What to expect from Utah Hockey Club’s first preseason game

At last, words you’ve all been waiting for: The Utah Hockey Club is playing this weekend.
The crew will be in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sunday to take on the St. Louis Blues in a neutral location game.
It’s fitting that after Utah hosted so many neutral location games over the years, Utah’s new NHL team’s first contest will be at a neutral site.
The puck drops at 5 p.m. MDT. For streaming options, see a recent article from the Deseret News.
Head coach Andre Tourigny told the media on Friday that, with back-to-back games on Sunday and Monday, he was planning to deploy two different rosters.
One guy, he said, will play both games. He wouldn’t reveal who that one guy is.
The NHL requires teams to have at least eight “veteran” players on the roster for every preseason game, though the requirements to consider someone a veteran are pretty loose. The word around the rink is that most of the stars will stay home on Sunday and be ready to go for the club’s first-ever game at the Delta Center.
The Blues missed the playoffs by six points last season. Their most notable offseason moves happened at the same time, when they stole restricted free agents Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the Edmonton Oilers via offer sheets.
They also added brothers Mathieu and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Ryan Suter, Radek Faksa and Alexandre Texier. They subtracted Kevin Hayes, Sammy Blais and, due to a long-term injury, Torey Krug.
With a solid young core up front, the Blues have their sights set on the playoffs this year. Whether they’re strong enough remains to be seen, but their offseason transactions have certainly made them better.
Especially at the beginning of the preseason, games often won’t tell you much about how the team will play in the regular season.
Remember last year when the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks 10-0 in the preseason? Guess which one of those teams made the playoffs (Hint: It wasn’t the Flames).
Why is that? It’s because sometimes one team ices a mostly complete roster while the other essentially uses its AHL team in NHL jerseys.
By the end of the preseason, teams have usually whittled their rosters down to almost regular season form. So, whether Utah’s NHL team wins or loses on Sunday and Monday, don’t read too much into it.
As mentioned, Utah HC returns home on Monday to face the Los Angeles Kings at 7 p.m. at the Delta Center.
After that, they’ll enjoy a three-day break before flying to Las Vegas to take on the Golden Knights.