Month: January 2025

It’s probably a good thing Utah won’t have much time to reflect on its 34-point loss at No. 7 Houston on Wednesday.

The Runnin’ Utes have to move on quickly — they’ll play three games in seven days, including a two-game homestand that features a matchup Saturday against Baylor and a contest against Cincinnati on Tuesday.

While the Big 12-leading Cougars are a headache for every opponent, particularly when they play at home at the Fertitta Center, Houston forced the visiting Utes into countless mistakes.

The result was a 70-36 Utah loss that extended the Cougars’ home court winning streak to a nation’s-best 33 games.

While the loss wasn’t surprising, it was how the Utes fell that disappointed head coach Craig Smith.

Prior to Wednesday, Utah had been on a three-game winning streak during which it had shown a physicality and assertiveness that gave the Utes hope they could be competitive in the Big 12 Conference after a dismal start to league play.

“I hoped we would have performed better than we did. We’ve just got to learn from it and grow from it,” Smith said. “You know, we did have a nice little run there with the three-game winning streak and all good things must come to an end. But we’ve got to learn and grow.”

Now, the Utes (11-7, 3-4 Big 12) will try and bounce back against another Big 12 power — Baylor.

The Bears will visit the Huntsman Center on Saturday (2:30 p.m. MST, ESPN2) in a rematch of the Big 12 opener, when Baylor beat Utah by 25 in Waco, Texas.

There were some similarities in how the Utes lost at both Baylor and Houston.

Utah’s two worst shooting days of the season thus far have come at Baylor (31.8%) and Houston (30.2%).

The Cougars are best known for their physicality and defensive pressure, which often forces opponents to rush things and lose their poise.

“It’s hard to replicate their speed, their athleticism, their length, that’s the thing. Their big guys can really move, and they’re super long and twitchy,” Smith said.

Turnovers were also a major issue.

The Bears turned 17 turnovers into 22 points, while Houston forced the Utes into a season-high 26 turnovers and converted those into 29 points.

“Taking care of the ball is going to be a premium,” Smith said.

Baylor has a stable of veteran guards — Jeremy Roach, Robert Wright III and Jayden Nunn — that will challenge the Utes again, while Miami transfer Norchad Omier anchors the front court. He had 15 points and 14 rebounds when Utah and Baylor met earlier this year.

Then there’s true freshman VJ Edgecombe, a projected lottery draft pick, who is averaging a team-high 16.9 points per game in Big 12 play.

“Their perimeter is very athletic, similar to Houston that way. They’re not like crazy trapping and going out, but they’re going to switch one through five,” Smith said. “There’s going to be times their five is going to be guarding our point guards, and their point guard is going to be guarding our five man, and we’ve got to be able to handle that switching defense better than we did last time.”

From a purely athletic standpoint, both Baylor and Houston have among the toughest rosters to match up against in the Big 12.

While matching up athletically with teams like Baylor and Houston won’t be easy for Utah, given the limitations of their roster, there are ways — mainly effort and a tough mindset — to try and counteract that.

“We’ve got to be tougher. You’ve got to have physicality. You got to get your work done early,” said Smith, who noted that when Houston set the physical tone, some of his players struggled to deal with that.

“It’s a mindset. You’ve got to be worried about the process, do things the right way, but also you have to have an elite mindset and a warrior spirit and a competitive spirit. It’s easy to talk that out, but you’ve got to crave that when things aren’t going.”

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Cole Perfetti scored three goals for his first NHL hat trick and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Utah Hockey Club 5-2 on Friday night.

Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists to reach 500 points for his career, and David Gustafsson also scored for Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck had 17 saves.

Barrett Hayton and Nick Schmaltz scored for Utah, and Connor Ingram stopped 25 shots.

Perfetti gave Winnipeg a 3-2 when he lifted the puck over a fallen Ingram on a pass from Vladislav Namestnikov at 5:51 of the third.

Ehlers scored on a breakaway with 7:44 left, and he reached the 500-point mark with an assist on Perfetti’s empty-net goal that completed his hat trick with 1:45 to go.

Perfetti opened the scoring with a one-timer past Ingram with 2:08 left in the first period.

Utah tied it as Schmaltz deflected Michael Kesselring’s point shot past Hellebuyck at 1:13 of the second.

