NHL.com’s weekly Over the Boards mailbag is back for another season. Senior writer Dan Rosen sifted through your questions sent to him on X and chose five to answer as training camps open throughout the NHL. To participate in future mailbags, send your questions to @drosennhl on X and use #OvertheBoards.<\/p>\n
Are there Mammoth expectations for Utah this year? — Dpool84<\/p>\n
Let’s not get carried away and say they’re to the extent that the Utah Mammoth should win the Stanley Cup, but certainly the expectation there is to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n
Expectations have been building in this direction since well before the move from Arizona to Utah before last season. Lean years allowed the then Arizona Coyotes to select forward Logan Cooley<\/a> with the No. 3 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft and forward Dylan Guenther<\/a> with the No. 9 pick in 2021. They were given time to develop. They should be breakout stars this season after combining for 125 points last season (Cooley 65; Guenther 60).<\/p>\n Clayton Keller<\/a> is 27 years old, in his prime, and the Mammoth captain is coming off a 90-point season. Nick Schmaltz<\/a>, the most underrated player in the League according to Keller, is a regular 60-point player and could be better with the addition of JJ Peterka<\/a>, who put up 68 points with the Buffalo Sabres last season.<\/p>\n Utah has a strong defense group, led by Mikhail Sergachev<\/a> and Sean Durzi<\/a> and backed by the addition of Nate Schmidt<\/a> this offseason to improve its depth. The Mammoth have developed playoff-level forward depth with Barrett Hayton<\/a>, Lawson Crouse<\/a>, Jack McBain<\/a>, Alex Kerfoot<\/a> and Brandon Tanev<\/a>. Karel Vejmelka<\/a> and Vitek Vanecek<\/a> have to prove reliable in goal, but there’s enough on the roster for the Mammoth to be a playoff team. That’s the expectation.<\/p>\n They have a home. They have a state-of-the-art practice rink. There are no excuses. It’s time.<\/p>\n What is the NHL’s biggest concern regarding changing the playoff format back to 1-8? — @RangerProud<\/p>\n There isn’t a “biggest concern” about returning to the old 1-8 format in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n Instead, the League simply prefers the current format because of the playoff races and the intriguing first-round matchups. The argument against the current format is that good teams are guaranteed to be eliminated early in the playoffs. The counter to that is good teams are guaranteed to be eliminated early in any format. In 2013, the last time the NHL had a 1-8 playoff format, five of the eight higher-seeded teams lost in the first round. In 2012, the higher-seeded teams were 4-4 in the first round, including the Vancouver Canucks, the top seed in the Western Conference, getting bounced in five games by the No. 8 Los Angeles Kings, who went on to win the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was asked about the playoff format and why the League won’t go back to 1-8 at the NHL General Managers meetings on March 19. He talked about the playoff races and how it felt like an equivalent to a play-in tournament that was going on with almost a month remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n At the time in the Eastern Conference, there were seven teams within eight points of each other for the two wild-card spots, including six within four points of each other for the second wild card. In the West, there were four teams within four points of each other for the second wild card.<\/p>\n “What could be more compelling, exciting and entertaining than that?” Bettman said on March 19.<\/p>\n If it was the 1-8 format last season, in the first round of the playoffs we would not have gotten the rivalry matchups between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, and Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. Two of the four matchups in the West would have stayed the same in both formats (Winnipeg Jets vs. St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights vs. Minnesota Wild). The Edmonton Oilers would have played the Dallas Stars instead of the Colorado Avalanche, who would have played the Kings instead of the Stars.<\/p>\n “The best team to win the Cup has got to get through the best teams,” Bettman said. “Having great matchups in the first round, that’s terrific. That’s not a problem. That’s a great thing.”<\/p>\n What is there for us Penguins fans to be excited about this year? Don’t think we will sniff the playoffs for three-plus years. — @Koz125<\/p>\n You still get to watch one of the greatest players of all time, Sidney Crosby<\/a>. That should excite you. Do not take that for granted.<\/p>\n Evgeni Malkin<\/a> is entering the last year of a four-year contract, which means it’s possible that this could be the last ride for him, Crosby and Kris Letang together as teammates. You should be soaking that up regardless of wins and losses.<\/p>\n You’ll get a chance to see the kind of coach Dan Muse can be. This is his first head coaching job in the League, a rise that started in the NCAA and continued into the United States Hockey League, then three seasons as an assistant with the Nashville Predators, three seasons with the United States National Team Development Program and the past two as an assistant with the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n You’ll see the future as the Penguins try to mix in some of their top prospects, including forwards Rutger McGroarty<\/a> and Ville Koivunen<\/a>, and defenseman Owen Pickering<\/a> and Harrison Brunicke<\/a>.<\/p>\n You’ll have a chance to hot stove what Pittsburgh should do with forwards Bryan Rust<\/a> and Rickard Rakell<\/a>, and defenseman Erik Karlsson<\/a>.<\/p>\n There’s a lot to talk about, a lot to watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL.com’s weekly Over the Boards mailbag is back for another season. 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