The Utah Mammoth’s perfect start is gone, and the New Jersey Devils return home with more questions than they had leaving the ice on Saturday night. Utah fell 4-2 to the New York Rangers on Sunday night for its first loss of the season, while the Devils were beaten 6-0 by the New York Islanders in their first road game of the season.
That is why Mammoth Vs Devils is being searched now: both teams arrive at this matchup carrying a fresh result that changes the feel of the next game. New Jersey is back for the start of a 3 game home stand, and Utah is midway through a 5 game road trip after opening the season by winning its first two games 10-1.
For Utah, the loss did not unravel until the third period. Vladislav Gavrikov opened the scoring in the first period for the New York Rangers, Nick Schmaltz answered with a power play goal in the second, and the game stayed tight until the Rangers scored 2 goals in the third period to take a 3-1 lead. Andrew Peeke pulled Utah within 3-2 at 14:57, but the Rangers finished it with an empty net goal. That was the first time this season the Mammoth had to chase from behind for long enough that the final margin no longer matched the way they had begun the year.
The Devils’ loss carried a different kind of friction. Nico Daws made his first start of the season and kept the game scoreless through the first period, which should have given New Jersey a foundation to work from. Instead, the Islanders scored 2 quick goals at 3:32 and 5:00 of the second period, Bo Horvat added a power play goal at 12:08, and the Devils never recovered as New York added 3 more goals in the third. No one on the Devils was injured, so the issue was not attrition. It was a game that slipped because the structure broke after Daws had already done enough early to keep it even.
That leaves the most immediate question in New Jersey where it belongs: whether Daws gets the next start after a 6-0 defeat in which the goalie was not the problem for the opening stretch. The math of that kind of loss is simple. If a team is shut out after its starter holds the line through one period, the response usually turns on whether the coaches believe the collapse came from the net, the skaters, or both. With Utah coming in off its first loss and New Jersey trying to stop the damage at home, the answer will shape more than one game in this matchup.