Gustafsson took advantage of a bad bounce off the boards on a shot by Dylan DeMelo that drew Ingram out of position and fired the puck into an open net at 8:48.

Hayton tied it 2-2 at 1:19 of the third.

Takeaways

Utah: Utah relied on Ingram to make many saves as the Jets just kept firing and managed to score on their rare chances. They may have tired in the third after playing in Minnesota on Thursday night.

Jets: Winnipeg came out firing pucks and it paid off with a pair of slumping forwards scoring. They kept the pressure on, even after Utah tied the score early in the third period.

Key moment

Ehlers stole the puck at his own blue line and raced down the ice on a breakaway and beat Ingram by sliding in a backhand with little more than seven minutes left in regulation to give Winnipeg a 4-2 lead.

Key stat

Perfetti snapped a 14-game scoring slump.

Up Next

Utah visits Ottawa on Sunday, and Jets host Calgary.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

Michael Fanone, a former Washington, D.C., police officer who was attacked during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, cursed out Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the anti-government group the Oath Keepers, during an appearance Wednesday on CNN. As Fanone was appearing on the network to discuss President Trump’s pardon of the Jan. 6…

Don’t look now, but the Utah Hockey Club is on a three-game winning streak.

That’s thanks, in large part, to a 26-save shutout from Karel Vejmelka against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.

Vejmelka has been one of Utah’s biggest difference-makers this season. It was highlighted by a post-to-post save on Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov, who doesn’t miss from that spot often. But when a goalie is hot, it takes a lot to get pucks past him.

Barrett Hayton tallied two goals, bringing his totals to five points in his last two games and seven in his last four. Nick DeSimone had a pair of assists, marking his first two-point night since Nov. 7, 2023.

“I really liked our pace starting the game,” said head coach André Tourigny. “I liked our composure as well, during the game.”

Utah is now four points shy of a playoff spot. They still have to jump ahead of the Calgary Flames, the Vancouver Canucks and the St. Louis Blues, but that seems more manageable this week than it did last week.

Utah Hockey for dummies

I’ve written about this a few times already, but I’ll say it again for the people in the back: Clayton Keller seems to have a chip on his shoulder after being excluded from the Team USA 4 Nations Face-Off roster.

In three games this year against the Wild, who are managed by USA GM Bill Guerin, Keller now has three goals and four points. That’s a goal per game — much higher than his season average of 0.37 goals per game.

Keller talked about how it feels to be left off the squad after Utah’s first game against the Wild, a 5-4 shootout loss at the Delta Center on Dec. 10 — six days after the rosters were announced.

“That’s a team that everyone wants to be a part of and when you’re not selected, you look yourself in the mirror and you go to work the next day with a little extra jump,” he said.

Utah Hockey for casual fans

As mentioned, Vejmelka recorded his first shutout since Dec. 16, 2023, and his first in blue, black and white. “The boys played well in front of me and they helped me a lot,” Vejmelka said after the game. “It’s a big team win tonight.” His excellence was enough to earn him the game ball, UHC’s award for the player of the game, as chosen by the previous player of the game (Josh Doan, in this case).

Tending the other net was Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson. It was his first game since Jan. 15, having missed the last two with an illness. Allowing two goals (and one that was eventually overturned) in the first period is not the way he wanted to return. He gained his rhythm by the time the second period rolled around, but the bulk of the damage was already done.

Utah Hockey for nerds

As good as Utah has been in second periods recently in terms of the score sheet, their second period on Thursday was not sustainable. The second period has plagued Utah all season, so it’s been a central focus of the coaching staff for some time now.

Per Natural Stat Trick, Utah’s second period consisted of the following:

• 20% of the shots
• 8.33% of the scoring chances
• 20% of the high-danger scoring chances
• An expected goal differential of -1.44
• 22.58% of the shot attempts
• 18.18% of the face-off wins

Utah has managed a net-positive goal differential in the second period during its current winning streak, but these numbers should scare the coaching staff.

“We knew, starting the second, they (would) have a push,” Tourigny said. “They had a push, but we kept them on the outside pretty good.”

Tourigny called a team meeting just after the new year to talk about their second period play. Among his solutions was taking shorter shifts — especially when a player is deciding whether to participate in an offensive rush.

What’s next?

They’re back at it tomorrow for a rematch with the Winnipeg Jets.

