The Utah Mammoth have been one of the league\u2019s more confounding teams so far in 2025-26, as at one point, they looked like one of the NHL\u2019s top teams and seemed a likely candidate to reach the postseason. But Utah has won just two of its last 10 games and is currently on a four-game losing streak, a stretch that has brought their record back to .500 and left them one point adrift of a Western Conference Wild Card spot with three games in hand over the Seattle Kraken.<\/p>\n
Utah\u2019s recent downturn could potentially have an impact on its head coach. Frank Seravalli said yesterday on Bleacher Report\u2019s Insider Notebook<\/a> that it\u2019s \u201cfair to suggest that Andre Tourigny\u2019s hot seat is getting turned up a bit.\u201d Seravalli did add that he doesn\u2019t feel Tourigny is under any immense, immediate pressure just yet, but rather that his status could increasingly come into question given the fact that Utah feels it can, and should, be a legitimate playoff contender in the Western Conference this season. Tourigny has been the head coach of the Mammoth (who were previously the Utah Hockey Club and the Arizona Coyotes) since 2021-22, and has overseen both strong development outcomes for individual players and a gradual, steady improvement of the team\u2019s fortunes. But that gradual improvement hasn\u2019t yet materialized into an actual playoff appearance, which could be contributing to the level of pressure felt in Utah this season.<\/p>\n Other notes from around the NHL:<\/p>\n Washington Capitals forward Nic Dowd<\/a> missed his eighth consecutive game due to an upper-body injury last night, and The Hockey News\u2019 Sammi Silber relayed word<\/a> from head coach Spencer Carbery who said there is currently no timetable for when Dowd might return. Dowd, 35, has been a reliable fourth-line center in Washington for more than a half-decade, dating back to when Washington signed him in July of 2018. His loss as a defensive specialist is a significant one for the Capitals: he leads the team in shorthanded ice time per game by a wide margin and even got down-ballot Selke Trophy consideration in each of the last two seasons.
\nFlorida Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe<\/a> didn\u2019t play in the team\u2019s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs last night, but it wasn\u2019t an injury that kept the former 40-goal scorer out of the lineup. TSN\u2019s Mark Masters reported yesterday<\/a> that Verhaeghe instead missed the game due to personal reasons, or more specifically, due to the fact that his wife is expecting a child. That Verhaeghe\u2019s absence appears to be an entirely temporary one is very important to the Panthers. The team has struggled immensely with injuries so far in 2025-26 and losing a player like Verhaeghe (who has 16 points in 24 games) to injury would only further deplete their lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Utah Mammoth have been one of the league\u2019s more confounding teams so far in 2025-26, as at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[143047,49,48,143045,747,448,143046,82,765,754],"class_list":{"0":"post-322938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-andre-tourigny","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-carter-verhaeghe","12":"tag-florida-panthers","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-nic-dowd","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-utah-mammoth","17":"tag-washington-capitals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}