Your heart is gonna pound tonight, Salt Lake City!
Oh my heck, the air in Salt Lake City today feels like a tightly wound spring, ready to launch the Utah Mammoth straight into T-Mobile Arena to face the Vegas Golden Knights. You can feel it from Sugar House to the Avenues, everyone's got that nervous energy that only playoff-bound hockey can bring. I was grabbing my usual drink at Publik Coffee Roasters down on West Temple, and all anyone could talk about was how huge tonight is for securing that Wild Card spot. We're clinging to it by our fingernails right now, and after that last loss, everyone's just a little bit on edge. It's not checked out at all – more like a buzzing hum of anticipation.
The chatter in my group chat is all about Captain Cole being a little bit quiet the last few games. Is he tired? Is he playing through something? Everyone's rooting for him to find his spark again, because when he's on, he's just electric. And you know, we're all still buzzing about that overtime winner against the Coyotes last week – everyone remembers where they were. So yeah, there's confidence, but it's mixed with a healthy dose of "oh fetch, don't mess this up!" We want to see that Wasatch Range view from the Delta Center in the playoffs, not from our couches!
Tusks up, Utah. We're just getting started.
Want more of this kind of talk? Tune into Keith and the team's morning show — it's always a good time over at mornings.live.