The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers are ready for the first Stanley Cup Final rematch in 16 years.
Not since the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008, only to lose to them the next year, have the same teams met in the Final. It's the 11th time it's happened since the NHL took control of the Cup 99 years ago, but just the third in the past 47 years. The Oilers were swept by the New York Islanders in 1983 but defeated the Isles in 1984 for their first of four championships in a five-year span
The Panthers won last year's final in seven games; they won the first three, lost Games 4-5-6 but won 2-1 at home in Game 7. If this series gets to a seventh game, the Oilers will have the home-ice edge this time because they finished the regular season with 101 points to 98 for the Panthers.
But having to play Game 7 on the road doesn't figure to bother the Panthers, who are making their third straight appearance in the Final. They won Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 at Scotiabank Arena and the decisive Game 5 of the conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center. The Panthers have won five in a row away from Amerant Bank Arena on the way to an 8-2 road mark this spring.
The Oilers are 6-1 at Rogers Place, where they've won three straight, including both home games in the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars . They are 6-3 on the road, including the clinching fifth game against the Stars .
Each team has rallied from a two-game deficit to win a series. The Panthers lost the first two games of their Eastern Conference Second Round series against the Maple Leafs but won in seven games. The Oilers lost Games 1 and 2 of their Western Conference First Round series against the Los Angeles Kings but won the next four games to advance to the second round.
The Panthers won both games against the Oilers during the regular season. A late third-period goal by Carter Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a 6-5 win at Rogers Place on Dec. 16. At Amerant Bank Arena on Feb. 27, the Panthers won 4-3 behind third-period goals by Nate Schmidt and Verhaeghe.
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The Oilers have the League's best 1-2 offensive combination in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl .
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McDavid, a five-time winner of the Art Ross Trophy as top NHL scorer, is arguably the best player of the past 10 years. He has a boatload of hardware, but he'd gladly trade the Conn Smythe Trophy he won as playoff MVP last year for the Stanley Cup he's never gotten to lift. Not surprisingly, he leads all players this spring with 20 assists and 26 points. McDavid's combination of speed and skill is unmatched in today's NHL – and maybe in League history.
On any other team, Draisaitl would be the star; on the Oilers, it often seems he plays the role of Robin to McDavid's Batman. But this season's Rocket Richard Trophy winner (52 goals) can carry his own line and gives the Oilers a fearsome duo when coach Kris Knoblauch plays him on right wing with McDavid– as he often does after an opposition goal.
However, the Oilers have more scoring depth than they've had in past years. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had nine points in five games against Dallas, and 40-year-old Corey Perry shares the team lead in goals with Draisaitl (7). Edmonton will miss Zach Hyman , who leads the playoffs with 111 hits and had five goals and 11 points in 15 games before sustaining an upper-body injury in Game 4 against Dallas; he needed surgery and is gone until next season.
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The Panthers don't have any single forward who can match McDavid or Draisaitl's offensive skills. What they do have is a deep, talented group that can score, check and play a physical brand of hockey that their first three playoff opponents this spring couldn't match.
Captain Aleksandar Barkov is the only Panthers skater scoring at a point-a-game clip (17 points in 17 games) in the playoffs. Barkov received the Selke Trophy as the top defensive forward in the NHL on Monday, the third time he's won the award in the past five seasons; he also won the King Clancy Trophy for his leadership and humanitarian contributions, giving him an unprecedented daily double. Barkov has averaged well over a point a game for the past seven seasons and won at least 53.5 percent of his face-offs for the past eight.
Sam Reinhart dropped from 57 to 39 goals and 94 to 81 points but still led the team in both categories during the regular season. Matthew Tkachuk sat out the final two months of the regular season after being injured at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, but has been a potent scorer and major irritant in the postseason. Physical center Sam Bennett (85 hits) leads all NHL playoff scorers with 10 goals, and the addition of Brad Marchand at the NHL Trade Deadline in March has made the third line much more offensively potent — as well as providing coach Paul Maurice with another player who can drive opponents crazy.
Florida's 66 goals in 17 games are tops in the playoffs; Edmonton is next with 65 in 16, but lead the postseason with an average of 4.06. The Panthers set an NHL record by scoring at least five goals in each of their past five road playoff games.
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Evan Bouchard leads all defensemen in the playoffs with 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 16 games. But he's still nowhere close to last season's numbers, when he finished with 32 points (six goals, 26 assists) in 25 games. His rocket shot from the point makes him an especially big threat on the power play.
Trade deadline acquisition Jake Walman is tied for the playoff lead at plus-12 with Florida forward Anton Lundell . Fellow defenseman Brett Kulak is tied with Draisaitl, Marchand and Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen at plus-11. Darnell Nurse is a solid top-four D-man.
Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Florida doesn't have an offensive force like Bouchard. What the Panthers do have is a deep group that can move the puck, produce some points and use its size to keep opponents on their toes.
The late-season addition of Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks has added another puck-mover who can play top-four minutes. Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling provide skill and solid play in their own zone. Nate Schmidt, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov bring size and a physical presence.
It's not a flashy group, but the defense corps is a big reason the Panthers are allowing an average of 2.29 goals per game, the lowest in this year's playoffs.
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Stuart Skinner is the Oilers' No. 1 goalie entering the Final, just as he was last year. But the 12 months in between have been a wild ride.
