The Utah Hockey Club will begin their first road trip by visiting the only other NHL team that has some understanding of the unique nature of their 2024-25 season.
Utah will look to build off a successful opener when it visits the New York Islanders on Thursday in the latter’s season debut in Elmont, N.Y.
Utah won the first game in franchise history Tuesday, when Dylan Guenther scored twice in a 5-2 victory over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. The Islanders will begin their pursuit of a third straight playoff berth after going 39-27-16 last season, when they fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
The win Tuesday continued a whirlwind six months for the former Arizona Coyotes franchise, which was officially purchased by Ryan Smith and relocated to Utah on April 18 — one day after the Coyotes beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 in what is for now the final game in Coyotes history and barely a week after rumors began surfacing about the team’s future.
“Today was special, there’s no doubt about it,” said Utah head coach Andre Tourigny, who directed the Coyotes the previous three seasons. “I received texts from about half of the head coaches in the league (Tuesday). That means something and it’s because it’s special.”
Utah is officially considered a brand-new franchise while the Coyotes are inactive. Any expansion team in Arizona would assume the history of the Coyotes and original Winnipeg Jets, who moved to Arizona in 1996.
The Coyotes’ top 11 scorers from last season, when the team played a second and final season at the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University, accompanied the team to Salt Lake City, where it will play at the 11,131-seat Delta Center, the new smallest arena in the NHL.
“People want to say new franchise and stuff, but it’s the Arizona team pretty much within a new jersey,” Islanders center Mathew Barzal said. “But it’s cool that we get their first game on the road. I thought they played a great game (Tuesday) night.”
Barzal is among several players on the Islanders’ 22-man opening night roster who have been with the team since at least the 2019-20 season, when New York began splitting home games between Barclays Center and Nassau Coliseum — the latter of which was one of the smallest buildings in the NHL — while UBS Arena was constructed.
The Islanders missed the playoffs in their first season at UBS Arena in 2021-22 but mounted late runs in each of the previous two campaigns to clinch playoff berths in the final week of the regular season.
New York went 20-12-5 down the stretch last season under former Stanley Cup-winning goalie Patrick Roy, who replaced Lane Lambert on Jan. 20, before being eliminated by the Hurricanes for a second straight season. The Islanders haven’t won a playoff round since making their second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup semifinals in 2021.
“âPatty’ has won, so he knows what kind of intensity to bring,” Barzal said. “I thought we responded exactly how we should. I think there’s a belief in here right now that we’ve got a team that can make some noise, and we’re looking forward to that.”
