vs Tampa Bay

It only took five minutes for Matias Maccelli to give us that familiar sense of false hope by opening the scoring off a feed from William Nylander. Naturally, the universe corrected itself almost immediately. Tampa Bay responded by putting up four goals in the first period alone, effectively ending the contest before most fans had even settled into their seats. Ryan McDonagh and Jake Guentzel led the charge, while Anthony Stolarz finished with a save percentage that would make a sieve look like a brick wall. Even a spirited scrap between Max Domi and Charle-Edouard D'Astous could not spark enough life to overcome a three goal deficit heading into the first intermission.

The middle frame was a clinic in disorganization as the boys handed out nine giveaways. We also treated the home crowd to a classic too many men penalty because counting to six is apparently a high level skill that this roster has yet to acquire. Auston Matthews finished with zero points and a minus two rating despite firing six shots on goal. The power play was its usual helpful self by going zero for four. It really is a special talent to watch a team with this much offensive salary look so completely lost whenever they have a man advantage.

Tampa Bay decided to coast through the finish by outshooting us thirteen to nine in the final period. Nikita Kucherov spent the game collecting four assists like he was playing a video game on the easiest difficulty setting. Brandon Hagel added an empty net goal to really twist the knife before Nicholas Robertson scored a meaningless wrap around goal with thirty seconds left. It was a nice little garbage time treat for anyone who did not leave early to beat the traffic. We lost five to two and once again proved that we are the best in the league at making our fans question their own sanity.