Utah HC beat the Jets 5-2 on Monday at the Delta Center. It’s no easy task to beat the best team in the Western Conference, so don’t expect it to be easy — but they proved on Monday that it’s possible.

The game starts at 6 p.m. MST and will be streamed on Utah HC+ and Utah 16.

Days after wrapping up a 24-year run as a force in the Utah Senate, Curt Bramble has filed to lobby the Utah Legislature, despite a law on the books since 2009 intended to prevent legislators from becoming revolving-door lobbyists.

Bramble said there is a provision in the law that allows him to represent clients through his accounting and business consulting firm, Bramble & Company, which he has owned for decades.

“If lobbying or government relations isn’t your primary business then there’s an exception,” Bramble told The Salt Lake Tribune in an interview this week.

In 2009, lawmakers passed a bill that imposed a one-year “cooling off period” for elected statewide officials and legislators before they can become lobbyists. The bill passed during the same session that former House Speaker Greg Curtis returned to the Capitol as a lobbyist after losing his 2008 reelection bid and days after his term as speaker ended.

But the law does not apply if the legislator lobbies on behalf of “a business with which he is associated,” provided the business’ primary activity is not lobbying or governmental relations.

Bramble said he met with representatives of the lieutenant governor’s office, which oversees lobbyist regulations, two weeks ago and lawyers for the office reviewed the issue and gave him approval to represent his clients in the Legislature.

In a Jan. 15 email to Bramble, the lieutenant governor’s office cited the statute and advised him that “If you meet the above exception” — referring to the business exception — ” you may register as a lobbyist with our office on lobbyist.utah.gov and proceed as allowed under state code.”

Bramble registered as a lobbyist the next day.

“Here’s the reality: Do I expect to be doing contract lobbying? No. For this session I expect it will be fairly limited,” Bramble said. “But I do have clients that do have tax issues and we may have clients who say, ‘Here is an issue we need to talk about’ and much of what I do this session will be consulting with other lobbyists where … they want some advice.”

Bramble’s son, Zach, has been a registered lobbyist for several years. Earlier this month, he registered to lobby on behalf of 24 new clients this session.

Thirty-five states have prohibitions or cooling-off periods for former legislators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A 36th, Missouri, had a two-year cooling-off period until last summer when a federal appeals court struck down part of that state’s voter-approved initiative that imposed the lobbying ban. The judges ruled that it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that the state could not show that it significantly curbed corruption.

There are roughly 20 former legislators who are registered lobbyists — including Bramble, Robert Spendlove and former Sen. Jake Anderegg, who resigned from the body in 2023 after The Tribune reported on a consulting contract he had secured to push for transportation funding for Utah County.

Spendlove, who retired Jan. 1 last year, filed to lobby on behalf of Zions Bancorp, where he is a senior economist. Spendlove said he didn’t plan to register, but some of the economic work he provides could be considered advocacy, so he registered as a precaution.

For years, Sen. Howard Stephenson was a registered lobbyist for The Utah Taxpayers Association while he was a state senator. Stephenson said it was permissible because he only lobbied the executive branch, not the Legislature.

In recent years Bramble has advocated for keeping the herbal substance kratom legal and regulated. Kratom is a plant with origins in Southeast Asia that is promoted as a pain reliever and in low doses can act as a stimulant and in higher doses a depressant. It is also touted as helping ease opioid addiction.

Amid a series of reports of adverse effects, including lawsuits by families who alleged it was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths, some states looked to restrict the supplement and at least six banned the product.

In 2019, Bramble sponsored the Kratom Consumer Protection Act, which passed the Legislature to become the first law in the country regulating the preparation, labeling and marketing of the product.

The American Kratom Association paid Bramble $137,500 in consulting fees in 2019 and the following year The Center For Plant Science and Health, which has most of the same executives as AKA, began reporting consulting payments to Bramble & Company that totaled $968,845 over four years, according to tax filings for the organizations. The connection was first reported in 2022 by Courthouse News Service.

Bramble has testified in support of kratom legislation in Missouri, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin and Colorado. He was not identified in any of the legislative records as a representative of the industry and under Utah law did not have to disclose the consulting payments to his business.

Bramble said he is not sure if he will disclose his clients on his lobbying reports. He said he would prefer to disclose them for the sake of transparency, but many of the clients have tax issues that can require him to maintain the confidentiality of the companies he is representing.