Give the Psychos Their Flowers...and a Giant Baseball Hat

Cooley & Schmaltz grabbed headlines for their continued strong but, it was the maniacs on the third and fourth lines who shined against Minnesota

In case you missed it—which is unlikely at this point—things are going really well for the Utah Mammoth. This end-of-October gauntlet I dubbed “Spooky Season” (five 2024–25 West playoff teams in eight days) looked scary.

Utah, however, looks fearless.

In sequence, they’ve downed Colorado, St. Louis and most recently; Minnesota. They’re riding a 6-game winning streak (which by the way, coincides with the debut of the NHL’s only undefeated mascot, Tusky). The stars are shining brighter than the Northern Lights at this point. It’s fun to watch. It’s hard not to feel insanely, almost irrationally optimistic. That’s a dangerous feeling for Utah sports fans. Time will tell.

The headlines will glow with mentions of Logan Cooley and Nick Schmaltz. Fair. It’s deserved. But, particularly in the case of the dub over the Wild, more congratulations are in order to Utah’s blue-collar wrecking crew. The psychos. The nutsos. The headcases. The fan favorites. The bottom six and the shot blockers.

Those lunatics won the game for Utah on Saturday night. No question about it.

Who am I talking about? I’m talking about the guys who don’t often show up in the box score. They’re not the ones who are looking at $10 AAV contract extensions. They’re not the ones who are going to be suiting up for their respective nations in the Olympics this February.

It’s the hard hat fellas who made this one happen. One of them got to trade in his hard hat for a big silly hat as a reward.

Start with the centermen on the third and fourth lines. Kevin Stenlund won 57.7% of his faceoffs and ate 5:05 shorthanded; Jack McBain went 62.5% at the dot, logged 2:01 on the PK, and threw three hits to keep the Wild honest. Thanks to these guys, Minnesota’s potent power play was kept at bay for the most part. Any more cracks in the armor could have been the difference. They were solid.

We cannot forget about Ian “Kevlar” Cole. Sure he took two penalties; shit happens, but he also took at least 8 rubber bullets on behalf of his goaltender, giving Veggie some much needed relief in a game where he was pelted with pucks in the third. Here’s your big, dumb hat, fella. Look at the coconuts on you

.But wait! We didn’t even mention the biggest psycho on any hockey team, the guy who gets between the pipes and chooses to let frozen pieces of rubber hit his body at 100+ mph. Veggie was terrific. Thirty-three saves on 35 attempts. He was standing on his head, especially in the third, when Utah sent a steady rotation of over-jealous Tuskers to the box. Do we have more than one giant hat to give out after this one?

You might disagree with me. Oh Austin, silly bear. Logan Cooley and Nick Schmaltz won this one for you. Hey, it’s the obvious take and you’re not completely wrong. I’m not trying to take anything away from you. Those guys are lighting it up in superhuman fashion.

But as usual, I’m right. The numbers back it up. Look at the difference in expected goals both for and against Utah when the bottom-six psychos were on the ice against the Wild, per MoneyPuck.

And Tusky isn’t the only undefeated Mammoth this season. The squad is unbeated when Liam O’Brien is in the lineup. By the way, he was awesome last night as well. I know a corner battle hates to see him and his linemates Brandon Tanev and Stenlund coming.

So give these guys their flowers too. They deserve it.