@ Edmonton

Somehow the blue and white managed to escape Alberta without shattering our spirits for once. Anthony Stolarz decided he wanted to be a brick wall, stopping 34 of 36 shots while the rest of the team spent the middle frame being outshot sixteen to ten. Oliver Ekman-Larsson spent his time annoying Connor McDavid and trading roughing penalties with Andrew Mangiapane, which is a bold strategy for someone whose defensive metrics often invite high blood pressure. Brandon Carlo even decided to drop the gloves with Darnell Nurse, providing the kind of grit that usually precedes a late-game collapse that mercifully never arrived.

Matias Maccelli was the hero nobody expected, netting two goals while Auston Matthews finished with zero shots on net. It is a classic Toronto experience to see the franchise centerpiece record more penalty-drawing plays than shots on goal while still picking up an assist on the Bobby McMann empty netter. Matthew Knies showed some actual life by scoring just nine seconds after Edmonton tied the game in the second, proving that sometimes this team remembers how to respond to adversity without immediately crumbling into a pile of dust.

The power play actually looked like a professional hockey unit for a brief moment in the final period. John Tavares tipped one home despite winning a pathetic 27 percent of his faceoffs, and Maccelli followed up with his second of the game just moments later. Edmonton finished with 21 penalty minutes including a late misconduct for Trent Frederic, who apparently was as frustrated with the result as I am confused by it. We won 5-2 on the road against a high-powered offense, so naturally I am preparing for a five-game losing streak against bottom-feeders to balance out the universe. Don't let this victory fool you into thinking anything has changed.