After practically two months of Stanley Cup playoffs, we’re down to 2 groups left. The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers start the ultimate collection of the season on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN+), with the last word prize in hockey on the road.
As a service to these followers who have not been following each shot, save and additional time thriller of the 2024 NHL postseason, right here is the lapsed fan’s information to the Stanley Cup Last — a fast primer on the convention champs, how they obtained right here and what to look out for within the collection.
Wait a second … Florida Panthers vs. Edmonton Oilers? Wasn’t this the New York Rangers’ yr?
It positive appeared just like the Rangers have been a group of future. It was the thirtieth anniversary of their final Stanley Cup win in 1994. They rolled by the primary two rounds of the playoffs with additional time heroics. Rempe-mania was working wild! As coach Peter Laviolette admitted, from the gamers to the remainder of the group, “We really believed we have been going to win the Stanley Cup.”
Alas, the Rangers ran right into a Panthers group within the Jap Convention finals that smothered them defensively and drained their potent energy play.
They ended up as the most recent instance of the Presidents’ Trophy curse: Since 1985, solely eight groups that completed with the NHL’s finest regular-season report went on to win the Stanley Cup. Because the NHL went to the wild-card format in 2013, no Presidents’ Trophy-winning group has reached the Stanley Cup Last.
In response to maps, Edmonton, Alberta, and Dawn, Florida, appear very distant.
Your geography is appropriate. In response to the NHL, the Oilers and Panthers are 2,541 miles aside, the biggest distance between two groups in a Stanley Cup Last. The earlier report was set throughout the 2011 Last between the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins at 2,500 miles aside.
There’s going to be a number of time on the aircraft for each groups. Edmonton is a little more used to that than Florida at this level within the postseason.
Stated Edmonton’s Corey Perry of the flight to South Florida: “It was a ton of enjoyable. I watched my present, I fell asleep, obtained up, watched the reveals and we landed. Had a couple of meals in between.”
The Panthers’ aircraft has a card desk that pulls some intense video games among the many gamers. The Oilers’ aircraft additionally has a card desk, however probably the most intense video games are on the Nintendo Swap and particularly Mario Kart. Goalie Stuart Skinner revealed that he performs as Toad.
However the distance is not the one stark distinction between the 2 franchise. There’s additionally the rats and the steaks.
Rats and steaks?
Since 1995, it has been a practice at Panthers dwelling video games for followers to throw plastic rats on the ice in celebration. It stems from a legendary second when ahead Scott Mellanby used his stick with exterminate a rat within the locker room earlier than the group’s dwelling opener that yr after which used the identical stick to attain two objectives within the sport — scoring what his teammates known as “a rat trick.” Florida would go on to play for the Stanley Cup that season, with followers tossing plastic rats on the ice, and the custom has endured for many years.
In Edmonton, the meat is again. Throughout the Oilers’ 2006 run to the Stanley Cup Last, an area DJ inspired followers to throw slabs of meat on the ice as a response to the Detroit Purple Wings’ custom of hurling octopi on the ice. The Oilers upset the Purple Wings within the first spherical, and the meat tossing continued. Some steaks have been seen on the ice in Edmonton throughout this run to the Last, persevering with a juicy custom.
What is the big-picture view of Panthers vs. Oilers?
The Panthers try to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise historical past. The Oilers have not gained one for the reason that finish of their dynasty in 1990.
The Panthers are the deeper group on paper, particularly on protection and in aim. However they do not have Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, two generational skills in search of their first championship after a number of years of irritating leads to the playoffs.
It is South Florida, which is lastly beginning to growth as a hockey market after three many years, vs. Canada, because the Oilers try to develop into the primary Canadian NHL group to win the Stanley Cup since 1993.
Is Canada rallying across the Oilers to interrupt the drought?
To place the Cup drought into perspective: Canada has seen an NBA champion (Toronto Raptors, 2019) and World Collection champion (Toronto Blue Jays, 1993) for the reason that nation final had a Stanley Cup champion.
The Canucks (twice), Oilers, Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators all had their photographs at breaking the drought and fell quick. What we realized from all of these earlier makes an attempt: Canadians rooting for a group to win the Cup simply because it is from Canada is a delusion. It is an invention. It is typically talked about however by no means occurs.
