John Madden: “Resiliency Is the Best Quality of the Utah Hockey Club”

The New Jersey Devils took on the Utah Hockey Club (3-0) at the time on Monday afternoon, and Full Press Hockey had the opportunity to speak with John Madden, a former Devil and current assistant coach for Utah.

One thing we have seen early on in this young season is the Utah Hockey Club’s ability to fight through adversity. While they might not have much off the ice this season compared to previous seasons, Utah has shown its ability to fight back in hockey games. Madden pointed this out as one of its strengths.

“I like the resiliency, to be honest with you,” Madden told Full Press Hockey. “There were a couple of times when you know take the Islander game where they scored two quick ones on us. A shorty was in there. We came back and scored a power-play goal. We just kept going. And then the next night, you know, we had a bit of a lead on the Rangers, and one hit the stanchion in the corner and went in the net, but the bench was okay were even keel, we were ready to go, and we just kept playing hockey and found a way to win.”

With the NHL relocating the Arizona Coyotes to Utah and expanding the league with a team to make Utah Hockey Club, the ownership group led by Ryan Smith mandated that this team be competitive immediately.

Just look at what General Manager Bill Armstrong did this off-season. He was aggressive. Armstrong adds defensemen Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning and John Marino from the New Jersey Devils. Utah also added guys who understand what it takes to win in the playoffs and win Stanley Cups.

Sergachev won two with Tampa Bay, but adding players like Ian Cole and Kevin Stenlund will help this young team endure the trials and tribulations of a season. All good teams experience adversity. When John Madden was a member of the New Jersey Devils, they experienced several moments of adversity during their run to the Stanley Cup in 2000.

Who could forget the end-of-the-season slide that saw Larry Robinson take over as head coach from Robbie Ftorek? That slide cost the Devils home-ice advantage in Rounds 2 and 3. In the conference Final against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Devils had to rally from a 3-1 deficit to become the first team in franchise history to rally from that deficit in the Conference Final and go to the Stanley Cup Final.

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So Madden understands adversity during a season and what it can do for a team. But as Madden told Full Press Hockey, it is about handling the adversity and moving on the right way. He cites the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers as the best example.

“I think if you look around the league at all the good teams, they have those abilities,” Madden said to Full Press Hockey. “That happened to Florida in the playoffs as well. When they won, they were down a little bit, came roaring back, and then had some adversity when they were up three games or nothing, and it became really interesting. But they found a way. And I think that’s one thing that gets overlooked when you throw out all the numbers and everything else. It’s about your resiliency as a hockey team.”

That’s the one thing you can say about the Utah Hockey Club this season. They have the resiliency to overcome anything.

Considering all last season, anyone talked about the franchise moving every minute of every day. There were so many unknowns. With the distractions gone, you can see what they can do on the ice.

Going on a four-game road trip to open the season after the excitement of the inaugural home opener last Tuesday also caused the team to experience some adversity. But getting through that travel and play will only make them stronger.

Sometimes, a team may not be at its best, but as John Madden told Full Press Hockey, it is all about how you handle these situations.

‘There’s lots going on in the League, and everybody has their own little pile of problems,” Madden told Full Press Hockey. “For us, it’s 80% solutions and 20% problems. So we just keep moving forward and approach each day the best we can.”

The Utah Hockey Club is expected to make the playoffs this season. Let’s see if they can handle these expectations, especially when things don’t go their way later on in the season, and have the mindset to rise above them.