@ Utah

The script remains unchanged. We headed out to Utah and decided that defense was merely a suggestion. Despite outshooting them in the first period, we still managed to head into the intermission trailing because Daniil But found the back of the net. Then the second period happened and it was a true comedy of errors. Giving up a shorthanded goal to Mikhail Sergachev while we were supposedly on a power play is the kind of peak efficiency we have come to expect from this group. Anthony Stolarz finished with an 82 percent save percentage, which is a great way to ensure the flight home feels much longer than it actually is.

Auston Matthews and John Tavares tried their best to save face with a goal and an assist each. Tavares even managed to get Stolarz a rare goaltender assist on the power play, which is probably the highlight of the season for our goaltending department so far. We watched Dylan Guenther take three separate penalties and still manage to score on us, which is a level of multitasking that is frankly impressive. Gavin McKenna brought us within one late in the third period, but the comeback fell short because this team thrives on giving us just enough hope to be annoying. Easton Cowan had a rough outing at a minus three, proving that the youth movement still has some growing pains to work through.

The defensive core had a night to forget, with Jake McCabe and Morgan Rielly both finishing as a minus two. Oliver Ekman-Larsson decided to make things even harder by taking a penalty for an illegal check to the head while we were trying to claw back in the final frame. We dominated the shot clock in the first and third periods but still walked away with nothing to show for it. It is a familiar feeling of frustration that really helps maintain my cynical exterior. We will likely do it all over again soon and I will be right there watching every miserable second of it.