Skinner's regular season was nothing special, and he lost the net to backup Calvin Pickard after being shelled by the Kings in the first two games of the opening round. Pickard won six straight games before going down with an injury, restoring Skinner to the starting role. After losing his first game back, he's 6-1 with three shutouts and just 10 goals allowed.
He outplayed Jeff Oettinger in the victory against Dallas and will have to do the same against Sergei Bobrovsky for the Oilers to win the Cup.
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Sergei Bobrovsky beat Skinner in Game 7 last year and has been even better this spring. He's played every minute of all 17 games , posting a 2.11 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage and three shutouts.
"Bob" has been solid even when his team hasn't. He's been unflappable in big moments, and the winningest Russia-born goaltender in NHL history (429 victories) should give the Panthers an advantage in goal.
Edmonton is fourth in power-play percentage (30.0 percent; 12-for-30) after it was 6-for-16 against Dallas. But the Oilers' PP is a tale of two cities: They are 9-for-16 (56.2 percent) at home but just 3-for-24 (12.5 percent) on the road. The Oilers aren't doing a good job of generating power plays, averaging just 2.5 per game.
Their penalty kill helped to carry them to Game 7 of the Final last year, but they Oilers are back in the title round despite their PK, not because of it. Edmonton has allowed 16 goals on just 57 attempts; at 66.0 percent, they're the worst penalty-killing team among the eight that survived the first round. They're OK at home (83.3 percent; opponents are 3-for-18) but awful on the road (55.2 percent; opponents are 13-for 29).
Florida has scored on 23.2 percent of its power plays (13-for-56), boosted by a 5-for-17 showing in the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. They are the reverse of the Oilers — awful at home (1-for-28; 3.6 percent) but 12-for-28 (playoff-best 42.9 percent) on the road.
Where the Panthers have excelled is on the penalty kill. They are a League-best 87.9 percent (opponents are 7-for-58) on the PK and haven't allowed more than three power-play goals in any of the first three rounds.
Neither team has scored or allowed a shorthanded goal.
Edmonton's second-year coach has already placed himself in elite company: He's the first coach since 1970 to make the Stanley Cup Final in his first two NHL seasons.
Knoblauch took over in November 2023 after the Oilers started 3-9-1 under Jay Woodcroft and quickly righted the ship, getting them to the Final for the first time since 2006. He regrouped them after they lost the first three games to Florida and came within one goal of leading the Oilers to their first title since 1990.
Despite seeing his team lose some key pieces, including young defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway , Knoblauch has his team back in the Final — the first time the Oilers have made the title round in consecutive years since 1987 and 1988. The big question is whether he can get them over the final hurdle this time.
The fifth time was the charm for the third-winningest coach in NHL history (916 victories) after he led the Panthers to the first championship since entering the NHL in 1993.
The Panthers are the fifth stop for the 58-year-old, who coached his first NHL game as a 28-year-old with the Hartford Whalers on Nov. 7, 1995. In addition to the Whalers/Hurricanes, he's also coached the Toronto Maple Leafs, the 'Canes again and Winnipeg Jets before joining the Panthers for the 2022-23 season.
Maurice was 41-51 in his playoff career before coming to Florida; he's 41-21 with the Panthers and has led them to the Final three times in as many seasons.
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This series has the potential to be an all-timer — a rematch featuring the best player in the NHL and its top regular-season goal-scorer against the defending Stanley Cup champion. Each team dominated a very good opponent in its respective conference final and is well-rested; the Panthers haven't played since Thursday, while the Oilers have been off since Friday.
The Oilers have revenge on their minds after falling just short of becoming the second team to win the Cup after losing the first three games of the Final. McDavid and Draisaitl are hungering for a championship, and they have better support around them than was the case last year. They also start the series in Edmonton and have the extra home game.
"It's nice to be at home right now," Draisaitl said. "It's nice to start at home, of course, but until it gets later on in the series, it really doesn't matter."
The biggest question for the Oilers is whether Skinner's fabulous play since returning from a benching will extend to the Final.
Florida is in the Final for the third straight year, having lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 before outlasting the Oilers last year. They don't have the big guns that the Oilers do, but they are deep, physical and talented — and adding Marchand gives them more offense from their bottom-six forwards than almost anyone else. Bobrovsky knows how to win, and Maurice knows how to get the best out of his players — in Tkachuk's words, "He expects us all to work hard and treat each other with respect and everything, but he treats us all the exact same. He's been a great coach and we're super lucky to have him here."
It's a wonderful matchup. But the Panthers have an edge in goal, and that should be enough to have NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hand the Cup to Barkov again. Panthers in 6.
Heading into the Stanley Cup Final, Jim Cerny leads Sportsnaut hockey writers with an 11-3 record predicting the first 14 series of the 2023 NHL postseason. Dane Walsh and Ben Leeds are 10-4. Eric Charles and Tom Castro are 9-5. John Kreiser is 7-7. Cerny and Leeds are the only ones to predict each conference final correctly.
Jim Cerny (Executive Editor): Panthers in 7
Dane Walsh (Staff Writer): Oilers in 6
Tom Castro (Staff Writer): Panthers in 7
Eric Charles (Staff Writer): Oilers in 7
Ben Leeds (Staff Writer): Oilers in 7
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