@ New York

Death, taxes, and the blue and white getting absolutely caved in on the shot clock. Being outshot 44 to 15 is a special kind of achievement for a professional hockey team. Artur Akhtyamov essentially played a game of dodgeball with 44 shots while his teammates watched from the best seats in the house. We fell behind by two goals in the opening frame, though Steven Lorentz managed to find the back of the net unassisted to give us a brief moment of false hope. It was the kind of performance that makes you wonder if the team collectively decided that playing defense was more of a suggestion than a requirement.

Easton Cowan gave us another glimmer of optimism with a power play goal, but discipline vanished faster than a lead in the third period. The team racked up 20 penalty minutes, highlighted by Oliver Ekman-Larsson earning a 10 minute misconduct just to really drive home the frustration. Morgan Rielly managed a third period goal to make the score look slightly less embarrassing, but let the record show we were lucky to even get 15 pucks toward the net. It is truly impressive how this group can make a loss feel inevitable even when the power play is technically perfect at one for one. We will keep watching because that is the burden we carry, but this one was a reminder that some things never change.