Who are Utah Hockey Club’s rivals? – Deseret News

Rivalries make sports more fun.

Some of my fondest hockey memories came as a young Vancouver Canucks fan in the late 2000s and early 2010s, watching my team battle the Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs every year. As much as the two teams dreaded the idea of ​​facing each other, it made every match a must-see event.

It also led to the most goal in Canucks history.

In my conversations about the Utah Hockey Club over the past few months, I’ve often been asked who its biggest rivals will be. It’s a tough question to answer, because some rivalries only become that through more passionate, hard-fought games — but other rivalries simply arise because of things like proximity and divisional alignment.

So as we approach the fourth quarter of the season, here are a few teams that could end up developing major rivalries with Utah HC.

Colorado Avalanche

Many longtime hockey fans in Utah have always cheered for the Colorado Avalanche as they were, for many years, the closest NHL team to Salt Lake City. Because of this, both times the Avalanche have come to Utah this year (once in the regular season and once in the preseason), the fan apparel in the stands has likely been split 50/50 between the two teams.

There were even some people wearing, for example, an Avalanche jersey and a Utah HC hat. This is the boat my wife is in as she grew up in Colorado but now lives in Salt Lake City. It creates a dilemma: do you cheer for the team you’ve always supported or the team from your hometown?

Being in the same division also creates a certain level of rivalry. The NHL playoff format is designed so that at least half of the first-round games are teams from the same division.

Neither team is in one of those spots right now, but both project to be good for a long time, so there’s a chance they could see each other in the playoffs a couple times or two in the coming years.

Vegas Golden Knights

Since the Golden Knights entered the league in 2017, they have been the closest team to Salt Lake City. Their early success won over many neutral fans, many of whom were in Utah.

Similar to the games against the Avalanche, when the Golden Knights were in town last week, there were tons of gold jerseys in the stands. Chants of “go Knights go” erupted throughout the game and the building was loud when either team scored.

Additionally, NHL fans have come to dislike the Golden Knights for a number of reasons – chief among them being their captain’s tendency to get injured at the trade deadline every year, allowing them to use up their cap space to add star players and then come back for the first playoff game when there is no salary cap.

Technically, they haven’t done anything against the rules – it’s more of a loophole – but that’s not stopping fans from losing their minds over it.

The Golden Knights were also heavily criticized for their lack of loyalty to core players. The worst was when they traded Vezina Trophy winner Marc-André Fleury for a bag of pucks to open up cap space and didn’t tell him about the trade until he found out on Twitter.

They also moved players like Max Pacioretty, Reilly Smith and Nate Schmidt at relatively low prices to make room for big-name free agents from those years.

If Utah HC fans were disappointed by the Golden Knights, they would have the support of most other fans.

St. Louis Blues

Back to divisional rivalries, St. Louis Blues are a strong contender. The two teams are in the standings right now, so if one makes the playoffs, it will likely be at the expense of the other.

In their only regular season head-to-head, a late goal by Dylan Guenther gave Utah HC the lead in an otherwise close game. In the preseason, however, an own goal led to the wildest social media post we’ll see this year from a team account.

Plus, Utah HC has plenty of former Blues, including GM Bill Armstrong. If there’s any team that players particularly like to beat, it’s their former teams.

Honorable mentions

Realistically, any two teams – especially if they are in the same division – can become rivals. It doesn’t always take a hard-fought playoff series.

That’s what the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild learned last year. They had some particularly nasty matches, and before you knew it, it was must-see hockey every time the two played each other.

With that in mind, it’s entirely possible that any team in the Central Division — or even the Western Conference — could become a rival to Utah.