@ Seattle

The team decided to treat the first period like they actually cared about the outcome, outshooting Seattle thirteen to five. Naturally, they still allowed Berkly Catton to score on a backhand just two minutes into the game because why make things easy. Gavin McKenna provided a flicker of hope with a power play goal to tie it up, but the second period was a textbook example of whatever the opposite of effort is. The roster managed exactly one shot on goal in the entire second frame. It is almost impressive to score on every single shot you take in a period and still look like you are skating through wet cement.

The middle of the game was a festival of whistles and poor decisions. Vinni Lettieri tried to spark some life into the bench by fighting Cale Fleury, but the momentum was immediately canceled out by a series of penalties from the likes of Zack MacEwen and McKenna himself. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with a save percentage of seventy percent, which is the kind of number that makes you wonder if the goal frame was actually empty for long stretches of time. Giving up a goal to Chandler Stephenson while on the power play was the perfect summary of the defensive awareness on display.

In the final minutes, they did the cruelest thing possible by pretending they might actually win. Jack Roslovic scored to bring them within one, and Auston Matthews hammered home his tenth goal of the year with the net empty to tie the game late. Just as I started to consider feeling a moment of joy, Brandon Montour blasted a slap shot into the net with thirty-four seconds left to ensure we walked away with nothing. It is a specific kind of art form to tie a game after being outplayed and then find a way to lose it before the buzzer even sounds. It was a classic performance that reminds us all why we should never get our hopes up.