Mammoth, consistently searching for consistency, lose to Devils

After a 7-2 win on Long Island on New Year’s Day, Utah Mammoth fans felt like their team could go the entirety of 2026 without losing.

It was a short-lived pipe dream.

The Mammoth lost 4-1 to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. They’re now 0-4-0 against the Devils all-time.

“Clearly not good enough,” said Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi after the game. “... We shouldn’t be happy about that.”

Quick catchup

New Jersey Devils: 4

Utah Mammoth: 1

The Devils are the fifth-lowest-scoring team in the NHL, and their offense is very much a group effort.

Going into the game, there was a three-way tie for their goal-scoring lead. Nobody had scored more than 11 goals all season. For context, that’s tied with the St. Louis Blues for fewest goals scored by the team’s leading scorer.

The group at the top moved up together on Saturday. Timo Meier and Nico Hischier, who were tied for the team lead, both scored, as well as Jesper Bratt and Dougie Hamilton, who aren’t far behind.

They all scored consecutively, putting Utah down 4-0 before the end of the second period.

Michael Carcone spoiled Jacob Markström’s shutout with a goal just after a Mammoth power play expired, but it wasn’t nearly enough to steal a comeback win for Utah.

“Puck management early in the game cost us a lot, I think,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny after the game. “It’s a team with a tight gap, and we tried to play in front of them and we paid for it.

“And then, when we were trailing, they played good defense. We had good opportunities, but we could not bury it.”

Tidbits and takeaways

Finding consistency

The only consistent thing about the Mammoth this season is how consistently the word “consistency” has come up.

OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration — but ever since their seven-game win streak ended in late October, they haven’t been able to win more than two games in a row.

Again, their 7-2 win against the New York Islanders on Thursday was good for morale, but it doesn’t mean much when you lose by three the next game.

Durzi voiced the team’s concurrence in his postgame interview.

“We’ve got to try to get on a run here,” he said. “We can’t have one good game and then one bad game. ... We’ve got to string together a lot of good ones.

“Not that we haven’t been doing good things, but it’s just getting points and getting wins.”

Durzi, like many of his teammates after previous losses, defended the team’s decision-makers, who have been subjects of much criticism by the fan base this season.

“There’s a lot of heart in our room. There’s a lot of character. We’re wanting it. There’s no separation within the group. There’s no pointing fingers, this, that,” he said.

“We’re owning it, and we know we’ve got to be better. We have the right leadership, we just have to do it — and that’s what it comes down to."

POSTGAME

"We're owning it. We know we got to be better. We have the right leadership. We just have to do it, and that's what it comes down to."@utahmammoth Sean Durzi following the Devils game pic.twitter.com/Y6LnPhmgmc

— Utah Mammoth PR (@UtahMammoth_PR) January 3, 2026

Unlocking Daniil But

I was six years old when the Vancouver Canucks, my childhood team, traded Todd Bertuzzi to the Florida Panthers. I was too young to really appreciate him at the time, but I do know how much that market has yearned for a player like him ever since.

Bertuzzi stood at 6-foot-3 with 230 pounds of pure muscle. Most guys of that profile were pure enforcers — and he did have that side to his game — but he was also at 46-goal, 97-point player at his peak.

He bullied his way to the front of the net. Trying to stop him was like jumping in front of a train, thinking you’d knock it off-course. And if you even thought of endangering one of his teammates, well, you were lucky if you still had all your teeth when he was done with you.

The Canucks have been searching for “the next Todd Bertuzzi” ever since they let him go. It was Zack Kassian, then Jake Virtanen, then Micheal Ferland, Antoine Roussel, Vasily Podkolzin — the list goes on. They all had their moments, but none of them could quite leverage their assets to become the dominant power forward that Bertuzzi was.

Truthfully, the Todd Bertuzzi archetype is an endangered species. Aside from Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson, there’s no one in the league quite like him (even his nephew, Chicago Blackhawks forward Tyler Bertuzzi).

But the Mammoth have a sapling with the potential to grow into that role. His name is Daniil But.

But put his rhino-like characteristics on display against the Devils, as he has a number of times this season in both the NHL and the AHL.

In this particular instance, two minutes into the game, he intercepted the puck in the neutral zone, chipped it past the defender, took a few hard strides and powered his way to the front of the net.

Aside from Carcone’s goal, it was Utah’s best scoring chance of the game — and it came from nothing but hard work.

But has that Bertuzzi potential: the size, the scoring ability. His offensive numbers haven’t been there yet, but he gets as many scoring chances as anyone. The goals will come once he fully adjusts to the NHL level.

The only thing he needs to add now is the meanness. He’s a really nice person, so maybe it’s a lot to ask — but even if he can throw the occasional big hit and maybe even drop the gloves here and there, his ceiling will be much higher than 6-foot-6.

Goal of the game

Michael Carcone strikes after the power play

Utah’s second power play unit has been great for the last few weeks. Carcone’s goal happened just after the Mammoth’s power play had expired, so it won’t count as a tally on their record, but for all intents and purposes, that’s exactly what it was.

PP2 is still hot.

Michael Carcone nets one! pic.twitter.com/AMyyptRPg0

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) January 3, 2026