Coaches across sports, whether amateur or professional, often speak of a killer instinct. They want their team to step on the proverbial throat of the opponent when the prey has been weakened. Go in, finish the job.
Mammoth have gone extinct for a reason.
Not the Mammoth, mind you. They still have the new-car smell in Salt Lake City, where Utahns have embraced a once-moribund franchise wholeheartedly. Two-thirds of the way through the season now. and the NHL’s newest franchise (the organization left all the old Coyotes records inactive) is in pretty good shape. They’re 11 points behind the Stars in the Central Division, but if they played in the Pacific, the Mammoth would trail Edmonton and Vegas by just four points for the division lead.
The last time Dallas played Utah, Karel Vejmelka stole the show in net, making 26 saves on 27 shots in Utah’s 2-1 win. The Mammoth were in the middle of a stretch that saw them go 9-1-1 over 11 games. In their last three, though, the Stars’ Saturday opponent have cooled, losing two of the trio.
And the good news for the Stars is that even though the game is on the road, home teams don’t usually snap back into immediate form following a long road trip. Utah is back in SLC after a four-game swing through the southeast.
Utah Mammoth Key Players: 4. Keep Clayton Keller quiet
One of the biggest reasons the Mammoth struggled on the road trip was that their best player was stalled. Captain Clayton Keller has scored 50 points in 54 games, but hasn’t scored in three straight and only managed three shots in those games, too.
The 27-year-old remains one of the best players in the world, as evidenced by his selection to Team USA for the upcoming Winter Olympics. The Stars have their own player who could have received that spot. But if Dallas keeps him bottled again, it goes a long way toward the Stars picking up a key road win before the break.
Utah Mammoth Key Players: 4. Work Karel Vejmelka until he collapses
If you had three guesses, without looking, as to which goalie leads in the NHL in wins, odds are long you’d select Vejmelka. But his 25 are ahead of Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy by one.
Much of that has to do with Vejmelka’s workload as his 41 stars are tied with Nashville’s Juuse Saros for the league lead, too. Vejmelka’s basic statistics are acceptable, but not great. His .900 save percentage ranks 17th among NHL starters, tied with Jake Oettinger, incidentally, and his 2.62 goals-against average ranks 12th. Dallas should just throw the puck on net as often as possible to keep him busy, as if he goes Saturday as expected, Vejmelka will be making his 13th start in the last 15 games.
Utah Mammoth Key Players: 3. Michael Carcone and Jack McBain
Even with the last-ranked powerplay in the NHL, Utah finds itself in the heart of a playoff race. A lot of that has to do with its energy lines at the bottom of the forward ranks.
Bringing back Carcone continues to be the home run hit of this past Mammoth offseason. He literally does everything
— Cap’n Cook 🏔️ (@JazzePinkman) January 30, 2026
Take the third line of Michael Carcone, Jack McBain, and Kailer Yamamoto. Carcone ranks 70th among NHL forwards, one spot behind Wyatt Johnston, in relative expected goals percentage, while Yamamoto carries a positive mark, too. McBain isn’t quite as strong defensively, but he ranks fourth in the league in hits among forwards and wins 51.4% of his faceoffs.
A loss wouldn’t signal the end of the world for the Stars. They want to keep pace with Minnesota, though, a point ahead in the standings. And going into the Olympic break on a hot-ish streak would eliminate the mostly bummer of January, the team will have finished.