Training Camp: Day 9

The Utah Mammoth held a morning skate for their game group and a practice for their other players on Thursday.

Notes From Morning Skate

As the Mammoth face the Golden Knights for Utah’s fourth game of the preseason, here’s the team’s workflow this morning:

Head coach André Tourigny confirmed that Vitek Vaněček will start against the Golden Knights and is expected to play the full game. Matt Villalta will serve as his back up.

The group also ran through the power play and here were today’s two units:

PP1: Durzi, Guenther, Hayton, Schmaltz, Peterka

PP2: Carcone, Schmidt, Yamamoto, But, Simashev

Following morning skate, Tourigny explained the structural improvements he wants to see against Vegas tonight:

“I want to see a little bit more consistency now with our outlets on the breakout, I want to see a little bit more pace on our neutral zone forecheck, plus a little bit better coverage of what we call the wall. Then there’s a few things like that in our structure we want to see. We did some video, a little bit every day. We want to see the progression, I think we’re on the right path. We need to keep going.”

The players will continue to be evaluated throughout tonight’s game which is the second thing Tourigny, the coaching staff, and management will focus on. The third is a high level of competition.

“I want our team to be relentless,” Tourigny shared. “I want our team to be physical. I want our team to be extremely competitive. That’s the culture part. And I want to see the leadership. I want to see the guys talking to each other, helping each other, those kind of things.”

Defenseman Nick DeSimone shared what he and the d-core are focused on tonight against the Golden Knights:

“A lot of systems stuff, making sure we’re in the right spots. I think the biggest thing is just trying to play our own game individually and then winning battles, moving pucks, playing simple.”

Forward Ben McCartney will play his third preseason game tonight and he wants to show the coaching staff who he is as a player:

"I think just my compete and showing them that I can be trusted. Just playing the right game, managing pucks around the blue line and making sure I play that grinding type game."

Practice Group

Following morning skate, the players not participating in tonight’s preseason game hit the ice for practice. Here’s who was in attendance:

Tij Iginla, Lawson Crouse, Andrew Agozzino, Austin Poganski, Liam O’Brien, Michal Kunc, Cameron Hebig, Ty Tullio, Cole Beaudoin, Clayton Keller, Maksim Barbashev, Sammy Walker, Owen Allard, Julian Lutz, Noel Nordh, Sam Lipkin, Artem Duda, Ryan McGregor, Miko Matikka, Scott Perunovich, Montana Onyebuchi, Lleyton Moore, John Marino, Karel Vejmelka, Maveric Lamoureux, Dylan Wells, Maksymilian Szuber, and Mikhail Sergachev.

Showing His Skill

Forward Tij Iginla is back and eager to show his game in training camp. After recovering from double-hip surgery last season, he’s a full participant at this year’s camp. Iginla has played two preseason games and is focused on being a strong two-way player.

“To be effective at the NHL level, you have to be reliable defensively, all the little details, but at the same time, (I’m) being who I am and getting my offensive game to the best place that I can as well as the days go on.”