SALT LAKE CITY — Dylan Guenther was late to the party.
On a day dedicated to welcoming hockey to a new NHL market, the winger didn’t arrive at the Delta Center in time to walk the blue carpet the club rolled out — or, rather, painted on — to officially mark Utah Hockey Club’s arrival in its new digs ahead of a historic home opener.
Guenther can laugh about it now, of course, considering he made his grand entrance when it mattered most, scoring twice — including the first goal in franchise history — in what was a night of celebration for the home side both on the ice and all around it.
They don’t yet have a name beyond the temporary moniker for Year 1, nor a permanent logo or mascot to go with it, but with its 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, the Utah Hockey Club is already one game into forging an identity.
“Fired up, but focused,” was how defenceman Sean Durzi described the group Tuesday morning, noting that his teammates had “a little more pep in their steps” arriving at the rink for morning skate. You could say the same thing about their fans as they packed the Delta Center and showed their appreciation to this group of players formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes.
The atmosphere at Delta Center was celebratory right from the start, the crowd launching into its first chant — LET’S GO, UTAH! — mere seconds after puck drop before settling into the rhythmic ebb and flow of the oohs and ahhs of a hockey game. As the players found their pace, so too did the home crowd, every sharp gasp and stressed exhale narrating the team’s every first — the first save, the first steal, the first zone entry, the first shot. But nothing compared to the roar that erupted when, less than five minutes into the opening frame, Guenther fired a wrist shot past Chicago netminder Petr Mrazek for the first goal in Utah Hockey Club history.
By the time captain Clayton Keller buried a rebound about 10 minutes later to make it 2-0 Utah, the crowd was well-versed in the art of making noise.
The sold-out crowd saw 11,131 fans attend the historic debut, but it sounded like more. They workshopped a few other chants, too — *clap, clap* U-TAAAH and even a ‘SPI-CY! TU-NA!’ following a net-side scuffle featuring the man who might just be the club’s first fan favourite, Liam O’Brien, whose spicy nickname is as notable as the red locks flowing from beneath his bucket. (One particularly creative sign directed at the winger during warmups offered up a younger sibling in exchange for a stick; no word on whether the fan got his wish.)
“We could feel the energy, and we’re just happy we were able to put a game like that in front of them,” said Guenther, whose second goal of the night sealed the victory for the Hockey Club, which held off the Blackhawks’ full-court press with just 42 seconds remaining in regulation of what was a 3-2 game at the time. Fans were already standing when he tucked the puck into the Blackhawks’ empty net, white rally towels waving in tense anticipation of a win. Lawson Crouse’s goal 20 seconds later, with Mrazek back in the net, was the icing on the cake.
Tuesday marked the perfect start — a fresh start — for a group that’s been tested plenty both on and off the ice. A team that’s dealt with more than its share of distractions in the desert now has a new home and a clean slate, the freedom to focus on simply playing hockey.
“There’s no distractions,” Keller said earlier Tuesday of the last few years compared to the road ahead in Salt Lake City. “You can say what you want, but at times, you know, friends, family, people were always asking, ‘What’s going on?’ and you don’t really know. So, it’s nice to kind of be freed up and focus on our job and what we’re here to do, which is win.”
They delivered just that Tuesday night, and felt the warm welcome from the fans throughout. That wasn’t extended to the Blackhawks, of course. While there were more than a few red sweaters scattered around the stands making their presence known when Teuvo Teravainen got Chicago on the board 14 minutes into the second period, and again when Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno made things interesting in the third, boos smothered the visitors’ celebrations. (There were also some Coyotes threads woven into the mostly-blue crowd, too.)
The entire game in Utah felt like a celebration, from the pre-game animations on the jumbotron depicting falling snow and grand mountain ranges like the ones that encompass the city, to the beer-chugging challenges as fans downed their drinks in the spotlight during stoppages in play, and, finally, the multi-colour cascade of streamers that rained down from the ceiling to mark the victory.
As energetic as the atmosphere was inside the rink, the area surrounding it had been one big block party all afternoon. The entire section of John Stockton Way in front of the Delta Center had been closed off since early Monday to set up for the festivities, which included the blue-carpet entrance for (most) players, a U.S. military flyover, and a special pre-game concert by Shaboozey — A Bar Song (Tipsy) has been a top-40 mainstay recently — prior to puck-drop. A lineup of food trucks, radio and television tents, and local venders accompanied a row of booths set up for fans to test their skills — including a Sidney Crosby-inspired target practice that saw Utahns try to fire pucks into a set of dinged-up dryers like the ones Sid himself made famous with his basement shooting sessions as a kid.
The purple note of the Jazz out front of the arena now has a new neighbour in the form of a giant puck adorned with the Utah Hockey Club logo. Bronze statues of Jazz legends John Stockton and Karl Malone outside the arena had some company, too, a giant inflated Utah HC sweater and an NHL crest in Utah’s blue, black and white serving as popular backdrops for photos.
Fans started filing into the rink to find their seats just after 6 p.m. for the 8 p.m. puck-drop. Most of them stopped at the top of their section to marvel at the scene that awaited them, every seat adorned with Utah-branded black T-shirts and rally towels to match; and, most notably, the 200-foot slab of ice where normally there is the polished wood of a basketball court.
High above the ice, near one corner of the rink, hung reminders of the city’s history with hoops, a row of retired numbers, among them Pete Marovich’s No. 7, Stockton’s No. 12, and Malone’s No. 32. Wide black banners blocking out sections of obstructed-view hockey seats provide more evidence of this arena’s first — and, up until six months ago, only — tenant. (There are already plans in place to renovate the building to up the NHL seating capacity to 17,000 within the next three years.) Jazz star Lauri Markkanen glided onto the ice for the ceremonial puck-drop alongside team owners Ryan and Ashley Smith. The seven-foot star is a sight to see on skates, and he wasn’t the only member of the NBA squad in attendance. In addition to several Jazz players, the crowd also included Dwyane Wade as well as top-ranked golfer Nelly Korda, among others, excited to catch a glimpse of the NHL’s newest team.
Nearly everyone in attendance wore their newfound fandom on their sleeves — the team store, concourse merchandise booths, and mobile shops outside the arena were busy, but well-stocked to meet the obvious demand for gear.
“All game long, we felt the crowd was into it and they were pushing for us,” André Tourigny said following the game. His peers were, too — the head coach said he’s heard from about half the coaches in the league wishing him well as his team settles into its new home.
“It’s special, when you have a new franchise, you have the first game, all the atmosphere around,” Tourigny said. “It’s a special day, and we’ll remember that forever.”
It’s a home that is still a work in progress, to be sure, but the same can be said about the roster itself. The group that finished last year in Arizona ranked 27th in the league enters this new season in a new city still closer to being a rebuild than a real-deal contender. They spent the first 60 minutes of their season working to prove otherwise, and will continue that for the next 81 games. That’s the opportunity that now lies ahead — an opportunity Tourigny relishes.
Because as special and celebratory and memorable and momentous as this historic home opener was, what the coach is most looking forward to is, well, normalcy.
“I cannot wait,” he said Tuesday night with a laugh.
One year ago, said Guenther post-game, no one would’ve guessed this group would be playing with U-T-A-H emblazoned across their chests.
Now, with the first win in the books, and a three-game road trip in the east ahead, the team embarks on the daily grind that is the NHL season. And the players couldn’t be happier about doing so, knowing what awaits them at home once they return.
“I mean, I was playing in the American league last year,” Guenther said. “So, new city, new state, playing in the NHL — it’s kind of just everything you’ve ever wanted.”