The thing that blows my mind the most about our OT games this year is how many times we give up a goal on the very first shot of the OT period. It defies all logic.
And because of that, I will say something that will probably won’t be a popular opinion on here: I think we have been pretty darn unlucky in the OT games this year.
Before everyone jumps on me, hear me out- I know we have been flat out awful this year in OT- I am absolutely not suggesting otherwise.
But I have watched just about every OT game in the NHL this year, and in almost every one of them teams trade glorious chances back and forth before someone eventually scores.
But with us, the very first breakdown we have winds up in our net- it is uncanny. Other games you will see teams on a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 mess a pass up, or shoot wide. Or hit the post. Or the puck rolls off a stick. Or get stoned on a breakaway. It happens all the time. But in our games, our opponents make the perfect play every time. Just once you would think we would catch a break and a team would mess up a glorious chance that we gave them on a silver platter.
I go back to the game in Montreal. We have a wide open net and Smith somehow manages to do something that would never happen again in a million tries- blocks his own shot. If that play were against us, it’s in the back of the net 100% of the time. Montreal got very lucky there- and that is the kind of luck we never, ever get in OT.
Again, I know we are terrible at 3 on 3- I understand that. I get it. I just think we have also been a little bit unlucky as well. And when you combine awful and unlucky? That equals 1-12.