What's gone right and wrong for Oilers against Panthers in Stanley Cup Final

New York Times

8 hours ago

EDMONTON — Could this Stanley Cup Final be any tighter?
Two overtime games. One win apiece. Each team takes control before the other punches back until someone lands the final blow.
There have been unbelievable goals and thunderous hits. There's even been some controversy.
The Edmonton Oilers nearly went up 2-0 in the series but had to settle for a split as things shift to South Florida. There's been a lot to like about their performance and also some aspects to quibble about.
Let's look at three areas where they're doing well and three where they're not.
Offense was hard to come by for the Oilers through the first two games of last year's Final. They scored just once on 51 shots in back-to-back losses as Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky almost seemed to be in their heads.
That hasn't been the case this time around.
The Oilers have scored four goals on 46 shots in each game and appear to have more of a book on the star netminder.
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Pucks were placed on Bobrovsky's glove side the first five times the Oilers scored. Each shot that has beaten Bobrovsky has been elevated, a good call considering Bobrovsky is one of the best at stopping attempts along the ice in the NHL.
The Oilers have a good chance of winning this series if they can continue scoring at a rate anywhere close to this one.
Winger Zach Hyman's absence for the series due to a dislocated right wrist presented the possibility of a gaping hole in the Oilers' lineup. He went from a scoring wonder last year to a complementary piece and a hitting machine this year.
It's hard to replace that, but the Oilers have done just fine thanks to a largely by-committee approach.
Kasperi Kapanen was great in Game 1, and so was the fourth line of Vasily Podkolzin, Mattias Janmark and Viktor Arvidsson. Evander Kane has been everything you thought he could be: playing physical, acting as pest control against the most annoying Panthers and scoring a goal in Game 2.
We can't forget about Corey Perry.
He has a goal and an assist. The former was the latest tying marker in Cup Final history when he scored with 17.8 seconds left in regulation of Game 2, and the latter contributed to the winning tally in Game 1.
Perry's up to eight goals in 18 games, seven more than he produced in 19 contests during the 2024 run.
'He only had one goal last year, but we wanted (him back), knowing in the playoffs it's hard to score and you need guys around the net and finding ways,' coach Kris Knoblauch said. 'He's as good as anybody finding ways to score.'
The Oilers have also tilted the ice when they've loaded up the top line with the 40-year-old Perry and their two superstars, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Oilers are outshooting the Panthers 19-8 and out-attempting them 37-16, and they own a 71 expected goals percentage in 22:25 minutes together at five-on-five.
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Here are the number of shots the Oilers have allowed in the third period in each of the last two games: two in Game 1 and five in Game 2. That five-spot must have felt like a lot considering the Oilers had surrendered no more than four shots in each of the previous four contests.
Sure, the Oilers trailed heading into the third period of both games of the Stanley Cup Final, but it sure helps trying to make an offensive push when you defend that well. Besides, Mattias Ekholm scored 6:33 into the third period of Game 1, so things were on level terms from there on.
'We find our way, get better throughout the game,' defenseman Jake Walman said between the first two games. 'Maybe in crunchtime we dial it in a little bit more, but ideally, we'd like to do that from the start of every game.'
The way the Oilers have charged back offensively in the third period is worth mentioning, too. It's something they've done all playoffs, dating to their first win in Game 3 against the Los Angeles Kings.
The series opener of the Final was their seventh come-from-behind win. They could have made it eight when Perry forced overtime in Game 2. That would have equalled a franchise mark set in 1987 and 1991.
'We all understand that it's never over with this group,' McDavid said.
The Panthers are in and around the blue paint more than any team the Oilers have faced in the playoffs. That's been an issue through the first two games.
Former Calgary Flames nemesis Sam Bennett has been the ultimate irritant. Bennett was tripped by Brett Kulak in the first period of Game 1 before falling into goalie Stuart Skinner. The puck nicked him on the way into the net. The Oilers challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld. The Panthers scored on the subsequent power play.
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'I would challenge that any day,' Knoblauch said after the game. 'Actually, I challenged it. I was on the bench, and I was even looking at it again. I was getting ready for the next lines, and I see the player fall in. I was told he was tripped.
'If that play happened again, I would challenge it. What I've seen in the NHL this year on the challenges for goaltender interference, I had a lot of confidence and would challenge that again.'
In Game 2, Bennett was at it again. He was contacted by Ekholm during the first period and toppled into Skinner. This time, with Skinner down on the ice in apparent pain, Bennett was sent off for interference despite neither referee — Chris Rooney or Jean Hebert — initially raising his hand to signal a penalty.
In the second period, another former Flames rival, Matthew Tkachuk, was bumped into Skinner as a point shot from ex-Oiler Dmitry Kulikov eluded the goalie. The Oilers opted not to challenge, and the Panthers tied the score at 3.
It's not easy to keep Bennett, Tkachuk and others away from their goalie, but it's something the Oilers must be more cognizant of.
'We know they have players that want to drive the net,' Oilers defenseman John Klingberg said after Game 2. 'It comes to us trying to box out earlier. But we're trying to drive the net, too.
'They're a high-shooting-volume team, and if you are that, they're bringing people to the net as well.'
The middle stanza hasn't been kind to the Oilers through two games, and that was especially the case in Friday's loss.
The Oilers were outscored 2-0 in the second frame of Game 2, and they were outshot 14-9. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Panthers out-attempted them 31-13 at five-on-five and had double the number of high-danger chances (8-4).
'We just lost our legs a little bit,' Draisaitl said after the overtime defeat. 'We weren't as quick to recover pucks, and they're going to have their push. It's something to look at.'
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After Game 2, Knoblauch pointed to a couple of areas the Oilers need to improve at to solve their woes in this regard.
'It was puck execution. I know our passes weren't sharp and we gave away a lot of pucks,' he said. 'If you can't make that first pass, you're stuck in the defensive zone, and you might get it up to the neutral zone.
'But especially in the second period, if you just get it out to the neutral zone, you can't change, and then you get stuck, and that's what happened.'
Overall, the Oilers have been outscored 3-1 during the second period as the series shifts to Florida. They've been outshot 31-17.
'You're never going to play a perfect 60 minutes,' Klingberg said. 'If you can control the puck most of the time in the second period, you're going to have fresh legs and having an easier way to change.'
The Oilers have had some outstanding moments on the man advantage in the early portion of the series, with two of Draisaitl's three goals coming in that capacity.
Draisaitl scored the winner in Game 1 at 19:29 of overtime after Tomas Nosek's puck-over-glass penalty. It doesn't get more important than that. The Oilers can add style to substance, too. McDavid side-stepping Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov and then undressing Aaron Ekblad before feeding Draisaitl for an easy one in the first period of Game 2 was simply an otherworldly move.
'There's one player in the world that can make that (play),' Draisaitl said.
For all the good with the power play, it struggled after that McDavid masterpiece.
The Oilers failed to capitalize on a 33-second two-man advantage a couple of minutes later. They wound up going 1-for-6 on the power play Friday. Worse still, Brad Marchand scored his first of two breakaways when the Panthers were short-handed in the second period.
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'As good as our power play is, and as much as I'd like it to score every single time, that's unrealistic,' Knoblauch said. 'As long as they're getting quality looks — and the majority of our power plays, I feel we have. But we'll definitely be looking at things that we can try to exploit if there are things.'
(Photo of Corey Perry celebrating after scoring during the third period of Game 2: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)