Consider it logically: Would a fan of the Flames, the Oilers’ in-province rival, ever need to see Edmonton win something, particularly in opposition to a group with ex-Flames star Matthew Tkachuk? Would a Canucks fan whose group misplaced in seven video games to those Oilers all of the sudden cheer for them? Does anybody in Toronto need something good to occur for some other Canadian group when the Leafs have not gained since 1967?
In fact not. It is foolish. There’s just one group Canada rallies round to root for, and it is the one which competes for gold medals, not the Stanley Cup.
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The Panthers was horrible. How did they develop into annual Stanley Cup finalists?
This is a wild truth: Coach Paul Maurice, the quippy bench boss who additionally coached the Panthers to the Last for the second time of their historical past final season, is chargeable for half (25) of the franchise’s playoff wins (50). Florida was identified for not making the playoffs, at one level qualifying solely twice in an 18-year span. The Panthers have now made the playoffs in 4 straight seasons.
A lot of the credit score goes to GM Invoice Zito, who arrived in 2020 and added gamers like Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe to the roster. He additionally employed Maurice, who has guided Florida again to the Last after dropping to Vegas in 5 video games final June.
The Panthers are simply the sixth group since 1968 to play for the Stanley Cup the season after dropping within the Last. The final two that did — the 2009 Penguins and the 1984 Oilers — gained all of it on their second attempt. If there’s one large narrative for the Panthers, it is the unfinished enterprise in attempting to win the Stanley Cup for the primary time.
What’s completely different about this model of the Panthers within the Last?
They’re more healthy, for positive. Among the many accidents Florida had in opposition to the Golden Knights: Defenseman Aaron Ekblad had a damaged foot and two separated shoulders and Tkachuk broke his sternum earlier than Sport 3. However the Panthers are additionally a unique group defensively. They have been twenty first in objectives in opposition to per sport in 2022-23 (3.32) however rose to first within the NHL (2.41) this season.
They used that protection — and the clutch goaltending of Sergei Bobrovsky — to defeat the rival Tampa Bay Lightning in 5 video games; oust the Bruins in six video games, in a rematch of the Panthers’ stunning first-round upset of the B’s final season; after which get rid of the Rangers in six video games.
Bobrovsky is in search of his first Stanley Cup in a profession that has seen him win the Vezina Trophy twice because the league’s high goalie and get rid of the regular-season’s finest group 3 times within the playoffs. Final season, he carried the Panthers and confronted a bunch of photographs; this season, the protection has been higher and a extra rested Bobrovsky has been a stable final line of protection for Florida.
However this season, the important thing defensive matchup must be Aleksander Barkov, who gained the Selke Trophy because the league’s high defensive ahead, taking up McDavid.
Weren’t the Oilers mainly cooked early within the season?
It definitely appeared that method. Edmonton was 3-9-1 when the Oilers fired head coach Jay Woodcroft and changed him with Kris Knoblauch, who was teaching the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford. (Knoblauch was additionally McDavid’s junior hockey coach, and the Oilers star has denied having any affect on the teaching change.) The Oilers added Hockey Corridor of Famer Paul Coffey to Knoblauch’s bench to assist coach the protection.
Edmonton then turned its season round, going 46-18-5 underneath Knoblauch to complete second within the Pacific Division. The Oilers eradicated the Los Angeles Kings for the third straight first spherical (4-1) after which outlasted the Canucks in a seven-game second-round collection that may have been a defining second for them as a contender — and for his or her first-year coach.
How did the Vancouver collection change the Oilers?
If there was a weak hyperlink for Edmonton getting into the playoffs, it was goaltending. Stuart Skinner was squarely within the “simply do not lose us a collection” territory.
For the primary eight video games of the playoffs, regardless of profitable 5 of them, he was a legal responsibility: an .877 save share, in again of an inconsistent protection. So Knoblauch benched him for Video games 4 and 5 in opposition to Vancouver in favor of journeyman Calvin Pickard, to offer Skinner a reset and to offer a wake-up name to the Oilers.
Skinner’s subsequent eight video games: six wins and a .919 save share, with Edmonton out-defending an excellent Dallas Stars group in its six-game Western Convention finals win. Lastly, there gave the impression to be a group taking part in championship-level hockey surrounding McDavid.
What’s so particular about McDavid, anyway?
