Utah has already shown that it wants to focus on winning, not on showing off, by acquiring Sergachev from the Lightning

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Loving the NHL means never having to apologize – especially if you work in the league.

Lost the season? Lost in the playoffs? Got all the bad guys and don’t know how to get rid of them? No problem.

Just keep going the same way you’re going. It’ll work out eventually, or it won’t. Either way is okay.

That “get it done, get it done” attitude is never more evident than during the draft. It’s that moment after the League Cup when all sins are forgiven and that hard-working kid with the grit he has in the second round will change everything. (Editor’s note: He won’t.)

In other leagues, the draft is an opportunity to change a club’s history through change. In the NBA and NFL, it’s the Glastonbury of big moves.

In the NHL, it’s an elementary school Christmas concert. The same numbers, and then the same bored applause.

The mock drafts had this guy at the beginning? Then he goes first. This guy in second? Then he goes second. This guy in third and – whoa whoa whoa – he went fourthSomeone is breaking all the rules.

Anyone willing to take a risk knows how it ends – with a big hug that turns into a head lock and before you know it, you’re leaving the office through the window. The special twist in hockey is that after they lift you into the air, someone leans out and shouts, “Mutually agreed,” right before you hit the ground.

Thirty general managers have missed the Stanley Cup Final this year. One of the two who didn’t — Oilers CEO Ken Holland — just got hammered.

How does it happend?

(/puts out jazz hands) NHL!

The goal of the prototypical modern hockey manager is not to win. It can never be called stupidity.

This approach brings the greatest relief when a new player appears on the board. Expectations were low for the Utah Hockey Club rookie because those are the expectations of all hockey teams. Thanks to this, everyone remains constantly employed.

But armed with urgency and freedom in the salary cap, Utah has its own agenda. Its main deal this week was acquiring Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Sergachev is the type of player that every team needs, but won’t do what it takes to get him. It doesn’t win awards. It will never be on the cover of a video game. But come playoff time, he’s a pair of 6-foot-3 elbows looking for skulls to soften. If you Google “antonyms to a Toronto Maple Leaf,” Sergachev will be your number 1 hit.

He got hurt, the Lightning are trying to find money to re-sign Steven Stamkos, and Utah can spare some cash. It cost very little in terms of personnel.

It’s the kind of deal that, once you make it, makes you wonder why your team couldn’t have done this instead. The answer is that they could have, but they were too worried you’d be mad at them later. Better to do nothing than risk looking stupid.

So far, Utah is following the back-to-front, no-name-naming strategy that paid off for Vegas early on seven years ago. This will be a tough exit rather than a high flying one. It’s a bit like a team that just won the Stanley Cup, and not at all like teams that are in the spotlight.

Another thing that happens during draft week is the re-establishing of the NHL All-Star system through year-end awards. Connor McDavid is a consistent north star in terms of talent, but the ground is always shifting. Nathan MacKinnon and Quinn Hughes were up slightly; Adam Fox and David Pastrnak were a step lower.

You look through the awards lists and something different catches your eye – lots of stars, few winners.

None of the 12 men named to the first and second all-star teams at the end of the year won the Cup this year.

One (McDavid) made it to the final.

Two of them (Artemi Panarin from New York and Adam Fox) reached the conference finals.

This is the same number of stars of the Nashville Predators (Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi) – a team that entered the postseason holding on to the Western Conference bumper and was defeated by Vancouver in the first round.

Who didn’t have famous brands? Champion Panthers. Alexander Barkov won the Selke, but that’s like a jazz performance at the NHL Awards. It is handed out during a commercial break.

There’s no way to individually reward what Florida has – chemistry, grit and enough mid-range quality spread throughout the lineup that can’t be stopped by an opponent’s single line of defense.

Florida wasn’t built to win awards. It was built to win championships. Having both seems like a great idea, but recent history suggests that you have to choose one or the other.

Any team with a fan base that believes GMing is a plebiscite (i.e. Canadian and Original Six clubs) will go the star route. That leaves teams like Florida, Carolina, Vegas, and Dallas free to go the other way.

Of the two, which team would you rather have in the playoffs? Okay, but would you forgive your team if they tried and failed? Probably not. Hence the paralysis at the top.

Utah State made its leadership commitments clear last week. You’d think he’d want to be the Toronto Maple Leafs or the New York Rangers – a big local attraction headlined by a few guys with brand recognition. This is how tickets are sold.

Instead, with a clean slate, they want to be a club of low-power millers who might be able to win something outright. And then sell tickets.

If Utah goes the Vegas route and immediately becomes really good, everyone in the NHL will say what they always say: “Who could have seen this coming?” And then go about your business in your usual, loser-like manner.