Utah dressed a lineup full of regulars while Los Angeles didn’t Monday. Coach Andre Tourigny said Utah had one chance to make a first impression on the fans, and it wanted as many regulars as possible to get used to the Delta Center — the room, the boards, the ice. Utah won’t play at home again until opening night.
“Walking in here today and seeing the room for the first time, it’s unreal, and we’re so happy,” forward Liam O’Brien said. “They put so much work into this in the last four or five months, and they’ve done a tremendous job, so hats off to them.”
Delta Center is the home of the NBA’s Utah Jazz and built for basketball. For now, the stands are retracted in each end zone and covered with black banners for hockey. Thousands of seats have obstructed views. Eventually, after renovations are complete, those issues will be resolved.
Utah held back some game presentation elements, using a brief video montage before the game and a DJ during stoppages.
“We have lots of tricks in our bag for opening night, and we’re excited to wait to share those with our fans on Oct. 8,” president of hockey operations Chris Armstrong said.
Still, Utah sold out the unobstructed seats, which constitute the official capacity for hockey. (The team expects to exceed capacity when it sells obstructed-view seats.) The fans wore Utah gear and jerseys from around the NHL, and they were engaged.
