Karel Vejmelka<\/a>\u00a0a Stanley Cup-caliber starting goaltender? Probably not. It\u2019s clear, though, that Utah\u2019s dominant 5-on-5 play should be more than enough to ensure a wild-card-over-division-champ upset over the Ducks. It should also be enough to get them past a similarly flawed Oilers or Golden Knights roster in the second round, as those clubs are likely ticketed for the #2\/#3 matchup.<\/p>\nThe only stats in which the Oilers grade out as a potential Cup contender are expected goals share (51.4%) \u2013 the least reliable indicator among the four stats outlined \u2013 and their combined 107.7% special teams rate. Penalty trouble could sink the Mammoth, sure. But even at the Oilers\u2019 greatest 5-on-5 strength, Utah grades out as a better possession-control team. The Oilers\u2019 horrid 5-on-5 goaltending \u2013 31st in the league at a .887 SV% \u2013 could be enough on its own to offset any special teams gains.<\/p>\n
If they face Vegas, they\u2019d be coming up against the only team with a worse goaltending situation this year than Edmonton (.885). The Knights\u2019 possession numbers do make them more of a threat, though, with their 5-on-5 GF% ranking 19th (48.5%) and their xGF% (53.1%) all the way up at fifth. That\u2019s miles ahead of Edmonton, and they\u2019ve got the league\u2019s fourth-best special teams efficacy at 106.8%, so they pose a greater challenge. But like Edmonton, Vegas\u2019 lack of a clear-cut #1 option in net \u2013 and not for a good reason \u2013 will likely be enough to sink them against an above-average finishing squad in Utah.<\/p>\n
Of course, the narrative falls apart when pitting the Mammoth against a potential Central Division opponent in the Western Conference Final. Average the league-wide ranks of those four stats among the teams currently in playoff position, and the Avalanche, Stars, and Wild are three of the top four teams.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s excessively rare to almost expect a wild-card team to be playing playoff hockey into late May. It would be a great story to see one of the league\u2019s most exciting up-and-coming franchises in Utah, particularly one with such a meager history of success, make a deep run. It would also be one of the least surprising developments of the spring, despite what a traditional wild-card narrative may dictate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Utah Mammoth enter play Saturday with a 37-30-6 record, squarely in position for their first playoff berth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,5627,99,4829],"class_list":["post-550754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","tag-sports","tag-utah-mammoth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}