To an extent, it was very apropos.
On a night that saw the Edmonton Oilers survive a trampling at the hands of the plum-out-of-luck Florida Panthers, collecting a rare unearned pair of points, they lost slight center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins long term to a suspected broken hand.
Straight away, the ramifications are grim. Last-place Edmonton will roll out a bludgeoned top six in Tampa Bay and Dallas before wrapping up the pre-All Star portion of its schedule against the Predators. We'll likely see Anton Lander dress, and if you'll believe it, more and more Zack Kassian.
But this season, another one lost, and which has seen season-subverting injuries overlap, the long-term repercussions could perhaps mean we never actually see the lottery-laden top six the Oilers had flaunted ever take the ice together.
And it's a very real possibility Peter Chiarelli must study.
When Connor McDavid resumes his rookie campaign, hopefully immediately after the All-Star break, the Oilers will be left with a top-six forward grouping that's finally clear and defined. McDavid will presumably rejoin Nail Yakupov and Benoit Pouliot, to whom he extracted front-line performances from before breaking his clavicle, leaving Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, and Leon Draisaitl to work on the other line.
Nugent-Hopkins remains a wonderful talent, and his absence is obviously a detriment to wins and losses right now. But there might be a silver lining to this, another punch to the gut.
His busted hand offers Edmonton a commitment-free test-drive with McDavid and Draisaitl as the nucleus of their attack. It's a look Chiarelli was already seemingly receptive to, as Nugent-Hopkins was rumored to be dangled in the Seth Jones sweepstakes.
The Oilers require a bold stroke to declutter its forward fleet and shore up a back end that, as it stands right now, will never hold up in the West.
Nugent-Hopkins' injury may be just the thing to reaffirm their apparent hunch.
