Pat McAfee Steve Smith Sr. and Cam Rising look out at the crowd during the "Pat McAfee Show" at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (Photo Cred: Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
(Photo Cred: Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – After taking notice of the Utah Hockey Club’s monumental inaugural home opener, ESPN’s Pat McAfee is headed to Salt Lake City in January for some NHL hockey.
During the Pat McAfee Show on October 10, McAfee discussed the Utah Hockey Club’s home opener and mentioned that he’ll be headed out to Salt Lake City on January 29 when the club takes on Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Pat is coming to Utah in January to see Utah HC take on Pittsburgh.
Good thing he’s got a few months to figure out how to pronounce Utahn 😂 https://t.co/iMsDemFoKg
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) October 11, 2024
McAfee and his crew then finished the discussion by trying to learn how to properly pronounce “Utahn” and the plural form “Utahans” which they struggled to do. Luckily, they’ll have more than three months to practice and get it right before encountering more than 15,000 Utahans on January 29 inside Delta Center.
The last time McAfee traveled to Utah was for College Gameday when the University of Utah hosted the Oregon Ducks in late October of 2023. While hosting his show, head coach Kyle Whittingham rode a motorcycle to the broadcast while wearing a sleeveless shirt and sunglasses with a backwards hat.
After his trip, McAfee shared that he loved his experience and was pleasantly surprised by how much he enjoyed.
“I’m not a skier or really do the snow stuff so I never really had a chance to go to Utah for any reason,” McAfee said. “I need to go back. It is awesome. People were so kind- obviously everybody there was so kind to all of us. We get put in these ridiculous situations where people are normally going to be nice to us, but there were other situations- everybody was nice. The views were insane. The weather was fantastic. I thought about picking up some ski poles to go skiing up there just so I could be a part of the Salt Lake community. I loved it Schefty. I didn’t expect that.”
Full Story: Salt Lake City Made A Big Impression On ESPN’s Pat McAfee
The Utah Hockey Club will now take on the New York Rangers on Saturday night. The game can be viewed on SEG+. Fans can also tune in on air on the KSL Sports APP or on 97.5 and 1280 The Zone. Click here for the full schedule.