Everything is fine now

Erik Cole got a hat trick last night and the Oilers won 5-2 –- contrary to what the scoreboard here on the Nation is telling you this morning. No, you have not stumbled into an alternate universe, this is really what happened.

All the loyal citizens of the Nation can now experience the flip side of constant negativity during a bad season of hockey. What we get to have today is without a doubt one of the most coveted emotions any hardcore hockey fan can have: temporary irrational exuberance.

You find yourself looking at the standings and saying, “Three games over .500? Well that’s not so bad…” and wondering about what it would take to climb into eighth place. (note: Don’t look at our standings though. They accurately reflect the 1987 season through 41 games.) You certainly aren’t anywhere near the positivity we all feel as the Oil spring to life and go 21-0 every March to miss the playoffs by a third of a point, but you can feel the ol’ joy emotion stirring in the lump of coal you call a heart.

If you work in an office you can go post up by the water cooler all morning and talk happy shop with your thirsty coworkers. Did anyone see the game last night? Woooo! That Brule sure is looking good! Wooo! Erik Cole got a hattie? Wooo!

People you wouldn’t ordinarily say three words to become close confidants of all your secret Oilers desires. You seek out “Barry” in “accounting” because you know that he has an Oilers flag on the wall of his office and will probably be good for 15 minutes of “fond remembrances.”

Yep, in the middle of the best JL meeting to date, a pretty good hockey game broke out. Maybe it was the snow. Maybe it was the soldiers in attendance. Maybe it was Cole being awarded a hat trick 15 hours after the game ended. Whatever the case, the Oilers handled a very good Capital team last night with some panache.

As our dear friend Rob pointed out last night, this is a cause for celebration.

It’s a funny thing writing about hockey 24/7, Rob. We didn’t realize how hard it was till we started writing on here. It got even harder when people started reading what we wrote on here too. Our intention is not to be negative on a daily basis. It’s hard to come up with fresh material every day -– particularly when the team is gassing every other game, there’s no real news in sight and yet tens of thousands of Citizens of the OilersNation turn up here every week looking to read something.

Today they could be reading us ripping Rob a new one for talking smack after a win. But we’re so pleasantly content from an actual hard-fought win against a good team we will simply let it be. Instead we made a pretty picture for everyone to enjoy. He’s some kind of awesome that Craig MacTavish.

We love you Erik Cole. Please don’t leave at the end of the year.