This is what it is going to take for the Oilers to get this Stanley Cup Finals back to Edmonton
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Here they are:
Yes, you need to stay out of the box. But you can not let change your game, either. Play with intelligence and passion, but not with fear.
The Panthers will smell blood in the water. They are the defending Stanley Cup Champions. This will be the hardest game for Edmonton to win. They need to be ready to go.
This is a repeat, as I have written it before, but it still applies: The Oilers need to swing a forward deep to help deal with Florida's forecheck. Having a ten-foot option lessens how often the Oilers' D-men need to attempt a stretch pass.
The Oilers' Power Play needs some puck luck. I see this team getting their looks with the man advantage. And the fancy stats in terms of expected goals bears that out. With or without Zach Hyman, Edmonton has the manpower to do it. But another 0-3 start is not an option.
I would begin with both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the same line. It is critical that the Oilers not chase this game. They have had to do so most of this series. So, give yourself the best possible opportunity to score first. Then you can roll lines. More on those two in a minute…
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CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Your brain on hockey: Waterloo study aims to capture 'real-time experience' of spectators
Jacob Howard likes watching sports, but hockey is the one he gets most excited about. "It's fast-paced," he said in uptown Waterloo during an outdoor viewing of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals where the Edmonton Oilers are taking on the Florida Panthers. "It's physical, it's exciting. There are plays that make me go like, 'ooh' or cover my face. It's something I can get really passionate about, which I can't really feel about things like football or baseball." He says watching a game with other people, like the watch party in Waterloo Town Square on June 10, really adds to the enjoyment of the game. "I'd rather watch the game with a bunch of people than just alone in my living room," Howard said. Ethan Loginov, who plays hockey himself, says there's something special about watching a Stanley Cup finals game. "I'm just seeing the best in the world doing what they are the best at, seeing why they're the best, seeing things that you know as a hockey player that you could never do and being able to watch that every day is awesome," Loginov said. Hundreds attend Stanley Cup watch party in uptown Waterloo 7 days ago Duration 2:59 As the two hockey fans watched that game, new research from the University of Waterloo suggests their brains may have processed the game in a different way than people who had only recently jumped on the Edmonton Oilers (or Florida Panthers) bandwagon. Luke Potwarka, a lead researcher in the university's department of recreation and leisure studies and co-author of a new study, says they asked people to watch hockey as part of a proof-of-concept study to test a non-invasive brain imaging device called functional near infrared spectroscopy. "Sometimes it's really difficult for spectators to accurately describe their experiences or how they were judging or evaluating the game that they were watching. And oftentimes we don't get a sense of some of the real time experiences that spectators have as the game unfolds," Potwarka said. First, they asked students about their hockey fandom, then they put them into two groups: low and high involvement with hockey. Then they asked 20 of the students to go to the lab where they watched 20 minutes of a 2018 European Hockey League game, between the Cardiff Devils and the Nottingham Panthers, and they were asked to pick a team to cheer for as they watched. "We coded it and timed it for all key scoring chances and faceoff opportunities and we took and analyzed brain imaging slices 10 seconds before and after each scoring chance and offensive faceoffs during the period," Potwarka said. Adrian Safati, a PhD candidate in the school's department of psychology who contributed to the study, said they found there was greater activity in a part of the brain called the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex during moments like faceoffs. "We found that passionate fans had greater activation in their medial prefrontal cortex. This is part of the brain that's responsible for evaluating and judging social situations," Safati said. Safati said they chose a game that specifically wasn't high stakes, because they wanted to control for subjective feelings. That would count out a Stanley Cup game, like Tuesday's Game 6 with the Panthers leading the best-of-seven series 3-2. For example, the fans may have reacted differently if it was Oilers superstar Connor McDavid in the faceoff as opposed to centre Joey Martin, of Thorold, Ont., who played with the Cardiff Devils in 2018. Oilers fans eyeing a Game 7 comeback 2 days ago Duration 1:32 After suffering a tough 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, the Edmonton Oilers are headed back to the Sunshine State in hopes to tie the series and force a seventh and deciding game. The CBC's Sam Brooks spoke with Oilers fans after the game who haven't lost hope in their team. Other sports, social impacts Potwarka says this is the first time, to their knowledge, that a functional near infrared spectroscopy has been used to study a fan's reaction to sports, but there are other opportunities where it can be used, including in health prevention and other social science experiments. He says next, they want to see how the brain reacts to other sports. "We want to see, how does the brain function in soccer? How does it function when it's processing basketball games or even curling for that matter? I don't know. But we really want to try it," he said. There could also be a chance to look at how commentary during those games impacts a person's experience of the game and it could help broadcasters better understand what works for fans and casual viewers and what isn't connecting for them. "I think another key exciting area of research for us to think about is how brain activation might be different in social viewing situations with groups of people such as viewing parties versus this was just the individual viewership experience in our study. So there's lots of potential moving forward," Potwarka added. Safati said he is interested in the social aspect, whether there's a contagious effect where if one person is really invested in what they're watching, that could transfer to friends or others watching the game, too. "Maybe you could also use it on a baseball game to see if it actually is really as boring as people say it is," he said.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Panthers can clinch a 2nd consecutive Stanley Cup championship by beating the Oilers in Game 6
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Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
One Stanley Cup ring hasn't changed Paul Maurice, who has the Panthers on the verge of repeating
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