The title of this piece is all that stood in the way of MTL making the playoffs for the first time in 8 seasons (might be longer). While short-term this is demoralizing, I am still holding on to hope for the next two seasons. Beyond that and I'll conclude the sim just hates our franchise. Looking back on a season it is hard to think about where things should have gone different. Why did whomever commit the thoughtless penalty at the end of the game costing us our chances of overtime or the shootout that was determined by us hitting the crossbar. Quite literally this playoff was missed by a matter of centimeters. While depressing there is no point in sitting back and moping around until we get another chance at next season. The brutal part is the two weeks wait until the offseason rolls around and then however long that takes for us to begin the next season. As I will discuss in a future media piece the future is looking grim and bright simultaneously. Spoiler on that piece, after regression five of the top seven teams in TPE play in the Eastern Conference. It will be another blood bath as middle of the table teams vie for the last spot in. Knowing this information only motivates me more to earn as much as I can in order to improve the Pat's outcome for next season. The roster is now full and damn near finalized for what the future will look like when we are at our peak. One more season of pushing the stone up the hill for what feels like eternity. 

- Chop