for the mammoth, which they were
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: able to do for the last three minutes. So, so
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: hopefully that's something next time they get a six on
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: five and they're down by a goal, they can take
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: some of that two minutes and 44 seconds that they
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: played without a goalie and turn it into something. But yeah,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: just the, the, the composure, the emotion, the stuff that
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: has been really good in 90% of the games this
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: year and the stuff I think you take from the
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Vegas series last year and you're like, okay, we need
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: to be better here, just was more of a Boston
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: level than it had been in really the other 10,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: 11 games that they've played pretty well in.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Do we know what the franchise record is for penalty
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: minutes in a single game?
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, I have that right here, actually. Let me
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: pull that up. I got that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Spreadsheet um great that we have this this resource with
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: adrian denny.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Um most penalty minutes in a game um looks like
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: 30 at the rangers on uh october 4th.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Okay so um so 29 last night flirting with that
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: same territory.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah that rangers game didn't seem as as intense as
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: that but I'll give you a James Peterson bonus point.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: If you know the NHL all time record for most
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: penalty minutes in a single game for one team, for
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: one team.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: I've seen some numbers from back in the day. So,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: so I think I can ballpark this 260 to 13
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: by the Philadelphia Flyers.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: It combined, it was Philly versus Ottawa in 2004.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, 419 total penalty minutes between the two teams.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: So it was a two 13 for Philly and two
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of six for Ottawa in that March 5th, 2004 game.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: That's not that long ago.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: That's not that long ago, but man, that must've been
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a really ugly game. That's you know, we make that joke,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: That game must've looked like that.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: It must've been a really long game too.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: 419 minutes. Penalty minutes. Last night was long.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So when I'm going on as a fan, going on
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the tickets, right, you got to get a babysitter. And
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: too many whistles, you start to get to, man, we
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: said that we were going to be home.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: We got to get going. It's a bad deal when
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: you get that many whistles. Did you feel that last night?
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Was that the situation last night? That was the situation
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: last night. Too many dang whistles. Too many stoppages. I thought,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: you know, as we're going into postgame and Get off
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: the air, Mike. It does kind of seem a little
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: later than usual. The three fights, Liam O'Brien, first game, fought.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Mikhail Sergeyev fought for the first time since 2023. That's
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: the level of tension.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: In the game.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: And Vinny Trocek fought for the first time as a
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: member of the Mammoths. So Utah leads the NHL in fights,
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: by the way. They're up to eight.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Well, now that you got McBain and O'Brien both in
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the lineup, they're going to probably lead.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: The league all year. Mackenzie Weeger might want to fight
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: you for not including him in that list. Sorry, Mackenzie.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: All right. So, look, you don't overreact to anything.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: This is a Utah team that we've seen some really
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: nice things from, but as they head out on this
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: big road trip that you just mentioned, Job one to
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: clean up. What is the first thing that this team
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: needs to address? Because it's not going to be as
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: easy off home ice.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I think they did it Saturday against Tampa Bay. They're
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: down 3-1. They're down 4-2. They're trying to work through
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: some struggles. And you have Anders Lee on the bench,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: who from what we hear, the eight-year captain with the Islanders,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: just kind of had a calming effect. And he went
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: out with Barrett Hayton and Kyler Yamamoto and kind of
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: got the game turned around. And before you know it,
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: the mammoth had scored two goals in less than three
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: minutes and we were tied and they played a good
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: third period, got to overtime, kind of got Karel Vemelka
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: into a little bit of a groove. So it was,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: it was just kind of the, the composure when, when
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: things weren't going well to be able to stay focused,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: not try too hard, not, try and overcompensate for what
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: wasn't going well. So Saturday night we saw exhibit a
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: of how you want to handle it. And last night
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: we saw the exact opposite. So, you know, it's there,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: you go back to the Vegas series. And I think,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I think just kind of the same, the same thing
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: we saw it with, with Logan Cooley.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: It just, when, when things.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Get heated, when, um, adversity hits it's it's just the
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: ability to stay cool and we we've seen it at
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: times this year and we've seen it at times where
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: it just just goes goes south and for me when
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: you're when you're captain in a second period that's going
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: south gets uh um, a penalty for abusive officials.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: He fired a puck after a whistle, right? I'm like,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Oh no, that's not good. Um, I didn't, didn't know
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: that they'd seen it.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Cause I thought the, the referees right there might have
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: more of a reaction to it on the ice, but
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: they kept their cool and just casually, uh, walked up
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: to the timekeeper, turned their mic on, and announced it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: This team right now, they're in second place, and we're
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: going on this long road trip.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: How many points do they need to bring back from
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the road?
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: I think this is a trip, if you come back
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: with six, split on the road, longest trip of the year.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: You've played 13 of 19 away from home.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: It catches up with you. I think a split's more
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: than acceptable.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: You start off in Pittsburgh, you just beat them. They
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: haven't lost since Utah beat them. Going to Philly, they've
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: kind of fought it. Toronto, I thought Toronto looked pretty good, OC,
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: because of Austin Matthews. When you've got a star like that,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: you can kind of carry. And then Montreal playoff team,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: Ottawa playoff team, I think you come back with 6-12 points,
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: you're one of my favorite words, OC, that I didn't
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: realize it was. And then Mike Folta points out, you know,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: he's going to use one of my favorite words, tickled pink.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: I think you're tickled pink if you get 6-12. But, OC,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: you look at the game last night. The Mammoth, when
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: they were able to keep it 5-on-5, stay out of
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: the penalty box, they outshot Minnesota 18-7 because.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: The first 40 minutes of the game, when you're five
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: on five, you can use that to generate momentum. You
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: have a good shift from Keller, Schmaltz, and Kraus. You
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: get a scoring chance. You don't score. You roll out Cooley, Trocek,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: and Gunther. They keep the puck in the offensive zone,
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: and you're rolling, and you've got the puck, and they don't.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: And that's how you generate momentum, and that's how you
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: create offense, score goals, draw penalties.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: That's how Utah has been successful.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Power play has been really good too, but they just
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: didn't have any opportunities really to generate any kind of
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: momentum in the first 40 minutes because Minnesota came out
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: with the hot start, and then the second period was
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: all penalties. They couldn't get to what they do well,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: and that's go out and grind, and that's how they
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: got back into it on Saturday and forced the game
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: to overtime against Tampa Bay because you got guys like
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Anders Lee, Barrett Hayden, and Kyler Yamamoto just out there working.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: In the second period, Liam O'Brien didn't play a second.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: because it was all penalty killing. So when you're penalty
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: killing like that, only half of your team's killing penalties.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: The other half is on the bench cold. So the
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: penalty killers are worn out, and the other team is
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: able to key in, and when they're on five on
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: fours for over half of a period, the percentages are
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: just against you.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: We saw Connor Hellebuck make his devil's debut. He was
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: a big story, attached at least for a moment with
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the Utah Mammoth as a potential possibility. And Hellebuck saved
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: 17 and got the win. I need to talk to...
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: We didn't know where he was going to go a
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: week ago, and he already got the custom mask done
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and everything like that. The turnaround time on getting a
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: beautiful piece of artwork like that is actually pretty quick
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: when you know people i guess you know the right
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: people when you're when you're team usa's goaltender stuff moves
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: a little faster i guess it does because i mean
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: even in the nhl oc goalie gets traded mid-season takes
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: a little time to get his pads and the the
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: mask painted like guess guess the guy uh like and
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: these painters like are Legit artists.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: It takes time. You can't just slap some AI on
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: a mask. These guys are legit, talented, painting these things.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: It was traded four days ago. I need 877-353-0700. If
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: you want to paint a mask for us here in
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the studio, I'll get the mask.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: You just paint it for us.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: And we're going to need it by end of day tomorrow. Yeah.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: We, we, we, we, we did what, you know, I'll
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: give you, I'll give you until Friday. Okay.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: We need it by Friday. So you could match this
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: artist that did Connor hell of books. Uh, so, you know,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: we're off to a start now. We're, we're not quite
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: to that 20 game Mark here for the Utah mammoth.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Uh, are they on pace? Are they where they need
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: to be as they go on this road trip?
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: I think so. Uh, If they would have won last night,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: they would have been in first place. So you're teetering
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: there knowing that the schedule this year is a lot
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: like last year. And I don't know that the expectations
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: internally are that much different because of the schedule. Utah
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: was a game above 500 last year at Christmas. And
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: then they came out of it and the home games
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: added up and the schedule kind of softened a little.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: And that's when they were there to make their move.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I don't think.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Internally if the mammoth are in a similar situation thanksgiving
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: christmas that there's any level of something unexpected there because
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: you go on a five game trip in october that's
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: one thing but to do it again two three weeks
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: later it will it will catch up with you the
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: good thing is there's no back-to-backs on this trip it's
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: kind of spread out which kind of lengthens how long
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: they're going to be away, which is another thing that
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: kind of takes its toll. But I think, you know,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: maintaining a playoff spot, you always want to be above
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: the line. But the thing for Utah last year, they
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: were in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving, at Christmas, at
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: the Olympic break. And those were benchmarks that they said
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: that they wanted to hit. And I think this year
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: you're in the exact same spot you were last year
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: because the schedule is another thing that's, kind of slanted,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: more road-heavy, really road-heavy early on.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Who's the best player on the team right now? I
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: like the question. I assume it's going to change. Guys
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: are going to streak. Guys are going to go into slumps.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Lee Hayton and Yamamoto is the best forward line. That's
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: a given.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: We all had that on our bingo card preseason.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Sergeyev and Wieger have been a top defensive pairing. You're
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: without John Marino, so there's a big D out of there.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: Vinny Trocek has been really, really good. He had two
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: points in the first six games. Now he's got five
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: in the last seven. He's been the best in the
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: NHL in the face-off circle over the last three games.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Schmaltz has cooled off a little bit. Keller's cooled off
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: a little bit. Cooley and Gunther aren't off to the
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: starts that they were last year. Kyler Yamamoto, if you
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: want one guy, might have been your best player in
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: the playoffs. Could be your best player right now. He
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: was a point a game until last night. He's got
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: seven points in. in eight games, but definitely Lee Hayden
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: and Yamamoto three most impactful forwards.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Looking for six points on the road trip.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: According to our hockey experts, Adrian Denny, we'll we'll hold
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: them to that.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: We'll help them being the Utah mammoth.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: The big thing about this OC, same thing for the
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: five gamer, the start of the year, you won in Columbus.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: So then you got four games left and you, you've,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: you've lessened kind of your magic number of where you
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: want to be. Mammoth came back with three of five
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: on that trip, but getting that first one in Columbus
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: meant they had to split the rest of the way.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: So you win in Pittsburgh tomorrow, when two of the
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: next five and you come back with my magic number
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: is six.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Big thanks to Adrian Denny for coming in for between
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the pipes brought to you by our friends, at Aladdin
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Industries in Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Great to see you, my friend. My pleasure. Thanks for
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: having me.