Nine days after playing their worst game of the season in Spokane, Portland did it again in the same arena, this time falling 4-1. This time the score was closer--on February 15 it was a 6-2 loss--but unquestionably they played worse. They were poor from the start, although Spokane didn’t take the lead until after there were 3 minutes left in the 1st. There was virtually no point where they looked like they were going to get back in the game. The closest was when they cut the lead to 2-1, and within a few minutes Ty Cheveldayoff and Carter Streek scored 36 seconds apart to pretty much seal their fate. So that’s 6 straight losses, 2 of them to Spokane, who are 14 points out of a playoff spot although playing better lately. 5 of those losses were on the road, and their road form has been uncharacteristic of Portland teams in recent memory. The streak pretty much locked into third, and so they don’t have much to play for except to get the ship turned around for the playoffs. With 5 out of the last 12 against NHL-prospect-laden Seattle, even that won’t be easy. One of those games with Seattle is Saturday, and the worse news is Jack O’Brien leaving midway through the game with a possible concussion. He would be a huge loss as Portland tries to avoid being embarrassed. A 48-point difference in the standings, but with the deep winning slump Portland was in, and with how tough Spokane had played them during the season, it was a very uncertain game. Spokane got going with an early power play and Portland could never catch back up. It took them until the last 3 minutes for it to show on the scoreboard but then they got another one, and it looked gloomier. Portland got the goal but if anything played worse. The goal was more about Spokane’s goalie, and then Spokane immediately answered with two quick ones to put it away. Portland played decent here, what you’d expect from a team down late, and created a few chances, forcing Dawson Cowan to earn his “pay”. It got them the overall shot lead for the game but they never really felt like a threat to get back in it. Spokane won all three phases. Yes. O’Brien going down made a bad game worse. How they’ve played against Spokane is a head-scratcher. They gave up 5 goals in a period to them in November--when they were playing well--and had to score 2 late goals and an overtime winner to beat them in January--when Chaz Lucius gave them that short burst. At the time their two wins were thought to be a much better team taking longer than expect to assert their dominance, but now you have these two stinkers. Those two games have colored the losses around them. In the other games on this road trip they’ve played well enough to win, but lost all of them. The Spokane losses have made it feel like it was their destiny to lose those games as well, which it wasn’t. It’s also diminished their good efforts against Red Deer and Tri-City twice which came before the trip started. It’s not really correct, but these Spokane games two bad efforts against the worst team in the conference. In calendar 2023 they’re 10-11-0-2. On the road in 2023 they’re 4-10-0-1; all their extended road trips have been in 2023 and they haven’t reacted well. They started the season 17-1-1-1, outshooting their opponent in each of those games. Since then they’re 19-14-1-2, and that was helped by a winning streak in December where almost every game was against a team missing their top players at tournaments. You can’t discount that start where they were overachieving, so the evidence suggests they’re an upper-middle pack team, below the elites. Where that puts them in the playoffs is anyone’s guess. They’ve stopped skating, which is a worry--maybe you can chalk that up to the road trip. Without O’Brien, they’ll be looking Saturday to avoid a game that hurts their vibe any more. They won pretty easily without any offensive contributions from their top line, who before last week we though were pretty much the only good players on the team. They’re 3-1-1-1 in their last 6, with 18 for and 15 against. It’s been a step forward. Saturday at Seattle, 6pm Friday at Everett, 7pm next Saturday vs. Tri-City, 6pm Friday 3/10 at Spokane, 7pm Friday 3/17 at Seattle, 7pm.