Now that the halfway point of the Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural season has come and gone, let’s compare the expectations to the reality of the NHL in Utah. How is Salt Lake as an NHL city? How do the players like it? How engaged are the fans?

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The Utah Hockey Club began a seven-game homestand last week by winning just one of three games. But they still have four games left at the Delta Center beginning Tuesday night against Montreal. Despite a 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday,

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It came down to the wire, but the Utah Hockey Club pulled out a win against the San Jose Sharks on Friday — their first regulation home win in nearly two months. The game started with an early goal from Sharks forward Fabian Zetterlund just 58 seconds in when he collected a rebound and made no mistake putting it past Karel Vejmelka for a 1-0 lead.

Dylan Guenther is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, Utah Hockey Club announced Friday morning.

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The Canadiens have been playing fine hockey of late and there's value in taking them to win straight up at plus money as they visit the Utah Hockey Club, who's missing leading scorer Dylan Guenther. It’s a battle of two teams on the fringes of playoff positioning when the Montreal Canadiens visit the Utah Hockey Club.

Utah Hockey Club defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (98) and defenseman Juuso Valimaki (4) goes fight for the puck against Florida Panthers center Jesper Boqvist (70) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)

He won’t do much to aid a bottom-10 offense, but his return will eventually allow for easier matchups for overmatched role players.

Utah head coach André Tourigny said after practice on Monday that the game plan will be the same this time around as it was in November, but he expects Montreal to be better at everything that they were seven weeks ago.