✨🔩2024 Stanley Cup Finals: Edmonton vs Florida: Panthers Stanley Cup Champions 🔩✨ (FLA Wins 4-3)

[FD19372]

To me, there’s no question that McDavid will win the Conn Smythe, even if the Oilers lose in the Cup finals. If they do, he’ll be the first to win the award on a losing team, since J.S. Giguere for the Ducks in 2003.

[JR Ewing]

1 hour ago, NHL HHOF said:

Has Evander Kane been playing in this round against Florida?

 

He played in games one and two before coach Knoblauch took him out of the lineup. He's just too injured to play; can't even sit down on the bench and was labouring badly on the ice.

 

[JR Ewing]

1 hour ago, FD19372 said:

To me, there’s no question that McDavid will win the Conn Smythe, even if the Oilers lose in the Cup finals. If they do, he’ll be the first to win the award on a losing team, since J.S. Giguere for the Ducks in 2003.

 

I don't really think there's an argument left for anybody else. He's shattered a 40-year old playmaking record, and if the series goes the distance will most likely breaking the overall scoring record as well, all while providing splendid defense at the same time. You could say Bobrovsky, but he's also given up 12 goals in his last six periods of hockey. Barkov? He has half as many points and -12 compared to McDavid. His main task was to shut McDavid down and 97 responded by posting the first back-to-back four point nights in the history of the NHL.

 

Most media members I see out there seem to have been swayed to McDavid's side, whether or not the Oilers win. I think it would be robbery if it went to anybody else.

 

[flyercanuck]

13 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

I think it would be robbery if it went to anybody else.

 

There's no one even close to deserving it as he is. Bob had a nice run, but come the finals his game has gone down a few notches, while McDavid has elevated his even more.

[FD19372]

If the Oilers win tonight, I think they're going to win the Stanley Cup, in Game 7. So, strangely enough.. I look at it as a must win, for the Panthers tonight.

[SaucyJack]

Oilers will take the assist from Draisaitl.

[JR Ewing]

-Draisaitl playing like he's even quasi-healthy is a big deal for the Oilers.

-The Panthers had a really difficult time trying to get clean entries that period, and found the neutral zone completely closed off. Iced the puck four or five times.

-The Panthers look so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up their a$$, it would be diamond by the second intermission.

 

 

 

Edited June 22 by JR Ewing

[SaucyJack]

1 minute ago, JR Ewing said:

The Panthers had a really difficult time trying to get clean entries that period, and found the neutral zone completely closed off. Iced the puck four or five times.

 

 

At the start of this series, I picked Florida because I felt they would win the wars of attrition, shift by shift.  
 

At some point, this changed to the Oilers’ favor.  Certainly so in the period we just watched.

[radoran]

28 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

The Panthers look so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up their a$$, it would be diamond by the second intermission.

 

 

[SaucyJack]

Panthers really need to score right now, and get off of this lengthy power play schneid.

[SaucyJack]

Skinner is the new Bobrovsky.

[JR Ewing]

-Mattias Janmark is having a great Finals.

-I was sitting here thinking that the Oilers haven't given up very much tonight, and Natural Stat Trick confirms it: just 2 high danger against.

 

[JR Ewing]

It's very odd to me that Paul Maurice hasn't found a way to adjust to the Oilers exit, where they bump to the middle from the boards. The Oilers have been getting it out with speed in that exact way in every game but #2, and there hasn't been an answer for it.

 

[radoran]

Edmonton dairies are producing milk cartons with Florida Panthers players on them.

 

Or they should be.

 

Meanwhile, in Miami, it'll be 90 degrees and sunny on the beach tomorrow.

 

Edited June 22 by radoran

[NHL HHOF]

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Shame on you Panthers!
SHAME!

Granted...G7 still needs to be played, but I gotta tell ya....I REALLY do like the Oilers' chances to take home the Cup for the first time since 1988!

Still feel the Panthers should be the team hoisting that thing, but if Edmonton wins it, it will be a full on earned win, and definitely well deserved, especially given the expectations put on Edmonton this year and the awful, awful start they had to the season.

And of course, if the Oilers win, as a Bolts fan, it wouldn't exactly break my heart to see the Panthers go home as the SECOND best team once again...AND, my prophecy of the Oilers being the next Canadian based franchise to win the Cup will come true!

But first, Game 7 from Sunrise......

[JR Ewing]

18 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Shame on you Panthers!
SHAME!

Granted...G7 still needs to be played, but I gotta tell ya....I REALLY do like the Oilers' chances to take home the Cup for the first time since 1988!

 

Well... 1990...

 

[Jimtown guy]

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

17 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

 

Well... 1990...

 

 

 

Ooops...well, you are right of course.

