Woke up this morning and am still really pissed off they lost. I’m not mad at the team, they gave us one hell of a fun ride. They knocked out a heavily favoured Canucks team and Stars team then almost completed a near-impossible comeback to win it all to fall just short at the finish line.
As many have said it just shows how important the monotony of the regular season really is. Every point matters to have that all-important home ice advantage in the playoffs.
Last night just had that eerie feel Florida wouldn’t be denied. The hockey gods giveth and they taketh away. The Oilers had two or three pucks just skirt past the outside of the post which might have gone in on any other night. When Bouchard hit the post, I turned to my wife and said they weren’t going to win. I don’t know how but I could just feel it wasn’t going to be their night.
On paper, not many times a team outscores their opponent 23-18 and is +1 on the PK over their power play and lose in a full 7-game series. Their own power play went ice cold at the wrong time. I still don’t believe the better team won the series. The Oilers got goalied in game 1 and a horrendous 5 minute stretch in game 3 was the difference in this series. In a one game showdown, anyone can beat any team on that day.
I will say though, one thing I’ve always believed is in a strange way, it’s almost better to lose your first trip to the finals so you know what the awful, empty feeling of defeat feels like and you never want to feel that pain again. So come back stronger next year.
I know they won’t see this but thank you Oilers for one HELL of a fantastic season you gave us as fans. From 2-9-1, to a 16 game win streak to losing a hard fought cup finals in which you were the better team for most of the entire series.
