Dylan Guenther's Sequence Goal vs Chicago: Analysis
Dylan Guenther's first period goal last night against the Blackhawks marked the official first goal in Utah Hockey Club history, where Guenther scored off a really efficient buildup sequence from Utah both inside the neutral zone and on the offensive zone entry. Andre Tourigny likes to have activity from their defensemen on the rush so they can gain the offensive zone and look to create chances right away, as Michael Kesselring was able to showcase that really efficiently inside his sequence.
The entirety off the sequence was built through efficiency and route timing. Granted, Chicago's forecheck was cut through way too easily here, as their F1, F2, and F3 were caught nearly at a standstill with Utah coming in waves, forcing D1 and D2 of Chicago to have more applied pressure on themselves when Utah came through on the entry. Utah attacks the rush with speed, and they build up the whole sequence through their routes to maintain efficiency in their attack. Speed and routes were the two keys here to this sequence.
On the breakout sequence, watch the efficiency in Utah's attack and how they sustained that through the neutral zone possession here. A lot of that has to do with Guenther initially fading away from the play, so that way he could create and find ways to be available in space here. With F1 Tyler Bertuzzi caught deep in the zone off the stretch pass to Logan Cooley on the boards, Cooley evades F2 and forces F3 Kurashev to change his positioning inside the neutral zone. Kurashev is at a standstill with Cooley attacking with speed, allowing him to kick out the puck to D Michael Kesselring activating up the strong side boards.
It was a really noticeable sequence from Cooley here as well, a few things of note:
Cooley did a terrific job here, and the mid-lane drive allowed him to fade away from the play in entirety. If this puck came out as a rebound opportunity, Cooley would be in prime scoring position to generate a high quality opportunity with nobody marking him. On the entry, Kesselring finds Dylan Guenther, who stops his route near the top of the faceoff circle. Notice how Guenther separates initially from the play, that way towards the end when he positions himself, nobody is still aware where he is. It would've been way easier if Chicago had Guenther pinpointed in their neutral zone forecheck here, so they'd be aware of him inside the offensive zone. Guenther fading away from the play only allowed him to create more space for himself, and be able to be an option available near the top of the circle.
Kesselring executes the tape-to-tape pass, with Guenther already in wind up position for the one-timer. The puck explodes off Guenther's stick because of how he releases the puck near his hip, allowing for more velocity, and rips it past Mrazek for the goal here. A historic first goal for the franchise, but Utah looked tremendous in Game 1 of the season. Their Ds looked active along with them having a brand new defensive core, and their attackers looked dynamic with more energy inside the offensive zone. Perhaps it's the new location of their team, or it's the play they are building off last season, as it's easy to forget how good of a hockey team this team was down the final stretch of last season in Arizona. Either way, this looks like they could be a very exciting team to watch, and it should be really exciting to see how the rest of their season plays out.
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