My NHL fandom begins around the time the Rangers won the Cup for the first time since the 40's, so anything prior to that, from what I have in my limited amount of RAM in my head, may be spotty.

But far be it from me to short change the Oilers of a Cup!
Same decade as when I became a fan, so I SHOULD have known that one, eh?  

[radoran]

8 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Shame on you Panthers!

 

Who?

 

Was there another team out there?

 

Did they need ONE GAME to finish it off?

 

AGAIN?

 

Well, they still need one game.

 

Again.

 

I do not like their chances.

 

Edited June 22 by radoran

[NHL HHOF]

Why is this happening?
 

Paul Maurice must remain as Panthers head coach next season, even if they lose. They have to win the Cup with Maurice eventually.

[JR Ewing]

 

[Brewin Flames]

Bob gave up 16 in the last 3 games, went from a brick wall to swiss cheese and the cats top guns have been shut down.

 

In a game that (IMO) the cats had to win....2 shots in the first period, came out flat AF.

 

When they get back to fla for game # 7....ALL ther prsuure is going to be on them. Imagine having a 3-0 series lead, then dropping gamer # 7 at home.

 

The fans will riot for sure.

Edited June 22 by Brewin Flames

[Brewin Flames]

 

[Brewin Flames]

Panthers offense struggles again in Game 6 loss

Florida has scored just 5 goals in past 10 periods against Oilers in Final

© Getty Images

ByTracey Myers

@Tramyers_NHL NHL.com Staff Writer

1:18 AM

EDMONTON -- When the second period of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final came to a close, the Florida Panthers were leading the Edmonton Oilers by three goals and riding a huge wave of momentum.

 

But after scoring 11 goals through the first eight periods of the Cup Final, the Panthers’ offense has been anemic. They’ve scored five goals in the past 10 periods. Their top players have been quiet. Everyone in a Panthers uniform has been, really. 

 

And if they don’t rekindle their offense, the Panthers could end up being on the frustrating side of history.

 

“I think they’ve kind of disconnected us,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said after their 5-1 loss to the Oilers Game 6 of the Final at Rogers Place on Friday. 

 

“They’ve rimmed a lot of pucks out of the zone and tried to just spread us out. They’re doing a good job of it. We have to come together, we have to stick together and it has to be defense first.”

 

The Panthers, who had a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series on June 13, are now tied 3-3 going back to Amerant Bank Arena, where Game 7 will be on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).

 

The Panthers are trying to avoid being the second team in NHL history to lose in the Cup Final after having a 3-0 lead. The last time it happened was 1942, when the Toronto Maple Leafs came back from that deficit to defeat the Detroit Red Wings.

 

Other than the two third-period goals they scored in a 4-3 loss in Game 5, and coach Paul Maurice said “There was a score effect to that,” not much has gone the Panthers’ way offensively the past three games.

 

Game 6 proved to be the latest night of frustration for the Panthers.

 

That was especially true for their forwards, who didn’t get a shot on goal through the first half of the game. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson had the Panthers’ only two shots of the first period, one from 170 feet away from Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner, the next 52 feet from him.

 

Defensemen Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour also had early shots.

 

Center Aleksander Barkov broke the forward drought with his wrist shot on a Panthers power play at 11:55 of the second period.

 

“Well, they’re playing really well,” Barkov said. “They play really well defensively. They’re fast. They’re generating a lot of offense. So, obviously, we need to be better. There are things in the games that we’ve done really well and there are things that we need to get better at.”

 

Florida’s power play is also having a difficult time. After going 14-for-60 (23.3 percent) through the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Panthers are 1-for-19 (5.3 percent) in six games against the Oilers.

 

Their lone power-play goal came from Rodrigues at 12:26 of the third period of Game 2.

 

“I think we’re lacking a little bit of offensive speed, and that would be true of our 5-on-5 game,” Maurice said. “We’re getting jammed into corners. So, we’ll look at places where we can generate speed or keep our speed.”

 

They’ll also need to see why their top players are being shut down.

 

Center Carter Verhaeghe hasn’t had a goal since Game 1 against the Oilers.

 

His assist on Barkov’s goal at 1:28 of the third period on Friday is his only other point in this series. Forward Matthew Tkachuk has one goal in this series, in Game 5 on Tuesday.

 

Center Sam Reinhart, who led the Panthers with 57 goals in the regular season, has one against the Oilers (Game 3). 

 

“They came out hungrier than us,” Verhaeghe said. “They wanted it and that was kind of it. We didn’t really get to our forecheck off the start, and they took to us, so I think it’s for us to get better and I think we need some better starts.”

 

The Panthers need everything to be better in Game 7. It’s been quite the turn of events for them, especially on offense. This is their last chance to get it together.

 

“I think they’re just doing a good job defensively, blocking a lot of shots and keeping us outside,” Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen said. “That’s about it.”