On the brink

Apologies for missing Friday. It was supposed to be my day off work and I ended up working 12 hours and just got tired. I posted my charity payment in the sports channel on the Discord. I'm going to try a different style of update today so feedback is appreciated.

On to today's update. We start off against the Ducks. We're in 5th, they're in 6th. Very important game.

Knowing how important this game is, we get off to a quick start. This is a Stickup and Pinterest Mom get us going. Before the end of the 1st, Murmur Twin will add a third.

The second period is uneventful.

The third period saw us grab another goal a few minutes in, courtesy of Wren.

Very quickly the Ducks struck back and, while leading 4-2, things looked shaky. Luckily, they pulled their goalie, and then...

Pinterest Mom finished it off. Final breakdown:

An important victory as we have that hellish seven game road trip beginning. This is going to be the defining part of the season and I fear for the worst. Before that though, we get some good news!

Congrats Pmom! Well deserved.

Okay, so we begin the Road Week with a trip to the Bruins. The Bruins are the worst team in the East, sitting in 16th place. Soooooo.... fingers crossed?

The first period goes by without much to report. But early in the second.

Kashuno from a strange angle made it work. Good. Then in the third,

Vote Moat It Rhymes, through traffic, finds home. Minutes later,

Murmur Twin puts the result beyond doubt. Final stats:

It's hard to overstate how important getting any wins in this stretch is. I know there are ~30 games left, but this is almost a third of them in a row on the road. We've slipped up a lot recently and I was worried we may find ourselves in a struggle at the end of the season. I'd much, much rather be able to qualify at a brisk walk rather than trying to sprint across the line at the end.

Our next game is against the Islanders, 7th in the East. Less than 40 seconds in, we have our first goal.

Podima from the crazy angle! Kashuno adds a second just before the end of the first, but they strike back with 7 seconds til the intermission. We go into the second ahead 2-1.

Unfortunately, they tie the game up at the 33 minute mark and then it goes to overtime and then a shoot out. I'm sure you can already guess how it ended.

That is our seventh overtime or shootout loss. How are we so bad at them????

No rest for the wicked as we then get to play the Rangers, who are 9th in the East.

Early in the first, the Rangers strike. A silly turnover on a power play lets them just walk it in. We strike back through Retro Futurist and score our own power play goal a couple of minutes later. At the break, it's 1-1.

They score in the first five minutes of the second and it is 2-1 into the second break. Then,

Diqnol with the goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's 2-2!

Unfortunately, not long after that we would give up our third power play goal of the game and go on to lose 3-2.

Criminal stuff.

Before our next game, a little bit of good news though.

The press loves Hats! We also got this confusing note.

Like.. congrats Birdstrike! But... we lost two games in the last week, not won two. Strange.

The next road game is against the Devils, who are 15th in the East. Might be able to do something with this one.

My screenshot program is struggling right now so this will probably be the last game in today's update, but Fisk and Moat scored in the first to get us off to a good start. The Devils pull one back in the 32nd minute to set up an exciting third period. An early goal

From Podima, which... Let's all take a minute to appreciate where he is at. What were you thinking Pod? I mean, yay, it worked, but jeez man. Anyway, that was after 2 minutes to give us a 3-1 lead. The Devils struck back quickly, though, closing the gap to 3-2 with 16 minutes to play. Moat found the net a minute later to put us back up by 2, at 4-2, and then Flying Leatherman rounded things off with an Empty Net-er to put the game away.