As a writer, you come across some games where your traditional recap just is not appropriate.
Take last night's Anaheim Ducks game against the Florida Panthers for example. All you have to do is take one look at the final score and you can pretty much make an accurate assumption of how the night went for the Ducks.
After winning two consecutive games where they scored six goals each time, the Ducks got absolutely obliterated in Florida, falling to the Panthers 8-3.
Now with most losses, it is still usually possible to find some sort of "bright side". However, when your team surrenders eight goals to the opposition, it becomes incredibly difficult to do so. Sometimes you have to chalk it up to the team had a terrible game and that is the case for the Ducks.
There were definitely some signs early on that it was going to be a long night for the Ducks. The Panthers scored the first two goals in the first five minutes of play and entered the locker room after one period with a 3-1 lead.
Two-goal deficits are erased all the time in hockey but Anaheim could not stop the bleeding in the second period. Florida kept pouring on goals, scoring three more to make it 6-1 after two periods of play. At that point, the game was pretty much all said and done.
John Gibson lasted the first 40 minutes allowing six goals on 17 shots while Reto Berra allowed two more goals on five shots in his one period of action.
Listen, every team has their off-nights, and with all the adversity this team has had to face early on, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later.
Now that last night's shellacking is behind them, the Ducks must now focus their attention on Saturday night when they will take on the hottest team in the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning.