The Utah Hockey Club is off to a historic 3-0-0 start following wins over Chicago, the Islanders, and Rangers.
Last night, the Utah Hockey Club joined the Vegas Golden Knights as the only other NHL expansion team to win each of their first three games.
Here's three takeaways from each of those wins.
The offense is deadly. The Utah Hockey Club loves to play with speed and skill, and they've wasted no time in doing that. Through three games, they've scored an astounding 16 goals, with Dylan Guenther accounting for five of them.
It goes to show this team will punish you for making mistakes, like many of the teams who are so good at transition in the league. They have speed all over the ice, and they pressure the puck at a high rate.
The defence still needs work. Andre Tourigny said when you pressure the puck at a high rate, you need to hope your defence can cover as fast.
Well, through three games, the club has had a difficult time closing down opponents, especially those who can strike quickly like the two New York teams. It's taken a lot of effort to dig deep and get enough offence to offset the leaky back-line.
That has to be expected, however. It's still relatively early in the season, and you didn't think everything would be figured out.
You also have to remember there are four new faces on the blue line -- two which didn't even debut yet -- and cohesion takes time. As the season wears on, and as the pairs become solidified, Tourigny's style of play will take shape.
Last night's win? Statement. The Rangers came in as a heavy favorite last night (the moneyline on ESPN closed at NYR -210).
For the team to go into MSG and not only win, but beat the Blueshirts at their own game shows they can not only hang with the big boys, but they can use their style of play against them.
It reminds me of the pre-season finale against Colorado, where the squad basically muddled play enough to frustrate the Avalanche on their breakouts, and eventually scored their own transition goal to win it on the power play early in the third.
This team finds ways to win, and it's a far cry from their time in Arizona, where distractions about relocation, ownership, and more seemed to sap all their energy every night.
They want to rewrite their story, and through three games, including last night's huge win over the Rangers, they are doing just that.
Now we'll see if they can keep it going.