Generally it is higher to point out than inform:
Connor McDavid’s power-play aim opens the scoring in Sport 6
Connor McDavid makes a superb transfer and backhands the puck into the online to offer the Oilers a 1-0 lead.
That is McDavid in opposition to the Stars in Sport 6 of the convention finals, posterizing two defenders earlier than beating goalie Jake Oettinger. It was lower than 5 minutes into the largest sport of McDavid’s profession, with a visit to the Cup Last on the road. For anybody else, it is a career-defining spotlight. For McDavid, it is merely often known as “Connor doing Connor issues.”
McDavid leads all playoff scorers with 31 factors in 18 playoff video games. That features 26 assists, placing him 5 helpers away from Wayne Gretzky’s NHL report for many assists in a single postseason (31 assists in 1988). McDavid has scored in 14 video games, with 9 multipoint video games.
He has collected a number of {hardware} throughout his nine-year NHL profession — 5 scoring titles, three MVP awards — however that is his first probability to play for the Stanley Cup. And he may lastly have the suitable group round him to win it.
What do the Oilers have past McDavid?
Leon Draisaitl is each bit the generational expertise and franchise pillar that McDavid is. He has 28 factors in 18 video games, together with 10 objectives. There have been instances when it was Draisaitl who stepped up in each ends of the rink to guide the Oilers to victory throughout the playoffs. As magical as McDavid is, the Oilers aren’t right here with out Draisaitl.
Neither of the 2 has the aim whole of Zach Hyman, though McDavid and Draisaitl have definitely contributed to it. Hyman leads the playoffs with 14 objectives, after scoring 54 objectives within the common season. That places him in vary to threaten the NHL report of 19 objectives in a single postseason, at present shared by Reggie Leach and Jari Kurri, the latter of whom set it as an Oiler. Talking of vary, 10 of Hyman’s objectives have come from proper in entrance of the online.
If there’s one participant who leveled as much as star standing within the playoffs, it is Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard. He is third within the playoffs in scoring (27 factors) whereas skating 24:33 per sport alongside defensive associate Mattias Ekholm.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has 20 factors in 18 video games, and is notable for being the longest-serving present Oiler — 881 video games, spanning 9 head coaches, a couple of basic managers and loads of dashed hopes.
All of those gamers share one thing in widespread: They assist run one of the vital dominant power-play items in NHL historical past.
How good is the Edmonton energy play?
The Oilers convert on over 37% of their energy performs, simply one of the best within the NHL. McDavid acts like a degree guard, distributing pucks. Draisaitl, who’s tied with McDavid with 14 power-play factors, is nice on one-timers. Bouchard has a booming shot from the purpose, and Hyman cleans up pucks in entrance. Knoblauch calls Nugent-Hopkins “the facilitator,” which makes this sound like a heist crew.
Whereas one of the best recommendation in slowing the Oilers’ energy play is to only not enable them to have one, the Panthers are the second-best penalty-killing group within the playoffs (88.2%), coming off a collection through which they thwarted 14 of 15 energy performs for the Rangers, who have been additionally one of many NHL’s finest groups with the person benefit.
By the way, one of the best penalty-killing group within the playoffs? The Oilers, at 93.9%.
What’s the important thing to victory for each groups?
For the Panthers, it is to remove the time and house for McDavid and Draisaitl to function, whereas not permitting them possibilities to attain on the facility play. It is a recipe that labored in opposition to the Rangers within the convention finals, to the purpose the place New York’s finest offensive gamers mentioned they have been taking part in extra conservatively out of worry of creating a mistake in opposition to Florida. Then, if that fails, counting on Bobrovsky to be the final line of protection.
For the Oilers, it is simply the other: In the event that they’re on the highway to victory, McDavid and Draisaitl are driving the bus. Sure, they will want Skinner to remain robust and require contributions from different gamers, however on the finish of the day the Stanley Cup might be gained or misplaced on the efficiency of their two stars.
Whether or not it is the Panthers as a franchise or McDavid and Draisaitl as generational stars, somebody’s incomes their first sip from the Stanley Cup this month. And that makes for a really thrilling collection.
Trivia: Assume you understand the Stanley Cup?
Earlier than the Panthers’ matchup vs. the Oilers for the Stanley Cup, take a look at your data with some trivia.