With margin for error thin in Cup Final, Panthers need to regroup after Game 1 overtime loss

Miami Herald

2 days ago

The Florida Panthers know the margin for error at this point is thin, if not non-existent. Any mistake can be costly in the Stanley Cup Final, any blunder the potential difference maker in which team wins it all.
And it was Florida that made too many mistakes down the stretch in Game 1 on Wednesday.
A poor third period opened the door for the Edmonton Oilers to win in overtime, capitalizing on a power play that came from a delay of game penalty when Tomas Nosek flipped the puck over the glass with 1:43 left in overtime. Leon Draisaitl buried a feed from Connor McDavid past Sergei Bobrovsky a little over a minute later to seal the Oilers' 4-3 win at Edmonton's Rogers Place to begin the best-of-7 series.
'It's a game of mistakes and who can capitalize on it more,' veteran forward Brad Marchand said.
Edmonton did that on Wednesday. Florida was up 3-1 two minutes into the second period on a pair of goals by Sam Bennett and one by Marchand. Normally when the Panthers get a lead — a multi-goal lead at that — they are able to run away with the game. They can go heavy on their forecheck and their puck possession to grind opponents down the rest of the way, tighten their game up defensively to limit opportunities.
Not in this game.
Edmonton got back within a goal just 1:17 after Bennett's second goal when fourth-line forward Viktor Arvidsson took a drop pass from linemate Vasily Podkolzin and fired a shot from just beyond the left circle that got above Bobrovsky's left pad.
Florida dominated the rest of the period, leading 17-8 in shots on goal, but couldn't get anything else past Stuart Skinner.
And then things went awry in the third.
Edmonton tied the game 6:33 into the frame on a Mattias Ekholm shot from the left circle and became the aggressors the rest of the way. Through the third period and overtime, the Oilers outshot the Panthers 24-8 — including 14-2 in the third period — before finally wrapping things up with Draisaitl's game winner with 31 seconds left in OT.
'Obviously we put ourselves in a tough spot,' McDavid said. 'We just hung in there. And I think that is experience. It's knowing that you don't have to open it up. You have to hold them at three and find a way to get one and push, and we did.'
That's not how this Panthers team usually operates. Florida entered Wednesday a perfect 31-0 in the playoffs over the past three years when leading after either the first or second period.
It's now 31-1.
'We've been really good all year at not sitting back with the lead,' Bennett said, 'and for whatever reason we sat back.'
Florida will learn from this entering Game 2 on Friday (8 p.m., TNT, truTV, Max). It has no choice if it wants to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. Adjustments will need to be made. Mistakes will need to be corrected.
Both teams have improved tremendously since they met in the Cup Final last year, with Florida's depth improved from last season and Edmonton's defensive structure much more sound. Both teams have stellar goaltending at their peak, which was also on display Wednesday. Bobrovsky stopped 42 of 46 shots he faced for Florida — including 11 of 14 high-danger shots — while Skinner went 29 for 32 in net and turned aside three of five high-danger chances.
The series last year went the full seven games, with Florida winning it all in the end.
This series, if each team plays the way it knows how, has the makings for another long one.
'It has potential to be just a spectacular seven gamer right up and down the ice,' Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. 'There isn't any casualness and there's no BS in either team's game. The pucks go deep that are supposed to go deep. I think we had one all night we didn't like, maybe two all night that we didn't like our decision of the line. They didn't fool around with it, either. It was honest, it was hard, it was fast and it was tight.'
It makes every moment oh so important. It makes every mistake so potentially costly. It makes the need to have a short memory and turn the page all the more important.
'Just move on,' Marchand said. 'It's one game. You can't get stuck in the past here. We'll regroup, refocus and get ready for the next one.'