SALT LAKE CITY — Lauri Markkanen is used to being introduced to a sold-out Delta Center crowd, but not on skates.

That was the situation the Jazz forward found himself in on Tuesday night. Markkanen emerged from the blue-lit tunnel and pushed onto the ice to deliver the puck for the Utah Hockey Club’s first puck drop.

“I felt like a little kid,” the Utah Jazz forward said.

A kid who happened to grow up on Finnish ice and dreamed of skating in an NHL arena. Check and check.

That youthful excitement was still visible the next morning. As Markkanen completed his shooting drills at the end of Wednesday’s Jazz practice, he took short breaks to share the details of the evening.

“I didn’t know he could skate like that,” guard Jordan Clarkson said. ‘As I’ve said before, he’s ready for anything. He can do anything.’

Markkanen held the puck high in front of the raucous crowd and circled the ice while throwing a few fist bumps. He even jumped the boards once to make sure he got the full hockey experience.

“Before he went out, I told him, don’t fall,” said Clayton Keller, captain of the Utah Hockey Club. “Apparently he fell this morning.”

However, Markkanen, who remained upright during the puck-drop ceremony, took some exception to Keller’s version of events.

No, he never fell during a practice session for the ceremony. But, he said, he did fall during a long free skate — skates that have become increasingly common now that there is a permanent ice cap at the Delta Center.

And, as Markkanen was quick to point out, he wasn’t the only one to take a fall recently. The other person? Team owner Ryan Smith.

“I was skating and shooting pucks. I fell once,” he said. “But so is Ryan, so we’re even.”

Smith was the one who came up with the idea to put Markkanen – the Jazz’s All-Star caliber – on skates. The original plan was for Markkanen to skate during the Utah Hockey Club team introduction last spring, but there wasn’t enough open ice space to do that properly.

The opener, however, was a different story.

The two started talking about that possibility again after being paired together at the Will Hardy Foundation Golf Tournament last month. What may have started as a joke quickly turned into a real plan.

“We kind of laughed about it, and then I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Markkanen said.

Finally, he would skate like an NHL player. But were there nerves before the big moment?

“More than a basketball game,” he admitted. “It wasn’t really my area of ​​expertise.”

But a field – eh, ice? – that he’s glad he found his way to Utah. Judging by Tuesday’s energetic crowd, he is far from alone.

“The city and the state are ready for hockey,” he said. “It will take some time to get to know and get to know all the players, but I think it was a really fun atmosphere.”

Clarkson agreed, even though he was startled a few times by pucks bouncing into the glass next to him.

“Great atmosphere. Great to have something in town that’s new and different,” he said. “It’s a new experience. So I think that’s super cool.”

He also wouldn’t mind if some of that experience ended up in jazz games.

“The hockey crowd is a little louder. Maybe we can have a beer or something during our games,” Clarkson said with a smile.