Despite Everyone Being Fired Up About Them Coming To Town, Utah Hockey Club Is Struggling At Home Big Time

The NHL's foray into Utah with the Utah Hockey Club has been an unmitigated success off the ice, solving the Arizona Coyotes problem that had plagued the league for years.

Salt Lake City has been fired up about the team — shattering arena beer records (yeah, a beer record in Utah is hilarious in itself) and showing up in droves to buy the team's inaugural sweaters — but unfortunately, the fans haven't gotten to a see a lot of wins in their own barn.

For some reason, Utah really struggles at the Delta Center, and unfortunately, it's looking like those struggles may be the thing that keeps them out of the postseason.

Utah has 43 points with an 18-18-7 record, which leaves it six points shy of the Calgary Flames for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

What's interesting though, is that for a team that is hovering around .500, their home and away records are very lopsided, and not in the way you'd expect.

On the road, Utah has one of the better records in the conference at 12-8-3, but at home its record drops to just 6-10-4.

The Utah Hockey Club has a problem playing at home, and it could cost them a playoff spot. (Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images)

This isn't the first odd stat about Utah this season, but it is the one that could make or break a playoff appearance and the team is very much aware of that.

"I don’t know why we’ve been struggling at home in front of our fans that have showed a lot of support for us," Utah forward Nick Bjugstad said, per Sportsnet. "I feel for them. I just think we’ll find a way, but it’s going to take some digging and looking in the mirror."

Just think about the numbers. It would have only taken a few of those losses at home to be wins and Utah is in a wild card spot right now.

It's a bit of a strange problem to have, and the team will have to do something about it if they want to make a playoff appearance in the debut season.