Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Mr. Overtime

Oops, he did it again. In fact, he did IT three times in a row. Andrew Cogliano (aka Cogs) scored in overtime last night to lift the Oilers over the St. Louis Blues. Yes folks, that is his third overtime goal. Even more impressive, it's his third overtime goal in as many games. Yes, an NHL record.

Aside from blowing a 3-0 lead (let's not get into that yet), the Oilers held on and took the game to overtime. Cogs scored with 5 seconds left in OT with a beautiful pass from Gagner (Gags). Earlier in the season, I was shouting to put these boys together. Along with the addition of Nilsson lately, they are the dynamic trio. The kid line isn't kidding (yes that was bad). They have so much chemistry and even better, are scoring lots of goals.

Okay, let's get to this blowing leads. You know what? This team is young and yes, they're going to cock things up. But they are not blowing leads and losing like they did in December. I believe they lost 6 games in a row and were tied or leading heading into the third period. Fast forward a few months, and now when blowing a lead, the Oilers come back in OT or the shootout. Obviously we'd all like to see more regulation wins but this is a team in transition. They are developing (faster than we all thought) and becoming an Oilers team of old. Filled with physical play, using their speed and grinding out wins.

It's too bad their 7-1 run hasn't helped make up much ground. They are still 7 pts out of the playoffs. But it sure gives this fan some hope for the future.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good game last night. Just a note on cogs' OT goal. The NHL HQ has not officially recognized it as an actual "record" yet. They have only qualified it as an NHL "first". This hopefully will change soon after they give their heads a shake. Even their website calls it a record.

Marsha said...

Interesting. It's a record in my mind even if the NHL hasn't recognized it yet.

Marsha said...

From the NHL website,

But the Edmonton rookie is more than just the player who broke an NHL record with three-straight OT winners.

They'd better get their stories straight....lol.

Anonymous said...

The blown lead wasn't as bad as it sounds i didnt think, the one goal was a terribly flukey goal that hit the ref off a dump in and bounced in front of the goal with Garon going down in the corner... and the other bad one was what essentially consisted of about 5 bounce type tips that somehow ended up on the blues stick and in the net. The third was a hell of a set up by Kariya and an even better shot by Boyes... so I wouldnt be to concerned with giving up the lead like that... the oil persevered well and played great in the third.

Shannon said...

I think Cogs goal was great, but you gotta start wondering about all this OT wins. Yeah, yeah - a win is a win and who cares if we give St. Louis a point.

I do care if we give the Aves a point tonight.

Let's play the WHOLE 60 minutes and not mess it up halfway through.

That being said, next year is lookin' good!