Nick Schmaltz’s search for his first goal of the season lasted so long and felt so cruel at times that even its ending came with a little extra torment.
The play was offside, Utah Hockey Club coach André Tourigny fibbed to his player as he celebrated last weekend in Las Vegas. The goal wouldn’t count.
It had happened before. A week earlier in Pittsburgh, the Utah forward watched the puck hit the back of the net, saw the lamp light up and began to celebrate. Then it was taken away because of an interference call.
So, for a second, Schmaltz believed his coach’s joke.
“Honestly, I didn’t know,” the winger said. “Because the one in Pittsburgh was disallowed so I was like, ‘I don’t know which way it’s going, probably something went wrong on that play.’”
But Schmaltz can laugh at it all now.
It took 23 games of both close chances and whiffed opportunities for Schmaltz to log his first goal of the season, and when he scored — not once, but twice in Saturday’s win over the Vegas Golden Knights — his demeanor changed.
“To feel one go in definitely takes some weight off your shoulders,” Schmaltz admitted on Monday.
Schmaltz netted his first with an opening-period wrist shot. Then he potted his second of the season that same game, this time a power-play goal in the middle frame off a snapshot from the right hash marks which put Utah ahead 6-0 against the Golden Knights.
Schmaltz kept it going Monday against the Dallas Stars, scoring his third goal in two games in the 2-1 defeat.
Leading up to his recent offensive outburst, the 28-year-old had still been contributing on a nightly basis; he leads the team with 17 assists while skating on the first line and first power play unit.
Nonetheless, Schmaltz knows a big part of his job description is to score. The pressure was mounting.
“When you’re really smart, you can say whatever you want — you know you don’t have a goal and you’re an offensive player,” Tourigny said of Schmaltz. “At some point, he needs to have some reward even if it’s not at the level or your expectation, they need to have some reward. I think those two goals were big for him.
Schmaltz joined Clayton Keller, Lawson Crouse and Michael Carcone in getting the proverbial monkey off their backs. Carcone scored his first goal of the season against Vegas while Keller scored his first since Oct. 30. Crouse logged his first tally since Oct. 24 in Friday’s loss against the Edmonton Oilers.
Utah, at last, got score-board contributions from the players that drove its offense last season and it allowed the team to pick up three of four points on a back-to-back against some of the league’s top competition.
“That’s when you learn the most about yourself, when things aren’t going your way. It’s how you respond, how you get better every single day. It might take longer than you want, but those are the times you learn the most,” Keller said. “It’s good to see some guys score, for sure.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club center Nick Schmaltz (8) reaches for the puck as Edmonton Oilers center Jeff Skinner (53) and Edmonton Oilers defenseman Ty Emberson (49) defend during the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024.
That group — and Schmaltz specifically — will now look for consistency in its production. Last year in Arizona, Schmaltz scored in the first game of the season and had nine goals at the 24-game mark. He finished the 2023-24 campaign with 61 points (22 goals, 39 assists) in 79 matchups.
“To finally get one is great,” Schmaltz said. “Try to play the same way and hopefully I get a few more bounces to go my way.”
The other components of Schmaltz’s game have been a go — his work away from the puck, speed and playmaking. If he can make scoring more of a regular occurrence, Schmaltz’s overall value to Utah will greatly improve.
“Anytime you go that long without a goal, it’s not easy mentally,” Schmaltz said. “A couple guys went a long time without scoring and are not used to it. Hopefully, that can spark the team a little bit. I feel like we’ve had guys step up when other guys weren’t scoring — like [Jack] McBain, [Dylan] Guenther and [Logan] Cooley.”
Schmaltz is right — that second line of McBain, Cooley and Guenther has combined for 18 points in the last six games. Cooley has eight in the previous six, Guenther has seven and McBain has three. The 21-year-old Guenther now leads Utah with 10 goals, McBain is close behind with eight and Cooley with six.
“Offensively, you see the plays we make — the creativity, the cleverness with the puck, it’s all up there,” Tourigny said of Utah’s overall offensive game as of late. “We have more speed off the rush, we have more confidence and swagger. I think that translates into being more opportunistic in all of it.”
While it’s an obvious positive when anyone in a Utah jersey scores — “We’re happy when anyone gets one,” Schmaltz said — there seemed to be heightened excitement when their struggling teammate finally saw one go in.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club right wing Dylan Guenther (11) brings the puck down the ice during the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024.
The look on the winger’s face said it all.
Schmaltz threw his arms in the air and smiled wide as his teammates joined him along the boards to celebrate his first goal of the season and the end of a different joke.
“We’ve kind of been joking a little,” Schmaltz said, “that I might go the whole year without one.”
