Wednesday was 2–1. The 3–2 did not travel.

Wednesday was three sides. Two cashed. One died. The number is a separate ticket from the side, and a spike from an earlier night is not a license to write the same score again.

The three cards

Washington 5, Pittsburgh 3. The side cashed. It was not 3–2. The side and the total are not the same stamp. Winnipeg 3, Colorado 2. The side cashed and the number cashed. That is the one place the 3–2 held. A 6–1 from earlier in the week did not travel, and we do not pretend it did. Edmonton 5, Anaheim 2. The card was Anaheim. The home lean died. A 9–7 from somewhere else did not travel either. Wednesday on the side was 2–1. That is the record. Not 3–0, and not a story about the goals we liked.

Thursday is ten leans

All ten are 3–2. All ten are 51. Not 70. Fifty-one is a lean, and a lean under 56 is not a football-style side. None of the ten has started. We do not stamp a clock as a final.

The ten, and what is only a shade

Utah at Boston, Dallas at Buffalo, Nashville at Montreal, Philadelphia at Ottawa, Minnesota at Tampa Bay, and Vancouver at Carolina, all 7 p.m. ET. Chicago at the Islanders, 7:30. San Jose at St. Louis, 8. Colorado at Calgary, 9. Toronto at Vegas, 10. Colorado played Wednesday in Winnipeg and is on a back-to-back. A back-to-back is a shade, not a fade, and not a reason to lay a number. Utah’s 5–3 was Tuesday at New Jersey. The card that night was the Devils, and the side died. Utah did not play Wednesday. That 5–3 does not sit on Wednesday, and it does not write Boston.