Despite the hangover induced fog I woke up in, I started thinking about the strange trip it’s been to go from watching a team that was perennial bottom feeders to one that is only two wins away from the Western Conference Final. What a ride.

For Oilers fans that are being real with themselves, you know that they were lucky to steal that win last night. Anaheim outplayed the Oilers for 2/3 of the game but Cam Talbot was having no part of their comeback attempt. At the end of the day, who cares of the Oilers got outplayed – they still won the hockey game and walk away from Anaheim with a 2-0 series lead. Aside from Oilers fans, who would have seen that coming? The MSM and hockey Internet in general thought the Ducks were going to shake the Oilers down for their lunch money and instead they’re the ones handing it over.

Soak it in, Nation. We Andy Dufresne’d our way out of a sewer line full of shit to get to this point and I’m sure as hell going to enjoy the ride for as long as I can. Not to mention, I laugh every single time I think about the fact that the Ducks are paying for Pat Maroon to beat them in the playoffs. Classic!

I know that the Internet (and Randy Carlyle) think we complain about the refs a lot but it’s not like we’re doing it for no reason. Anybody with two working eyeballs that watched last night’s hockey game know that the Anaheim Ducks were getting away with playing prison rules. I’m going to show you two gifs that basically sum up just how horribly inconsistent NHL referees can be in the playoffs.

First up is this missed ignored call on Ryan Getzlaf where he literally hauled down the puck carrier without getting called. Then you’ll see the absolutely weak call on Zack Kassian that sent him to the box shortly after.

I think the piece de resistance has to be the rear naked choke on Pat Maroon that wasn’t worthy of a call despite the fact that the blind man ref was standing right there. How do you not call this? It’s awful.

I went to re-watch the highlights from last night’s game when I noticed that it was draft lottery day. Up until that moment, I had basically forgotten that the draft lottery was coming up. That’s almost unthinkable for an Oilers fan. I mean, last year we literally threw a #MakeItFive party in the hopes that we’d be able to piss the world off and win a fifth first overall pick in seven years. This year, I nearly forgot about it altogether. Isn’t it amazing what a little bit of winning can do? PLAYOFFS!

Quick, name me the top five prospects in this year’s draft. Bet you can’t! Isn’t it cool?

One of the best things in the playoffs has been watching Wayne Gretzky’s reactions to just about anything. The fact that the Great One is back in the fold and involved with the team again is cool in its own right, but to see him just ask excited (or bummed out) as the fans are is one of the most fun parts about the Oilers playoff run right now. If I’m Sportsnet, I’m asking Gretzky if they can have his reactions live streaming or to have him wear a Go Pro or something because Wayne is amazing to watch.

This morning, Kyla wrote about answering the bell on a bet she made with Twitter that if the Oilers made the playoffs she would get a celebratory tattoo. Then I see a story over at the Journal about my man Darcy getting a Nation logo tattooed on his leg and all I could think about was how amazing our community is. What we have is a group of people that have all bonded over the Edmonton Oilers in one of the worst times in franchise history.

One of the greatest things about working here is when we throw events and I get to see people that are meeting in real life because they connected initially on this website. There are people that I talk to almost on a daily basis that I met because of this website. It’s one thing to have a site that covers the Edmonton Oilers but it’s another thing when that website means enough to people that they can bond over it. It’s a pretty cool thing that we’re building here together, Nation. Thank you for your massive part in it.