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For the Stanley Cup Final, we have a retread: Oilers and Panthers part two: Dig the F**k in Redux! Everyone who either hates Florida’s rat battalion or does not want another Florida hockey team dynasty is rooting for the Oilers. Florida, time to eliminate the little brother memes with a repeat Stanley Cup Finals win. Edmonton, please do not make McDavid cry again. Pretty please, with a Mama Stanley on top?
Game One: Now THAT’S the hockey I wanted to see! Some of the many highlights included Draisaitl starting and ending the scoring (1:06 in the first period and with 33 seconds left in the first overtime), Sam Bennett scoring another playoff goal, Stuart Skinner vacillating between glorified beachball and Dominic Hasek, and a pivotal delay of game penalty leading to Draisaitl's game-winning goal. Florida had a 31-0 record when leading after multiple periods: Edmonton made it 31-1. Here’s to more great hockey!
Game Two: Just when I thought Game One could not be topped in the Stanley Cup Finals, the first period of this game gave us that and more. I thought that the period could not end with the chaos. To recap Period One, the Panthers and Oilers combined for five goals in the first period. The goal that gave Edmonton the 3-2 lead in the game included a McDavid assist that even Aaron Ekblad, the defender McDavid dog walked, had to admire. Edmonton kept that lead until midway through the second period, when the Panthers’ Dimitry Kulikov tied it and Brad Marchand scored on a shorthanded breakaway, something we will totally not see again in this game *winks*. Sure, let Perry score the latest game-tying goal in the Stanley Cup Finals since 195-whatever. Brad Marchand likes doing anything, even licking his opponents (yes, that actually happened), more than once. So of course, he wins the game and evens up the series on, you guessed it, a breakaway in double overtime. Not the best ending if you’re an Oilers fan, but like with Game One, amazing to watch as a hockey fan. I will say to the Oilers fans reading this that the Panthers have too much talent to lose two straight road games.
Game Three: There’s something about Florida where they bring out the undisciplined element of the teams they play against. Granted, they have a legion of rats, including Sam Bennett, but Florida’s opponents need to stay focused on their strategy. The Oilers did not get the memo, accruing penalty minutes faster than their patented multi-goal comebacks. They learned the lesson Ottawa did in Round One: if you give any team a Stanley Cup-load of opportunities to score, they will take advantage of said chances. Now, Florida has the first series lead in the Cup Finals. Can Edmonton even it up heading back to Alberta?
Game Four: Weird for me to say about a team with Connor McDavid, but the Oilers have to credit Draisaitl and Draisaitl alone. Draisaitl has the playmaking abilities to match his captain’s skating aptitude. It started like Game One, as Edmonton went down by multiple goals. Stuart Skinner chose his beachball form yet again, and the Oilers chose to send him off to the Florida beaches to play with them. Calvin Pickard came in to halt the Panthers’ goal scoring and gave Edmonton a chance to come back into the game. They gave Pickard four straight goals. But because the hockey gods love buzzer-beater goals in the third period of the Stanley Cup Finals, they allowed Sam Reinhart to tie it with 20 seconds left in regulation. The former Sabre’s goal is the second latest goal to tie a game behind, you guessed it, Corey Perry’s goal in Game Two. But Draisaitl could not be denied, potting one past Bobrovsky in the first overtime to even up the series. And with this goal, Draisaitl has become the first player to score four overtime goals in one postseason. I have a feeling this series will go to 7 games again, and I am okay with that.
Game Five: Edmonton hates me and my desires for a seven-game series. Their magic ran out as their patented multi-goal comeback sputtered at the hands of Bobrovsky and some key blocked shots by Panthers defenders. Also, when Draisaitl and McDavid miss sure-fire goals by just inches, I can tell the hockey gods wanted to party with Lord Stanley in the Florida Keys. And to rub the blowout in, Brad Marchand scored two highlight reel goals, one of which where he channeled his inner McDavid and deked through three defenders. Time will tell if you can drag the Panthers back to Alberta again. In the meantime, take comfort in the fact that you are not the Maple Leafs.1
Game Six: The Panthers did not want to go back to Alberta again, instead choosing to yank the Oilers around Amerant Bank Arena. Three words can describe Game 6: Complete hockey annihilation. Sam Reinhart scored a hat trick and then some off multiple Edmonton miscues. Flyers legend Sergei Bobrovsky had a shutout until Podkolzin chose to spoil the party and cut the lead to five very late in the third period. Florida has now established itself as the state of hockey. Sorry, Minnesota, but when a Florida team has made the Stanley Cup Finals in the past six years, but the men’s hockey team can’t make it past the first round, you have a problem2. The Panthers also saw Tampa Bay’s back-to-back and decided to match it with their own consecutive championship run. Also doesn’t hurt that they have dispatched Tampa Bay in both, Bennett won the Conn Smythe for scoring a NHL record 15 goals, but I think Marchand should have accrued more votes simply for the narratives of it all. The Panthers’ buzzer-beater trade deadline acquisition came up big in the postseason when it mattered, scoring not only ten goals but also ten assists. He helped the LLM (Luostarinen, Lundell, and Marchand) line become one of the more dangerous ones this postseason. Party hard, Panthers, you earned it.
And now to the losing team:
Congrats, Edmonton, for letting Sam Reinhart net half of his four goals off bad Evan Bouchard turnovers. Great, I get to see McDavid cry again. First, McDraisaitl gets let down by poor forward depth. Then, stacking a team full of forwards can only do so much when they can’t play defense, and Stuart Skinner (and before him, Mike Smith) vacillates between Dominic Hasek and living pylons.
Stan Bowman, could you please find some decent defensemen not locked up to long contracts on other teams? You signed a Brandon Carlo-less Trent Frederic instead? Brilliant /sarcasm. You need that money for a goaltender, and because of this, you just let Detroit take one of the few free agent goaltenders in John Gibson. I know full well you’re planning on signing Carter Hart as your goaltender; the memes foretold it. Have fun with that.
You'd better win it all next year, or your team could become hockey’s answer to the 1990s Buffalo Bills.
I wanted to thank y’all for subscribing, boosting, and sharing Ice-Capades. The support means a lot! To give a quick preview for my future news articles, I’m planning on writing a PWHL free agency recap soonish (I’m planning on doing it in the style of Youtuber That’s Good Sports’ Winners and Losers video series that he does for the NFL), as well as on the 2018 Canadian World Hockey Juniors trial and the broader malaise within hockey culture, a recap of the Flyers 2024-2025 season, the 2000 ECF (which in case you wanted to feel old today, happened a year before I was born), plus the time Rod Brind’amour scored two shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill in the 1997 playoffs. If any of those interest you or anyone you know, feel free to share, boost, or subscribe. If you want to send some funds my way, you can get a paid subscription for as little as five bucks a month!